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Mob in the style of Serial Experiments Lain, or so I tried heh

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A Pre-History of Fanfiction II: Sherlock Holmes

Part I

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Sources

Chapter 2: Sherlock Holmes 

For this next section, we’re taking a big jump in time. Arthur Conan Doyle published the first Sherlock Holmes novel A Study in Scarlet in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. A few years later, in 1891, a regular series started in The Strand. Sherlock was a success and there was an outpouring of love for the character similar to, but surpassing, the love for Lemuel Gulliver and Pamela Andrews. Fans of the stories wrote so many letters addressed to 221b Baker Street that the Abbey Road Building Society had to designate an apartment as 221B. Time only fanned the flame: starting in the 1920s and 30s, fans of Sherlock Holmes started to congregate in fanclubs like the Sherlock Holmes Society and the Baker Street Irregulars. 

Fans were enraptured by the adventures of everybody’s favorite consulting detection and his trusty sidekick Watson. They were fascinated with Sherlock, yes, but they also loved everything else about his world. Characters largely unexplored in the fiction like Professor Moriarty, Mycroft Holmes, and Irene Adler were analyzed and reimaged ad infinitum. The turn of the century London setting transported readers who were enjoying the tales decades later. The suggestion of untold stories, like the famous Giant Rat of Sumatra, sparked fans’ creativity. This was similar to the Gulliver phenomenon, whose fans explored Lilliput and other imaginary countries, but sets itself apart from Pamela whose readers were solely fixated on the eponymous character herself. 

But why Sherlock Holmes? Why did he inspire such devotion? Michael Saler that Sherlock Holmes mania is a reflection of larger trends happening at the turn of the century. Due to the Industrial Revolution, the world was changing, the world was changed, and this modern age had become disenchanted. There was a shift from value rationality to instrumental rationality, which, in my understanding, means that work was prioritized rather than the end product. The world was becoming more commercialized as well, similar to trends we saw in the 18th century as well, human beings were becoming consumers rather than producers. People sought out lost enchantment through the arts and crafts movements, spiritualism and the occult, and fascination with the Eastern world (aka Orientalism). Sherlock existed in between these two conflicting worlds. Certainly, he represented modernity: he was secular, urban, and materialist (in the sense that he wasn’t concerned with a spiritual world). However, Holmes himself yearned for enhancement even confessing his “love for all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life (Saler)”.

Sherlock Holmes stories showed the “romance of reason” like many contemporary science fiction (which we’ll talk about in the next chapter) (Saler).” His logic and deduction was a magical power in and of itself, resolving the tension between the enchantment of the old world and the materialism of the new one. 

Fans weren’t  satisfied with just reading Holmes' exploits, they wanted to be him too. Thus began the “Great Game” a semi-ironic belief in Sherlock and Watson as real people (remember the 221B letter writing?). They used his deduction tactics on real or fictional crimes, bringing the character to life in a certain sense. This was all to Conan Doyle chagrin, of course, who was burdened by his most famous creation. Sherlock carried on in spite of Doyle’s hatred of him and fans decentralized the author. Readers of Sherlock corresponded amongst themselves, not through Doyle like SamuelRichardson before him. The Baker Street Irregulars even avoided saying Doyle’s name at official meetings. Sherlock took on a life of his own, whether the Author liked it or not. 

For 20th century readers, Sherlock Holmes fanfiction was easy to find. There was a huge volume of parodies, pastiches, knock-offs, continuations, and localizations of the Sherlock Myth. This included an anonymous 1913 Greek novel named Sherlock Holmes Saving Mr. Venizelos serialized in the magazine Hellas. This served as a localization of Sherlock, placing him in a Greek context familiar to those readers. He was parodied in London magazine Punch in a 1928 short story by Ralph Wotherspoon. Even Doyle’s son Adrian got in on the action, writing and publishing New Sherlock Holmes Stories in the 50s. Sherlock Holmes reimaginings continue to today, in novels, television shows, movies, comics, and of course, fanfiction. 

The Sherlock Holmes fandom birthed our modern conception of what a fandom is “a way of life” rather than something you just enjoy. Fans found their identity in the Sherlock stories and in the groups they organized around.

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Art Deco style posters I made for my Minecraft 'adventure' map.

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STAND FOR THE FLAG

KNEEL FOR THE CROSS

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Mob Psycho x Calvin and Hobbes

Bonus doodle of Tome

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Mob Psycho 100 is so good... I love it with my whole being. So here is a random audio that I thought was funny and fitted the characters, and then spend way too much time animating. It was fun though.

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reblog this to show you did your civic duty

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he silly

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this is the real me

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I'm sorry...

[ID: Reigen standing in front of giant tornado created by Mob. Reigen is in the foreground, Tornado in the back. Reigen is holding his shoes in his hand, hardly standing. In the higher part of tornado, there are shadows in shape of Mob's unknown percentage face. It is painted in warm greys.

The text is placed over the tornado. It says: 'I didn't know'.]

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if you need to be mean

be mean to me

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After CLAW

bonus doodles

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You said you found something-?!

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Doku

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WHO IS: REIGEN ARATAKA?

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outlined