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Playing the Game

18 Nov 08 9:36AM

First of all, I want to welcome all of the Agatha Christie fans who are visiting this blog. I hope that you enjoy my essays, and that what I write helps to enhance your appreciation for the works of Agatha Christie.

I intend to produce several different styles of essays. Some of what I write will be critical essays, evaluating some of Christie’s work or certain adaptations of her stories. Others may be factual essays about real-life crimes that may have affected Christie’s work, or true anecdotes about Christie’s impact on fans.

Other essays that I write will be examples of a form of scholarship (or more aptly, pseudoscholarship) known as “The Game.” The term “The Game” is thought to have been coined decades ago by fans of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These fans, who frequently refer to themselves as “the Baker Street Irregulars,” study the Sherlock Holmes mysteries under a number of presumptions. First of all, the Irregulars write under the pretense of believing that Sherlock Holmes was a real person, along with all of the other characters in the stories. Doctor Watson actually recorded Holmes’s cases, and Doyle was simply a nice man who acted as Watson’s literary agent.

Under these presumptions, Sherlockian scholars study the Holmes mysteries (known as The Canon, or The Sacred Writings) and attempt to solve unanswered questions arising from the text. In such scholarship, nothing is to be treated as a mistake: there are no errors or contradictions in Watson’s accounts, only clues. For example, in one story, Watson’s wife Mary refers to him as “James,” when in fact the good doctor’s first name is repeatedly stated to be “John.” Now, someone who wasn’t playing The Game might contend that Doyle simply succumbed to a slip of the pen, but players of The Game will have none of this! Some suggest that Mrs. Watson couldn’t bear to call her husband by his real first name after being persecuted by a man named Jonathan in The Sign of Four. One Sherlockian has argued that the “James” slip-up proves that Mrs. Watson was having an affair with Professor James Moriarty, and she accidentally called her husband by her lover’s name! The famed mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers has propounded another, more innocent theory, that has since been accepted by many Sherlockians. Sayers points out that Dr. Watson’s middle initial was “H” and argues that his full middle name was “Hamish,” which is Scotch for “James.” For reasons of her own, Sayers argues, Mary Watson decided to refer to her beloved husband by his Anglicized middle name.

Other Game essays pick up on clues in the text that are not fully elaborated upon in the Canon. What were Holmes and Watson’s childhoods like? What were the facts of certain cases that were mentioned but never recounted, such as the adventure of the Giant Rat of Sumatra? Late in the series, Watson’s wife is referred to long after Mary Watson is dead. Did the widowed doctor marry again? The details of this marriage are hotly debated. Holmes once stated that he came from a family of country squires, which would mean that his eldest brother ought to be living a comfortable life on the family estate. Yet the Canon only references one of Holmes’ siblings, his elder brother Mycroft, a sedentary political genius who rarely leaves the Diogenes Club in London. If the Holmes family had not been denuded of its land, could there be an older, never-mentioned third brother out in the country? Lots of Holmesians think that’s possible.

Now, I wish to play “The Game” with Agatha Christie’s work. I’m not sure what term should be used to describe Christie fans like myself, although I would like to propose the term “The St. Mary Mead Irregulars,” in honor of the hometown of Miss Marple. To cite an example of a potential topic of investigation, in Cards on the Table Major Despard’s first name is given as John. When Despard (now promoted to Colonel) appears again in The Pale Horse, he is referred to as Hugh. The Agatha Christie website has attempted to resolve this discrepancy on its list of characters by calling him “John Hugh Despard,” apparently his wife, like Mrs. Watson, may have preferred to address him by his middle name. Of course, a creative Christie scholar could come up with all sorts of other explanations.

There are plenty of questions arising from the Christie Canon that fans can investigate. What were the true facts of the oft-mentioned case of the soapboiler who poisoned his wife in order to marry his blonde secretary, a murder that Poirot investigated as a police officer in Belgium? Who is the father of Countess Vera Rossakoff’s son? What weapon was used to crush the skull of General John MacArthur? Where does Sleeping Murder, written during World War Two, but only published posthumously, fit into the Miss Marple chronology?

I intend to address questions like these in my essays. So please, join me in playing The Game, as I explore Christie’s work through the creative lens of pseudoscholarship!

4 comments

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4 comments

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VRossa 19 Jan 09 at 7:34a.m.

I love the concept of the St Mary Mead Irregulars it is so whimisical and so very English. I look forward to reading your essays. I agree with you Hobbit who gives a 'tinker's toot' about the discrepancies in Agatha Christie's novels but that is precisely the point!

theharinaprodigyxxsasukexx 02 Jan 09 at 2:42a.m.

I'm also new to the site and I was wondering if there is anything on the two websites, this one and http://www.agathachristiegame.com/ , about helping people out. Because I am VERY stuck and I have no clue what to do next. I LOVE mystery games, especially Nancy Drew, and they have a website to help you out throughout the game. So I was wondering if I could find some help for the game. I would put this in a blog...but I can't seem to figure out how to make one. If you could help me...I would REALLY appreciate it. Thank you for your help. I love your essays, by the way. And also...could you include how to write a new blog post. I'm having difficulties. Thank you.

Mary_Russel 26 Nov 08 at 4:42a.m.

I'm new to this site. Hope this is appropriate. 'The Game' sounds like lovely fun. I'm in.

hobbit 18 Nov 08 at 3:54p.m.

Mr Chan, I look forward to reading your essays with relish; though I have one or two reservations about this 'game' you keep talking about. Isn't what you've described just taking minor discrepancies in an author's work and immersing them in over-blown conspiracy theories? That is to say, who really gives a tinker's toot why certain names are different in different novels? Surely the focus of a reader should be more centred on the themes and the characterisation, rather than the tying together of irrelevant details?

Perhaps I am judging the game a little too quickly, though. Having not personally read all of the novels (and having read most of them many years ago) I shall enjoy being reminded of them from a different viewpoint, no doubt. I look forward to reading more from you...!

Hobbit