Phryne, Freja and the winter/summer solstice

From Murder in the Dark

According to King Memses's Curse, today is Phryne Fisher's birthday. It is also the winter solstice over here (summer solstice in the southern hemisphere).

Phryne: My birthday party 
Jack: Summer solstice 
Phryne: Help me to celebrate.

~ King Memses's Curse 

The episode is the last one of the first series of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. It tells the story of the solution to the overarching plot line of season 1: The kidnapping and murder of Phryne's little sister Jane. It is also Phryne's last encounter with Murdoch Foyle who was set up kind of like an archenemy to her. His birthday is also the 21st of December. As is the fictive Egyptian pharaoh Memses who Foyle becomes obsessed with, thinking he is the reincarnation of him.

The episode is stuffed with Ancient Egyptian references, sort of the peak of the running Anthony and Cleopatra theme established in Ruddy Gore. Ancient Egypt also pops up as a theme in the Phryne Fisher book Flying to High. Even the song in the last scene, I am sailing on a sunbeam can be said to have Egyptian references since in Egyptian mythology, the sun god Re is said to sail across the sky in a boat. In this entry however, I will move a bit through time and space to Viking Age Scandinavia and talk about a different mythology and a different goddess than the Egyptian ones. Together with the Norse god Odin, she was associated with the (for Scandinavia) winter solstice: Freja. (I have wondered for awhile how much of the cultic activities surrounding Freja at the winter solstice that went into the Lucia celebration.)

Brooch probably depicting Freja.
from Aska, Östergötland, Sweden

I talked about Freja in the entry about Johanne Hildebrandt's book Saga från Valhalla, but there might be need for a recap.

Freja is the most prominent and well-known of the Norse goddesses (who are all often rather vaguely portrayed). She is the sister of Frej and generally rather dismissively described only as his "seductive sister". However this is an extremely reducing epithet of such an important goddess.

She and her brother are mainly fertility deities (In Sweden, Frej has also been called Frö, which is the Swedish word for seed.) and they are also the personifications of female (Freja) and male (Frej) sexuality. Freja also cares for pregnant women.

But there are more aspects than fertility to Freja! When you study her, you realise that she is not only "the love goddess". She is actually but pretty badass. She is also a war goddess and head of the valkyries.

The valkyries are female warrior spirits/deities dressed in chainmail and helmets adorned by swan feathers and with spears ready to fight. They were said to descend on the battle field on the backs of their ethereal horses, but never participate in the wars of mortals. 

Instead their duty is to pick out the fallen warrior and bring them to the afterlife. Traditionally it is said that Odin is the one who wants them in his home Valhalla to train them for the last battle when the world was supposed to end at Ragnarök, but this is only part of the truth. In fact, Freja was just as involved in this as Odin. She and Odin actually split the fallen warriors in between them. And she got to pick first, meaning she took the best warriors to her home, Folkvang.

So what has this got to do with Phryne Fisher? Well, there names sound similar and I think there are a lot of similarities between her and Freja's personalities. Phryne is powerful and independent just like Freja. She is also connected to death through all the murders that occur in close proximity to her (or someone she knows).

Hugh: Miss Fisher's gone on holiday again Sir.
Jack: Hm, anyone dead yet?
Hugh: Only one so far Sir.

~ Murder under the Mistletoe

There is also a tendency among certain viewers to discredit the series and Phryne based solely on Phryne's many sexual encounters with men. (For a discussion about this including comments by Essie Davis who plays her, you can look here.) This is also something she has in common with Freja who was seriously discredited among the male 19th century scholars who set out to interpret the Norse saga material and other written sources to the general public. They had serious problems with a goddess who was so popular as Freja seems to have been. Not least because of her many sexual adventures (She was a goddess of fertility and female sexuality after all.) She was worshipped throughout Scandinavia and a favourite among the female priestesses known as völvur. The matter of a liberal sexuality, esepcially in women, was also something the male scholars of the 19th century did not look foundly upon and because Freja is still mainly described as Frej's seductive sister or love goddess, it has worked and still works as a way to reduce her power and influence.

Egyptian tomb painting

There is also the matter of some of Phryne's headdresses. Even though the Cleopatra one she wears in the photo from Murder in the Dark above clearly is meant to look like the one from the Egyptian tomb painting above, I think it looks like a valkyrie helmet.

From Ruddy Gore

Phryne also wears a headband in both Ruddy Gore and Blood and Money that is probably some kind of laurel wreath, but those leaves could easily be consider feathers as well.

This rant might make little sense, but after my entry about ways to compare Phryne to other pop-cultural figures, I figured I might as well give some more alternatives to compare Phryne too and this day seems to be special for both of them.

Happy Birthday Phryne! Even though you are fictional, I love you!

Picture of valkyrie helmet was borrowed here, the Egyptian crown was found here and the photo of the Freja brooch from Aska in Östergötland in Sweden was taken by Gabriel Hildebrand at SHMM

Julkalender 1996 - Mysteriet på Greveholm

Mysteriet på Greveholm (The Mystery at Greveholm) from 1996 is probably the most beloved of SVT's julkalendrar. It is also the only one who has got a sequel (Grevens återkomst from 2012). In my personal opinion, that one is as bad as the original one was good, so this entry will only be about that.

