The Sherlockian Game Gets a Word in the Dictionary

by Scott Monty December 05, 2024

“we wrestled for it all” [VALL]

For over a century, Sherlockians have "played the game," a tradition of applying a range of literary criticism to the Sherlock Holmes stories.

The tradition formally began with a paper delivered by Ronald A. Knox at Oxford in 1911 titled "Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes." This was well covered in Ronald Knox and Sherlock Holmes: The Origin of Sherlockian Studies by Michael J. Crowe (Gasogene Books, 2011).

Other Sherlockian scholars followed, notably H.W. Bell, Vincent Starrett, S.C. Roberts, Christopher Morley, and others. In 1946, Dorothy L. Sayers picked up the ball and ran with it in her essays in Unpopular Opinions. Readers and collectors can still find moderately-priced editions on Abebooks.

In the Foreword, Sayers explained the game:

"The game of applying the methods of the "Higher Criticism" to the Sherlock Holmes canon was begun, many years ago, by Monsignor Ronald Knox, with the aim of showing that, by those methods, one could disintegrate a modern classic as speciously as a certain school of critics have endeavoured to disintegrate the Bible. Since then, the thing has become a hobby among a select set of jesters here and in America. The rule of the game is that it must be played as solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord's: the slightest touch of extravagance or burlesque ruins the atmosphere."

It took over 100 years and a different medium and topic, but the concept has been recognized by the dictionary.

In late 2023, Merriam-Webster officially added "kayfabe" to the dictionary.

kay·fabe [kā-ˌfāb]
1 : the tacit agreement between professional wrestlers and their fans to pretend that overtly staged wrestling events, stories, characters, etc., are genuine
broadly : tacit agreement to behave as if something is real, sincere, or genuine when it is not
2 : the playacting involved in maintaining kayfabe

So when someone asks you what this whole Sherlockian thing is about, you can tell them that it's a literary kayfabe.

If they laugh at you, just put them in a full nelson.