Ruddy Gore - TV vs Book

While Ruddy Gore is the 7th book about Phryne Fisher, it is the 6th episode of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Like in most cases this far, the plot has been reduced and changed somewhat for the TV adaptation. To be honest, I really do find part of it to benefit the pacing of the story. The theatre felt quite overcrowded in the book and, like I said in my book entry about Ruddy Gore, I did have some problems taking an interest in all the cast and crew. They are all quite egocentric and in love with each other.

I found the best part with the book to be Phryne's date with Lin Chung and the issues it provoked with interracial relationships at the time. This issue was treated by the TV show in the episode of The Green Mill Murder and I was pleasantly surprised to see Phryne contemplating it as much as she did. Same goes for her finding it sad that she is going to lose one of her lover, Dr Mark Fielding,who returns from Flying too High, to the nurse-trained actress Mollie Webb.

Phryne with Bernard Tarrant and Lin Chung

I do love that Phryne is adventurous and reckless and sort of does whatever she wants and does not care about what people think. However, I do find those moments when she gets emotional. Especially in regards to her relations to other people. It keeps her grounded. Makes her human. Even though she only has loose liasons with men, she does care about them. This caring for her lovers is taken out of the TV show almost entirely except for in the case of Lin Chung. (Again on the subject of recurring characters and plots that is evident in the book, but not on the show.) Besides Lin (and Jack Robinson of course), we do not get to see any of her "gentlemen callers" ever again. The case does rattle Phryne in a slightly different way though. When a sand bag falls, Jack saves her and it falls on Gwilym Evans (the actor Dot Williams has a celebrity crush on) instead, killing him. This incident happens in the book too, but in a slightly different way and for different reasons.

'Don't make the mistake of thinking their emotions are all put on. They're real people underneath, just exxaggerated. They talk to me', she observed, 'because I care for them. They call me Mum. The're quivering little things under all that glamour. They're always afraid that no one really loves them, that they're going to fail. But they're addicted to applause.'

~Miss Pomeroy, Ruddy Gore

The ghost of Dorothea Curtis

Even though I do prefer the simplification of the plot in the TV episode in this case, I do find it sad that they have left out one of the central themes of the book: wanting/needing to be seen. I really think this is a basic human instinct. Not that everyone does need to stand on a stage to fulfill it, but I think everyone feels a need to be acknowledged and taken seriously from time to time. The setting of the plot in a theatre and also to a certain extent the apperance of "a ghost" work well to enhance this theme.

'I bet none of you have ever handled stage machinery.'
The murmurs increased.
'Of course not, we're actors, not technicals', said Cameron Armour. 'If I'd wanted to be a tradesman, I wouldn't have done ll that voice training.' Phryne began to understand Mr Brawn's rage and scorn.

~Ruddy Gore

Phryne and Dot

It is not that the show does not deal with this subject. In fact it does so to a larger extent than the books seem to be doing actually. Phryne's employed taxi driver Bert Johnson tells his partner Cecil Yates that he is hopless when it comes to collecting strays in Cocaine Blues which is a trait also true of their employer. Both in the books and in the TV show, Phryne has an ability to really see people who needs it. She cares for them and encourages them to reach their full potential. She does not ever pamper them, which can be seen by the way she treats the female star of the theatre production Leila Esperance in the book.

Finnish author Tove Jansson is considered one of the giants in the children's litterature of the Nordic countries and her works about the Moomins are known worldwide. I have not talked about her before on this blog, because I have long felt a need to reread her books before I do so. However, one of her short stories, Det osynliga barnet (The invisible child) is very much worth mentioning here.

In the short story the character Tooticki brings the girl Ninni to the Moomin family. Ninni has been taken care of by a horrible older lady who did not like her. Because of this, she has lost all her confidence and turned completely invisible and the only way to know she is there is by the sound of the little bell, the lady had put around the girl's neck. Ninni is placed under the care and love of Moominmamma and little by little she becomes visible again.

I feel like there are certain similarities in Moominmamma's treatment of Ninni and how Phryne handles Dot in the TV show. When she first meets the younger woman in Cocaine Blues, Dot is mainly invisible. She works as a maid at the Andrews's house, but you cannot say that she draws much attention to herself. As she comes to work for Phryne however, Dot starts to develope as a person. She finds her confidence and role in life without giving herself away at the same time. And Phryne is there, nudging, caring and encouraging. You can see her become surprised by Dot's strict religious reasonings of the modern world in Cocaine Blues, but she never judge her.

"When I came to work for you, Miss, I was afraid of everything. And you taught me so many things, and you made me brave, and you made me happy."