"Är det redan vinter? Det var ju sommar nyss! Vart har hösten tagit vägen? Tänk, snart är det vår!" ("Is it winter already? It was summer just the other day! Where have the autumn gone? Soon it is spring!")

 ~ Leif

I have come to realise that describe the plots to my favourite julkalendrar might make them seem pretty strange. Sunes Jul seems probably pretty uncomplicated with Sune and his family celebrating christmas, but the rest. Tomtemaskinen tells the story about an old man building a mechanical Santa Claus to his cat and Jul i Kapernaum is about a star trapped by a king underneath a town and two children going down to free it.

Mysteriet på Greveholm is no exception to this. It is about the Olsson family with a father who is a scientist and who has managed to move a satellite so no one can watch TV. They move into a castle called Greveholm to celebrate christmas. In the castle live the two ghosts Jean and Staffan. An evil skeleton of Greven von Dy (the earl von Dy - usually called Greven) has captured a princess from outer space called Dioda in the tower and the children (Lillan, Ivar and Melitta) has to save her. Dioda also has a robot called Sprak who Lillan plays with. There is also two thieves who want to steal the treasures of the castle, a news paper delivery boy called Måns who Melitta falls in love with and Santa Claus and his elves.

I love this julkalender very much, but I still cannot help thinking it to be somewhat overrated. There are rather lot of plot holes and the acting is not always very good. In fact the acting (mostly by the children) is better in both Sunes Jul and Jul i Kapernaum than in Mysteriet på Greveholm. What is redeeming is the interesting world it creates and the loveable characters that you can relate to. This is actually what makes this julkalender work and not its sequel.



Pictures borrowed from here.

My first Essie-versary!

One year ago today I saw The Babadook for the first time and Essie Davis became my favourite actress. And what a year it has been! Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries I found through looking up what Essie had done more in late February this year. The rest is history so to speak.

Essie is such a great actress! I love her so much! She is my real superhero!




If you want to use my collage: PLEASE ask me and credit me! I am proud of something I have made for once!

Lucia

So, today is known as the Lucia day in Sweden. Of course I could tell you how we celebrate it, but that is much better explained in this video

Every year on social media, this tradition is said to be under threat. From what is often quite unclear, but it has been a decline in interest for public Lucia competitions and I have a theory as to why. But first I feel a need to talk about the history of the tradition.

"Sankta Lucia. Ljusklara hägring. Sprid i vår vinternatt, glans av din fägring " (Saint Lucia, Bright mirage. Spread in our winter's night, gloss of your beauty.)

~ Sankta Lucia

Lucia is a variation of the Latin word Lux which means light and in the Julian calendar, 13th of December was the winter solstice and therefore the night was the longest one of the year. According to folklore, a lot of bad spirits were roaming around during this night and legend tells of a demon-like woman called Lussi or Lussekärringen (in the province Västergötland the legend instead speaks of  man called Lussegubben though) who came riding together with her followers called lussiferda. It was also a night when the animals started to talk. 

Everyone can be a lucia!

Lucia is a Sicilian saint in the Roman-Catholic church who lived in Syracuse during the 4th century AD. However, the Swedish Lucia celebration (which today has spread to the Finno-Swedish population of Finland, Norway and Denmark) has little to do with her. The celebration is actually a mix of both Christian and Pagan traditions. Lucia marked the beginning of the christmas celebrations and in the past it was thought that the preparations needed to be finished by then. Swedes celebrated this by eating and drinking a little extra. The 13th of December was also the day when Swedes slaughtered the so called christmas pig to make the ham which is one of the major dishes in the Swedish christmas dinner. The christmas pig is thought of as to symbolise the pig Särimner from Norse mythology. Särimner is the pig who gets slaughtered every evening in Odin's hall Valhalla, but resurrects every morning just to get slaughtered (and eaten) again by the dead warriors.

The modern Lucia celebration is thought to have its origin in Western Sweden (in the regions kring the lake Vänern in the provinces Dalsland, Bohuslän, Västergötland and Värmland). From there, male students (since there were no female ones at that time) spread it to Uppsala and Lund where they went to university in the late 18th and early 19th century. There they held Lucia performances for their professors. Yes, traditionally it has been common with a male Lucia!

Lussekatter

Saffron buns called lussekatter (translated directly it is "lusse cats") are served during Lucia. This is a German tradition dating back to the 17th century where a legend said that the devil (sometimes refered to as Lucifer) went around as a cat spanking children. At the same time, Jesus went around offering buns to the children. They were stuffed with saffron to ward off the devil from the light colour.

"Staffan var en stalledräng. Vi tackom nu så gärna. Han vattna' sina fålar fem. Allt för den ljusa stjärna. Ingen dager synes än. Stjärnorna på himmelen de blänka." (Staffan was a stable boy. We gladly thank how now. He watered his five horses. Everything for the bright star. No day can yet be seen. The stars in the sky they glitter.)

