The Good Sherlockian

Every once in a while I get a letter from someone who's been out of touch for a time. They make the usual apologies that we all wind up making every now and then, they update me on what's been going on in their life that's kept them so busy, and then, they often throw in the words, "I haven't been a good Sherlockian lately."

Not a good Sherlockian?

There's a frightening tinge to those words,  like that person has  gone over to the dark side of  Sherlockiana. Perhaps they've become  a  Moriartian  and  started  burning copies of The Annotated Sherlock Holmes as a part of their evil rituals, oscillating their heads from side to side in the manner of a swamp adder. Maybe they set pewter chess piece incarnations of Holmes on the side of their bathtub, then  push  them  over  the  edge,  screaming  "Reichenbach! Reichenbach!" and laughing with glee as Holmes hits the water and sinks to the bottom. Or maybe, most heinous of all, they let their subscription to Plugs & Dottles lapse. Darkness has descended upon their dressing-gown wrapped soul.

Most of them have not become evil Sherlockians, though there are that isolated few that you wonder about. Most of them just feel themselves to be lapsed Sherlockians,  like someone who hasn't been to the church of their choice in a
while. They haven't touched a copy of the Canon in months, sometimes years. They haven't been to Sherlockian society meetings  for  a  while.  They  forgot  to  renew  certain subscriptions.  Some wander off  from the  fold  and  never return.

But those who do return usually have more to offer as Sherlockians than ever before. Fresh perspectives. New fields of expertise to apply to the study of Holmes. Or maybe just the  renewed  vigor  that  a  rest  provides.  As  with  any
discipline, Sherlockian studies benefit from fresh input, and the only way to get fresh input is to get out and visit the rest of the world now and then.

A couple of weeks ago I had a thoroughly Sherlockian weekend. I read The Camden House Journal and The Serpentine Muse. I wrote some letters and an article that I'd been meaning to get to. I started reading an old book by Winwood Reade to learn about the man Holmes claimed wrote the best book ever. I even went out and lobbed snowballs in the yard to create a patriotic "V.R." in snowball-pocks in the freshly fallen snow. (My trusty companion then told me it looked like a "V.A.", at which time I had to lob snowballs at her.)

I suppose that most would say I was "a good Sherlockian" that weekend. But what about the weekend after that, when I went to three movies, read a vampire novel, cooked a very nice dinner on Saturday night, and visited my grandparents? You'd be perfectly justified in calling me self-indulgent or lazy, but could you say I wasn't a good Sherlockian?

I've been criticized for quoting Popeye before, but it usually fits (and do you know how many Sherlockians are in Chester,  Illinois,  birthplace of Popeye?).  "I yam what I yam," the sailor-man said, and it's true. You are what you are. Not touching The Complete Sherlock Holmes in six months does not make you a different person from the one who was active in their scion society, or who wrote that marvelous treatise on  "The  Red-headed  League,"  or who  made  those deerstalker-shaped sugar cookies.

A classic Saturday Night Live skit dealing with Star Trek fans had William Shatner shouting, "Get a lifel" at a bunch of  stereotypical Trekkies.  From the  days  of  Christopher Morley and the original Baker Street Irregulars, Sherlockians have always had lives, and some great ones at that. Some of our best thinkers have always been our most diverse ones.

Take, for example, Michael Harrison. He may have written In The Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes  and A Study In Surmise, but he also wrote Beer Cookery  and Airborne at Kitty Hawk. His knowledge was both diverse and extensive, and a goodly share had nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes. He had to have spent  a  great  deal  of  time  away  from  Sherlock  and Sherlockians. Is there anyone who would say he wasn't a "good Sherlockian"? And if you're going to treat Michael fairly, why not do the same with yourself?

Have a life, and don't beat yourself over the head about it. You may find you're not only a good Sherlockian, you are, to quote Tony the Tiger, "GRRRRRRRRRREAT!" (And you thought quoting Popeye was my low point!)