Babsmd- Hopeless Romantic

Ask a Librarian – Miss Fisher style

The Wardlow Collection is open and we are happy to receive asks! 

We may not know everything there is to know about the Miss Fisher fanfic, but together we have a reasonable knowledge – and we are not afraid to search!

Have you read a fic that you only remember a few details about – you know it had a kidnapping in it and Jack wrote on a wall, but that’s all – and you’re dying to find it again?*

Do you wonder if there are fics in a special trope, like do these detectives ever get stuck in a small space together so we can watch Jack squirm?**

Do you have a super tricky question about Miss Fisher fanfic, or are you a new Phryne fan trying to find out what exists in the library?

Do you wonder if there are especially fluffy fics to read for when you need to use fics as a blanket to wrap yourself in and forget the real world? 

Or are you a seeker of angst and tricky situations for your favourite detectives?

Ask a librarian! We’ll try to answer asks as fast as possible, usually within three days; trickier questions may take longer.

* That would be LemmingDancer’s “Perchance to Dream”.

** Yes. Yes, they do. 

Posted 13 July 2018.

I meant to post this yesterday and didn’t quite manage, but as of this morning  posting for the third Phryne Ficathon has begun!

With forty writers, some who wrote multi-chapter or multiple fics, the previous schedule of posting one fic a day would give us approximately three months of fics. And while I love you all very much, there is a pesky thing known as real life that wasn’t particularly fond of that idea.

So each week I will be posting two fics per day, Monday through Saturday. This will still be approximately seven weeks of fics. We are in for an absolutely delightful start to 2018!

Happy New Year !

I thought I’d just continue with the calendar but this time include the many different characters in the show, with Jack, of course!

Come in and get comfortable, take your hat off!

It’s hard to believe that it is already December! Nearly a whole year of tropey fantasticness. 179 stories are already in the collection. Rather than create a new trope for December, since the holiday season is often busy, I am pleased to announce…

TROPE AMNESTY

That’s right! I have reopened all previous collections. So if you have a fic idea that you didn’t quite get around to, December is your month

A reminder of our eleven lucky tropes:

January: Soulmates (The (Soul) Mating Game) February: Miscommunication Chaos (Let’s Misunderstand) March: Bottle Episode (Close Quarters ) April: Body Swap (Phreaky Phrackday) May: Hurt/Comfort (Everybody Hurts ) June: Undercover Detectives (Of All the Gin Joints ) July: Across Space and Time (Out of Space and Time) August: The Dulcinea Effect (How Sweet It Is) September: Rumours and Gossip (Don’t Believe the Rumours) October: Breaking the Fourth Wall (Have You Read This?) November: Unexpected Marriage (Did I Say I Do?)

Hey Jack, mind your leaning – you’re breaking the fourth wall!

The October trope might have made one or two of the writers a little nervous. “Breaking the fourth wall” is a real challenge, and results in stories that are highly self-aware of their status as stories and constructions, and also often happily explore the lines between fantasy and reality. That sure does put some demands on the writer. Perhaps also on the reader, in order to get suck into a highly self-aware fictional world like that.

I am very fond of this kind of stories – they are often both amusing and food for thought. They make some kind of short-circuit between narrative levels in a story that usually are separated. There are different ways of doing this. The most elaborate one, where the story and our reality are either affecting each other or even becoming the same thing, can be a real jolt to the readers’ sensibilities, in a pleasurable way. The character may for example become aware that s/he is being written, or that things change in her/his surroundings because of words, or odd things may start to happen in the writer’s real world. Other possibilities keep more clearly within the story world, for example by allowing a story within the story to comment on it or interact with it. As we will see in this overview, many different techniques have been used this month. There is potential for both horror, sadness and existential crisis in this type of writing, but it’s very reasonable that the main strand is humour (here is the full collection).

Breaking the fourth wall has of course happened before in this fandom. One clever example is @221aubrina’s creation “The Library”, where specimens of Jack that have been damaged in fanfic are returned and fixed by the staff – a very fun comment on a tendency to put Jack through a lot in the stories. Another is QuailiTea’s crossover with the universe of Thursday Next, “The Next Adventure”, which to its very nature is super metafictive, commenting on the characters both as persons and as figures in a text at the same time. A third is @jackphryne4eva‘s “Cafe Blend”, the story of a reader sitting in a café reading Miss Fisher fic while perhaps meeting Jack. 

