Fictions Within Fictions

Fictional characters are usually fictions to each other although there are exceptions. This includes fictional detectives who refer to each other in general and to Sherlock Holmes in particular. In Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, Holmes is sometimes referred to by name in contexts where he might be just the familiar fictional character but he also appears, without being named, as a real person. It is the responsibility of the reader to recognize him. At least two other Anderson works hint at a real Holmes in their pasts and his Old Phoenix multiverse allows familiar figures, again including Holmes, to be fictional in one universe but real in another.

This brings us to Hercule Poirot's companion, Captain Hastings, who says:

"'Obvious, my dear Watson,' I quoted lightly."

-Agatha Christie, "The Adventure of the Cheap Flat" IN Christie, Poirot Investigates (London, 1981), pp. 48-64 AT p, 51.

We are expected to notice that Hastings misquotes first because Holmes says, "Elementary," not "Obvious," and secondly because, although Holmes does say both "Elementary" and "my dear Watson," he never, in our hearing, says both together.

In these ways, all fiction can refer to all previous fiction. Thus, Poul Anderson refers to Shakespearean characters, Holmes, James Bond, Clark Kent, Huckleberry Finn, Sancho Panza, a Lensman and HG Wells. (I acknowledge that Wells is an author, not a character.)