To find Kindred Spiritsby Mia Stampe 1999I owe a debt of gratitude to Jacquelyn Buckrop (Her much learning...) who kindly have corrected the worst of my grammatical errors. The four-letter abbreviations are the commonly used ones for the Sherlock Holmes stories in the Canon. They are listed here. All of us in this honorable society have a common interest: Sherlock Holmes. Often we surely would have liked to talk more together about details in the Sherlock Holmes stories or discuss trifles with other Sherlockians: “Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person.” (SILV). As we are scattered all over the country and even abroad then this wish is for most of us not just that easy to fulfil. You don’t use the phone for this, and writing letters also seems a little unsatisfactory, so as a result we only get the chance to exchange views at the annual meeting and as articles in our newsletter, Sherlockiana (which nobody corresponds on?!?!). Where do you turn if you want to talk about Holmes? To me the answer is the Internet, where I participate at two mailing lists. “My correspondence is a varied one” (DYIN). What is a mailing list?In general a mailing list is a discussion-group on the Internet, a sort of club to which the members write letters contributing to a debate about a given topic. Every day (usually) the preceding day’s postings are summarized in a digest, a kind of daily newsletter, which the members receive as e-mail. Many discussion threads may be running simultaneously. The advantage of such a list is that it is possible to throw out questions to a lot of people having the same interest as your self and thereby expect to receive a series of highly qualified and interesting replies. The leader, or “moderator”, of the list manages the discussion in the way that the postings do not get off-topic.There exists a multitude of mailing lists alone in the crime/mystery genre. If you must economize your time, you have to choose to join only a few, otherwise you will drown. At least if you want to be active on the list. Many people, though, just subscribe to the digest but do not take part in the discussion. This is called “lurking” and naturally, that is perfectly all right. The active members on a list usually chose a nom de plume for signing their postings. This may be a quote from one of the stories (if it is a list for literature, of course) or something else connected to the general topic of the list. Even though Holmes says: "It is always awkward doing business with an alias.” (BLUE), then it really is very funny to see what people chose as “identity”. Two lists related to Sherlock Holmes:Hounds-LThis is the original Sherlock Holmes mailing list, and the name is short for “The Hounds of the Internet List” which comes from STUD where Holmes says: “I am one of the hounds”. The list is dedicated to the discussion of Sherlockian topics, first of all the Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, the Canon. However, opinions of pastiches, film, trivia etc. are also discussed. The purpose is simply: “To keep green the memory of the Master”. More about this thing can be found in the small, fine article by Nguyen, Huong: “Validity of Interpretation in Sherlockiana:- A Philosophy of Art paper “. The list was initiated in 1992 by Les Moskowits and some few kindred spirits, but today (March 1999) the list has 574 subscribers from 20 countries, primarily the USA. At Hounds-L about 2/3 of the members are men and 1/3 are women.Every week the core of the debate is one of the stories in the Canon. At the same time other questions or comments of general or specific character (but off the week’s story) may also come up and eventually turn into longer threads. The leader of the discussion maintains a strict discipline to keep the postings on the Sherlockian topic. Among the members on Hounds-L there are a lot of real hard core Sherlockians possessing an immense knowledge about Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle, crime fiction, Victorian age or any kind of related subjects. To a novice like me these people are true encyclopedias. Ask and you will be answered. The active members seem to be extremely faithful to the Canon, that is, most of them are of the opinion that reading pastiches is fun and an intellectual challenge, but then that’s about it. This “restriction” gives rise to some extremely fierce controversies, which I shall comment on later. First I just have to introduce another list, namely: Russ-LThe name is short for “The Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell Mailing List”. It is dedicated to the discussion and analysis of Laurie R. King's series of mysteries featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, also called the Kanon (with K for King). It was started in January 1996 at the initiative of Rebecca J. Andersen and has today nearly 200 subscribers, again mainly from the USA and Canada and as far as I know only one (me) from Denmark.The list is a spin-off from Hounds-L. The breakaway group found the attitude at Hounds-L to be too intolerant towards the Russell fans. It was simply getting too hot. And it cannot be denied, that the manners and the tone are much more polite at Russ-L. Not that the members don’t disagree completely