My Dearest Holmes: a Review by Katie

Home , Jeremy Brett, The Field Bazaar, Undershaw

The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015

Contents

Foreword ...... 3 At the Heart by Dora Brown ...... 5 Art by Diigii ...... 6 Sherlockian Fake Geek Girls by Liz ...... 7 Through the Decades by Khorazir (Anke Eissmann) ...... 13 “A Perfectly Overpowering Impulse” (SCAN) Or, What’s A Square Like Me Doing At A Retired Beekeepers’ Meeting? by Tweedisgood ...... 17 Uninvited by A. J. Odasso ...... 20 Discretion by Violsva ...... 21 Art by Ili ...... 23 The Man with the Watches and the Test of Time by James C. O’Leary ...... 24 Art by Diigii ...... 32 Highgate by Elinor Gray ...... 33 Art by Fyodor Pavlov ...... 35 Omi-Palone by Brontë Schiltz ...... 36 Reading Holmes as a Trans Man by Basil Chap ...... 39 My Dearest Holmes: A Review by Katie ...... 44 Art by Ili ...... 49 Bent Back To The Original? Jeremy Brett And The Re-Queering Of Sherlock Holmes by Quentin Broughall ...... 50 Family Portrait by Maia Kobabe ...... 54 The Wonders of Shipping Johnlock by Shirley Carlton ...... 55 Art by Button ...... 59 Come at Once, If Convenient by Meow ...... 60 It’s Psychosomatic, Watson by Meow ...... 60 Contributors ...... 62 Afterword ...... 65 List of Canonical Abbreviations ...... 66

1 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex

The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex http://retiredbeekeepers.tumblr.com [email protected]

is retained by their own authors and creators.

Volume 1, Number 2: Winter 2015 Cover design and essay illustrations by Basil Chap Layout by Elinor Gray The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015

Foreword “... he sat dazing for a moment in silent amazement at a small blue book which lay before him. Across the cover was printed in golden letters Practical Handbook of Bee Culture.” – “His Last Bow,” 1917.

hank you for buying/downloading/printing/sharing the Retired Bee- Tkeepers’ second issue of The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture. If you enjoy this issue, please pass it on to a friend! If you really enjoy this issue, please consider donating to the Retired Beekeepers. We are an entirely volunteer- run organisation and do not charge any membership or meeting fees, but we do have some small operating costs, including the publication of this journal. We appreciate your support in whatever form and denomination it appears. If you would like a print copy of this journal, please visit retiredbeekeepers. tumblr.com/handbook for information on how to obtain one. The Retired Beekeepers are celebrating one full year of society-hood, and have had a very full twelve months of events and goings-on. We have covered barely one sixth of the canon, but we have gone on adventures, experienced a myriad of adaptations, and eaten a lot of snacks. We’ve discussed topics rang- ing from women in the canon to the role of animals, queerness to retirement, and to the Crime Museum in London. We’ve watched a lot of television and listened to a lot of radio. All in all, a productive year! We can’t wait to see what the next year will bring, and we hope that you will be able to join us. - posed, this seemed like almost too general a theme, having no limitations whatsoever. In practice, however, it means that we have a broad and exciting - ings of literature have gained traction in mainstream academia but have not been given the space and time they deserve in more “traditional” Sherlockian circles. We aim to rectify this, both in our monthly meetings and in our regular publications, and we look forward to sharing with you our collected thoughts, experiences, and interpretations.

Believe us to be, dear Bees, Very sincerely yours, Basil, Elinor, and Michele

The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015

At the Heart

Dora Brown After “At the New Year”, by Kenneth Patchen

n the cup of our room, in the soft tea I of evening, John In all that is hidden in me, these buried breaths and wantings In everything I am to you, familiar and forsaken, John In the reverence I brought you, in the moment of my leaving In that unswerving night, in those dreamings of my patience, John In all the protestation, and in the calling when my heart was breaking In everything you stole from me, without knowing you were taking the last of my air from me, John In all that you returned to me, by your willing for my truth to prevail In the cause of kindness, to soothe the wretched aching in us, John Before the sun sets, before this warming in your look can be suppressed Before my open ribs are sewn, before my care is folded under linen, John There are the threads of liberation Moisten them with your lips and pull them free And there are ecstasies to sing, John There are ecstasies to sing!

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Sherlockian Fake Geek Girls

Liz (@her_nerdiness)

FWatson always have to be gay? Why can’t they just be friends?” I ask queer1 in any major adaptation? Arguably, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes Watson are actually a same-sex couple. So when someone asks, “Why do they always have to be gay?” what is that person really saying? I would argue they and Watson challenged by what appears to be a new nexus in the broad Sherlockian fandom: the online slash fandom. Slash fandoms have existed for decades, but the internet has brought slash to the surface of our cultural landscape through increased availability and accessibility. The term “slash” refers to romantic and/or sexual pairings of same-sex couples due to the slash used to denote a pairing, such as Kirk/ Spock. Decades ago, slash fanworks were distributed through paper zines sent in the mail, then through listservs and newsgroups, then through Wattpad, and Archive of Our Own (AO3). In 2014, anyone can peruse the content 24/7 without having to seek out a zine to subscribe to. Interviewers of their characters available online, and many of them are. Some are even enthusiastic about the idea. Slash fandom is, in many cases, largely a queer, female space. In my personal experience, almost everyone with whom I’ve interacted in fandom falls under the queer umbrella, which includes bisexual, pansexual, asexual, lesbian, and gay people who are variously cisgender, transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, or agender. Critically, most members of fandom fall outside the boundaries of a cisgender heterosexual male identity. Though many mainstream publications have assumed that straight women are writing all the

7 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex gay erotica, that’s not necessarily true. In 2013, a survey of 10,005 AO3 users2 found that users of the site that responded to the survey were overwhelmingly 3 In particular, members of male-male pairing fandoms were slightly less likely to be heterosexual women and slightly more likely to be bi-/pansexual women as compared to all respondents.4 Although this survey is not necessarily representative of the entire fandom, as it constituted only AO3 users who chose to respond to the survey, it provides a useful lens through which to view the online fandom experience. A vibrant community of slash fans has developed in response to the Jr. movies (2009 and 2011) and BBC’s Sherlock (2010). Many of us were although plenty have been reading his adventures since childhood. A thriving community of canon slash fans has also existed both online and pre-internet slash fans, we naturally gravitate towards deep relationships between male special one. We also exist among a broader geek culture on the internet, which has had its own fraught and protracted battle with respect to gender relations. Many facets of geek culture have long been unwelcoming to women, which is 5 who dare to be active and outspoken members of these communities are often threats.6 In many interactions between male and female fans, male fans will question a woman’s “geek cred” by quizzing her on obscure (or even basic) fandom trivia. For example: recently, a friend of mine was wearing a Captain