For this overview, I will start with fics that don’t break the wall so radically, but keep the break logically inside the fictional universe, and then move on to fics that are more typically meta fictive and aware of being literary constructions, to stories where the writers/readers’ world somehow gets blended with the character’s world.

Hold on, is this story about me? And is that Jack… naked?

First, stories that keep the fictional world intact. I’ll start with @omgimsarahtoo, “Art Imitates Life”, where Phryne is hired to search for a young woman, Ophelia Ogilvy. Ophelia turns out to be obsessed with the famous lady detective and her inspector, and has collected newspaper pictures of them and also writes stories about them. Basically, she’s a writer of Real Person Fanfiction in 1920s Melbourne, and her fanart has striking similarities to tumblr posts. This is incredibly fun and gives us this wonderful feeling of how, even if the technology has changed, human nature has not. Of course, Phryne is surprised by this, but she is also the kind of woman to not lash out against it but to more cautiously advice the young girl; Ophelia is of course very embarrassed that Phryne found out. There are many wonderful comments that are possible to extend to the fic writers, like when Phryne has read through the scrapbook and Jack arrives:

“Jack’s voice always sent a shiver down Phryne’s spine, but right now, it affected her even more. She’d spent the afternoon reading through Ophelia Ogilvy’s scrapbook, and she was feeling rather… stimulated.”

Ophelia has, for example, written about Phryne’s and Jack’s first meeting, even if she has embellished it with emotions they perhaps didn’t really have. “All I felt for you that first day was annoyance,” as Jack mutters. To top it all up, Phryne even seduces Jack with tales from the scrapbook.

“Is it different from what we usually do?” Jack’s hands unfastened the button at her hip and then slid inside the back of her pajama trousers’ waistband, pushing them down her thighs. Phryne kicked her feet carefully to help him remove them, then promptly wound her legs around his again.

“Not as imaginative as we tend to be,” she said on a gasp as he pushed up her pajama top and covered her breast with his mouth.

And Phryne, realizing Ophelia Ogilvy finds Jack attractive, thinks  – rather cheekily directed to all the fans – that “It was just too bad that Ophelia would never know just how weak her imaginings were compared to the real thing.”

It was an unexpected surprise to wake up this morning to discover that the entire works of the previous two ficathons were deleted. I was, on a personal level, devastated–by the loss of comments on my own fics, but even more by all the wonderful fics that have been taken away. I have been told that this was an error that occured while Sassasam, the previous ficathon administrator, was deleting her own works.

I had scheduled a ficathon reminder post for Sunday, celebrating the end of the Kickstarter (just over a day and a half left!) and marking the “Two months until fics are due” milestone. I am jumping this forward now to reassure all ficathon participants that this is an error that cannot be repeated–future ficathons organised by myself will be posted using an account separate to my personal one, so even if there is a reason to delete my account in the future, your fics will not be among them. I am also looking into the logistics of posting and then removing the Ficathon account from the work completely, leaving only the original writer.

In the spirit of preserving history and in making it easy to find the fics in the future (I foresee me leaving a lot of new comments on old fics), I invite everyone who has had a ficathon fic from previous exchanges deleted to add their works to the open collection Found Family for Ficathon Orphans (MFMMFicExchange).

Alright all lovely fandom people – I want to see your pens glow and your computers burn of excitement as you take on 

The MFMM Bonus October Challenge!

We had a few days of low time when people got confused about whether this was not appropriate, but now we know that Every Cloud is happy about it, so instead of cancelling let’s do it! 

This is for celebrating the success of the Miss Fisher the movie kickstarter so far and for further spreading – if there are people that still haven’t seen the kickstarter, there are still two full days to go, please join us in showing how much we long for more Miss Fisher and support this show! (also, there are tote bags). 

This is the challenge: Within the month of October, write a fic that includes this dialogue:

“We need to get warm.” “At the South Pole they recommend skin to skin contact…”

Add it to the open collection “We need to get warm  (MFMMBonusOctober)“ on AO3. I took away the names, so you can choose freely which MFMM character is saying what, and in what circumstance. The fic can be any length, any genre, any style – just use the prompt in some way and have fun!

And if you write within the coming two days – please feel free to add info about the kickstarter in the notes of the fic.

1. Done it ages ago

2. Did it 5 minutes ago

3. Doing it now!

What say you, my fellow fans? Let’s make this happen!