~ Sankta Lucia

Stjärngossar

Except for Lucia, there are a, traditionally male, character in the Lucia celebration called stjärngosse (star boy). The tradition with this character is actually related to dramatized versions of the birth of Jesus during Twelth Night when the Three Wise Men reach the stable where Jesus is supposed to have been born. Since Twelth Night has losts its importance in Sweden, we have somehow chosen to put stjärngossarna into the Lucia celebration instead. Unfortunatelly, I have not been able to find any answer to the question why this change occured or why they sing the Medieval ballad about king Herod's stable boy Stefanus: Staffan var en stalledräng, but I guess it is just one of those things that happened when traditions adapts to a new reality.

I think it is very important that we actually study from where traditions like the Lucia celebrations come and even more to see how it has changed over time. I have talked about my view on culture as always ongoing negotiatons of sociability before in my entries about the Samish hat adorned with Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and chess. Considering all the memes and discussion there is every christmas about the "threatened" Lucia tradition I think Lucia is actually a great illustration for this. The Lucia celebration will change with time. That thing is clear! Every tradition does and it is totally natural. The celebration still has social value though. It is still extremely popular in schools and work places and such all over Sweden. There has been a decline in "official" Lucia competitions however, but I would not say that this has anything to do with Lucia celebration itself. Instead I think it has to do with the similarities between Lucia competitions and beauty pageants. The latter seems to have lost its social value in Sweden in later years which I think actually is something that we should be happy about.

Lucia celebration, the cat version

Picture of the lussekatter was borrowed from here.

Julkalender 1995 - Jul i Kapernaum

Jul i Kapernaum (Christmas in Kapernaum) was SVT:s julkalender 1995 and twice as long as the rest of them. The second half of it is devoted to puppet sketches. We get to visit Magister Munter at the school (who teaches the children that the English sentence I buy pink sheets is funny to a Swede), see short films at the cinema at Bio Rio and hear about when Fru Dito time travelled in her shower. (I might get back to those in later entries to this blog, but for this one, I want to focus on the main plot.)

Legend has it that a star came to rest on the place where the town Kapernaum later was built. Many thousands of years later, the evil king Sirius in his hunt for treasure, found it and trapped it underground. He killed everone, but a young man managed to flee and tell everyone. Sirius was locked up and the man left Kapernaum, only to return when it was time to release the star.
  

När tiden är inne,                         When time has come,
för lugn i sinne.                             For peace in mind
När staden skälver                        When the town is shaking
och jorden gnäller.                        And the ground whines
För julefrid,                                   For christmas peace,
öppna porten i tid.                         Open the gate in time.
Den som ingen sakna,                   The one no one misses,
hämta stjärna som vakna           Collects the wakening star

~ Jul i Kapernaum

1000 years later, the 10 years old orphan girl Amanda lives in an abandoned circus wagon in the middle of Tittutgränd in Kapernaum. She is sometimes lonely, but often plays around with the mayor Klopstock and Krampus. Besides them, Krampus has an aunt named Innocentia and there is also a lady who owns the café called Rosa. In Kapernaum also lives Assar Skoog who owns a pawnshop.

Skoog in many aspects resembles Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dicken's book A Christmas Carol. His brother died and Assar drove away his wife and newborn baby. Assar is extremely greedy and loves to make people pawn their most valuable things. He also mutters "Humbug!" from time to time.

Viktor, is the heir of the young man who fled king Sirius and he suddenly shows up in Kapernaum, scaring the life out of Skoog (like the three ghosts of christmas do to Scrooge). Amanda finds the gate to the underground and Viktor sets after her. They free the star and ride off for new adventures at the end. The battle against king Sirius and his troll guard is a little forced and lame, but the actors (even the children) are all good and the characters loveable.

Jul i Kapernaum belongs in the fantasy genre, but it is also a musical of sort. I have always been pretty sad that they never released the music on a cd because there were some pretty good ones in this. It felt even stranger when SVT chose to release the soundtrack of Mysteriet på Greveholm the following year even though it only contained instrumental music. (Snälla SVT, kan ni inte åtminstone lägga upp sångerna på Spotify nu?!) I remember having to rewind the VHS over and over because I wanted to listen to the music.To this day, I still remember Amanda's song (and no, it is not mainly due to her and I sharing first name!)

This calendar is sadly forgotten, but the Swedes voted for it to be part of the julkalender classics that SVT puts on their Öppet Arkiv site every christmas. Rewatching this now, made me think that it is actually even more relevant today. The awakening star creates havoc with the climate, making the town hot and everyone wonder what has happened to the weather. It is also worth mentioning Klopstock's line from the last episode: "Igår var Kapernaum nära sin undergång. Minnet av det som skett den här julen får aldrig blekna. Om historien hålls vid liv finns det möjlighet att inte upprepa misstagen (Yesterday, Kapernaum was close to its destruction. The memory of what has occured this christmas must never fade. If history is kept alive, there is a possibility to not recreate the misstakes.)" Definitely something to think about...


Picture was borrowed from here.

