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

scholarship and a text‟s cultural value. Either way, stories of Illumination enchant to
teach. However even if I am now enchanted by the scholarly and in-depth products that
cultivate by educated fandom, I am no less a consumer. Consumerism seeks us
regardless of what we perceive our standards to be. We remain enchanted, and therefore
we remain susceptible.
Academically, however, I remain focused and unbiased, in Saler‟s (2003) words
“ironic” (p. 606). By engaging with Sherlock Holmes (2009) from a pure participant
observation and variation of observant participant position, I was able to indulge in the
enchantment of the text, while maintaining an academic distance supported by my
documented substantive and analytic field notes. Abercrombie and Longhurst‟s
audience continuum (1998) inspired the direction of this study, and their continuum‟s
lack of intermediary cultivation encouraged further examination into the area. Similarly,
Bourdieu‟s economic class system (as cited in Hills, 2002), while thorough and
generalised, harboured negative implications, highlighting the problems and reality
facing fandom and the difficulty in capturing the fan. Both, in balancing each other out,
proved to be invaluable building blocks for this study. However, their impersonal nature
towards the fan and their lack of variable degrees, hinder the academic representation of
fandom. I therefore hope to have captured the intricate development of a fan, as well as
their sense of enchantment. Figure 6, the consumer-to-fan cultivation continuum, and
Figure 7, the consumer-to-fan cultivation model, draw heavily on Abercrombie and
Longhurst‟s audience continuum (1998), representing a continuation of their theory and
an evolved depiction of fan cultivation. This model proves that cultivation is measurable
and that fandom is an intricate and complex part of our society. The critique produced,
Sherrinford Holmes (2009), a critical account of the primary product, Sherlock Holmes
(2009), is written from the perspective of an educated academic-fan. The critique
exemplifies my journey and practically demonstrates the enchantment I encountered on
the way. I therefore hope to have communicated the enchanted enthusiasm a consumer
can come to feel for their object of consumption, and hopefully offered insight into why
Sherlock Holmes will never die. “He is, in point of fact, one of the few personalities
who make living still a joy, who make it possible to make a sort of game of life”
(Starrett, as cited in Betzner, 2008, p. xxiii-xxiv). For like us, “Holmes yearned for
enchantment” (Saler, 2003, p. 603).
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