8 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 America shirt and was confronted by a man who asked her if she even knew Cap’s name. Among many geeks, there is a persistent stereotype of a “fake geek girl,” explained as follows: … “fake geek girls” is a term used to describe, “pretty girls pretending to be geeks for attention” as Joe Peacock put it in a post on CNN. The idea is that hot women go to Man in order to... do what isn’t exactly clear. The logic rather breaks down at this point. Something about attention whores, something about taking advantage of geeks, something about male paranoia and a big fat dollop of misogyny seems to be the basic reasoning. Such as it is.8 Many men in geeky communities seem to be threatened by women existing visibly in a space typically considered to be exclusively male, so they express their frustrations by questioning why these women are even there in and treatment of women. When a male fan asks “Do you even know what Captain America’s name is?” he is implicitly telling a woman that she doesn’t Rogers,” it doesn’t really matter; to that guy, she will never belong. So amidst this milieu of the false threat of the “fake geek girl” in male- dominated communities, we have many young, female, queer Sherlockians who are slash fans joining the larger Sherlockian community. We are all fans As the Baker Street Babes posted on their tumblr: Just saw someone in a tag saying that you aren’t a true Sherlock Holmes fan unless you’ve read the canon. Nope. You’re a true fan if you love Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and their crazy stupid adventures. That’s all you need. You like the thing.9 John Watson have outgrown the pages they’re printed on. The canon has Watson have become archetypes, a shared cultural legend, perhaps even a myth. And to use a term the internet is quite fond of, they have become a meme. a unit of cultural information, analogous to a gene as a unit of biological

9 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex as a meme and extended the use of analogous biology terms.11 Watson have replicated and evolved; they’ve taken on new forms that help them survive in whatever time they inhabit. There are plenty of adaptations obsessed with Sherlock, but in all likelihood, the next generation will hone in take. For many, Sherlock is a gateway to reading the canon, seeking out other cultural story, and to be a fan of any of them is to participate in the story and keep it alive. queer reading: both of the original source material and of recent adaptations. marginalized people or people with less power in society, people whose stories themselves. Laurie Penny explains the rift between storytellers in mainstream media and fans who write their own interpretations: reinterpreted by fans, but that they are being reinterpreted by the wrong sorts of fans - women, people of colour, queer kids, hor–ny teenagers, people who are not professional writers, people who actually care about continuity (sorry). The proper way for cultural mythmaking to progress, it is implied, is for privileged men to recreate the works of privileged men from previous generations whilst everyone else listens quietly. That’s how it’s always been done. That’s how it should be done in the future, whatever Tumblr says. 13 To see one’s own story represented in mainstream media is to have oneself

10 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 of myself to be assured that I was a valuable human being and not alone in the world.”14 heterosexual cisgender men, an identity that does not describe most online fandom members or even a majority of human beings. In order to feel like we belong, queer people seek out queer spaces and queer stories, and fandom serves both of those ends. Online fandom has created a space where both queer readings and queer people are welcomed with open arms, and online fandom has spent decades fandom spaces are now emerging into the mainstream consciousness, placing a new spotlight on spaces and fanworks that were previously relegated to the shadows. As members of both traditional and new fandom spaces interact, I hope that all can learn to coexist. queer and/or female fans hear, “Why are you here?” As stated previously, mainstream media, so this is hardly a fair question. The question is patently a nonsensical one, so I ask you to think about what it is you are really saying. I ask that you welcome new fans and hear them out on their interpretation of forever. And isn’t that what we all want?

NOTES

1. I use the term queer as an umbrella term because it’s possible to be in a same-sex relationship without being gay. For example, many fans interpret John Watson as bisexual. 2. Lulu. “AO3 Census: Masterpost.” 5 Oct 2013. http://centrumlumina.tumblr.com/ post/63208278796/ao3-census-masterpost 3. Lulu. “Overall Gender and Sexuality of AO3 Users.” 12 Aug 2014. http:// centrumlumina.tumblr.com/post/94562495289/overall-gender-and-sexuality-of-ao3- users-this 4. Lulu. “Demographics of M/M Fandom.” 12 Aug 2014. http://centrumlumina.

11 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex tumblr.com/post/94573747770/demographics-of-m-m-fandom-this-data-is-from-the 5. Potential’’: Online Slash Fandom as Queer Female Space.” English Language Notes 45.2 (2007): 103. 6. Feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian has been a target of a continuous harassment campaign due to her critique of misogyny in video games. See the following article: McDonald, Soraya. “Gaming vlogger Anita Sarkeesian is forced from home after receiving harrowing death threats.” The Washington Post. 29 Aug 2014. http://www. washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/29/gaming-vlogger-anita- sarkeesian-is-forced-from-home-after-receiving-harrowing-death-threats/ Additionally, indie video game developer Zoë Quinn has faced similarly targeted harassment campaigns because of her position as an outspoken feminist in gaming. See Sanghani, Radhika. “Misogyny, death threats and a mob of trolls: Inside the dark world of video games with Zoe Quinn - target of #GamerGate.” The Telegraph. 10 Sep 2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11082629/Gamergate-Misogyny- death-threats-and-a-mob-of-angry-trolls-Inside-the-dark-world-of-video-games.html 7. Berlatsky, Noah. “‘Fake Geek Girls’ Paranoia Is About Male Insecurity, Not Female Duplicity.” The Atlantic. 22 Jan 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/ archive/2013/01/fake-geek-girls-paranoia-is-about-male-insecurity-not-female- duplicity/267402/ 8. The Baker Street Babes. 19 Aug 2014. http://bakerstreetbabes.tumblr.com/ post/95193427509/hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm-just-saw-someone- in-a (Tweets documenting the conference presentation can be found here: https://storify. com/her_nerdiness/scintillation-of-scions) 10. Penny, Laurie. “Laurie Penny on Sherlock: The Adventure of the Overzealous Fanbase.” New Statesman. 12 Jan 2014. http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/01/ sherlock-and-adventure-overzealous-fanbase 11. Bryson, Mary. “When Jill jacks in: Queer women and the Net.” Feminist Media Studies 4.3 (2004): 239-254.

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Through the Decades

Khorazir (Anke Eissman)

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“A Perfectly Overpowering Impulse” (SCAN) Or, What’s A Square Like Me Doing At A Retired Beekeepers’ Meeting?