Wandering Wombs in Cocaine Blues

Rewatching the pilot episode of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Cocaine Blues (which I have talked about before here.) got me thinking. Phryne Fisher finds powder in Lydia Andrew's bathroom which her friend Elizabeth "Mac" Macmillan identifies as a nerve powder usually prescribed to women for their hysteric tendencies.

As you can see in the gif to the left, one of the maladies that Mac mentions is wandering wombs. The descriptions of this ailment made me interested and thinking of another, more modern one, but I will get to that later. First I think there is a need to talk a little about what the wandering womb was thought to be.

The term is first known from Ancient Greece, but it is by  some thought to originate in Egypt. The Ancient Greeks thought of it as the most dangerous sickness for women and famous Greek names such as Plato and Hippocrates talk about it. It also worked as a way to legitimize men's power over women.

The womb was thought of as the main reason as to why men and women were so different. It was also considered the greatest weakness of women because of its tendencies to wander, causing the women to et hysterical. Aretaeus of Cappadocia even go as far as to call it an animal inside an animal and with this revealing the Greek (mainly Athenian) view on women.

Aretaeus also says that the womb can be "lured back" into place using sents. Either nice scents applied inside the vagina or bad ones inhaled through the woman's nose. Another Greek, Soranus, on the other hand argued that the womb itself was not mobile and that the reason why the scent therapy worked was that it got the muscles to relax.

Other things that were prescribed were having sex (like Mac also says) and making women pregnant as often as possible to keep the womb occupied.

The notion of the wandering womb was spread to Rome and Byzantine and from that to the Arabs who prescribe sneezing (which I found out actually also was considered to be able to stop the heart, but that is a different story).

The womb was not longer thought of as being able to wander by the 16th century, but the thought of female hysteria was more long-lived and spread widely through society in the 19th century.

It is easy to write off things like the wandering womb from Ancient knowledge as complete nonsense in light of the knowledge of modern medicine. Female hysteria can probably be considered to be mostly a social construction.

Based strictly on the descriptions of symptoms (and not the female hysteria diagnosis) a diagnos that springs to my mind is endometriosis. The cause of this is actually tissues from the womb which can actually be said to have "wandered" outside of the womb causing terrible pain for the affected woman during menstruation. Being in terrible pain can certainly cause hysteria in anyone both male and female.

Julkalender 1991 - Sunes Jul

Every year Swedish Television (SVT) makes a christmas calendar (julkalender) for TV which tells a story of some children celebrating christmas. They broadcast one episode à day between the 1st and 24th of December (when Swedes celebrate christmas) which are about 15 minutes long. The exception to this was Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter from 1977, which had 28 episodes, starting the first Sunday in Advent and Jul i Kapernaum from 1995, which had a running time of 30 minutes per episode. This year's calendar, Selmas saga (Selma's fairy tale) looks promising, but I will wait with a more thorough review until it is finished.

I have already talked about my issues with the one from last year (2015), 1000 år till julafton (1000 years until christmas) here and one of my favourites Tomtemaskinen from 1993 here, but thought I would present the other three I have every Sunday in December up until Christmas. I have a hard time choosing an order to my four favourites, so the posts will be published chronologically. (Except for Tomtemaskinen, which I have already talked about.)

First out is Sunes Jul (Sune's christmas) from 1991 which was released at about the same time as the book with the same title. The plot is extremely simple: Sune and his family celebrate Christmas. We get to follow them as they prepare for the holidays. The calendar was followed up by a film, Sunes sommar (Sune's summer) in 1993. This film was a success and has become somewhat of a Swedish classic. The three films about Sune that were made in recent years (with the entire cast exchanged) have not been as well recieved. 

If you are in Sweden, the calendar is available on SVT:s Öppet Arkiv webplayer.

Pictures were borrowed here, here and here.

Comparing Phryne Fisher

Phryne Fisher

This entry was prompted by an anonymous note to another Swedish Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries fan on Tumblr, that got me thinking a little about the status of children's literature.

The Tumblr-note was about comparing Phryne Fisher to James Bond (e.g. here) and Indiana Jones. The latter was actually used by one of the producers, Fiona Eagger in the article about the future of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries I shared in my discussion about the subject. The anonymous author of the note also suggested Pippi Longstocking as a better comparisson and I could not agree more.

Phryne is an Astrid girl, which I have written an entry about before. (I have also discussed Jack Robinson as an "Astrid boy" here and here.) Pippi is good to use worldwide since she is the most famous of them, not least in the English-speaking world since I have understood that none of Astrid Lindgren's other books are particularly well-known there.

Pippi Långstrump, Herr Nilsson and Lilla Gubben
Orginal illustration by Ingrid Vang Nyman

As I talked about in my entry about Phryne and the Astrid girls, I think Madicken is an even better comparisson than Pippi because of the time period, the beautiful dresses, the little sister, the recklessness, the air planes and social issues. However, Pippi and Phryne certainly share a lot of qualities as well. Pippi is reckless, brave, outspoken and strong (both physically and mentally), but she is also tender, loving, caring and compassionate. Just like Phryne!