~ Dot Williams, Death do us part

Dot is quite different in the books. She is much more timid and not as active in Phryne's cases as she is on the TV show. With Phryne's mentoring, TV-Dot starts learning the detective skills and from time to time ends up solving the crimes to a certain extent. In a way I think Dot is the main character who develope most throughout the show. I prefer the more active TV-Dot over the passive book one. The friendship between the two women in the books is just wonderful and they certainly love and respect each other (even so much that Phryne continue to wear the St Christopher medal that Dot gives her before she goes away to the circus in Blood and Circuses). However, I do miss Dot doing her own sleuthing and Phryne teaching her the ways of the detective. She does participate from time to time (like helping Phryne go through all the dressing rooms at the theatre in Ruddy Gore) but it is just not the same and the character does not go through the same evolution in the books as in the TV series.


The image of the cover of Det osynliga barnet, did I borrow from here.

Kerry Greenwood - Ruddy Gore

Ruddy Gore is the 7th book about Phryne Fisher in which Phryne goes to the theatre to watch Ruddigore and celebrate the aviator Bert Hinkler who has flown from Croydon to Darwin.

The Bert Hinkler of the book is probably Herbert John Louis Hinkler the first man to fly solo from England to Australia, reducing the flight record of 28 days to 15. This all happened in February 1928, which had me somewhat confused about the timeline of the books, so I did a little bit of sleuthing through the books I have already read as to what dates are mentioned.

• Cocaine Blues: No dates mentioned at all as far as I could discern. (If you have noticed any indication as to any dates, please tell me in a comment.) 
• Flying too High: Amelia McNaughton mentions that her father wanted to marry her off like it was unbelieveable to happen in 1928. The date for her brother Bill's trial is set to 17th August 1928 as well and there is a mention of it being a winter's day, which for Australia would mean a day somewhere between June and August. 
•  Murder on the Ballarat Train: The murder of Anne Henderson took place on the night of 21th June 1928 and at the end of May that same year, Bobby Matthew's Megatherium Trust crasched, ruining Anne Henderson.
• Death at Victoria Dock: Bert and Cec are invited to dinner and mention that there will be a strike on 10th September and Phryne says it is the 1st September that day. Like Amelia, Phryne cannot believe someone was shooting at her because it is 1928.  
• The Green Mill Murder: No year is mentioned, but it seems to be set in October which is mentioned as Phryne is flying up to the mountains to meet Victor Freeman. 
• Blood and Circuses: The date is stated already in the beginning as Mr Christopher's body is found at the boarding house in which he lives. Jack Robinson, Constable Harris and Sergeant Grossmith also talks about the society getting harder and colder in 1928, so a police strike would not be so easy as it had been before. Also, when Phryne feels like her persona is slipping back to its primitive roots, her contemporary identity is refered to as "1928 Phryne". 
• The dates in Ruddy Gore are somewhat diffuse. 1928 is mentioned and based on what the boy Herbert Cowl (I wonder if he is named Herbert because of the other references to Hinkler.) who becomes Phryne's assistent tells her, it sounds like it would be a little before christmas. Phryne also tells the theatre manager Bernard Tarrant that she has had enough performance for a while and tells Dot Williams that this is not going to be like her time at the circus and she will come home every night. Phryne also have the St Christopher medal that Dot gave to her as she was leaving for the circus. So the book is definitely supposed to be set after Blood and Circuses.

Based on the preface of the book, there was a production of Ruddigore in Melbourne in 1928 (but it did not include any murderers). After a lot of hard googling I have not been able to deduce if there where a gala performance of the play for Hinkler for real and books on 1920's theatre in Australia has turned out to be pretty rare here in Sweden. Therefore my thoughts about the timeline will remain what it is. They might just have waited with celebrating Hinkler until November/December?

Anyway, Phryne and her friend Bunji Ross (one of those recurring characters of the books that I have talked about before) are at the theatre to celebrate Bert Hinkler's triumph. However, the performance is cut short when one of the main actors and then his understudy are poisoned. Phryne starts to investigate, but the main suspect seems to be the ghost of the late actress Dorothea Curtis who died playing Ruddigore in London thirty years prior to the events in Ruddy Gore.

'Could you call up a spirit for me? I've been trying to find one lately and she is very difficult to locate.'

~Phryne Fisher, Ruddy Gore

It is also in this book that we meet the character Lin Chung for the first time. On the way to the theatre, Phryne and Bunji helps him and his grandmother out of a fight and they are cleaned up at the Lins's house before they are off to the theatre. Throughout the entire book, Chinese men are following Phryne and she seems a bit worried about it.

Not only is the timeline between the books a bit confusing, but at the theatre history seems to be repeating itself with resemblances to thirty years prior. Phryne is also thinking how her life has turned into a comic opera. There are a lot of references back to Dorothea and Phryne is sure that her death was not an accident.