tweedisgood

o, I was planning a nice historical disquisition on the use of the word S For instance, did you know there are 69 (really) instances of its use in the 60 stories of canon, including two references to ‘Queer Street’ – which I’m sure you all know means to be seriously, stony broke1? Bless you, Edit-Find function. One much-tumblrd-out-of-context gem: “When a man does a queer thing, or two queer things, there may be a meaning to it, but when everything And then, several hundred words in, as you do, I had second thoughts. Whatever its history, in the context of Beekeepers ultimately it’s not my word. There is, too, no shortage of commentary about queer themes in the world read almost entirely by straight women.2 Women do seem to predominate still (non-statistically-rigorous sampling ahoy) but increasingly the assumption that we’re just all fetishizing and appropriating gay male sexuality for our own straight female jollies has been challenged. Queer voices have been raised, Doyle’s pages full of crime, logic, and lifelong friendship. And yet. I’m a straight woman – there is a Mr Tweed, as your Queen Bee will attest – albeit the mum of a bisexual (and poly, and kinky) man with Believe it or not as you like, but it’s about far, far more than jollies – though with the English language and the latitude writing in a Victorian pastiche style gives to it. I don’t need to (and don’t) believe that there is a subtext deliberately of at least Oscar Wilde’s homosexual behaviour are a matter of record.3 I do know a fair bit about Victorian England and Victorian London, though, 17 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex Watson in its real streets, homes and railway carriages, there is no reason why they should not be leading a private life hidden from the prying eyes of the “An Englishman’s home is his castle,” remember. It’s not just a quaint phrase.4 The Victorians took very seriously the notion of the home as the ultimate sanctuary and usually resisted all incursions into it on the part of the State. Even the infamous Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 left people’s homes pretty much untouched. Consenting acts in private could be prosecuted, yes – but this almost always meant a private room in a hotel, a boarding house, or a brothel. Not usually “a couple of comfortable bedrooms and a single large airy sitting-room, cheerfully furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows” (STUD) inhabited by two respectable middle class professionals, one of them a self-described ladies’ man, not to mention their very discreet and fond landlady. People lived outside the mainstream in the 19th century in any number of ways, including sexually. Some of them even did it more-or-less openly – the educator, philosopher and community pioneer Edward Carpenter and his partner George Merrill perhaps most freely of all: they are buried together under the same headstone. Most however conformed – performed - for society’s gaze but went their own sweet way when its back was turned. The law was there, yes, in the background, and its symbolic importance and powers to oppress can’t be ignored - but in fact until the 1940s its encroachments were not that numerous compared to what must have been the actual LGBT population.5 I’d argue society had more power than the instruments of law in practice. Shame was more of a deterrent than punishment, blackmail more of a risk than hard labour. That’s not to say that a prudent male couple in the 1890s wouldn’t have done well to lock their doors just in case. Servants don’t always knock. Oh, dear. Disquisition not entirely averted. Fundamentally, I’m for respecting truth in history. The same impulse that makes me pedantic about plumbing or the geography of Westminster c.1900 or were straight. They weren’t necessarily. Statistics tell you about trends and generalities. Only getting to know individuals tells you about those individuals. I don’t drift from fandom to fandom looking for hot dudes to slash, another popular caricature – yes, ok, seen it reasonably often myself, but 18 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 again: statistics. My last not-quite-otp-more-my-fave-as-fandom-bike-but- interesting-dynamic was a het one, albeit with a large age gap in it, with a fannish past out if they are so inclined. me, not pretty male bodies smushing (I have a headcanon of podgy, arthritic, anyway). The sexual or gender identity of the combination, if it has one, for how could one not? As to the exact shape which that love might take, well, I want to explore and see where it takes me, and them. I want to see how they get wherever it is, what they feel about it, how they live it in their world, the not so much.

Notes

1. The term appears in 1811 in the Lexicon Balatronicum: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence, an updated version of Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue our wish.” Although often being associated with the Carey Street bankruptcy courts, which also lends its name to a similar phrase, the term Queer Street appears to predate from Westminster in the 1840s. 2.http://henryjenkins.org/2010/02/camille_bacon-smith_and_henry.html. 3. Arthur Conan Doyle, “Memories and Adventures” 1924, Ch. VIII. 4. It has been a legal precept in England, since at least the 17th century, that no one may enter a home, which would typically then have been in male ownership, unless by invitation. This was established as common law by the lawyer and politician Sir Edward Coke (pronounced Cook), in The Institutes of the Laws of England, 1628: “For a man’s house is his castle, et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium [and each man’s home is his safest 5. http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Gay.jsp

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Uninvited

A. J. Odasso

oon arched against stark clouds, round Mas the Eye and just as wide. It’s enough with the Thames to your left and the wind humming hollow lullabyes. Your throat won’t open for words. Can’t. Your hands

but this is sheerest want. Strange belonging in the low strains of his kiss. The fall of his hair, the hitch of his breath.

The fact that you have done this.

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Discretion

Viosva

“Yme to look after you?” are in the hallway, and normally she would be minding her own business, but “Oh yes.” A low laugh, and if her lodgers were a married couple Rosalie would know exactly what they were doing afterwards. But they aren’t, and she can’t believe it. There is some more quiet conversation that Rosalie can’t quite catch, and then the sounds of feet on the stairs. Rosalie has never meant to be one of those snooping landladies, sticking her nose into matters that are none of her concern so long as the rent is paid. She knows that’s part of why Mr last footstep lands on the staircase, there is a quiet joyful gasp, and the door to the upstairs apartment shuts with a click.

After that, she can’t help but watch them. Every movement, every smile, every word – but they are just as normal, just as they have always been. Noth- ing has changed. But why would anything have changed? It did not sound like that close- ness was anything new. She has grown too used to them – if anyone could grow used to Mr. she was not imagining what she heard. They are simply them, and she could not think of them any other way. She is rather shocked that she thought of them so – shocked that she was not shocked, in fact. So she lets it all fall to the back of her mind, since she cannot think whether she wants to know or what she would do if she did.

21 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex Two months later a client hammers on the door at six o’clock in the morning until Rosalie at last rises and lets him in. She strides upstairs, not par- - bedroom door. She is answered by a loud thud - sounds nor looks any happier than she had been at being awoken, his dressing gown held tight around himself and his face decidedly grim. her he is as all-knowing as ever and the world is the same as it has always been. Peculiar, would have known at once, but Rosalie hasn’t thrown them out yet can’t imagine the house without them, gunshots and queer callers included. Well. Rather, she knows exactly what she wants to do, and cannot believe it of herself. She wasn’t raised for this. She wasn’t raised to look at two men - She can’t see them as separate, though. She cannot, most certainly, separate them herself, perhaps destroy them. The idea is impossible. And she’s not expect shyness from him – and nods in return. They stay.

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The Man with the Watches and the Test of Time

James C. O’Leary

t is a mistake to judge people of the past by the standards of today. People Iare the prisoners of the times they live in. To pass judgement on historical not only does them a disservice but shuts the door on understanding them, their actions and motivations and sets us, people of the present, as smug and hence as quaint or worse? Arthur Conan Doyle (1858-1930) was a nineteenth-century man, Scot by birth, Irish by heritage but proud Englishman by choice who aspired to genius, but still a Victorian. Doyle’s mother Mary brought him up on tales of chivalry and chivalry of lawyer George Edalji, son of a South Asian father and English mother and life-long subject of racial prejudice, who was convicted of a series of cattle to clear Oscar Slater, a Jewish career criminal, of an Edinburgh murder the evidence clearly showed he didn’t commit. Doyle spent years and his own Reports by journalist E.D. Morel and British consul in Boma, Congo Free State, Roger Casement, on the human rights abuses committed by King Leopold II of Belgium, lead Doyle in October of 1909 to publish The Crime of the Congo. The enforced slavery, mutilations, rape, murder and at times the and he hoped his pamphlet would help to institute change. Like most of his male contemporaries Doyle did not believe in Woman’s England come in, especially when we have stirred her up such a devil’s brew of Irish civil war, window-breaking Furies, and God knows what to keep her

24 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 1857, a man might easily divorce his wife but the reverse was untrue. It was partner might be granted a “judicial separation” but such a judicial separation of-wedlock cohabitation, which was a moral and legal crime. Doyle wrote a pamphlet, also in 1909, for the Divorce Law Reform Association on the most of the reforms passing in 1923.1 Doyle’s public views on homosexuality were complex. Like all members Oscar Wilde in Memories and Adventures, I should add that never in Wilde’s conversation did I observe one trace of coarseness of thought, nor could one at that time associate him with such an idea. Only once again did I see him, many years afterwards, and then he gave me the impression of being mad. He asked me, I remember, if I had seen some play of his which was running. I answered that I had not. He said: “Ah, you must go. It is wonderful. It is genius!” All this with instincts. I thought at the time, and still think, that the monstrous development which ruined him was pathological, and that a hospital rather than a police court was the place for its consideration. As Daniel Stashower wrote in Teller of Tales, Conan Doyle’s respect for Wilde never dimmed, even after the “monstrous development” from something more than coarseness of thought, and Conan Doyle’s sympathy for Wilde should not be confused with a tolerance of homosexuality.2 But one must remember the tenor of the times: Until 1861… buggery had carried the death penalty. As it was, buggery still carried a prison sentence of penal servitude for life. Penal servitude meant, for murderers, rapists and sodomites, long hours of hard labour picking oakum, walking the treadmill or working the dreaded crank, back-breaking work turning a handle to push a paddle through a vat of sand.3 To see Wilde’s homosexuality not as a crime against God and man but as an illness to be cared for was in fact a tolerant view for the turn of the century and the most liberal one Doyle could express without be called a sodomite himself.

