Cultural Impact of Sherlock Holmes

When someone mentions the occupation of detective, a single image usually comes to mind, a man wearing a cape and deerstalker, holding a magnifying glass and smoking a pipe. This entire image can be contributed to one character: Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is considered by many to be the greatest detective to ever exist, even if he only exists in the pages of books and on movie and television screens. It is impossible to escape the influence of Holmes. Countless references are made to him in all types of media and he is used as an inspiration to may more fictional characters we have all grown to love. The cultural impact of Sherlock Holmes has spread to more than just fiction; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s
And while Sherlockians were present in during the 20th century, the Sherlock fandom got a new wind in 2010 thanks to the BBC hit television show Sherlock, a retelling of the much loved stories in a modern setting. This newly revived Sherlock fandom took the Internet by storm with the sheer intensity it had for the show and the original canon (Laredo). The season two finale showed Holmes leaping to his apparent death after being framed as a fake by his arch nemesis Moriarty, only to be shown in the final few seconds of the episode watch John Watson walk away from his grave in mourning, the fandom erupted. People wrote dozens of theories about how the sleuth could have survived and even started an entire Internet and flier campaign about the detective’s supposedly fraudulent deductions appropriately titled the “I believe in Sherlock Holmes” campaign (Laredo). Without the original Holmes fandom, there would be much less Sherlock Holmes in this world, whether that be the original stories themselves, the much loved television and movie adaption and even fan fiction. Today, fandom communities on the Internet can be found everywhere and about anything from Sherlock Holmes himself to My Little Pony. Fandom fosters a community on the Internet that allows individuals to explore their interests with others without having to physically know them. While not the most academic source, tumblr user