The latter, traditionally more female characteristics do both James Bond and Indiana Jones lack. Both of them are quite stereotypical macho men and this is the main reason why I do not like to compare Phryne to them. Unlike both Mr Bond and Dr Jones, and similar to both Pippi and Madicken (and the other Astrid children), Phryne uses her empathy and compassion as a strenght. This, I feel is extremely important to point out. We have a pop-cultural situation where the "macho man" is the norm and the only female characters who are considered strong, are those who are more or less just female version of that stereotype. I have discussed this topic before in both my Heroine entry of Phryne herself and the one about Johanne Hildebrandt's book Idun. We do not need any more emotionally closed off characters in today's pop-culture and comparing Phryne is actually sort of a depriciation of her as a character.

Madicken and Lisabet
Orginal illustration by Ilon Vikland

I have no idea why no one of the people creating Phryne have ever said anything about her similarities to (at least) Pippi. It might just be because of Astrid Lindgren not being so well-known in the English-speaking parts of the world, but it might also be the usual depriciation of children's literature.

Traditionally, children's literature has had a lower status and the ones writing for children have been seen as secondary authors. This actually even happened to Astrid Lindgren in the 1970's when there were first talk about giving the Nobel Prize to her. This was also a time, when the Swedish Academy (who are in charge of the Nobel Prize in litarture) was looking into taking in more women. Astrid was already then so famous and loved, that she would have been an obvious addition. However, she had some enemies, not least the author Artur Lundkvist who more or less meant that children's authors could not write real books.

I do not agree to this view at all. I think children's literature is the most important one. Reading as a child most often leads to you reading as an adult. Reading literature can change us and our perception of the world. It gives us knowledge but also the ability to process that knowledge to reach deeper understandings, something that is extremely forgotten and overseen today. This is why I think you should read, but you need someone to show you the basics first. So never underestimate children's literature. Good role models are always nice to have and if you find similarities with a character you have just got to know and want to tell someone else about, use them!

"I want to write for a readership that can create miracles. Children create miracles when they read. That’s why children need books." 

~ Astrid Lindgren

And about the quarrel between Artur Lundkvist and Astrid Lindgren. One can say that the former is almost totally forgotten among Swedes in general today while the latter has more or less become a saint...

The Detective and the Rose - Jack Robinson and Rosie

Jack and Rosie, Murder most scandalous

I mentioned Rosie Sanderson in my post about Jack Robinson, but never talked about her so much and I know you all prefer Phryne Fisher as Jack's companion (the whole Phrack thing) and I do too, but I think it is important to talk about Rosie as well.

We do not really get to know much about Jack's first marriage more than the fact that the First World War drove he and his wife apart. Rosie is vaguely mentioned already in Murder on the Ballarat Train and we get small glimpses into their estranged marriage, until we hear they get a divorce in Murder in the Dark at the end of season 1.

We (and Phryne) get to meet Rosie for the first time in Murder most Scandalous, the first episode of season 2 and she is part of the overarching plotline in that season. She is the daughter of the Deputy Commisioner, George Sanderson and we and Jack find out that she is now engaged to her father's godson Sidney Fletcher.

Rosie, Marked for Murder

I do not hate Rosie! In fact I feel sorry for her. She does not really do anything wrong. She seems to come from a privileged household and she was probably raised into a traditional female role. I discussed the thought of "the ideal woman" in my entry about Phryne and the Astrid Lindgren girls. It originated among the bourgeois in late 18th century Europe. The bourgeois woman was considered more or less too fragile to do anything.The man was the one out in society. He created it and did so to fit himself. The woman, on the other hand, was confined to the home where her main task was to please the bourgeois man who's guidance she needed to move through life. She was her husband's subordinate in everything and she was supposed to love him submissively. During the late 19th century, these gender roles spread to other social classes, which is quite strange since experiences from basically every other social class proved that women were just as capable as men.

These gender roles are interesting in relation to Rosie, Phryne and Jack and explains their characters and actions pretty well. We do not know if Rosie belonged to a working class family before her father gained power and titles in the police force. The fact that she married a working class man (Jack) seems to indicate this. She could have married "down" of course, the system provided women with far more opportunities to move in the class system of that time than men, but we can assume she was born rather privileged. This would also mean that she was raised to fit into the category of the ideal woman at the time, described above. This means that she was raised to not have anything to do with society outside the home and to marry and support someone like her father.

Phryne meeting Rosie for the first time, Murder Most Scandalous

Compare this to Phryne who was not raised among the bourgeois. Instead, she was raised very poor and in the lower societal classes, the women had to be out and about to provide for their families just as the men did. In theory, the women were subordinated the men, but in practice they were more or less equal. This meant that she is much more used to defy the norm of the woman (and the man) that is considered a static trait among the bourgeois. Instead of idolising her father like Rosie does hers. She more or less loathes him.