25 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex Doyle had also become friends with Roger Casement, an Irish-born diplomat who, after years of investigating atrocities in the Congo and Peru, became involved in Irish independence. Casement negotiated with the German government to ship arms to Ireland in order to enact revolution against England. These anti-imperialist activities lead to his conviction for treason in 1916, and he was sentenced to hang. Reading of Casement’s activities in Berlin, long before his arrest, Doyle came to the conclusion that he was mentally ill. Doyle did not condone treason but he also believed a legally insane criminal shouldn’t be put to death and drafted a petition that Casement’s sentence should be commuted. Chesterton, W. B. Yeats, Jerome K. Jerome and John Galsworthy signed. At this juncture, the British Government quietly started circulating Casement’s diaries which detailed his same-sex liaisons. The diaries “entirely killed any English sympathy there might have been for Casement.”4 and many of the by his petition. Casement was executed in August 1916. addressed, obliquely for the times, the issue of homosexuality. “The Man with the Watches” is one of four stories considered to be the Apocrypha of the Sherlockian Canon, three of which were written in that period in the 1890s in 1924 for The Book of the Queen’s Dolls’ House. “The Field Bazaar,” a gentle University Student in 1896. “The Lost Special” and “The Man with the Watches” were part of a series of mystery and horror stories written for The Strand in 1898. Both stories recount crimes celebre whose solutions are revealed after a letter writer to the newspapers proposes an unworkable theory. “The Lost Special” takes place in 1890 and has a letter to The Times written by “an amateur reasoner of some celebrity at that date, attempted to deal with “It is one of the elementary principles of practical reasoning that when the impossible has been eliminated the residuum, however improbable, must contain the truth.” Doyle clearly meant Strand readers to identify the letter

26 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 The case is a little more problematic for “The Man with the Watches.” The Rugby Mystery took place in the spring of 1892, during that period a“well-known criminal investigator” abandoning maxims associated with the detective, and Doyle may indeed have wanted the Strand reader come to that conclusion. Doyle may have forgotten the date of resurrection when he set “The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge” in March 1892. (In playing the Game, I believe the Daily Gazette absence.) veiled young woman board the London-to-Manchester train. The train guard opens the door to an occupied carriage containing a short bearded cigar- smoking man in his thirties. The older man tells the guard that the lady objects to smoke and they are seated in the next, unoccupied, carriage. At the Rugby stop it is noticed that the door to the carriage containing the man and woman is open and upon inspection the man and woman are gone; instead there is an elegantly dressed young man without ticket or papers with a bullet hole in his chest and six watches in various pockets. The bearded smoker in the next compartment is also gone. That crime had been committed was certain. The bullet, which appeared to have come disposed of the theory of suicide), nor was there any sign of the brown leather bag which the guard had seen in the hand of the tall gentleman. A lady’s parasol was found upon the rack, but no other trace was to be seen of the travellers in either of the sections. Apart from the crime, the question of how or why three passengers (one of them a lady) could get out of the train, and other get in during the unbroken run between Willesden and Rugby, was one which excited the utmost curiosity among the general public, and gave rise to much speculation in the London Press…. The only clue found was a pocket Bible inscribed “From John to Alice. Jan. 13th, 1856,

27 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex “James, July 4th, 1859, “Edward. Nov. 1st, 1869.” Gazette supplies his erroneous theory. circumstances and conclusion of the events. What follows is a tale of redemption and forgiveness–and a coded love story which the sophisticated Strand reader could decipher. James and his parents in New York State; their father dies before the narrative begins. Doyle sets up the corruptible nature of Edward in a way that a nineteenth- century reader would have understood: he is a beautiful creature with a weak or non-existent male presence, a soft spot in him like mould in cheese, and spoilt by his mother. him, Edward runs away to New York City and quickly gets involved in a life of crime, running cons with a “head of his profession”rascal called Sparrow McCoy. Doyle paints a picture of moral weakness, a downwards slide into about thirty years older than Edward), and cross dressing in a city that was a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah (“‘They had made it right with Tammany and with the police”, “if you only had a pull, you could do pretty nearly everything you wanted.”). Cross dressing would have been understood by the Strand reader as a signal of homosexuality. In Victorian medico-legal texts dealing with same-sex sexual relationships, the notion of sexual orientation was a function of the assignment of male/female identity. Men who had a sexual interest in other men were held to be phenotypically male and psychologically female, and their growing representation within psychiatric and legal discourse supported this assumption by emphasizing their adoption of feminine characteristic and social codes. […] It was not until 1899 that the sexologist Magnus 5 meaning as “a female prostitute” or “an attractive female” and also was used in the term “Sparrow-chaser” as “one looking for a prostitute (or woman) to have sex.” Then there is Catullus, the Roman poet whose volume could help

28 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 Passer, deliciae meae puellae (Catullus 2). “Some have even made the case that the sparrow referred to is a direct metaphor, either for Catullus’ penis or for Lesbia’s clitoris, and ‘passer’ (‘sparrow’) in Latin may also have been a slang word for ‘penis’.”6 Edward gets caught passing a bad check, though James knows it is due to go straight or he would see him in jail. Edward leaves for England (and leaves over Edward, and my chance of keeping the lad straight lay in breaking the connection between them.”). some business with his American watches, until this villain came across his path once more. I did my best, but the best was little enough. The next thing I heard there had of a large sum by two confederate card-sharpers, and the matter was in the hands of Scotland Yard. James chases the disguised pair to Euston Station and reveals himself as the bearded man in the carriage. At Willesden, unnoticed by any witness he enters Edward and MacCoy’s carriage. The trio have an argument. Emphasis in the following lengthy passage have been added by me. “Why don’t you run a Sunday-school?” he would say to me, and then, in the same breath: “He thinks you have no will of your own. He thinks you are just the baby you are a man as well as he.” [...] “A man!” said I. “Well, I’m glad to have your friend’s assurance of it, for no one would suspect it to see you like a boarding-school missy. I don’t suppose in all this country there is a more contemptible-looking creature than you are as you sit there with that Dolly pinafore upon you.” He coloured up at that, for he was a vain man, and he winced from ridicule. veil attached, and he put both it and the cloak into his brown bag. “Anyway, I don’t need to wear it until the conductor comes round,” said he. “Not then, either,” said I, and taking the bag I slung it with all my force out of the window. “Now,” said I, “‘you’ll never make a Mary Jane of yourself while I can help it. If nothing but that disguise stands between you and a gaol, then to gaol you shall 29 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex go.” That was the way to manage him. I felt my advantage at once. His supple nature was one which yielded to roughness far more readily than to entreaty. He and was determined that I should not pursue it. “He’s my pard, and you shall not bully him,” he cried. “He’s my brother, and you shall not ruin him”’ said I. “‘I believe a spell of prison is the very best way of keeping you apart, and you shall have it, or it will be no fault of mine.” “Oh, you would squeal, would you?” he cried, and in an instant he whipped out his revolver. I sprang for his hand, but saw that I was too late, and jumped aside. At heart of my unfortunate brother. MacCoy still held the loaded revolver in his hand, but his anger against me and my resentment towards him had both for the moment been swallowed up in this sudden tragedy. s, both rolling down a steep embankment. At the bottom I struck my head against a stone, and I remembered nothing more. When I came to myself I was lying among some low bushes, not far from the railroad track, and somebody was bathing my head with a wet handkerchief. It was Sparrow MacCoy. “I guess I couldn’t leave you” said he. “I didn’t want to have the blood of two of you on my hands in one day. You loved your brother, I’ve no doubt; but you didn’t love him a cent more than I loved him, though you’ll say that I took a queer way to show it. Anyhow, it seems a mighty empty world now that he is gone, and I don’t care a continental whether you give me over to the hangman or not.” He had turned his ankle in the fall, and there we sat, he with his useless foot and I with my throbbing head, and we talked and talked unti1 gradually my bitterness began to soften and to turn into something like sympathy. What was the use of revenging his death upon the man who was as much stricken by that death as I was? bits of the mystery and asking the “well-known criminal investigator” for the family bible back. 30 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015

