The online world of Sherlock Holmes

Goodness, Sherlock Holmes tweets a lot, or at least the staffer(s) at Hartswood Films who is pretending to be Holmes, tweets a lot.

It is a clever conceit; after all Sherlock Holmes as portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the BBC series Sherlock uses smart phones and computers and relies on the Internet the way the “real” Holmes relied on the telegraph and the agony column. At first I was a little taken aback by the idea of the misanthropic/misogynist Holmes embracing social media but it makes perfect sense. Holmes would prefer any technology that allowed him to be social without actually having to meet anyone.

OK, that was an unnecessarily snarky line. After all, as Conan Doyle wrote him, Holmes has a wide circle of acquaintances and a charm about him that has seduced any number of housemaids and housekeepers. So he doesn’t necessarily want the world to “keep its distance!” After all, if you live in London, you must to certain extent embrace humanity.

And the modern-day Holmes still indulges in a little vanity. His monographs becomes his website The Science of Deduction. Even his friend Watson has a blog and just like any two guys who share a flat, rather than talk to one another, they trade messages on the blog.

But unlike the real Holmes, we immediately know a lot more about his family and friends and co-workers. I don’t know how many of these twitter accounts are actually maintained by the people they profess to be. After all, it may all be the work of Holmes’ nemesis Moriarty.

All joking aside, I believe the only “real” websites are The Science of Deduction and Watson’s and Molly Harper’s blogs. Most of the twitter accounts proclaim they are not run by the BBC, which may just be a way of saying that it’s the work of the company that produces the series.