In the Time Patrol timeline, Sherlock Holmes existed in nineteenth century Britain.
In the Technic History timeline, Apollo University in Leyburg on the Moon will exist - in 2057.
None of these is our timeline, of course, but the Technic History will be conclusively proved to be fictional/alternative forty one years from now!
Usually fictional characters are fictions to each other, e.g., James Bond likes Rex Stout's books about Nero Wolfe. Various fictional detectives refer to Sherlock Holmes - as a fictional detective - and Holmes himself refers disparagingly to Poe's Dupin. When Anderson instead includes Holmes as a real person in the Time Patrol series, is this an instance of "metafiction," i.e., a fictional text acknowledging its own fictional status? It might be like a picture frame or the proscenium arch, defining the boundary between the fictional world and the space inhabited by its audience? Pretty smart stuff.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Except, "Time Patrol" does not explicitly NAME Sherlock Holmes. Instead we see him DESCRIBED in terms anyone who has read the Holmes stories would understand as being Sherlock. And we also see Holmes described similarly at the Old Phoenix Inn in either "House Rule" or one of the Old Phoenix interludes in A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST. So Anderson has his little in joke with us but does not come out and NAME Sherlock Holmes.
Sean
Sean,
Anderson goes further. In the Time Patrol, he does use the name, "Sherlock Holmes," but in contexts where Holmes could be fictional. However, as you say, when someone who can only be Holmes comes on stage, he is not named.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I don't recall where Sherlock Holmes is named as such in the Time Patrol stories. I think I do recall mention of Manse Everard wanting to read one of the lost narratives of Dr. Watson.
Sean
Sean,
"Star of the Sea," TIME PATROL (Baen, 2006), p. 529.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks! I'll be looking that up.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
In "The Queen of Air and Darkness," Eric Sherrinford remarks, "... we also claimed collateral descent from one of the first private inquiry agents on record, back on Earth before spaceflight. Regardless of how true that may be, I found him a useful model." Wait, he's saying his family has a tradition that they're BLOOD RELATIVES of Sherlock Holmes....
Wikipedia notes:
In reality, "Sherrinford Holmes" was one of the names Arthur Conan Doyle considered for his hero before settling on "Sherlock".
Hi, David!
Gadzooks! I've completely forgot about Eric Sherrinford, from "The Queen of Air and Darkness." Yes, I can see how Eric Sherrinford not only looks like the Great Detective but also THINKS like him.
Hmmm, there might be one fairly legitimate way of saying you can related to Sherlock Holmes: being descended from or collaterally related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle! (Smiles)
Sean
Post a Comment