century reader with their double meaning obvious. In fact, many of those meanings would be visible to a sophisticated nineteenth-century reader as well, although the double entendres would not have the wide currency they do today. “Straight” with its meaning of orthodoxy and conforming to societal norms and “queer” with its meaning of atypical and abnormal along with due to injuries led James understand MacCoy’s feelings for Edward were deep and true and not exploitive. By framing the story as a mystery and encoding one type of criminality— the time were not---within other, more socially acceptable criminalities, Doyle was able to write about homosexuality in a clever “moving locked-room” mystery suitable for a family magazine. So we cannot say that Arthur Conan Doyle, Victorian white heterosexual

NOTES 1. See Richards, Dana, Conan Doyle and the Divorce Law Reform Union, Priory Press, 2010. 2. Stashower, Daniel, Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle Company, New York, 1999. 3. McKenna, Neil, Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England. Faber and Faber, London, 2013. 4. Stashower, ibid. 5. Sweet, Matthew, Inventing the Victorians. St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2001. 6. http://www.ancient-literature.com/rome_catullus_2.html

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Highgate

Elinor Gray

t didn’t take me long at all to discover where Watson had disappeared to, I subdued attitude were considered in conjunction with one another. The sky outside was grey, and there was ice on the eaves of the roof across the street; there were only a few things that could draw John Watson out of doors on a day like this, and since I had no case at the moment, the reasons dwindled to one. I found him where expected, under a spreading oak, a bouquet of up beside him and for a moment we said nothing, looking down at the stone standing erect in the frozen ground.

In Sacred Memory of Mary Amelia Watson beloved wife of John H. Watson who departed this life 1891 aged 30 years “Those who walk uprightly enter into peace;

headstone. Watson put his hat back on and heaved a sigh. Then he bent and hand into the crook of his arm. I could tell his shoulder hurt by the way he was holding it. “I meant to be back by the time you got up,” Watson said, still looking down at Mary’s grave. “I meant to lie in until you returned,” I replied. The warmth of our bed, I saw him smile for a moment. “Well,” said he, “shall we go back?”

33 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex “I’m not in a hurry.” The snow had begun to accumulate on the footpath and on the shoulders of our coats. “I just came to see if you needed anything.” Another smile, more subdued. “No,” Watson said softly. “Nothing in “I don’t mind,” I said. “She was a good woman and she ought to be missed.” “I was thinking of you as well. Those were— years I would not repeat.” “Nor I.” I had apologised enough, we’d agreed, but the guilt still gnawed in my belly sometimes. “Watson.” lips were chapped and red, but they parted willingly as I leaned down to kiss him. The wind was beginning to pick up, the snow swirling around us. My toes and the tips of my ears were numb with cold; Watson’s mouth was warm comfort: I had returned to give it to him. “Let’s go home,” he whispered after a moment, barely drawing away from me. I kissed him again, for good measure, and we walked back up the hill, arm in arm. As we reached the main road where we might acquire a cab, he paused on the footpath and squeezed my hand and said, “Thank you for coming to get me.” “You might have stood there until the snow obscured you entirely,” I said, shrugging. “And I need you at home to set up that blasted tree, because heart, I had discovered. “I do my best, dear boy,” I said, patting his arm. “I do my everlasting best.”

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Omi-Palone

Brontë Schiltz

lmost anyone with an academic interest in queer readings of the Sherlock A Woman” speech. Although it is, as Stout acknowledged, ‘very sketchy’ and is mostly comprised of misogynistic jokes and deliberately absurd reasoning, it is also an early example of the kind of thinking that has since contributed particularly regarding such sentences as “Imagine a man asking another man to play him some of Mendelssohn’s Lieder on a violin!” There is also similar on the moor in The Hound of the Baskervilles suggests a lack of facial hair to begin with) and the fact that people would in terms of one of them being female than in terms of two men being in love. As such, the majority of the “was ‘he’ a woman?” theorisation has been disregarded, but this was perhaps a mistake on the part of queer critics – relationship with gender in order to explore their sexualities. a few years ago when I was working on an essay on the representation of women in the canon. One of the areas I was looking at was descriptions of female beauty, but it struck me, as I reread “A Scandal in Bohemia,” that there incredibly dashing” and then as “a remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline and moustached.” What makes this example particularly interesting is that, despite the fact that Watson makes it clear from the outset that “it was not that

36 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 her, he tells Watson that “she has turned all the men’s heads down in that part. She is the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the Serpentine- mews, to a man.” Then, after he has seen her, he tells him that “she was a Bellamy in “The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane,” informing the reader that he “could not look upon her perfect clear-cut face, with all the soft freshness of the downlands in her delicate colouring, without realizing that no young man would cross her path unscathed.” What fascinated me about these descriptions was how much they reminded me of some of Watson’s descriptions of men. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, he describes Barrymore as “a striking-looking fellow, very well equipped to steal the heart of a country girl,” and in “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client” he gives a lengthy description of Baron Gruner’s good looks: He was certainly a remarkably handsome man. His European reputation for beauty graceful and active lines. His face was swarthy, almost Oriental, with large, dark, languorous eyes which might easily hold an irresistible fascination for women. His hair and moustache were raven black, the latter short, pointed, and carefully waxed. His features were regular and pleasing, save only his straight, thin-lipped mouth. When Watson discusses male beauty in language implying sexual attraction, he distances himself by suggesting that he is describing the appeal he would expect the man in question to have for girls and women rather than his own interest – an appropriate decision on his part, given that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, given that The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence against Oscar Wilde during the Wilde vs. Queensberry trial of 1895. distance himself from descriptions of female beauty by stating that they would be attractive to men in language that suggests that he is not including himself woman? world in which they are being written for the enjoyment of a real public – if

37 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex have become aware of it. The mistake in the work of queer critics of the canon man. Let me explain. In Victorian discourse, queerness was often described as a third gender. Before the (derogatory, pathologised) term “homosexual” had been coined, the term “Uranian” was used to denote someone with “a female psyche in a male body” – someone who we would now refer to as a gay man, but who, in the 19th century, was regarded as neither a man nor a woman but someone somewhere in between. This was not only the case in external discourse, but within the gay community, too, which brings me on to the title of this piece. Due to the stringent laws on sexuality in England under Queen Victoria, it was unsafe for gay and bisexual men to publicly discuss their desires and experiences. Out of this dilemma grew Polari, a form of slang developed and used predominantly by gay and bisexual men that allowed them to speak openly without fearing arrest. One of several Polari terms for a gay man was “omi-palone,” which translates literally to “man-woman” (likewise, “palone- omi” or “woman-man” was used to describe lesbians). Just as it is believable that a queer man in Conan Doyle’s time would distance himself from his own attraction to men, it is equally believable that another queer man (and particularly one who did not act on his desires, as is quite possibly the case or Walt Whitman, for instance), and would not in fact view himself as a man at all. The majority of people who have written academically about queerness al. as a useful starting point, but ultimately counterproductive to their work. I fact not counterproductive at all, and in fact only serves to situate the canon Watson, although they may have experienced, understood and expressed deemed appropriate for explicit textual exploration in the period in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was writing.

