Reading Miss Fisher: The distilled fanfiction (in honour of Gaslightgallows’ 300th drabble)
This post I am doing in honour of @gaslightgallows reaching number 300 in her series ”You asked for it” (2015-), defined by her as ”drabbles or somewhat-longer-than-drabbles”. That is an incredible number to achieve, and in this post I want to talk about a kind of distilled fanfic – fanfic that is incarnating the very idea of fanfiction – which is how I see this collection of drabbles. The drabbles in “You asked for it” are diversified, inventive, and suggestive, fun, sad, sweet, and surprising. They are teasing out moments or ideas, giving the outlines of so many possible storylines.
There are many aspects of this ‘distilled fanfic’, and I will try to capture a few (six) of them here.
First, here the possibilities of the ”what if” are taken to their fullest, and the question of ”what if” is not asked once or twice but all the time, forming the core of the fic’s very existence. Second, being based on prompts from other fans, this means they are all the time written into a community, as a dialogue between the author’s ideas of the situations and characters, and the prompters’ ideas and wishes.
Third, in being short, the drabbles can suggest and imply without having to take the ideas all the way to a conclusion, again relying on the collective (this time as readers) to fully explore the direction of the ”what if”. Fourth, the dialogue doesn’t end with the prompt. From responses and new prompts that are sometimes dependent on previous drabbles, some storylines are explored further, and taken together they then expand beyond the drabble’s stance of mostly suggesting.
Fifth, the direction of the drabbles are not exclusive, which means that several mutually incompatible storylines exist happily in the same hive. Sixth, this variety and mutiplicity gives a wonderful hotbed for many alternative storylines, directions, and point of views; one important part of this is exploring different sexualities. Some of the minor and supporting characters also become main protagonists in their own storylines.
In the 300 drabbles, there are so many possibilities being explored, and there is no chance I could discuss even a fraction of them here (I want to reread all the fics before I write about them, but here I had to accept defeat). The work is like its own playful universe, with all these fragments or facets sparkling together. As the default is always the show’s world, the drabbles could probably be explained in some elaborate pattern where the writer goes away in one direction and then comes back to touch the centre again before going away on another excursion. There is sweetness and banter and fluff as well as heartbreak and loss, fun times and sexy times, deep character exploration as well as lightness, absurdity and clever oneliners. One of the facets that has been most surprising and special to me is the drabbles about bisexual Jack, which I cannot completely wrap my head around, but I love the way that it challenges me. Drabbles that are much more obviously in my comfort zone are studies of different friendships, the teasing between Phryne and Jack or Phryne and Mac, the angst and fear of loss, and the exploration of Mac’s or Rosie’s characters. I am intrigued by the three part story that forms the latest drabbles (298-300) that explore a falling out of Phryne and Jack – though I am posting this now before number 300 is up, so I don’t know how it will end.
As there are so many chapters, I am going to ask you all to help me! I would love it if you wanted to share some thoughts on drabbles you like especially, drabbles that surprised you or did something you hadn’t expected, or drabbles that did exactly what you wished they would.
Another nice example of this openness to possibilities is @youknowmeasj’s (is this the right tumblr I found to tag?) ”Phryne Twiction” (2015, 26 chapters) that combines the idea of openness with the restriction of only using the twitter length, 140 characters, per chapter. This is then a kind of extreme short form of the drabble, and impressively sets up a scene or a situation in only a line or two, whether it be heartbreak, love, or humour. This is one lovely example (”Ubiquitous”):
He was everywhere, his face under every fedora, his long fingers playing every piano. Come after me? -she thought. I brought him with me.
A similar argument can be made also for @omgimsarahtoo’s lovely third chapter of ”Trilogy” (2015, 3 chapters) – even though this is only one story, about the date in "Death Defying Feats”. Here, interlaced with what is happening, Phryne and Jack are daydreaming about what it would be like if the other one made an active move, or if they did it themselves. These imaginings contrast sharply with what is taking place on the surface, and this is an excellent way of making the thoughts even more powerful. In a very short time frame, the story makes use of fanfiction’s openness to possibilities and gives room to several versions of how the romance could finally be consummated.
[images from here]