Hitherto I have liked each book about Phryne Fisher more and more, but this is a break in that trend. I prefer both Blood and Circuses and The Green Mill Murder over this one. I liked the plot and the theatre milieu and the world around the production of Ruddigore, but even though it was depicted just as thoroughly as the circus in Blood and Circuses which I really enjoyed, I thought this a bit tiresome. I also had problems connecting to all the people at the theatre. Everyone seemed to be quite full of themselves and they were all in love with each other and also left each other heartbroken. It was like a drama series on TV. Adding the Chinese and it got a bit messy. I still liked the book just fine. It was a fun read and it did not put me off the books.

Kerry Greenwood - Blood and Circuses

I think this is my favourite among the
art deco-inspired covers.

Blood and Circuses is the sixth installment in the book series about Phryne Fisher by Kerry Greenwood and they just keeps getting better and better. The plot surrounds Farrell´s Circus where a lot of things seem to have gone wrong lately. The latest "mishappening" is the murder of the circus artist Mr Christopher. Some old friends from the carnival following the circus, turn up at Phryne's door to have her investigate what is really going on over at Farrell's. Phryne therefore decides to go under cover as the trick rider Fern Williams.

The circus was vast and bewildering. The number of people who might want to destroy it was unknown and it seemed impossible to keep tabs on everyone. Phryne was concious of being alone in shabby clothes and completely ignorant. You've bitten of more than you can chew this time Phryne, she thought. You'll never make any sense out of this. 
'To understand a circus', she added alound, stepping sideways to avoid a passing camel, 'you obviously have to be born in a trunk.'
'Too right', agreed Dulcie.

At the same time, detective inspector Jack Robinson starts looking into the murder of Mr Christopher together with sergeant Grossmith and constable Tommy Harris. The latter is saved by Amelia Parkes, one of the women living at the same boarding house as Mr Christopher. She has a dark past and is therefore accused of the murder almoste immediately. But things is never as it seems at first.

There really is a lot to talk about here. Not least identity issues due to the victim being androgyne. But since my thoughts about identities to a great proportion involves Phryne to a great extent, I have decided to leave it for my TV vs Book post about Blood and Circuses.

Essie is very beautiful and all, but why not
use a picture from the TV episode with
Phryne dressed as Fern?

Instead, for this entry, I have decided to talk about the, sort of new world, Phryne gets herself into when she goes under cover as the trick rider Fern.

The title is an sort of paraphrase of an expression coined by the Roman poet Decimus Junius Juvenalis panem et circenses (Bread and Circuses - Bröd och skådespel in Swedish). He was not pleased with the decadence of the Roman Empire claiming the politicians kept the population at bay by feeding and entertaining them. It was during this time that emperor Vespasian made the Colosseum, which probably added more argument to Juvenalis proclaim that the distribution of cereals, the spectacles and the gladiator games all was just a trick to have the lower classes thinking about other things than social issues.

The circus in Kerry Greenwood's book however is the modern type which originated in 18th century London where Philip Astley held shows which mainly featured riders doing advanced tricks on horses.

Interestingly, Astley had discovered that a circular shaped stage (the ring) had several benefits. Not only could you get a bigger audience because they were able to surround the stage in stead of just sitting on one side of it. It also proved to help with the horse tricks. The ring helped the horses to gain speed because they could keep going around and around instead of having to slow down to turn every once in a while. This created the centripetal force which helped the riders to stay on.

In Sweden, the history of the circus phenomena can only be traced back to the early 1900s, but there had been travelling menageries before that. Among the artists were often families belonging to the Norwegian and  Swedish Travellers.

I really enjoyed how elaborative Greenwood's description of the circus was. Instead of just writing that  Dulcie shows Phryne/Fern the circus, we are actually getting to follow them around, meeting the people and the animals there.

The circus is described as a society in its own with its own social hierarchy: circus folks-carnies-gypsies*. Among the circus folks there are also a smaller social hierarchy with flyers being seen as the nobility and the others pretty much as simple peasants according to the dwarf* Mr Burton.

'You were at Oxford University?' squeaked Phryne. 'Then what are you doing in Farrell's'
'Where else could my... deformities be valuable? Everywhere else I am a freak. Here I am still a freak but I am a performer. Circuses are the only places where dwarves can get some respect.'

The fact that people who deviated from one or many of the societal norms were more or less forced to be performers at the circus are actually rather terrible. I had encounter it before in history books and in other forms of popular culture, for example Phantom of the Opera, but I still feel terrified by the view on humanity that society had.

I think the Phryne Fisher books just keeps getting better and better. It had a slow, somewhat boring start, but then it really hit of and even though I sort of figured out who did what somewhere in the middle, it did not really matter. And I love that Phryne has a friend who's an archaeologist.