Jack and Rosie, Murder most scandalous

This background explains how they both deal with men, including Jack. Rosie idolises her father and wants Jack to have a career like his. The series has not given us any facts about Jack's character prior to the war. Therefore it remains my own speculation to think that he was probably not too content or happy with the prospect of imitating his father-in-law's career even then. For short, Rosie is not used to bend societal norms. She treats Jack like her father, because that is the only type of man she knows of. I also think this is why her marriage to Jack collapsed after the war. Again, we are not told or shown what actually happened, but due to Jack's sensitive nature, one might guess he was depressed and/or shell shocked which was the term used for PTSD at the time. This was probably something entirely new to Rosie and the fact that she was raised to more or less "obey" the norms to whatever cost probably did not help.

Jack and Rosie, Murder Most Scandalous

Similar to Rosie, Phryne also treats Jack like she would her father. Actually Concetta Fabrizzi  is the only one of the three women in Jack's life that we are aware of, that does not seem to do that (I am saving Concetta for a future Phrack post.). Phryne also tend to seek male bed partners that is similar to her father. However, Jack is nothing like Henry Fisher and while Rosie does not really seem to realise she hurts Jack, Phryne does. Even though Phryne is unfamiliar with men like Jack, she does not follow the norms as strictly as Rosie does and therefore is not unfamiliar with people who fall out of them... like Jack.

Jack, Murder most Scandalous

I have compared Jack to the Astrid Lindgren boys before and the comparison works even in this case. He is neither like George Sanderson nor Henry Fisher. He is sensitive, introvered and rather emotional. I find it interesting to compare him to the hero of the book Mio min Mio (Mio my Mio). When he lives in Stockholm and is called Bo Vilhelm Olsson, he learns that boys need to be tough and brave and should never show emotions. He is never happy with this and really blooms out only when he gets to Landet i fjärran (The land of far away) and becomes prince Mio. There he can really let go of the boy norms and show how scared he is, be emotional and even hug his best friend Jum-Jum. This is also when he becomes a super hero, saving all the children from the evil Riddar Kato with a heart of stone. Jack is pretty much the same. He becomes happy when he can break free of the male norm and be his own fantastic self.

Jack: "I went to war a newlywed"
Phryne: "But you came home."
Jack: "Not the man my wife married... 16 years ago"

 ~ Raisins and Almonds

Like I said in the beginning of this (too) long post, I do not hate Rosie and I do not think the series wants us to either. In fact, Rosie's plotline is a rather tragic one. Rosie does everything right according to the book, but still comes out on the losing end of things and I do not think she ever understands what went wrong. It is obvious that she still trusts and cares for Jack (not least because of the fact that she is openly jealous of Phryne), but she does not know how to love him. The same goes for Jack I think. He still cares for Rosie (He comforts her at the end of Unnatural habits.), but he knows he cannot be the man she needs and he does not love her (He goes to Phryne instead.).

Jack and Rosie, Unnatural Habits

A continuation of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries?

There has finally been some news about the future of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries which has made the fanbase more or less totally crazy. I have to say though, that as much as I want more about Phryne Fisher, Jack Robinson and everyone else, I still cannot help feeling a little cautious towards it.

Now, before you turn against me completely, please hear me out on this! A lot of franchises have suffered in recent years more or less due to overuse just because they became so popular that their creators would not let them finish.

I have seldom seen this issue being addressed, but Swedish comedian and author Jonas Gardell did so in the Swedish newspaper Expressen in March this year in the wake of the Swedish rock band Kent announcing they were going to retire. (Both links are in Swedish.)

"Lena Philipsson sjunger att kärleken är evig! Men hon sjunger det bara i tre minuter!" ("Lena Philipsson sings that love is eternal! But she sings it only for three minutes!")

~ Jonas Gardell, Modigt av Kent att sätta punkt

Gardell talks about the trend in pop-culture of today that nothing gets to have an ending. Even the more serious dramas do not get to end, with lesser quality as time goes by. Gardell himself wrote a series of three books called Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar (Never dry tears without gloves) about a group of homosexual men in Sweden during the 1980's when the first outbreak of HIV happened. It is such a wonderfully, sad plot that really touches your heart. (I have long intended to make a post about those books and the three part TV series that goes with it, but it is emotionally exhausting.) Both books and TV-series have had a lot of international success and the US industry thought about doing an American remake of it. However, they changed their minds because they did not know how to make more. Everyone dies!

I think Jonas Gardell has a point in letting something end even though there is a demand for more from the public. I love Phryne Fisher and all the others and I love Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, but I do not want it to turn bad just because of the demand for more. Fiona Eagger says in the article about the future of the show: "The fan base is so passionate. If you've got a successful franchise, why not (make more than one movie)?" which actually served as a warning bell to me. If they should continue the Miss Fisher universe, I think it would be best if they focused mostly on the matter of having a story to tell. And I might be an archaeologist, but I do not want a "female Indiana Jones". I want Phryne! I am for them making films, but they need to do it for the right reasons. Back in May I wrote a post on my Tumblr blog about how amazing it could be if Phryne would go to Sweden. The Nordic countries are often sadly overlooked, not least historically (For example the Tudors pale in comparisson to the contemporary Scandinavian royal dynasties!). We have a lot to offer and Phryne would probably fit in very well. I imagine she would like the Folkhemmet ideal (the open-minded and including part, not the racist and elitist one!), befriend Swedish forensic scientist Harry Söderman. Sweden was actually the country which invented scientific racism as a discipline back in 1922, we also passed a law of compulsory sterilization in 1934 because some people were not considered fit to procreate. I think this would be able to serve as a backdrop for a Phryne plot line. After all, there is a Swedish Murder Mysteries series about these issues. However, I would not want a story because it is a popular franchise. I want it only as long as it is good!

