This week's Interesting Interview is with one of the young faces of this hobby that is popping up everywhere, Madeline Quinones! If you've been on Zoom in the past few years, I guarantee you've heard her laugh because she is at so many meetings and is always so happy to be around fellow Sherlockians. Madeline is also the co-host of the podcast, Dynamics of a Podcast, focusing on Professor Moriarty. She also hosts her own interview segment on the Watsonian Weekly podcast, Wondering About Watson.
But Madeline probably isn't best known for her Sherlockian output; it's her personality that makes her a favorite to so many people. I'm going to bet that if you already know her, a smile came to your face when you saw her name because Madeline is genuinely one of the nicest and happiest Sherlockians out there. Her love for this hobby and everyone in it comes across with every interaction you have with her. She sometimes feels like she's overflowing with energy and love, which is clear in her answers below. So settle in and enjoy this Interesting Interview with Madeline Quinones!
How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?
I am always so fascinated by how people answer this question. I think that, recently, Ray Wilcockson gave the most beautiful response I’ve ever seen, and my own isn’t half as pretty.
I think that a Sherlockian is someone who loves Sherlock Holmes (which I believe is the same thing as being a “fan” of Sherlock Holmes). I’ve said this before, and I think that it’s been… somewhat misunderstood before, so now I’m going to clarify. When I say “love,” I don’t mean “like.” Love is both emotion and action, and that’s exactly what I mean by loving Sherlock Holmes. Whether it’s feeling compelled to talk about some aspect of the characters or the stories for hours, or needing to write stories or essays, to make art, to collect whatever bits and bobs you can, or even to podcast! Being a fan is inherently affection driving action, and that’s what a Sherlockian is.
(And I’m going to note really quickly that I was blissfully unaware for ten years that this was even a point of contention! I knew the term Sherlockian early on, and always assumed it simply meant “fan of Sherlock Holmes” the way that Trekkie means “fan of Star Trek.” I was absolutely blindsided by how hot this topic could get.)
How did you become a Sherlockian?
Fanfiction, actually! I had a friend whose fics I could never read and understand because they were for fandoms I didn’t know. Then one day, I saw that she’d written some Sherlock Holmes stories, and I thought, “Oh, hey! At least I know who Sherlock Holmes is, and I’ve read a couple of the stories!” I dove in, and they were all 100-word vignettes about the friendship between Holmes and Watson. That sparked my interest in the way that nothing had before: that people could be interested not just in the mysteries but also the friendship.
I was a lonely and freshly twenty-year-old myself, and I needed more! I read one or two more fics from other writers, and then figured that the original stories were probably old enough to be available on Project Gutenberg (little did I know!). I started reading A Study in Scarlet, and it hooked me right away, gave me the emotional way in to these characters that I hadn’t gotten from reading “Red-headed League” and “Norwood Builder” in school. I quickly became obsessed. It wasn’t long until I was writing my own Sherlockian fanfiction, before I’d even gotten all the way through the Canon! (Affection driving action!)
What is your profession and does that affect how you enjoy being a Sherlockian?
I’m a graphic designer, and I currently work for a design agency (this is not necessarily something that a lot of design majors end up doing!). Moving from my last job to this one a couple of years ago was a serious shift in pay for me, enough to allow me to actually do some traveling, that thing I couldn’t afford before, and go to fun events and hang out with amazing people! So, in a practical sense, there’s that.
But also, having a basic design skillset is a great thing to have if you’re involved with fandom, and Sherlockiana is no exception! I really enjoy getting to make things like programs and certificates (the Montague Street Incorrigibles certificate is my type-nerdy handiwork!), and recently I made a bunch of Moriarty-themed bookmarks that have the info for my podcast in the back. They were a hit at 221B Con (and I still have quite a few left, so ask me when you see me if you want one!).
What is your favorite canonical story?
