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“It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it.”
STUD Part 1, chapter 3
To help navigate the different types, eras, and modalities of Sherlockian scholarship I aim to help aspiring and established researchers and writers study the myth turned man himself. I’ll compile resources like journals, books, audio, and video as well as create my own content to help others on their journeys so they won’t have to struggle with as many missing links as I have. You can navigate through the menu to the left or search at the top for a specific phrase or topic. Additionally you can contact me to help add research on a specific person or subject.
Most will recommend the Canon. I am not most. I’ll recommend, if you have not interacted with Holmes and his world before, try Granada Holmes first. Jeremy Brett portrays Holmes in such an authentic, exciting, and accessible way in near facsimile to the text. If you’d like to start with the text, start with *The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes* rather than the popular choice of *A Study in Scarlet.* My reasoning will be clear when you do get to STUD, the first portion may scare off a new reader, much like it did for me the first time I tried to tackle the canon.
“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” SCAN chapter 1
Sherlockian scholarship is a practice of deduction itself. You must be able to discern what is considered serious academia versus what scholar’s call “The Game.” Simply defined by editor’s Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger in their book The Grand Game as “the lovely fantasy played by scholars and Sherlockians that Sherlock Holmes was a real person, and that the sixty Canonical tales were actually written by Dr. Watson and reflect true historical events.” Unlike other authors, this unique approach dots the narrative and critical landscape, forcing readers to take a closer look at if Doyle or Watson are attributed.
Each piece of work is crafted with careful research and dedication, so why would it matter if the Game is played? Potentially, it can’t be cited in your work unless you’re also playing. Additionally, because of the long history of The Game, emphasis on literary theory and history around the text rather than history of the text itself seem to be harder to come by in academic scholarship.