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My Dearest Holmes: A Review

Katie

“The accounts of these cases are too bound up with events in my personal life which, although they may provide a plausible commentary to much of my dealings with Mr Sherlock Holmes, can never be made public while he or I remain alive…”

ohase Piercy writes My Dearest Holmes as the editor of two of Dr. Wat- Rson’s heretofore unpublished manuscripts. The novel is composed of a case of blackmail which is attributed to the Queen Bee, “an adventuress of doubtful reputation,” and another which is concerned with the truth be- which both have to do with homosexual life and romance, Watson had sealed these and ordered them to be left unopened until 100 years after 1887, the developing romantic relationship between the detective and his biographer, and so I would like to review My Dearest Holmes As a character, Watson immediately struck me as somewhat terse, less of - ing him on “the most absurd wild goose chases” and defends himself when as he animatedly discusses the particulars of a new case, though he is much Doyle, as Watson’s literary agent at the Strand, doing anything but swiftly redacting such a passage for propriety’s sake, were it intended for publication. The dialogue is slightly more candid and colloquial, and the narration is much ability, for example, his analysis seems less fantastical, and there are fewer 44 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 near-impossible leaps of logic and more pauses for thought when questioning personal nature of the memoirs, contribute to a much more realistic portrait of what it would have been like for these two men to live and work together. Piercy absolutely maintains Watson’s style of narration and sense of humour as well as a contemporary verisimilitude, even when broaching subjects not - ality in general at this time. Though Watson does not really go into detail in depicting the places he frequents to meet other gay men, his sexual encounters, or the company he has kept (beyond an old acquaintance connected with the case, and a reference to a nameless sailor), the way Piercy represents queerness and homo- - cally, that it opposes his nature to form close emotional attachments, and that Importantly, he is not ashamed of his desires, even if he is ashamed of his actions, judging by his vaguely disgusted references to the places he frequents and his encounters with men he does not love, probably supposing it is dishon- est to be intimate with one man whilst thinking solely of the true object of his are “the inevitable counterpart to such inclinations in our present unenlight- ened age,” so he does not shy away from his natural inclinations, but realises is and recognises that it is possible to live in a homosexual relationship, even if it had to be kept secret for fear of losing standing in society, or worse, seeing as the addition to the Criminal Law Amendment Act was passed in 1885. Watson maintains, as stated in the preface, optimism for future generations, people to live more openly and authentically than was possible in the Victo- rian era, and that his memoirs will be received “with sympathy and respect” rather than disdain, revulsion, and hatefulness.

45 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex Another aspect of the novel that stood out to me was the presence of lesbian characters. Positive representation of queer women is something which is so it is very interesting and refreshing to see their inclusion in a story which could easily have been completely focused on the two central male characters and the homosexual male lifestyle of the Victorian era in general. At this time, lesbian relationships were not banned, but were simply denied or deemed “impossible,” and rarely even included in discussions about homosexuality. made it near-impossible to live independent lives. Watson, however, recog- not so unwitting in these matters as Watson may have assumed). a lesbian woman - when Watson realises that she knows his “secret,” he is quick to become very candid about his experiences and his romantic inter- respect for Watson (whether platonic or romantic), but the fact that he is un- able to accept himself or his emotionally vulnerable side, that he oftentimes acts unfairly, even cruelly, towards Watson. She also advises him to take a wife himself from being emotionally hurt by constant proximity to the object of - ing chapter, which contains an especially poignant and emotional moment and physical, and will bring about the downfall of some of the most gifted and be among them.” The case itself is concluded somewhat rapidly, without the traditional

46 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 a detective story, with all its conceits and self-aware elements of construction so that the reader will be most intrigued and most surprised, and a journal or diary, which is, one can imagine, closer to how Watson’s actual case notes Piercy’s intention in the second half of the novel is to tie up some of the loose ends of “The Final Problem,” and so begins about four years after the ‘Queen Bee’ case. As editor, she includes a preface by Watson which explains that the published version was merely to satisfy the public’s curiosity regarding to the truth as Watson could manage, just as he assured that the previous half was ‘in no way romanticised’. trip to the Continent to evade Moriarty, or his utter despondency following close, but purely friendly - they both married one another as a convenience, to outwardly display their status as a heterosexual married couple in order to continue to live their personal lives as freely as was possible. Piercy winds her narrative perfectly through the major canonical events My Dearest Holmes manage to clear up or explain various issues in the canon, she includes much Rather than an objective description of the Ronald Adair murder case at the than a vague reference to Watson’s “sad bereavement”, we learn of his further devastation upon the death of his wife, and his feelings of helplessness and isolation. It is a portrayal of loss and grief which show just how altogether unsatisfactory Doyle’s originals could be with regard to emotional realism or convincing relationships and character development. Piercy’s use of personal memoir allows Watson to place himself and his 47 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex making him less of a bumbling sidekick caricature and more of an intimate series, and the ensuing new generation of fans has issued forth an incredible amount of relationship-driven fanworks. Piercy seems well ahead of her time indeed when considering that there were few, if any, positive and sincere rep- to this pastiche. My Dearest Holmes, therefore, is not only interesting as a thoroughly convincing study in Victorian style, but as a truly sensitive portrayal of a variety of queer relationships in this era. It is, above all, an exploration of the re- sensitive, and beautifully expressed.

An interview with Rohase Piercy, author of , is available on our blog. In it, we chat with Ms Piercy about her interest in the relationship between Holmes and Watson, her contact with and participation in the Sherlock Holmes community, the trials of publishing a queer Holmes pastiche in the 80’s, and the reception that her book has experienced over the years. Read the interview at retiredbeekeepers. tumblr.com/rohase.

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Bent Back to the Original? Jeremy Brett and the Re-Queering of Sherlock Holmes.

