The Fifth Principle in Brief—Holmes' Anonymity

New readers of this blog should begin with the first post—"Introducing Miller's Five Principles of Pastiche"—at the bottom here and work their way up.

My fifth principle of my pastiche writing might seem counter-productive to both writers and readers who are in tune with the commercial Sherlock Holmes market: 

"Insofar as Holmes was never recognized or identified by the principal characters of Book One, early on I decided to take that idea of anonymity and run with it, increasing his anonymity with each successive book, thereby intensifying the irony, so that by Book Three even some die-hard Holmes gamers might not even recognize him."

What would be the purpose of this strategy? In my mind, this ploy adds another level of mystery to my novels. "Hey wait a minute," a reader might ask,  "if this is a Sherlock Holmes novel, where is Sherlock Holmes?" Nonetheless, any Holmes fan with a modicum of background on the detective should, in Books One and Two, at least, home in on him fast enough.  

Book Three might be a bit more difficult for those for whom a modicum is not sufficient. A tiny bit of special knowledge is here necessary, but even that is spelled out in black and white in front of God and everybody at the start of the book; however, human nature being what it is, I imagine there will be those who will wonder about Holmes even after they've snapped the book shut.

This may be a good spot to summarize possible reactions to my five principles, and then to ask the inevitable question.  There is no doubt that eyebrows will raise when these principles are seriously considered. Why on earth would a sane writer saddle his Holmes stories with:

•  Characters and scenes from a author long dead and remembered only by specialists and  a handful of enthusiasts?

•  Voluminous literary claptrap that no normal person could possibly care about?

•  An emphasis on the non-linear, non-cause-and-effect philosophical issue of the nature of Fate?

•  A thematic point of view that takes notions of causality to a level that infer participation in human affairs by some sort of cosmic... "participator."

•   A hero who is not even identifiable in the normal scheme of things? 

The natural question, then, is: Why have I gone out of my way to write three Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels that may be somewhat more difficult to negotiate than the thousands of sons and daughters of The Seven-Percent Solution that have been published in the last 40+ years?

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And here is my answer:  Umberto Eco, author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, said, "It's only publishers and some journalists who believe that people want simple things. People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged." At heart, then, my "Holmes Behind the Veil" trilogy is a kind of literary set of Russian nesting dolls or, if you prefer, a bookish Rubik's cube designed for those who enjoy sifting through exfoliates, that is to say, through the wide variety, a virtual panoply, of millennia- and centuries-old lost 
manuscripts that I have serendipitously unearthed and carefully annotated over 30 years. I am thrilled to say that my instincts have been right to the degree that there are more than enough readers who "get" what I've done, and who thoroughly enjoy what I've done, to make my heart sing.

In conclusion, I post here a passage that can be found in the right sidebar of this blog as a sort of addendum to this whole blog, as it is 100% pertinent to this post about Holmes' anonymity on one hand as well as the series theme "Holmes Behind the Veil" on the other. I call it "The Back Cover Blurb That Wasn't":

The three novels comprising MX Publishing’s new Sherlock Holmes series Holmes Behind the Veil differ from most other Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels in that the character of Holmes is muted rather than prominent. Not once in the 900 pages that form the three novels is Sherlock Holmes ever recognized or mentioned by the principal characters—only in occasional asides, a few speculative remarks from the editor. That in itself would be sufficient cause to use the phrase “behind the veil” with respect to this series. But, beyond this obvious aspect, the three stories deal with themes long considered mystical and transcendent throughout the fifty or a hundred thousand years of Homo sapiens existence on this planet, themes very often considered so other-worldly that they are historically set at arms length, distanced from the prosaic and perceived as “behind the veil,” themes such a death, time, reality, divinity, fate, holiness, and God, as well as myths, legends, and folklore, all of which are fundamental to the essence, or fabric, of this Holmes Behind the Veil series.
 
The first book in the series has already been released and is available from all good bookstores including Amazon USA,  Barnes and Noble, and Amazon UK. 

Next: In my next post, #6, I’ll provide some insight into the writing and purpose of Book One of the "Holmes Behind the Veil" trilogy: Sherlock Holmes on the Roof of the World.

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