The photo of the Essie Davis cover of the book was borrowed here.
*I know it is preferable to use other terms than these, but they were the ones used during the 1920's which is probably the reason why Kerry Greenwood 

The Green Mill Murder - TV vs Book

Phryne

The Green Mill Murder is one of my favourite episodes of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and also turned out to be one of my favourite out of the Phryne Fisher books I have read so far. There are some differences in the plot between the two versions that I intend to talk about here. 
The TV adaptation is loaded with different social topics like interracial marriages and homosexuality. The murder also takes a more central role in the plot there than in the book. The same method is used for the killing of Leonard Stevens (Bernard Stevens in the book. - Seriously, what is up with all the changing of names between the media?!), but things might not have turned out as it was intended in the book. The fact that it also was pretty risky considering how many people could have got in the way is also acknowledged there.

Jack: "I don't know who has the more fanciful imagination. Rodgers for coming up with it or you for working it out."
Phryne: "Jack! Me, obviously!" 

Nerine

The character Nerineis much more awsome in the TV episode where she is already married to Ben Rodgerswhile in the book, she waits for her lost husband to die before commiting herself to him. 

Hugh Collins och Dot William's relationship however, is pretty well established in the book while in the TV episode, Hugh tries to master up the courage to ask her to the Firemen and policemen's ball. 

"As far as I'm concerned, everybody should be allowed to marry whomever they choose. Though personally, I'm not the marrying kind."

~Phryne Fisher

Jack Robinson has a rather more laid back role in the book than on TV and he gets a chance to both worry for Phryne and yell at her. At the end of the TV episode we also get our first more clear indication of what is called phrack by the fans when he looks at the mug shots Hugh takes of her. In the book he is introduced as: "Detective Inspector John 'Call me Jack, Miss Fisher, everyone does' Robinson", but I have to say that I do prefer how he is introduced in the TV episode. The camera is intended to be him and we hear him excuse himself as he walks through the crowd at the jazzclub The Green Mill up to Phryne and the dead body of Leonard Stevens. 

Jack excuses himself through the crowd at the Green Mill

While the TV show focuses on social issues, the book seems much more interested in the First world war (called The War to end War) and the effects it still had, ten years after it was finished on the people involved. (They bring up that homosexuality is a crime, but does not dwell as much into it as the TV episode does.) The character of Victor Freeman gets back from the war shell-shocked (Today we call it Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD). The TV series does tackle this subject as well. It is a recurrent theme in many episodes and we meet a lot of characters who suffer from it (There are even small hints that Jack might be one of them.) and Victor Freeman does move out into the wilderness because of it. It just does not deal with it so much in this particular episode. The book is far more thorough and Bert and Cec tell Phryne and Dot over dinner about their experiences during the war in both Gallipoli and Pozières. (There is a very good podcast about the former campaign by the Missed in history website.)

Because everyone else does,
I'm not commenting much on
the clothes. However I just
love this outfit!

Besides Phryne, the most interesting characters in the books are the three remaining members of the Freeman family. In the entry about the book, I did proclaim my love for Victor Freeman. He is a far more complex character in the book than on TV, but even though I find his mother horrible and appalling, I find her interesting. 

On TV they are all old friends of Phryne. Victor is an aviator and used to take Phryne up in his airplane. He also told his brother Charles, he was going to teach him how to fly, but then he left for the war and Charles is now trying to sell his plane off to Phryne. Contrary to his brother, book Charles is far more unpleasant. He is one of those people I talked about in my book entry that does not care for the things he has no understandings of or interest in. This has devastating results for himself.

Book Mrs Freeman is an extremely terrible person who abuses both of her sons. It is even hinted by Bobby Sullivan that she takes Charles to bed with her and Charles says that his mother has taken away his ability to love any other person. Neither her nor her husband (who is dead before the beginning of the book) seem to understand the seriousness of Victor's condition and Mrs Freeman also seems to turn both sons against each other. TV's Adele Freeman (I do not remember and have not been able to find any first name for her in the book.) is far nicer. A mild-tempered woman who seems loving, caring and understanding of both of her sons. Just like in the book, however, she does keep the fact that Victor is alive a secret from Charles.

I find certain similarities between Mrs Freeman and the character of Lydia Andrews in Cocaine Blues. They are both women who never have had the chance to live independently and provide for themselves. Mrs Freeman's husband also rather donated all the money to charity than putting his wife in charge of it. Both Lydia and Mrs Freeman feel they can do business better than their husbands and in the end they feel entitled to "go bad" because of it. This also makes them stand in stark contrast to book Eunice Henderson from Murder on the Ballarat train and not least Phryne herself.


The photo of Phryne in her flapper costume was borrowed here.

