The Case Study of Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Scholarly Commons ...

“embrace of fiction” (p. 606) and the product our “ironic imagination” (p. 606):
“Rational adults [can] immerse themselves in imaginary worlds of mass culture without
mistaking these worlds for reality” (Saler, 2003, p. 606). I will expand upon
enchantment theory later in my research and will integrate this examination into an
educated fan critique of Ritchie‟s 2009 movie.
Cultivation analysis: Original product
On my ethnographic fan journey, the most influential literary product I encountered was
the original short stories: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of
Sherlock Holmes (1892, 1894/2001a), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905/2005d),
His Last Bow (1917/2005h) and The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes (1927/2005k). Due
to the number of stories, 56 in total, I have compiled my cultivation analysis of them not
in published or ethnographic order, but grouped together through imagery and
ideological themes. As a new reader, I responded to the imagery of the Holmes
stereotype as well as his non-stereotypical attributes. Ideologically, Doyle‟s
construction of friendship and loyalty bridged the historical divide between the reader,
the text, and me. In terms of cultivation, these texts represent one of the earliest
examples of mass serialisation. Doyle (as cited in Davies, 2007), a surprisingly shrewd
marketer, devised that “a single character running through a series, if it only engaged
the reader, would bind the reader to that magazine” (p. 9) and so “within six months . . .
the main selling point of [The Strand Magazine] was the new Sherlock Holmes
adventure” (Davies, 2007, p. 9).
Original product: Short story images
Redmond (2009) finds “the image of Holmes that now lives in the public mind is much
less subtle and complex than the one that lives in the pages of the Canon” (p. 46).
However, I find that the stereotype is not necessarily false either. Doyle and Crowder
(2010) described earlier the “common picture” (p. 10) of Sherlock Holmes. This may be
something of a stick figure compared to Doyle‟s original creation. The “common
picture” (Doyle & Crowder, 2010, p. 10) is a common portrait none the less. Holmes, in
The Boscombe Valley Mystery (1891/2001d), describes himself and Watson as two
“middle aged gentlemen” (Doyle, 2001d, 72). Watson however, describing Holmes in A
Scandal of Bohemia (1891/2001b), prefers “tweed-suited and respectable” (Doyle,
2001b, p. 13) choosing to conjure up the image of a man who “[lights] his pipe and
[holds] his slippered feet to the cheerful blaze of the fire” (Doyle, 1904/2005g, p. 1182).
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