Quentin Broughall

peculation about the allegedly romantic nature of relations between S 1 Recently, however, there has been a move by certain scholars and writers to 2 Perhaps one of Brett’s performance in the Granada television series (1984-94).3 Claiming famously that he wanted in playing the role to “bend the willow,” but not remained authentic, yet innovative. While he based his version upon a faithful reading of the original Canon, he also imbued his performance not only with a sophisticated theatricality, but also with a convincing personality. Thus, it is arguable queering of the character, which created a far more sophisticated, multi-layered representation than most previous on-screen incarnations. The socialist writer Edward Carpenter once remarked that queer – or “Uranian” in Victorian parlance – identity represented an interaction between 4 Arthur Conan Doyle’s portrayal of a consulting detective for whom deductive reasoning is vital. Certainly, there are many suggestive pieces of evidence 5 For instance, he claims in ”The Adventure of the Second Stain” (1904) that “the fair sex” is Watson’s department,6 and in The Sign of the Four Morstan’s physical charms.7 Later, in “A Scandal in Bohemia” (1891), Irene Adler is proclaimed to have been “the8 but even she fools him by disguising herself as “a slim youth in an ulster”9 in an unexpected piece of gender-bending. Summing up, Watson explains that “as a lover, 10 had he entered into a relationship with a woman, which hints at a homosexual identity transcending

50 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 his traditional bachelorhood. In the case of the Granada Sherlock Holmes, the casting of Jeremy Brett a departure from the many unorthodox cinematic interpretations that had predominated during the 1970s.11 Known for playing Victorian and Edwardian characters, Brett’s acting experience and elegant delivery seemed perfect for restoring Conan Doyle’s initial vision while updating the character for a new era. By using Sidney Paget’s original drawings as a guide for the and crew, Granada hoped to produce a faithful representation of the original inventiveness. Latterly, though ill health sometimes impaired his performance, he never failed to inhabit fully the role for which he became most famous, yet 12 Beyond the set, Brett claimed to have little in common with his black-and- white on-screen persona – calling him “an isolated, damaged penguin”13 – but Sullivan Wilson, as well as long-term relationships with fellow actors Gary Bond and Paul Shenar, Brett’s bisexuality undoubtedly contextualises his depression must have also played a part in his creation of an at-times troubled be wrong to associate his personal life with his acting approach in anything to appreciate fully the subtle and complex temperament that he created for brought colour and life to his performance by using his own experiences to queer it in certain directions, which imbued the character with renewed interest and subtlety. With his rolling Rs and resonant timbre, Brett forged a character both possesses a camp hauteur and waspish wit that he expresses with a supercilious

51 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex original stories; all Brett did was to restore this element, though in a way that placed it to the fore as an essential feature of his personality. Through queer identity. Moreover, compared to previous actors who had played the role, Brett’s performance possessed a freshness and immediacy that might be the original portrayed in the Strand Magazine, while reviving the queer traits that had been deliberately elided from previous on-screen interpretations. series Sherlock (2010) has been widely assumed to be gay, while Robert Downey group’s revisionist claim on the character; so, while the LGBTQ community it can never be broken by them; he will always remain as aloof and enigmatic in his identity as he once appeared behind Jeremy Brett’s inscrutable grin.

NOTES

1. the latter following his shooting has often been cited as indicative of their intimate

52 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (2005), vol. 2, 1598.) 2. For instance, see Graham Robb, Strangers: Homosexual Love In The Nineteenth Century (2004), 260-6 and J.R.G. DeMarco (ed.), A Study In Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes (2011). 3. See David Stuart Davies, Bending the willow: Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes (1996) and Michael Cox, A Study In Celluloid: A Producer’s Account Of Jeremy Brett As Sherlock Holmes (1999). 4. Carpenter, Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk: A Study In Social Evolution (1921), 63. oblique sense of its modern connotation to an alternative sexual identity. 5. See Christopher Redmond, In Bed With Sherlock Holmes: Sexual Elements In Arthur Conan Doyle’s Stories Of The Great Detective (1984), ch. 9, 126-40. 6. New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, vol. 2, 1203. 7. Ibid., vol. 3, 235. 8. Ibid., vol. 1, 5. 9. Ibid., 35. 10. Ibid., 5. 11. For instance, Billy Wilder’s The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970), Gene Wilder’s The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (1975), Boris Sagal’s Sherlock Holmes in New York The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976). 12. Quoted in Terry Manners, The Man Who Became Sherlock Holmes: The Tortured Mind Of Jeremy Brett (1997), 212. 13. Quoted in Daniel Stashower, “And here there are genuine tears” in The Armchair Detective, vol. 29 (1996), 87.

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The Wonders of Shipping Johnlock

Shirley Carlton

Three years and six weeks ago adaptation, I think I probably even knew that he was frequently accompanied by a certain Doctor Watson. The image I had of the duo, however, was looking at footprints” and it never particularly appealed to me. That is, until I saw an episode of BBC’s Sherlock. That turned my world upside down. From the day that I saw that imagine?!), I instantly became greatly and constantly distracted, practically The spark between them that is clearly visible on the screen had ignited a blaze in my imagination. Ever since then, it is as if my mind has created a reside, happy and in love. Strangely (but wonderfully), this has resulted in a continuous “being in love” feeling that I feel personally, as if on their behalf. And it brightens every moment of my life – while at the same time having a Sherlock and John embracing or kissing and I magically feel better.

Two and a half years ago From the moment my obsession began, it still took half a year before I found the online “johnlock” fandom (mainly on tumblr). Encountering the photomanips, Sherlock, was like arriving in an exotic country that I hadn’t known existed. I was overwhelmed by the creativity and the diversity and, above all, the scale of it all. It turned out I was not the only one obsessed with the love between astounding. Digital paintings that looked like photographs, meta analyses of

55 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex novels by famous authors. Being from the Netherlands, I had never even heard of the term tens of thousands of stories about Sherlock and John falling in love, being in love, and making love. As soon as I started reading, I felt an itch to write those kinds of stories myself, too. But that idea was immediately quenched by Three months later, I gave in.

Two years ago The tumblr-blog I had started in order to “collect” fanart as soon as I came across the phenomenon, started to gain followers. Two hundred already, within a few months! I still couldn’t believe that there were so many more people out there with the same interest. I was still feeling a bit funny about it myself. Wasn’t it weird for a woman to fantasise about the love (and sex) between two men? And to have such strong feelings about it and have it play such a major role in my life? I spent every free hour on tumblr, looking for more and more.) That same autumn, I was playing a male part in a musical with a local theatre group I had joined. There’d been too few men to play the band of pirates and I had instantly volunteered. From childhood, I’d liked the idea of “being a boy or man.” I’d sung with the tenors in a previous choir (and loved it), so I knew that my voice was low enough when I wanted it to be. The extent to which I enjoyed portraying a man, however, and the lengths make-up so as to make my face look manly and also to study and copy male johnlock did. Other women never seemed to want these things. My whole life started to revolve around wanting to imitate men and wanting two men to be together, while at the same time I was happily married (to a thankfully very understanding man), I had two lovely children and an interesting job (still do). And, as much as I enjoyed the idea of portraying a man and reading (and writing) stories written through the point of view of men, I also felt perfectly comfortable in my female body. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what all this meant. The wonderful thing about tumblr, though, is that it’s not only a network full of johnlock art works, but also a very open-minded and

56 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 emancipated place with lots of posts about LGBT and gender identity issues. This is how I found out that I am genderqueer: I alternately identify with the female and male gender, and, again, there turned out to apparently be more people like that. Tumblr and fandom thankfully gave me the opportunity to explore this new-found side of myself. I started an AU blog that features reblogs of not only kid!lock, fawn!lock and punk!lock, to name a few, but also fem!lock and trans!lock images. As well as the incredibly open-minded attitude within fandom, there is three very talented writers who were willing to beta my stories and teach me further. Without them, I would never have dared publish anything on the internet. One of them even became a great friend with whom I correspond (across the Atlantic Ocean) on an almost daily basis. Being able to “grow” in been that dull to begin with.

A year and a half ago gathered the courage to try and draw something myself. I always used to love drawing in school, but since then there had never really been any reason to draw anymore. And now that there was, it gave me great pleasure to do so. Seeing my drawings being reblogged by others gave a wonderful feeling of being appreciated and it contributed to the feeling of “giving something back” to fandom (along with my writing).