Kerry Greenwood - The Green Mill Murder

'Ah dear, this is going to be one of those cases', said Detective Inspector Robinson resignedly. 'They always are when you are involved Miss Fisher.'

First of all I do have a confession to make: I am totally in love with Victor Freeman!

The Green Mill Murder is the 5th book about Phryne Fisher and together with Cocaine Blues probably my favourite one yet. Not really so much for the murder itself, but for the side-plot of Phryne bringing out her flying skills yet again.

Bernard Stevens is mysteriously murdered during a dance competition at the jazz club The Green Mill which Phryne attend with Charles Freeman. He seems to have been stabbed, but there was no one around to see what happened.

I will, as usual, get more into similarities/differences between the TV episode and the book in a later post, but already now I think I need to comment on the hatpin. In the TV episode, Phryne walks straight into the autopsy room. The pathologist is rather appalled by this, proclaiming that he has never seen a woman there before. Jack Robinson, reluctantly, says she can stay if she remains quiet. Phryne's presence however, turns out to be good since she is the only one thinking the murder weapon might be a hatpin. Because she has promised not to utter a word, however, she simply pick out one of her own and puts it above the stabbing wound.

From the TV version of The Green Mill Murder

This is one of my favourite scenes in the TV episode. Therefore I was pleased to see it in the book although in a slightly different setting. In the book Phryne and Jack have a rather different relationship than in the TV series and while he in the TV series still remain reluctant to let her participate in the investigations at this point, he is totally fine and seems to rather enjoy having her around in the book. Therefore the hatpin is brought up when he is at her house, talking to her about the case.

'I can think of one way that it could have been carried out', observed Phryne. 'And I bet you missed it.'
'How?'
'Hatpin', said Phryne shortly. Robinson inspected his fingernails and groped for his pipe.
'Oh lord, a hatpin. Could there be one long enough?'
'Dot? Can you bring down a bunch of the long hatpins?'

The reason why I have always loved the scene in the TV episode and why I love that it is in the book as well is how it shows that Phryne brings something new into Jack's murder investigations. It is obvious that a man, not even someone like Jack, would care to think that the murder weapon might be something as simple and feminine as a hatpin. It is actually a little like Voldemort's biggest flaw in the Harry Potter books. He does not care for the things he has no use for, which gives Harry Potter a great advantage. And the lack of knowledge and understandings about others who are not exactly like themselves is actually also a general problem among people today, not least among Westerners (particularly white men). This leads to an underestimation of others and of knowledge and understandings about the world and humans in general.

The Green Mill Murder has an interesting take on science, which stands in stark contrast to the perspective in Anna Lihammer's book Medan mörkret faller set in Sweden in the middle of the 1930's. In that book, the plots surrounds scientists getting drunk with the power they held in early 20th century Sweden due to the scientific racism institute and the law of compulsory sterilization put in place in 1934. This made some scientists think they were the new deities and could decide over people's life, death and procreation.

In The Green Mill Murders however, the view of science is much more humanistic. Two of the members of the jazz band is connected to medicine. Iris Jordan is a physical culture teacher and Hugh Anderson studies medicine to become a gynaecologist.

'... I think Iris has a point about medicine, you know. We tend to treat the disease, not the whole person. And she gets amazing results. Science isn't everything, though don't tell any of my lecturers that I said so...'

I find this point of view extremely interesting and very true even today. A disease is not an entire person and if we start seeing it like that, we lose grip of the person's identity entirely. It would be like trapping the person inside of the disease.

This is also shown later on in the book when Phryne meets Victor Freeman, a man who returned from the first world war shell-shocked (or with PTSD as we call it today). In the beginning of the book he is depicted as having changed because of the war and that he more or less got mad. However, as Phryne finally finds him, she does not meet a broken man. She meets a man who is rather comfortable living alone in the mountains. His disease prevents him from living with other people. The rest of him is completely lovely, so I am going to repeat myself: I am so in love with Victor Freeman!

One last thing maybe someone can enlighten me on because Iris says it is part of her job and it comes up a lot in English-speaking films, books and TV shows: Why is it called Swedish massage in English? We do not call it that over here in Sweden and I have always wondered how that name came about. What is so Swedish about it?

Gott nytt år! - Happy New Year!



Picture of second cover from here.

Anna Lihammer - Medan mörkret faller

Today is my birthday and even though I have other things I really need to do, I spent all morning reading.

I have long thought about reading the mystery books by Anna Lihammer because people say that they are good and Medan mörkret faller (While the darkness falls) was elected best mystery debute of 2014. Beside, Anna is a colleague of mine, being a Swedish archaeologist and Medan mörkret faller is set in 1934.