And about the whole prequel: I have a hard time seeing how they can make it canon based on the facts we have been given about Phryne's background in both books and TV shows. To me, Phryne is the way she is because of the war and René Dubois. An 18 year old Phryne would not have had time to reflect on the war which would probably make her rather much of a mess. René would also be lurking around the corner and I just do not see how they could make it work with a teenage Phryne being the same as her fantastic, hedonistic wonderful adult self.

I am sorry that I am so pessimistic towards a continuation of the Phryne Fisher franchise, but I have seen it happen to the Swedish Beck and Wallander franchises and I see it happens to the Harry Potter one at this very moment. Series that were once good, but then became overused and empty, turning fans against them instead.

Death at Victoria Dock - TV vs Book

Phryne Fisher

Death at Victoria Dock is the fourth book and the fourth TV-episode about the Honourable Phryne Fisher. However, the second book, Flying too High was never turned into a TV episode. It is still the fourth episode however, since for some unknown reason the TV version of the book after, The Green Mill Murder, was placed before Death at Victoria Dock in the line up of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries episodes from season 1. Because I could not really compare the book version of latter to the TV version of the former and vice versa, I needed to make a similar switch.

In the book Phryne happens to be witness to the murder of Yorka Rosen while driving past the docks. On TV, however, she hears him being shot outside, while meeting with Mr Waddington. On both occasions, he dies in his arms and also on both occasions, Phryne takes his death pretty hard.

Phryne Fisher

As I said in the entry about the book, I like vulnerable Phryne. It has nothing to do with me not wanting her to be the fabulous, reckless super hero. It just shows a much more complex character, letting her have a tender, vulnerable side to her. It makes her human and I love her even more because of it! I am so glad her feelings towards Yorka's death was left in the TV episode.

This is the book in which we first get to meet Constable Hugh Collins, but in the TV series, we have known him since the beginning. In the book he is Catholic, while his protestant faith clashes a little with Dot's Catholic one on TV. I was also really pleased to see that Hottie was actually canon even in the books. Dot and Hugh are just the sweetest couple ever!

Phryne Fisher

The depiction of the anarchist plotline is actually interesting in the book. We have already from the beginning known that Bert and Cec are communists and that Phryne accepts them just as they are anyway. The Death at Victoria Dock book actually dwells further into the socialistic bracket of the modern political scale and it does it very well. It is far from the Hollywood demonization of it.

Socialism is a very big field with lots of different variations, just like any other political ideology and movement. Some are better and some are worse than others and everyone of them has its benefits and its problems. I do not like to get into politics so much on this blog, but some things need to be clearified because there are a lot of misunderstandings going around about every one of the political ideologies.

In the wake of the US election Swedish media has had some sort of a wake up call and there have been a lot of discussion of the "bullying rhetoric" spreading from there to here. So the last couple of days have been a lot about that and lots of politicians have shown what great friends they are with and/or how much respect they have for politicians on "the other side of the scale". Just because you do not have the same opinion, does not mean you cannot share a friendship and/or respect for one another which both book and TV Phryne shows very well. She builds her own sort of family of people she likes. She never looks down on anyone or judge them for their opinions, their heritage or their personalities.

Phryne Fisher

In the TV episode, there is a lot less talk about different types of socialism in the TV episode, even though Bert and Cec tell Phryne about different variations as they go to the Latvian club and there is some talk about anarchism. It manage to show us that anarchistic methods might not be the best way to handle things (Just like the book do.), but it does not demonize all of socialism like many American films and TV shows tend to do.

There are a few changes to the more domestic plotline in the book where Phryne takes on the case of the missing teenage girl Alicia Waddington-Forsythe (Lila Waddington in the TV episode). Her father has remarried and she does not like her stepmother. When Phryne investigates, she finds Alicia's story is deeply tragic, being sexually abused by her brother who then moves on to get their stepmother pregnant and forced into a mental institution by that stepmother where they try telling her she is crazy for more or less telling the truth.

Jack Robinson

Lila Waddington's story is not as tragic. Her brother has still impregnated their stepmother, but the stepmother then tricks her into thinking she sees tears on her madonna painting and in the end it drives her to the mental hospital where Phryne and Jack come to save her. Her father is also the boss at the docks and there is a strike as Phryne goes to speak with him about the case in the beginning of the episode. Phryne also convinces him to talk to his workers in exchange for her discretion about his family "problems". We also get to know that Jack Robinson was part of the police strike of 1923, which Phryne did not expect.

