Changes in Sherlock Holmes fandom over time

[damned_colonial]

So, this came up in a sub-thread on the asexuality post, and was threatening to get pretty tangential/deraily, so I thought it was worth creating a new post for it.

Sherlock Holmes fandom goes back a very long way, of course. And people have been writing H/W slash for a long time, too. Now we have this new movie, there's a whole new generation coming to the fandom who don't have experience with the older phases of the fandom, and while there is a lot of interesting stuff coming out of the newer fans' engagement with the canon, there are also older fans shaking their walking sticks at those kids on their lawn.

Personally, I'm fascinated by older Sherlock Holmes fandom even if I don't feel very much a part of it. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who was involved with Holmes fandom in its earlier/older incarnations -- any of the Sherlockian societies, or zine-based slash fandom, or mailing lists, or even LJ/DW fandom prior to the 2009 movie -- about your experiences and the changes you've seen.

And to bring it round to the subject of this comm, I'm especially interested in talking about how different groups or generations of Sherlock Holmes have addressed his (potential) queerness. Obviously it's changed over time -- we can have another go-round on the Watson Was a Woman thing and whether or not Stout was really trying to point out Holmes and Watson's queerness, if you like, and if anyone has any other pointers to older Sherlockiana on gender/sexuality issues I would love to know about them!

As for fic-writing fandom, I know when I read older H/W slash online I find it has a different aesthetic and different tropes than modern LJ/DW-centred slash fandom commonly uses. We're Not Gay, We Just Love Each Other is part of it, for sure. I feel like slash fandom has really changed the way we address homosexuality in recent years, based on the fic I've read. We seem much more likely to show our characters having had previous homosexual experiences, or being happily and openly bisexual, or being connected to a homosexual subculture, or being non-heteronormative in other ways (genderqueer/transgendered, asexual, kinky, etc.) At least, I *think* we're more likely to do that... am I missing stuff from the older fic, and if so, where can I find the fic that talks about these things? And, is this happening because newer generations of fans are more likely to be queer, more likely to be out as queer, more likely to be used to discussing and dissecting queerness online?

Bringing in another post that I found this morning (via), by obsession_inc on the subjection of "Affirmational" vs "Transformational" fandom, do you think Holmes fandom is shifting from affirmational to transformational, and is that a generational shift? (I like obsession_inc's observation that "fixing" the story so that our beloved characters have sex is one of the most common forms of transformation.) I found myself pointing at obsession_inc's post and saying YES THIS and I know I'm going to be pointing to it a lot in future because it resonates very strongly with me, and I'm definitely feeling that resonance in what I see of Sherlock Holmes fandom in its various incarnations.

What do you think?

ETA: I know we're getting linked pretty regularly in LJ comms like holmesian_news, so if anyone comes in from there and would like a DW account to comment on posts here (or post your own), here are three invite codes:

SYMVMRXY9SGCNAAADRN7
ARHCWS7ZK2V66AAADRN8
3AKGFN8AF8B5XAAADRN9

Comments

[my_daroga]

I'm going to stumble through this a little bit, until I find and can go through that stuff I've kept for 15 or so years. Thanks for making a new post, by the way!

As I mentioned in another thread, off-topic, I started in Holmes fandom through Prodigy before the WWW, around 1993 IIRC. The group there seem to be transitional, mostly older, many involved in zines, amateur press associations, and local scion societies. I was totally unfamiliar with fandom, being 13 and new to the internet (as it was new to everyone--it was a few years before anything like a browser became usable with the system I was on, and at first email to user of, say, AOL or Compuserve was impossible), and my recollection was that I was welcomed with open arms and included in discussions about the Canon, pastiches, Jeremy Brett, and other like concerns. I think some of my companions wrote fanfiction, though i was unfamiliar with the term, but "fandom" as it currently exists in an ever-changing but loosely codified set of expectations, activities, and interactions was either outside my purview or didn't exist in the form it does today. By which I mean to say that internet Fandom today looks similar (in a general sense) from fandom to fandom across the internet, and skills or interests gained/learned/developed in one can be transferred easily to the next thing that pings your fannish radar.

Bringing this to Holmes, and queerness, it's my sense that at the time I heard little about slash or even sexuality in fannish circles. The discussion was mainly focused on stories, dates, speculation, new takes (film, novel, etc) on Holmes, and goings-on of local societies. I even went to a few dinners, which had quizzes based on whatever story was the pick of the night and general mingling.

If I encountered fiction in the zines or online, it was mostly gen. This is not at all a comprehensive study, but it's what I personally encountered. I was, as yet, unfamiliar with slash/erotica/porn/whatever you want to call it, and wasn't looking. I'm not sure what I would have thought if I'd seen it. I worked Holmes into stories and nonfiction I wrote about the Phantom of the Opera. But no one (in my recollection) really talked sexuality.

Now, I am sure it was out there. I'm sure there was a different fandom, different zines, being conducted. Maybe in the tradition of Trek fandom and those that followed. But like I said above, I feel that the group I found myself in was a transition into internet fandom but they were transitioning from the BSI tradition.

My more recent fandoms have been more born-with-or-post-internet, and I think it's a different place. I think discussions about sexuality, about the political placement of sexuality, about writing sex and politics in fic, take place far more easily. I think information about all of those things, both practical ("how do I write m/m or f/f or even m/f sex?") and more esoteric ("how do I write queerness?") is much more easily distributed, contested, and built-upon. Historical fact is easier to research, though of course there are problems with the internet there, too. Overall, though, I think communication has changed. And we no longer talk online and then put together a hard-copy physical journal with our thoughts about a few lines in our respective canons.

It's my guess, and it's unfounded, that current H/W and Holmes fandom is going to look a lot more like other internet fandoms and a lot less like old Holmes fandom. I think that's because moving between fandoms is so much easier, media is so much more easily distributed, and internet fans are often on the same page (broadly defined) rather than somewhat insular groups or individuals connected by mail. So I think new Holmes fandom is going to deal with sexuality in a very similar way.

Now I'm interested in what the historical setting does, and what sort of fans/writers Holmes attracts these days, as opposed to both the "old days" and other fandoms. Is the H/W writer more likely to deal with 19th c. queer politics than the BtVS writer? or how much of the tropes of fandom and slash and fic are just taken for granted?

I feel like I've said way too much already, and I hope it makes sense. I need to go look at obsession_inc's post because at first blush it sounds like yes, Holmesian fandom is moving in that direction and I'm not sure if it's a matter of generations so much as technology and communication. Fandom moves so much differently these days.