The time setting in the 1930's made me draw lots of parallels to the books and TV series about the Honourable Phryne Fisher. Mostly the episode The Blood of Juana the Mad, because Lihammer's book is about somewhat the same themes and is also about a gruesome murders among medical staff in a university milieu.

The story is a reaction to Lihammer gaining the knowledge about skull collections in Sweden, but also the fact that in 1934 the Swedish parliament voted for a law about compulsory sterilization of people who weren't considered fit enough for "carrying on the Swedish race". The law remained in place until 1976.

I really enjoy this book and I think it is very evident that Lihammer is an archaeologist. She dwells into the time period, making it come alive just like in the books/TV series about Phryne Fisher.
She also talks about how human bodies (both alive and dead) are treated like objects. Of course this is something archaeology deals with all the time and which I think we need to discuss more than we do.

Det var inte första gången någon reagerade på hans utseende, det hände ofta och det var inte alltid negativt. Men intresset brukade inte så tydligt göra honom till ett samlingsvärt objekt, uppmätt och liksom klart för sortering (Not for the first time, did someone react to his appearance, it happend often and not always in a negative way. But the interest seldom so obviously made him into a collectable, measured and ready to be sorted.)

~ Anna Lihammer, Medan mörkret faller

The book also reminded me of an episode of History Cold Case. It also dealt with human bodies as collectables and study objects and discovered a story about a child who probably was killed because of human bodies being coveted for the study of medicine. It is a terrible, dark side to the more recent past of Sweden and many other Western countries. Evil done in the name of science. One might wonder how people can become so cold blooded, but I do not think it is so strange somehow. It all has to do with who you define as human.

Den nya tiden. Den moderna tiden. Han undrade hur många av besökarna som skulle passa in där. Och vad som skulle hända med dem som inte gjorde det, för visioner brukade förr eller senare leda till att de som inte kunde uppfylla dem sorterades bort. Ju storslagnare visioner, desto hårdare sortering.  (The new time. The modern time. He wondered how many of the visitors would fit in there. And what would happen to the ones who did not, because visions sooner or later used to led to the ones who could not fulfill them being sorted out. Greater visions led to harder sorting)

~ Anna Lihammer, Medan mörkret faller

The Swedish law of compulsory sterilization is actually one expression of this sorting, scientific racism another and Lihammer builds up the book plot surrounding this question of who are defined as humans. It is dark and gruesome and really horrible. A dark past that is poking on the present still.

Kerry Greenwood - Murder on the Ballarat Train

This, the third book about the Honourable Phryne Fisher (and the last of the three books in my omnibus volume). She and Dot takes a train ride to Ballarat. However, they never reaches their destination. Chloroform are leaking into the wagon making everyone drowsy and an older, wealthy woman is kidnapped and later found dead. Then a teenage girl turns up. She has lost her memory, but Phryne takes her in, calls her Jane and tries to find out what has happened to her. There are some differences to the TV episodes, but I do not want to dwell on those topics here. I save them for a later entry.
The three first of the the Phryne Fisher books worked great, combined into one volume. There are some over-arching themes in them that makes them fit together. There are some overlapping themes in two or all of the books. For example, the pedophilia theme that was introduced in Flying too High is sort of eplored further in the third book. To be fair I have no idea what age it is legal to have sex in Australia either today or during the 1920's, but some of the girls involved seem to be barely teenagers and therefore probably considered too young. That subplot actually also bring me to the second of the recurrent themes from the first three of the books about Phryne Fisher: all three of them somewhat involve women in different types of destructive sexual relationships and how they are affected by them.

In Cocaine Blues there is Lydia Andrews who's sexuality is really destroyed by her husband (probably) forcing himself on her. Amelia McNaughton in Flying too High is molested by her own father (who also seem to have raped her mother from time to time) and her fiancé Paolo says he has sort of drawn her sexuality out of her again. In the same book, there is also an indication to Phryne herself having had bad experiences with sexual relationship and if the books are anything like the TV series, this will be furthered discussed in later ones. In Murder on the Ballarat Train, this theme is very prominent in the subplot with Jane and later on also Gabrielle Hart who has been lured and hypnotized into prostitution (by Henry Burton and Miss Gay?).

All of these female characters react to it somewhat differently. Paolo's comment about how careful and tender he had to be with Amelia, indicates that she too was scared at first. Being treated tenderly by Paolo probably encouraged her to explore her sexuality. Likewise Gabrielle Hart and Jane are sort of hypnotized during the whole thing, but still, they are scared as they wake up from the trance. However, Jane finds Phryne. Dot and the Butlers and Gabrielle Hart has (at least) her father who are there for them. Lydia Andrews is in this sense probably worse off. She seems to have no one there to catch her as she falls. Her parents are on the other side of the world and even though they are apparently worried, they are not there for her in the same sense and she does not seem to confide in them in the same way. It is pretty sad actually when you think about it and might be her motivator for turning "bad".