1. Done it ages ago

2. Did it 5 minutes ago

3. Doing it now!

What say you, my fellow fans? Let’s make this happen!

1. Done it ages ago

2. Did it 5 minutes ago

3. Doing it now!

What say you, my fellow fans? Let’s make this happen!

Kind people have sent me various images of Nathan’s article in Gardening Australia (magazine is on its way!!) I thought those who don’t have access would like to read it so I have put them together and transcribed it.

I have hidden it under the read below for those who have ordered a mag. but here are a couple of photos from the article - Courtesy of Nathan Page.

“In terms of costume, the permanent people in Phryne’s life change their style and wardrobe very little throughout the series because Phryne changes so much.  This is quite deliberate and it gives stability to Phryne’s world”

Detective Inspector Jack Robinson

“Unlike Phryne, Jack rarely changes his clothes.  He’s invariably seen in his official police role and almost always wearing his three-piece suit, which along with his hat, have become iconic for this character.

His dark-hued suits were individually tailored and the fit is impeccable.  He is perfectly groomed like the military officer he once was -  it’s his duty to wear his suit correctly, rather than his vanity.  The overall effect is dashing but unselfconscious”

Trench: Wool gabardine  Suit: Pure wool   Shirt: Silk rayon   Tie: Original 20s rayon 

“Jack’s suits are very pragmatic and proper for a Detective Inspector.  This traditional late 1920′s suit was made specifically for Jack, however the trench coat took a long time to source.

Inside Jack’s trench, the faded red silk lining hints at an underside to Jack that we never quite see. It’s this detail that suggests a little bit of a twist to him.”

Source: Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Costume Exhibition Catalogue (S1 and S2)

                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yes. 100% yes [my costume helps me get into character]. I think once you’re in and you’ve got the hair and make-up done and your outfit on, that’s pretty much stepping into that world…. I only get three suits that are made up for me, so they’re beautifully fitted” - Nathan Page

Quote source: MFMM Costume Exhibition Catalogue S3

“I’m not sure, Sir. How do we know if she actually wants to be rescued?”

The August trope for MFMM turned out – just like the earlier ones – to instigate a lot of really good fic, and also very different fic. August’s trope was “the Dulcinea effect”, which means “the compulsion many male heroes have to champion, quest for, or die for girls they met five minutes ago”; the name is taken from the woman Don Quixote in Cervantes’s novel strives to be a champion for (more here).

This is a fun trope, but it’s also very ironic – making fun of these self-appointed and not seldom selfish and self-aggrandizing male champions. This poses specific problems for a fictional universe like Miss Fisher’s, where most men aren’t depicted as stupid like that, and where the male lead is behaving in what could be said to be the opposite of the dulcinea effect: very rational, not seldom actually saving people, but also hardly ever managing to save the leading lady, because the lady is so good at saving herself – which he accepts. 

This means that just like the soulmate trope of January, the idea and the fictional universe collide in interesting ways, asking for twists and tweaks and thorough considerations. The imagination of the fanfic writers of course found ways to use the trope, and it is turned around and peaked at from different angles (here is the full collection). 

I’m trying to follow some kind of logic in this post by following who is the dulcineaing person, and who is being dulcinead – not that these words exist, but I hope you catch my drift.

“She was not in distress – she had climbed up here for the view.” Art by @kidnthehall​.

First there are fics that use well-known story templates to completely subvert the idea of the dulcinea trope – a subversion that fits perfectly with the fictional universe of Miss Fisher.

Here we find @ollyjayonline, @kidnthehall & @solitarycyclistadventures, “Love and Other Fairy Tales”. This is a short, beautifully crafted fic, with few words and with images, rather like a picture book – a picture book for adults. It explores who Phryne is and what she stands for, and shows this as a contrast to the common fairy tale idea of a woman needing a man to come to her rescue. The fic is very succinct, and has one-liners about Phryne like “She could do everything herself – but good company was always welcome” and “She was not in distress – she had climbed up here for the view." 

A second fairy tale to the trope is @loopyhoopyfrood, “The Prince Who Said No”, where Phryne tells a lovely bedtime story about a woman who dances with everyone except one prince, who all the time tells her no, and he’s the one she falls for. The prince is so far from dulcineaing that he doesn’t even pay her much attention, which triggers her curiosity. It’s a sweet and well narrated fairy tale, with lovely reactions from Dot and Hugh’s daughter, and in the end Jack peeks into the room and helps out with the telling at just the right time:

“Did they have a big wedding?” “They didn’t have any wedding.” “They didn’t get married?” “No.” “But why not?” “Because they didn’t need to.” A familiar voice spoke up from across the room, and both storyteller and audience turned to see Jack, leaning against the doorway with a soft smile on his face.