about many subjects, but somehow the postings always bear indication of “I don’t agree with you but I accept your opinion, too”. Quite remarkable, actually. The owner of the list and leader of the discussion doesn’t run it severely, which means that sometimes the discussion threads get pretty far away from the main topic. Still, my personal attitude to this is: “I am glad of all details, whether they seem to you to be relevant or not.” (COPP) . In general the discussions are more comprehensive here, but this is partly due to the fact, that until now there only exists 4 Russell/Holmes novels, which means that the literal basis of the discussion is more limited. However, I guess - sorry, I deduce - that the Kanon when it comes to simple number of pages, soon will reach the Canon. At Russ-L, by the way, less than 10 percent of the members are men and more than 90 percent are women! The duelWe all have each our Holmes, our very personal idea of how he looks, thinks, acts and feels. If anyone tries to change our personal picture of him or Watson, we put up a defense, but - as we are polite, civilized people - we listen and accept that other people have other opinions. Now and then we bow to a strong argument and we may even modify a little our point of viewIn my humble opinion there are two kinds of Sherlockians:
I hasten to say, loudly and clearly: The terms are meant in their literal sense as “cultivating a single doctrine” and “cultivating multi doctrine.” I do not intend any innuendoes in any of these terms even though the words are highly loaded in our everyday language. It is just a simple way to define and distinguish between two kinds of Sherlockians. Both purists and liberals play The Grand Game, that is doing research and discussing on the premises that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were (or are) real persons, and that it was Watson who wrote the stories in the Canon. ACD was just the literary agent. And these definitions are necessary to describe what actually goes on at the two above-mentioned mailing lists. The majority on Hounds-L are Purists and the opposite is true for Russ-L. Liberal Sherlockians participate on both lists. Please notice, that the Russell/Holmes fans - Russellians - necessarily must be Liberal, but that all Liberal Sherlockians certainly do not like the Kanon. The Sherlockian Purists at Hounds-L are not very fond of the Russellians. Purists consider firstly the Kanon as “ineffable romantic twaddle” - a needless (read unforgivable) humanizing and romanticizing of their “real” Holmes. Secondly many Purists find that LRK uses Holmes name in vain. Uses him just as an eye catcher to sell a product, which would be better without him. However I think the bitterness is just as much about something completely different: not the fact that the Russellians accept an apocryphal Holmes. Neither the fact that they allow him to show emotions and interest in the female sex. This has been seen before. No, it is because they so whole-heartedly have adopted the Kanon and have closed both ears and eyes to any kind of condemnation. Many of the Russellians actually consider the Kanonical Holmes as being the same person as the Canonical one. He has just developed and become wiser. It is no wonder why the feeling of treachery arises in the eyes of a Purist of the heart. The Liberal Sherlockians at Russ-L have simply betrayed that Holmes, who is beloved and cultivated by the Purist members of Hounds-L. This results in formidable verbal confrontations between Sherlockian Purists and the few Russellians who persevere in wishing to discuss at Hounds-L the Holmes in LRK’s books. In sarcastic phrases some members from the two fronts cut down each other. Sentences are ended by periods of acid dripping remarks. In this context it must be admitted that: “American slang is very expressive sometimes.” (NOBL). In a way, this is very much like Holmes who, as we all know, occasionally could be pretty biting in his way of addressing Watson. But even though this war may seem (and feel) extremely ruthless, it is after all only a battle on words (at least I hope). Nevertheless the Russellians have to defend themselves if they insist of openly champion their “belief”. That’s why only a few of the Russellians on Hounds-L take part in the scuffle. On that list they keep their mouths shut and keep to discussing Canonical topics. Those who just want to discuss the Kanon and not add fuel to the fire, stick to Russ-L and the local environment there, which is less harmful to the health. Drop inTo any Sherlockian it would be interesting to drop in and take a look at the two lists. If not for anything else, then for the pure experience of it. You need to subscribe if you want to take part in the debate. Otherwise, if you are just interesting in reading the postings they are directly accessible. At Hounds-L you can reed the last week’s messages. Russ-L also keep an archive of messages.By the end of 1998 the extent of these digests was more than 3000 closely written pages! Indeed a comprehensive and long-lasting discussion. I don’t know the extent of the total postings at Hounds-L, but as this list is twice the age of Russ-L, it is certainly overwhelming, too. References:
Internet:
1999 © Mia Stampe |