The first picture are my own, but the other book covers borrowed from here and here. 

Astrid Lindgren - Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus

A good thing about this blog is that I get to revisit some of my old favourites and it has been quite a while since I read this one. The first time I read them I was about 12 and had just seen the newer two films that were made in the 1990's: Kalle Blomkvist - Mästerdetektiven lever farligt (Kalle Blomkvist - the Master Detective Lives Dangerously) (1996) and Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus (Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus) (1997). I have talked about the Kalle Blomkvist books in a couple of other entries to this blog (here and here).

Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus is the third and last of the books about the Master Detective Blomkvist, first published in 1953. Now you might wonder why I did not start with the first book Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist (Master Detective Blomkvist) (1946) or even the second one, Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist lever farligt (1951). To be honest, I got a strong urge to reread it because of the Phryne Fisher book Flying to High. Parts of the plot in that book is similar to the one in Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus. While the first two books deal with a jewel theft and a murder, this one deals with a kidnapping.

Eva-Lotta and Rasmus
(Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus, 1997)

The plot surrounds, as usual, Kalle, Anders and Eva-Lotta. This time, however, they share the spotlight with five year old Rasmus Rasmusson. His father makes tin, but he is not a tinsmith. He is a professor. A professor who does not have a beard, but who drives a motorcycle. He has invented a special type of metal that is said to revolutionize the war industry. Engineer Peters wants that metal and therefore abducts both Rasmus and his father. Kalle, Anders and Eva-Lotta witness the kidnapping and Eva-Lotta climbs into the kidnappers's car so Rasmus will not feel lonely.

Kalle, Eva-Lotta and Rasmus
(Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus, 1997)

I enjoy this kidnapping plot more than I did the one in Flying too High. Even though this is the one mainly aimed towards children (I remember who thrillingly wonderful all the Kalle Blomkvist books were when I was 12.) this is both much darker and more intense. Neither is it as straightforward as the kidnapping plot in Flying to High. One, or more, of Kalle, Anders and Eva-Lotta actually manages to flee multiple times both with and without Rasmus and this is really the main suspence of the book. Are their plan to escape the island where they are trapped before they get captured... again? And they do get captured from time to time.

Battle of the Roses,
(Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus, 1997)

When Kalle, Anders and Eva-Lotta is not out fighting kidnappers, they play a game they call War of the Roses. The three of them being knights of the White Rose (Anders being their leader) and Sixten (the other leader), Benke and Jonte being knights of the Red Rose. Part of me actually wish the plot was just them playing, because it seems so exciting. They fight over this stone figure they call Stormumriken and steal them from each other. However, they also need to give each other clues as to where they have hidden it. These clues are always pretty clever, like when the White Rose have hidden it inside a globe in Sixten's house and says that the red leader needs to go home and look in the bowells of the earth. Rasmus desperately wants to become a White Rose and the others uses that to get him where they need. Rasmus is to little to understand the seriousness of the kidnapping and tends to say a little too much to the kidnappers.

Eva-Lotta with her parents in the older version of
Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist lever farligt, 1957

I think I need to say a couple of words about Eva-Lotta even though I have talked about her before. Eva-Lotta Lisander is the daughter of a baker and, as she say herself, only feminine on Mondays. The rest of the week she is just as fierce a warrior as the boys. I have talked about the masculinizing of female characters in a lot of posts before and EvaLotta definitely is among the girls who are just as feminine as she is masculine. Simply because she is not reduced to her gender. Neither is she a stereotypical "tomboy" nor a "girliegirl". She is a person!

Den frejdiga Eva-Lotta som var en så tapper krigare hade sina ögonblick av kvinnlig svaghet - det hjälpte inte att ledaren försökte få henne att förstå att sådant inte gick an i rosorna krig. Anders och Kalle blev alltid lika häpna och förbryllade över Eva-Lottas beteende, så fort hon kom i närheten av små barn. (The bold Eva-Lotta who was such a fierce warrior had her moments of female weakness - it did not help that the leader tried to get her see that it did not work in the War of the Roses. Anders and Kalle were always surprised and puzzled by Eva-Lotta's behaviour while in close proximity with small children.)

~ Astrid Lindgren, Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus

 I like the quote above from when the White Roses first encounters Rasmus. Even though it talks about motherly feelings as a "female weakness", it is rather ironic and Anders and Kalle's reactions (being surprised and puzled) towards Eva-Lotta's behaviour show how equal they see her.