I have a whole list, which is apparently ever evolving (an old list had me wondering about past me’s choices). I’m not gonna give the whole current list. I’m just going to say: A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four. They’re a duology, in the way none of the other stories are except for “Final Problem”/“Empty House.” STUD introduces you to the characters in a way that’s fun and engaging before you hit the part that everybody gripes about, and SIGN not only has Mary (whom I adore), but it’s also the most consistently open and honest Watson is with us. As of “A Scandal in Bohemia,” he starts editing; he really starts spin doctoring. And he’ll have his moments when he lets us get closer again, but it’s never quite like SIGN.
Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?
I have thought so much about this question! And it’s hard for me to say, because I am super interested in many other Sherlockians, past and present! But you know what? I think that American fans of the Great Detective don’t need a lot of help to be known, and ditto for Canadian and British fans. But you get outside of these particular countries, and even though other countries around the world have plenty of fans (whether they identify as Sherlockian, Holmesian, or something else entirely!), they don’t get known so much, I think.
Claire Daines is a Holmesian in New Zealand, and she’s a terrific writer, both of fiction and non-fiction. She’s also my best friend, but, full disclosure: we got to be friends in the nerdiest way possible, by being fans of each other’s stories! Out of all the many stories she’s written, she hasn’t published many traditionally, but check her out on MX Publishing, and also Belanger Books’ Sherlock Holmes: Further Adventures in the Realms of H.G. Wells Volume One. And she wrote a terrific essay for the Monstrum Opus of Sherlock Holmes, wherein Holmes himself may have become a bit monstrous. Her writing won’t be for everyone — if you prefer stories which are more strictly pastiches of the Canon, the emotional realism in her stories might not be to your taste. But that is her strength: she can weave a tale that’s gut-wrenching and heartbreaking, and also funny and moving. To pair that kind of storytelling with Holmes and Watson? To me, that’s just… *chef’s kiss*.
What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?
Okay, this might sound really weird coming from somebody as young as me, both as a person and as a Sherlockian, but I’m really interested, not so much the writings about the writings, but the people who wrote those writings! My favorite episodes of IHOSE are the ones that delve into the history of Sherlockiana, and the personal histories of individual Sherlockians. I’ve listened to all the available recordings in the BSI oral history project. It’s easier for me to listen rather than read, because I can listen to things while I work, so I haven’t read as much as I’d like to. But I follow Ray Betzner’s Studies in Starrett, I treasure my copy of the BSJ Christmas Annual that devoted itself to the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, and one of my more recent acquisitions is the BSI Press’s Aboriginals. (Clearly, in a parallel universe, I’m a historian or an anthropologist.)
All the Sherlockians who have come before us? They’re not just names on a page — they lived. They lived and laughed and loved and mourned. They had lives beyond Baker Street, and yet they also brought a richness from their personal lives to Sherlockiana. I remember the first time I heard a recording of William S. Baring-Gould, captured at a BSI dinner, wherein he was reading all the negative reviews of Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, and clearly thoroughly enjoying himself. Suddenly, he wasn’t just a name I’d seen referenced, well, everywhere — he was real, he was human, he had a sense of humor… And I don’t think I’ve been the same since.
Dynamics of a Podcast shines the light on Professor Moriarty. What makes him such an interesting character to you?
Here’s the funny thing: I barely noticed him at first! I had to start writing him to realize that I needed to do better than a Saturday morning cartoon villain. So I went back to the Canon and started paying attention, and what I found — and what I didn’t find — fascinated me. He’s a prodigy! He may or may not still be teaching — is that something that he cares about? Is his criminal empire really about order, about maths? (Yes, yes, it is.)
I love me a super-intelligent bad guy. (See: Grand Admiral Thrawn.)
