Reading Miss Fisher: More love of tropes
Some time ago I wrote a post about my love of tropes, these curious images or bits or motifs that can be said to connect a whole body of stories (either within the Miss Fisher universe or, more often, universally). They allow us as readers to recognize the trope and watch the fic writer do a “take” on something specific -- using and calibrating the trope for some specific goal, perhaps inverting it or making fun of it, or with it. In a way, the trope points to the status of the fic as something created and crafted, making us (at least me) want to see how it is done, and think about why. As I am not done with them, now it is time for some More love of tropes!
Recently, I was struck by two fics that are delightful in their uses of tropes -- the way they write them, and the way they allow them to be the reason for a first kiss between Phryne and Jack (something I find a Truly Meaningful part of the fanfiction :-)). Incidentally, although they use different tropes, they also have another one in common -- the theme/trope of communication, or more specifically Phryne and Jack understanding each other and communicating without talking.
In @promisesarepiecrust‘s “Speechless" (2016, 1 chapter), the trope is ‘kissing in the rain’. This is a lovely trope, and it is delightfully executed. Phryne and Jack are huddling in a storm, taking shelter by a cliff so that they are only rained upon a little bit. The storm and thunder are so loud that the one cannot hear what the other is saying, but their eyes and eyebrows are eloquent enough to form a perfect dialogue and reach an understanding they never seemed to be able to do with spoken words:
As the last light faded, and through the distortions from the storm, in an odd land of fantasy and unreality, he asked her a question with his eyes, brows raised, a beautiful and penetrating stare: Is this something, Phryne? Is this meaningful? She understood, and nodded slowly. She lowered her eyes and then looked back up at him, willing him also to understand: I can only be myself. He too nodded, slowly.
The other fic is @jeneenp/CollingwoodGirl’s “The Night Within Us” (2016, 1 chapter) that is toying with the trope ‘trapped in a small space together’ -- a trope with so much potential, and used deliciousy in many fics. On a stake-out, Phryne and Jack need to hide in a too small cupboard and be completely quiet. First, this fact brings out Phryne’s childhood experiences of being locked in a cupboard. Second, it brings out the writer’s craft of a sentence like ”It isn’t long before he realizes how foolish it is to believe anyone could know more about corporeal geometry than Miss Fisher”. Third, it brings out the very clever idea of them resorting to communicate by Morse code. This is a feat that combines dialogue with corporeality; brain with body; and work with feelings and sensuousness in a quite exquisite way:
Their hands tingle with the words better left unspoken between them. Fingers fly over flesh. It is the most intimate conversation he has had in years. Sensing the danger, he moves to reassert possession of his hand. She does not oblige. The coded phrases are suddenly more complicated -- and not merely in execution.
The two stories become two examples of extraordinary communication as the road to a first, long overdue, passionate kiss.
Another extraordinary communication, that has formed a lovely kind of “internal” Miss Fisher fanfiction trope, is the psychic abilities of Mr Butler. This is alluded to in so many fics and in very lovely ways: Mr Butler being exactly at the right place when he is needed -- knowing all, seeing all, but not telling about it. He can in a sense be seen as a personification of Wardlow and its comfort and hospitability, which makes his near-psychic abilities make even more sense. The same is also true if one sees him as a kind of extension of Phryne herself – the person who carries out the practicalities of her caring side. One story has taken the notion of the omniscient and omnipresent Mr B beyond a comment or a paragraph, and made it the centre of the story, @heavyheadedgal’s “The Gift” (2016, 1 chapter). This is such a a lovely character study that focuses on Tobias Butler and gives us glimpses of his life, and explains the knowledgeable side of him as a kind of second sight or a “knowing”, very useful in “the controlled chaos that was the world of Miss Fisher":
It wasn’t until he came to work for Miss Fisher that his talent finally seemed to have a practical application. Given her eccentric lifestyle, his ability to anticipate her needs was immensely valuable.
It is a sweet story, and I really like how it takes this MFMM trope into consideration, turning it over and fleshing it out.
Another story -- that could perhaps too be categorised within this ‘tropes and communication’ theme -- is Lenore’s “New Mutiny” (1 chapter, 2014), that digs into the character of Jack via the very entertaining trope of sudden amnesia. Through a head injury (of course very fitting for poor Jack), he is thrown back to the time of the war, not remembering anyone he’s met or anything of what has happened since then. He doesn't want to admit that something is wrong, and instead tries to detect and puzzle out where his life has taken him (and simultaneaously solving a crime).
This gives the writer ample opportunities to show his reactions to things a second time around. Apart from being amusing and providing tension in the story, the amnesia turns into a metaphorical time travel, where a younger Jack gets to watch an older Jack’s life, and it is lovely to follow his reactions and him getting to know Phryne a second time -- “Jack marvels at this woman who apparently feels perfectly at ease arranging both his investigation and his life” -- which also means that the reader gets to know him more. The fic also gives an imaginative and interesting version of “the first kiss”, as the younger Jack misinterprets the signals. He believes he has detected that this is “what they are to each other”, which he soon realizes was a mistake, and which makes for a lovely awkward moment.
-- I am still not done with tropes, but will stop for now. --
(Images from here.)