Half a year ago Over the course of these three years, I’d attended three local fan meet- ups. Then last spring, I decided to help organise a meeting of Sherlock fans in the Netherlands. I co-coordinated the event and made up some fandom games, which was another very welcome outlet for my creativity.

One week ago Upon organising my second fan meetup last weekend, I decided to cosplay

57 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex And I won third prize in the cosplay contest! For months previously, I had enthusiastically been collecting items of clothing and props for my cosplay. I think that might actually be one of the most fun things about fandom: it gives me a sense of purpose. My blog now has 1893 followers and I love seeing them “liking” the posts that I have carefully selected to reblog for them. I write stories, knowing that people will read and appreciate them. And feeling appreciated and being seen, I think, is one of the most basic human needs.

Today caused in my life. It is almost as scary as it is fascinating. What would the rest of my life have looked like without this extra dimension added to my free time, to the development of my artistic talents and to my sexual and gender identity, even? I think I’m actually rather glad not to know the answer to that question.

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59 The Retired Beekeepers of Sussex

Come at Once, If Convenient meow

Tell me we’ll never get used to this, the rope arrow way of life where you tell me that the dead birds will become a part of us, glowing in the night with the gaps in our bones, and your breath in her mouth drowning the life out of me; tell me you’ll come if convenient, and come especially in spite of it.

It’s Psychosomatic, Watson meow

You know, I went back home and carved a bullet wound on my shoulder just to imagine how

Ours was a love psychosomatic.

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Contributors

A. J. Odasso is the author of two poetry collections from Flipped Eye Pub- lishing, Lost Books and The Dishonesty of Dreams. She serves as Senior Poetry Editor at Strange Horizons magazine, and she has been writing in various literary and visual-media based fandoms for a very, very long time.

Khorazir (Anke Eissmann) is an illustrator and graphic designer interest- history, nature and environmental issues, cycling and too many other things. Drawing is her default state of existence. She can be found at khorazir.tumblr. com.

Basil is a small French worm whose passions include cooking, drawing, and Sussex (where they co-founded the Retired Beekeepers) and have a toned- down gay cartoon in every issue of the BSJ.

Brontë Schliltz of London where she is doing her B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing. When she’s not playwriting, working on her dissertation or cuddling - playwright.tumblr.com.

Button is a Modern Literature student at the University of Padua (Italy) and

Diigii is an illustrator and cartoonist from Manila, Philippines. They love

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Dora Brown lives in Brighton and writes poetry.

Elinor Gray is a co-founder of the Retired Beekeepers. She graduated in - ography; her thesis considers the representation of nineteenth century wom-

Fyodor Pavlov illustrator, comic artist and smut peddler. Pavlov’s work can be found in Zelda Ouroboros Cycle, Queerotica: A Comics Anthology, and more. Fyodor has - duced him to the Russian translations of the stories and the Vasilyi Livanov at www.fyodorpavlov.com.

Ili is currently studying set and costume design at a hungarian university. She is fuelled by dark jazz, hot tea and the secret and desperate glimpses between Martin Freeman’s victorian mustache, she is available at waltzingdetective. tumblr.com or @slowbees on twitter.

James C. O’Leary is a long-time Sherlockian and the current editor of The currently is still a twentieth-century white American male heterosexual, but doing the best he can within such limitations.

Katie studies English Literature and French at the University of Sussex, does a bit of art, and can be said to enjoy the occasional detective story. She can be found as apidologist on tumblr and twitter.

Liz is an engineer by day and a fan by night. She co-founded GridLOCK

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Maia Kobabe recently graduated from California College of the Arts with an MFA in Comics. More of Maia’s work can be found online at redgoldsparks. tumblr.com.

Quentin Broughall lives in Dublin, where he has recently completed a - sian.

Smriti “Meow” Prabhat is currently in India and if she ever manages - cent fanverses, and for berating her about her work, you can drop her a mes- sage at watsons.tumblr.com.

Shirley Carlton is a Dutch biologist who runs two johnlock blogs, prettyre- alisticjohnlockfanart.tumblr.com and prettyamazingjohnlockaus.tumblr.com and can be found on AO3 under ShirleyCarlton.

Tweedisgood: - session. Tweed is a former historian who went to the same university as Sher- the Other Place, disagrees. Reader, writer, parent, social worker. Not always in the right order.

Violsva has studied ancient civilizations and literature, and is currently pur- - olsva.tumblr.com.

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Afterword

Practical Handbook of Bee Culture with some Observa- Stions upon the Segregation of the Queen, “the fruit of my leisured ease, the mag- num opus of my latter years!” We hope to continue to publish this Handbook, but we can only do it with your help. Submissions are always open, and the Handbook essays, poetry, scripts, radio plays, visual art... anything you could print out the upcoming issue. The Handbook is in black and white and while we accept the rest of the content. Also, please keep all submissions under a PG-13 rat- ing. Exploration of gender and sexuality is encouraged but we can’t publish graphic sex or violence. If you have any questions about, suggestions for, or comments on the publication, get in touch! We look forward to hearing from you.

Tenthusiasts’ group and we want to extend an invitation to members of - ied, and we hope you will join us for our next Sunday mid-month meeting! To Retired Beekeepers of Sussex), subscribe to our Tumblr (retiredbeekeepers. tumblr.com), follow us on Twitter (@SussexBees), or email us at retiredbee- [email protected].

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List of Canonical Abbrevations

as reduced by Jay Finley Christ (1947)

ABBE : The Adventure of the Abbey Grange BERY : The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet BLAC : The Adventure of Black Peter BLAN : The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier BLUE : The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle BOSC : The Boscombe Valley Mystery BRUC : The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans CARD : The Adventure of the Cardboard Box COPP : The Adventure of the Copper Beeches CREE : The Adventure of the Creeping Man CROO : The Adventure of the Crooked Man DANC : The Adventure of the Dancing Men DEVI : The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot DYIN : The Adventure of the Dying Detective ENGR : The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb FINA : The Adventure of the Final Problem FIVE : The Five Orange Pips GLOR : The Adventure of the Gloria Scott GOLD : The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez GREE : The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter IDEN : A Case of Identity ILLU : The Adventure of the Illustrious Client LADY : The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax LION : The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane MAZA : The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone MISS : The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter MUSG : The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual

66 The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture No. 2, Winter 2015 NAVA : The Adventure of the Naval Treaty NOBL : The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor NORW : The Adventure of the Norwood Builder PRIO : The Adventure of the Priory School REDC : The Adventure of the Red Circle REIG : The Adventure of the Reigate Squire RESI : The Adventure of the Resident Patient RETI : The Adventure of the Retired Colourman SCAN : A Scandal in Bohemia SECO : The Adventure of the Second Stain SIGN : The Sign of Four SILV : The Adventure of Silver Blaze SIXN : The Adventure of the Six Napoleons SOLI : The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist SPEC : The Adventure of the Speckled Band STOC : The Adventure of the Stockbroker’s Clerk STUD : A Study in Scarlet SUSS : The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire 3GAB : The Adventure of the Three Gables 3GAR : The Adventure of the Three Garridebs 3STU : The Adventure of the Three Students TWIS : The Man with the Twisted Lip VALL : The Valley of Fear VEIL : The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger WIST : The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge YELL : The Adventure of the Yellow Face