Thoroughly Modern Watson

Among the many appeals of the Canon, the gaslit era of Queen Victoria has long held a prominent place. One cannot help but feel warm happiness at being transported via Watson's pen to the London of that marvelous time. Of course, it must be noted that, historically, London of the late 1880's was not such a wonderful place. Going into historical particulars about that time can be rather depressing, not to mention disillusioning. Is, then, our attraction to the times of Watson's narratives caused simply by his omission of the gloomier aspects of Victorian life, or is it his story-telling ability that makes the age so appealing?

An easy test of the latter question is to take Watson's works and move them into the present day. Can the Sacred Writings manage to hold their attraction so altered? Of course, some later parts of the Canon need not be touched to be modernized. For example, the telephone used in ILLU, RETI, and 3GAR fits in quite well with a modern setting. But even going back a bit to NOBL, we can find a familiar development:

"It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a confectioners man with a very large flat box."

Looks like the pizza Holmes ordered for Lord St. Simon has arrived.

And what of the men of Scotland Yard displaced into the present? "It is a mercy that you are on the side of the force, and not against it, Mr. Holmes," Gregson remarks in GREE. Who would have thought the inspector was a Star Wars fan? But there's one in every crowd, even at the Yard.

To take the test of modernization a step further, substituting a bit of the current for the canonical is necessary. Take, for example, this sentence from DYIN: "When we have finished at the police-station I think that something nutritious at Simpson's would not be out of place." Now reread this passage substituting the name "McDonald's" for "Simpson's." Not so damaging as one might expect, is it? But what's a change of a name -- let's try technological updating. Indoor plumbing makes the modern day so pleasant; why not give Holmes a place to remove his disguise in SCAN?

"With a nod he vanished into the bathroom, whence he emerged in five minutes, tweed-suited and respectable, as of old."

Hmmm. Let's take the technological approach a bit further. Perhaps Dr. Watson would enjoy television in the beginning of FIVE.

"Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the other was deep in a fine episode of 'Hawaii Five-O,' until the howl of the gale without seemed to blend with the television, and the splash of the rain seemed to lengthen out into the long swash of waves on the beach."

Nice, but not quite the same (and to most people that is surely an understatement). No, without those hansom-filled times, the Canon just isn't home.

It cannot be, then, that we feel the pull toward Victorials day only because Watson could make the most mundane or lackluster events sound attractive. Yet the good doctor's literary skill undeniably figures in our love affair with the Canon. Like a landscape painter, he brings the lights out from the shadows to evoke the mood of an era that did, indeed, have much to offer. Apart, both Watson's writing style and the Victorian era are interesting but lacking; together, they provide a place in which one of the finest specimens produced by the human race can exist through the ages. It is a match made in Baker Street: an era, a writer, and Sherlock Holmes.

(Printed in Plugs & Dottles, March 1984)