A third fic that also stays on this meta level is @longlineoftvdetectives, “A Hero’s Journey”, an amusing scene where a man is pitching a movie to Phryne in the hopes of her financing it. Both Phryne and Dot find some fault in the story’s depiction of the hero, that after an absence of three days is coming to rescue a woman he doesn’t even know:

“But three days,” Dot repeated, her voice lowered this time as she leaned closer to Phryne to speak to her directly. “I think the damsel may have saved herself by now.” “In that case, the hero will be quite disappointed,” Phryne answered wryly. (…) “I don’t think so, Miss,” Dot replied, her voice now barely above a whisper. “I’ve seen quite a lot of movies. I’m certain the hero will find a more agreeable damsel in the next town.” 

Another fic that is primarily resisting the dulcinea trope is @longlineoftvdetectives, “Of Mothers and Men and Rescues”. This fic gives us two scenes where Phryne doesn’t need to be rescued, and also isn’t, although the set up and the conversations touch on the possibility of it – and rather like in the first fairy tale mentioned, she doesn’t need to be rescued, but she doesn’t mind company either. It’s lovely done, with a lot of mirroring between the two scenes, and both of them including Phryne hiding away from her mother, one time right before and one time right after the show’s time frame. 

In some fics, the person going into dulcinea mode is Phryne herself. 

Quailitea, “Rain and Whiskey”, is a lovely and very poignant drabble of Phryne’s introspection about her need to save people, ever since Janey: “And all the rescuing she’d done since, proof that she had always tried, dammit, that it had only been because she was too small and too weak then, and now that she was strong, it would never happen again.” It is beautiful, and in all its shortness it captures a lot.

Also in @whopooh, “Separate Spheres”, it is Phryne that has an urge to be the saviour, in this case in a more light-hearted situation – she wants to save Jack from social embarrassment. But it turns out that Jack doesn’t need her knight in shiny dress-stint, since he already has a date to the event they’re invited to, which instead causes Phryne embarrassment. On a gala night for Raymond’s film, she has to navigate the insight that Jack has friends, friends she had no idea existed, and even female friends. Much as it rattles her, it also piques her interest and of course she befriends this unexpected woman. 

Finally, Phryne in the dulcinea role is also in @zannadubs23, “Axiom Tilt”, where Phryne wants to play saviour to a young nurse. The fic has only started so I can’t predict where it’s going, but it has several very interesting parts: Phryne trying to cope with a case she starts to feel very personal about, wanting very much to help out, and Phryne being unhappy about Jack’s too thorough adjustability. I know there will be plot twists coming, but I can’t predict in what way.

The next type of fic is where someone wants to save Phryne. 

In @rithebard, “Interference”, a random, stuck up man at a party wants to rescue Phryne – from the social disaster of being with Jack. This does not end well for the unsuspecting man, whom Phryne sets straight on the matter, and in quite a physical way. In @longlineoftvdetectives, “Locked Up”, we instead see an aftermath of a similar event: a random man did try to save (well, “save”), Phryne and the result of this is that Phryne has been arrested for assault. The way Jack gets to know about this, from Dot not really breaking any confidences but hinting very thoroughly, is much fun, as is the way Jack reacts to the fact that he gets news via Dot:

“But you’ve heard from her?” “Yes.” “Of course,” he stated, a slight edge of jealously joining his tone as he leaped to a certain conclusion from Dot’s evasiveness. “As long as she’s well.” Jack pivoted to duck back into his office before Dot’s voice stopped him again. “Did you have plans with Miss Fisher, Inspector?” “No,” he answered. “Not as such.”

Jack does not in his turn try to save Phryne per se, but he sure makes her arrest more comfortable and social.

In @ollyjayonline’s, “Evil in the Shadows”, the dulcinea trope is even more surprisingly developed, by the use of a crossover with another fictional universe. Here it is Spike, the vampire from Buffy the vampire slayer, who wants to get to Phryne – he wants to understand, threaten, in a way devour her. Phryne is holding her fort beautifully, and her strength here is her bravery and loyalty. The layers of the trope are several – Phryne rejects the idea of a man coming for her rescue: “This statement made her angry. “There most assuredly is a Jack but I don’t need him to rescue me.” and finally, in the end, Spike turns around from threat to instead wanting to save her.