Beyond all this, Moriarty is very specifically drawn as a dark mirror to Sherlock Holmes, even down to sharing some basic physical traits. He’s the Hyde to Holmes’s Jekyll (or the Lore to Holmes’s Data? no, don’t give me that look). Doyle clearly figured that he had to send a Sherlock Holmes to kill Sherlock Holmes. At the end of the day, Holmes is still my favorite character; he’s still the one I’m in this for. And his shadow is this maths professor about whom we know just enough to want to know more. As with any other aspect of the Canon, all the blanks that Doyle left for us are part of the fun!
As someone who also interviews fellow Sherlockians on The Watsonian Weekly, what do you think makes Sherlockians so interesting?
I think I kind of already answered this one above by accident! People, to me, are inherently interesting — whether famous and fabulously wealthy or poor and obscure, we all have rich inner lives. Throw a love of Sherlock Holmes into the mix, and you have people from many ethnicities, worldviews, and walks of life who all speak a language each other understands, and how can that be anything other than fascinating?
And what I’ve come to discover, and I’m sure you yourself already know, is that it’s very interesting to see where people’s answers are similar (Mary is a surprisingly popular candidate for “second best friend”), and where they’re different (all the actors and actresses who could play Watson whom I hadn’t even thought of!), and why they give the answers they do!
What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?
You are probably getting the idea by now that I cannot give succinct, concise answers. Physically impossible!
To be honest, I think the only books that would appeal to all Sherlockians are the reference works like Jack Tracy’s The Encyclopedia Sherlockiana and Les Klinger’s The New Annotated. If you go beyond that, you’re diving into personal interest and taste, which is tricky. I figure there are currently four broad categories of Sherlockian writing: pastiche, the writings about the writings, the writings about the writings about the writings, and reference work. And the longer I hang around the social side of Sherlockian, the more I’m sure that very few people are interested in all four categories.
That being said… Corporals, Colonels and Commissionaires from BSI Press is awesome, because it really dives into all sorts of things pertaining to the British military in the nineteenth century. Super helpful if you’re looking to know more about this particular through-line in the Canon!
Also… the manuscript books. All of them. Even the stories you don’t care for. The scans of the manuscript pages, and all the amazing articles accompanying them, totally make it worth it — and they’re beautiful.
Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?
That’s… tricky. What I hope is that by the time 2033 rolls around, we’ll have gone into another wave of Sherlockiana. Right now, we’re certainly somewhere in the trough.
I’m worried that we’re going to lose a lot of scion societies over the next ten to twenty years. There aren’t enough young Sherlockians getting involved in what I call the “social side” of the fandom, and I think that’s a multilayered problem. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s real life getting in the way and making us too busy — as Baron Gruner himself said, if a man has a hobby, he follows it up! I think that probably a big problem is the big problem that’s consistently plagued Millennials and is now hurting Gen Z too: on the whole, we don’t make living wages. As crazy as my personal life has been, I desperately wanted all through my twenties to be able to make it to things like 221B Con and the BSI Weekend, and last year was the first year I could afford to do that!
I think too that another problem is something of an image problem. I think that the idea that “traditional” Sherlockians are stuffy, snobby, and gatekeep-y is… frustratingly persistent. (And it’s not just young Sherlockians who have this idea in their heads — a certain beloved author has admitted that she took a long time to get involved because she was afraid of things like failing knowledge tests!) I know now that while some Sherlockians like that do exist, many, many more really are the loveliest people you’d ever want to meet, and I’m so glad I know them.
But outside the social sphere of Sherlockiana… there’s a fandom full of younger adults and even teens whose fandom experience is solely online. Younger Sherlockians are out there, en masse (just look at 221B Con!), even in this time of the trough of the wave, and they’re as passionate and analytical and creative as anyone could ask for.
The enduring question so far is: are they going to stay there, or will enough of them make the jump from internet to in-person to make a difference? I made that jump — you actually helped, Rob, and I’m very grateful for that! Zoom really helped me in a big way, though, and I do think that continued use of Zoom moving forward will be important.
Beyond that, I don’t know. Uncertain, the future is! (It’s Star Wars month, I had to!)
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