One thing bothers me a little about Eva-Lotta with the newer films from the 1990's is the fact that they do not seem to get the ambiguity of her character in relation to gender roles. The original illustrations in the books and also the films from the 1940's and 50's (The first Kalle Blomkvist book was actually the first of Astrid Lindgren's books to be made into film in 1947.) does this better in giving her a dress even when she is out playing war with the boys. The films of the 1990's however make her into a boy and gives her boyish clothes in scenes where she is out playing. In those films she only wears a dress when she is supposed to emphasize her female side (like she says herself, she does every Monday).

Last and not least, the White Roses have a code language called Rövarspråket (The Robber's Language), which apparentely was made up by Astrid Lindgren's husband and his friends when they were children. It is quite simple. You double the consonants and put an O in between. For example: Kalle becomes Kokalollole. This language really comes in handy when the White Roses need to tell the others secrets, often in front of the bad men that they are up against. The books (and the films) made the language popular and last christmas someone uploaded a video of a man singing O helga natt (O Holy Night) that I would like to finish this entry with:

Pictures from the second film from 1997 was found here and the one from the older film Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist lever farligt from 1957 was found here.  The cover of Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus did I borrow from here

Kerry Greenwood - Flying too High

'Where do we start, Cec?'
'At the beginning mate,' replied Cec easily. 'At the beginning'.

~Flying too High, Kerry Greenwood

The second of the books about Phryne Fisher was never made into a TV episode and I can somehow see why. Some themes of the book, like Phryne's interest in airplanes and flying (even the chase with the airplane) and the Western interest in Ancient Egypt at the time following the discovery of king Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.

In the book Phryne investigates a murder of a quite terrible man, Mr McNaughton and also the kidnapping of the little girl Candida. The book is not bad per se, but I have to admit that it left me feeling slightly awkward.

One of the kidnappers (Sidney) is a known child-molester (the term pedophile was probably not in use in 1928) and I think this was glossed over a little too much. Just like the fact that Amelia McNaughton had been molestered by her father. I can see the point in making Mr McNaughton abuse his daughter (Amelia's age at the time is never told, but I got a feeling she was quite young.), but there is really no reason to make Sidney a pedophile.

Sidney is kind of a flat character and has little to redeem himself and while the other kidnapper, Mike, gets more of a back story and actually grows and changing during the course of the book, Sidney (and the female kidnapper and Mike's wife Ann) stays pretty much in the same place. This is not exactly unusual when it comes to depiction of pedophilia in popular culture.

Do not get me wrong! Pedophilia is probably as worse as it gets, but the background is often deeply tragic with the pedophile himself having been sexually abused as a child. This is seldom depicted in popular culture wherefore the pedophile more often is treated as a total monster.

One thing I came to think about is how similar Amelia is to Lydia Andrews from Cocaine Blues. Both of them have been sexually abused by men they live in close proximity to. There is also some implications that Phryne also has been in this position.

'I know,' observed Phryne quietly. 'But it happens to a lot of women. You and I are fortunate in that we have found lovers who could coax us out of our shells.'

~Flying too High, Kerry Greenwood

This is a theme that will certainly be explored more later (It is in the TV series.) but it is interesting that Phryne encounters women who she can relate to even though they are still pretty different from her. These three women have different ways of dealing with the abuse. Lydia pretty much "turn to the dark side" becoming the King of Snow, Amelia gets kind of submissive and Phryne gets pretty much totally wild and reckless. Amelia and Phryne have the fortune of encountering different types of men that show them the good side of love and sex, while Lydia is pretty much stuck in a destructive relationship to her husband. Amelia also takes her grief and anger out in painting him.

One thing interesting with the plot of the kidnapping is the similarities to the kidnapping plot of Astrid Lindgren's Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus. A subject I have brought up before. While travelling in the car with her kidnappers, Candida thinks about if it is possible to use "The Grimms fairytale method" (a.k.a. throwing out bread crumbs on the way like Hansel and Gretel) and later on, Phryne uses it in her way to get the rescue team to Candida. Eva-Lotta, the daughter in the books about Kalle Blomkvist is the daughter of a baker and uses the buns she always carries in her pockets and a poster she has snatched to help Kalle and Anders find a way to her, Rasmus and the Professor as they are kidnapped.

Then there is the matter of Mike in Flying too High and Nicke in Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus. They are both rather unwilling kidnappers. In fact, Nicke even gets offended when Eva-Lotta and Rasmus use the term against him. They are both also very lovely towards children (even if Nicke gets fed up with Eva-Lotta from time to time) and helps them flee. The kidnapping plot in Flying too High does not flow as well as the one in Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus. It seems a little more forced and as said above and I wonder if it was necessary to make Sidney a pedophile. Still I cannot help that I still have a soft spot for the book as well. This might be because Phryne is still Phryne though.



Cover of Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus did I borrow from here and the one of the covers of Flying too High can be found here and here