In @firesign23, “One Night In Berlin”, set during WWII, Jack seems to randomly want to save a woman, which means he seems to have become a dulcinea man. But it turns out that he knows what he’s doing, as the woman might not be a stranger after all, and might also count on him being there:

“I wasn’t aware you were in town,” he said conversationally. “Just arrived,” the woman replied. “I do hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

And then, interestingly enough, finally a fic actually managed to turn Jack into a proper dulcinea knight! This happens in @firesign23’s short fic “In An Instant”. We’re here not talking about the world-weary, experienced Jack we know, but about young Jack, wanting to save Rosie. This is a lovely fic about young constable Jack who is in love with Rosie, but socially below her, and so they will never be – until she is in need of help and he offers. It’s a tale about how life can change in an instant – as the title says – and this choice is followed up by another similar one, to go to war. Knowing how their marriage turned out later gives the fic an extra twinge of melancholy, and it’s a beautiful exploration of one way their relationship could have started.

Two fics that put the dulcinea reaction on other characters completely are Quailitea, “Hero in Love”, a very sweet short fic where Hugh wants to take on the whole world for his newborn daughter, and @flashofthefuse “About a Girl” that dives into Jane’s school life seen through one of her school mates, Fin, who has a crush on her. It’s a great exploration into both the boy’s mind and into how school could be for Jane, with mean classmates and a tendency to get swallowed up by reading. There are so many lovely details here, of Fin finding out a way to help Jane against bullies without her even noticing, of Fin seeing two grown up men assaulting Jane and trying to help her – but it turns out they are Bert and Cec and only joking with her. And there’s a lovely scene where Cec really sees and understands the boy, and also gives him some really good advice about how to treat a girl.

I’ll round up this overview with three fics that are leaning heavily towards the lighthearted and fun in their use of the trope.

In Sassasam/@phrynesboudoir, “Save Me”, there really is a rescue, Jack saving Phryne – although it turns out to be more of a sartorial rescue, and mostly being about her dignity:

“Oh come on Miss Fisher. Are you saying you need me to save you?” he chuckled. “I thought there was no problem you couldn’t overcome.” “Jack,” she said a little more forcefully. “I need your help.” “You could ask nicely,” he replied. “Do you want me to beg?” she asked sharply. “This may never happen again,” he replied.

Also in @geenee27, “In Over Her Head”, set at the beach, there is an amusing play with the trope. A girl very much wishing for Jack, who is out in the water swimming, to rescue her decides to feign distress in the water. But when she does get rescued it is from someone else’s strong arms instead – and that is someone who completely sees through her act. Perhaps Phryne can also be said to be overly protective of Jack in relation to other women, which would be another version of the knightly persuasion, this time in a bathing suit.

Finally, @scruggzi, “Braving the Storm”, is a very fulfilling fluffy story about Jack, at City South on a Christmas eve in full storm, facing the realisation he needs to take care of two kittens. There is such powerful adorableness in Jack trying to keep up his dignity although the kittens totally melt his heart:

The assembled day shift was therefore treated to the sight of their DI handing out assignments and issuing orders with his usual taciturn efficiency, but with one fluffy kitten in hand – which had rolled on his back in order to have his tummy tickled – and another perched on the Inspector’s shoulder, staring the junior officers down with all the ferocity of a warrior queen. It was a sight no-one at City South who saw it would ever forget, and yet no-one could quite bring themselves to question it.

There are also lovely parallels to when he himself, one year earlier, was let in by Phryne from a similar storm. Jack decides to call them Cleopatra and Marc Antony and bring them back to Wardlow, to a surprised and sleepy Phryne. The next day, as the kittens meet the household, the poking at his dignity continues: "Apparently realising quite suddenly that he had in fact been talking out loud to a kitten in a room full of people, the Inspector’s ears turned a beautifully festive shade of red and he cleared his throat, glowering at Phryne in the futile hope that she would let his pre-caffeinated comment go unremarked.”

As we can see, the explorations of the trope has really gone in all directions, and I am extra pleased with that this month, as I thought it might perhaps be a bit of a difficult trope – but it turned out to be just as good at generating fics as the others have been.