Yes, Jack is in this episode even though he barely gets a few mentions in the book. Before I talk about him, I think I need to address the response to the blog post I wrote all about him a couple of days ago. I am both overwhelmed and scared about the whole thing. Social media is so strange. I shared the post on Tumblr myself since it is there I have "friends" I normally discuss Miss Fisher with. The fact that it was shared on other social media platforms without my knowledge does in fact frighten me a bit. This blog is my oulet for thoughts and feelings I have about subjects I am nerdy about. Because the entries to this blog are so deeply personal to me, I would like to have at least some sort of control about where it is being shared and what is being said about it. Not least so I can explain uncertainties and/or defend myself against criticism. I am so happy and overwhelmed and humbled by all the positive response to the Jack entry. I love that so many people have read it, but if you like something I have written and want to share it anywhere on the Internet, please use the comment section underneath any entry and tell me that you do so it will not be such a shock that I suddenly have had hundreds of visitors in a day.

"It'd be a tactical error to think you had med pegged just yet, Miss Fisher"

~ Jack Robinson

But, back to Jack. As said above, he only gets a few mentions in the book and keeps himself a little more in the background in the TV episode as well. Because of the switch in order between Death and Victoria Dock and The Green Mill Murder, it is a little hard to tell all of Jack's character in this entry without giving too much away from that episode. Jack still tries to remain firm about not letting Phryne in on the investigations (and she shamelessly uses Hugh to still be able to medle), but you also see him softening towards her. When she gets shot at, he seems really worried for her safety. The Green Mill Murder and this episode are also when I first started to realise that there was more to Jack than what he first appears to be. Over the course of the series, he is much like a chiffonier where Phryne and the viewers continuously find hidden compartments, not seldom where they least expect it.

Death at Victoria Dock was actually one of my least favourite episodes, but rewatching it now, after having read the book, I saw it in a rather different light. From time to time the plots of the episodes in the TV series can feel a bit forced together (probably to make Phryne only investigate one case instead of many like in the books), but this one flows better. The two cases (Lila Waddington and the anarchists) are still kept apart, but held together through Lila's father at the docks where Phryne more or less picks up both cases. It only shows that ones opinions might change based on circumstances and that Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is a series one must watch more than once.

Phryne Fisher and Jack Robinson

Detective Inspector Jack Robinson

"You might as well call me Jack. Everyone else does."

~ Jack Robinson, Murder on the Ballarat Train, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Vemod is a Swedish word that is not exactly easy to translate into English. It can best be described as an underlying, longing sadness. A sadness that is actually rather positive how strangely as that sounds. The concept might not have an equivalent in English, but I still think it summarize the character of Detective Inspector Jack Robinson perfectly.

I have talked a little about Jack in most of my previous entries about Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and the Phryne Fisher books. However, I have long felt a need to give him an entry totally on his own.

To this date I have only read four of Kerry Greenwood's books about Phryne Fisher and even though I enjoy the books just fine, I really miss the Jack of the TV series while reading. In the latest one, Death at Victoria Dock he only gets a few mentions and, unlike in the TV series, has remained pretty much in the background in the other three as well.

From Murder on the Ballarat train

There are also som major differences between the TV and book characters as well. Book-Jack is happily married with children and has much easier time accepting Phryne's meddling in police work from the very beginning. TV-Jack is far more reserved and at first thinks Phryne is a stupid socialite in need of a hobby. However, as they continue to meet at different crime scenes, he starts to respect her more. This is as far as I will take the comparison between the two. This entry will henceforth be entirely about TV-Jack because he was the one I fell in love with in the first place.

"I see a very careful man, who professes to be cynical in the face of mysteries he can't explain, and claims to have no passion in spite of a heart that runs as deep as the Pacific Ocean"

~ Phryne Fisher, Death Comes Knocking, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Jack is a very private man. Therefore we do not know much about his personal life or his background and we have never visited his home.The little we do know is that he was married to the Deputy Commisioner's daughter Rosie, but that their marriage got destroyed by his participation in the First World War and he tells Phryne that Rosie has been living with her sister for "quite some time". They get a divorce at the end of season one.
There is a lot to say about Rosie and Jack's relationship to the other women in his life, Concetta and last, but certainly not least Phryne. However I have noticed a tendency in the fandom on the internet to view Jack only through those relationships (Especially the one he has to Phryne.) and I do not think that is entirely fair to the character. Because of this, I will focus on him in this entry and only briefly go into his relationships.

"It'd be a tactical error to think you had me pegged just yet, Miss Fisher"

~ Jack Robinson, Death at Victoria Dock, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

From Murder and the Maiden

In June this year, I wrote an entry in which I discussed the similarities between Phryne and the girls Astrid Lindgren (She would have turned 109 yesterday, 14th of November, by the way.) wrote about. The Astrid Lindgren parallel actually fits very well for Jack as well. He is more or less like a typical "Astrid boy". He is somewhat lonely, introverted and brooding and like them he needs to show himself worthy of the super hero title Phryne (and the "Astrid girls") have from the very beginning. The series is also extremely good at not showing all of him at once. This might be because the show is so focused on Phryne (Which it should be. It is her show!) and we get to know the other characters through her.

At first I thought he would be like so many male detectives in murder mystery franchises. Aloof and haughty and having trouble with their bosses and their women and using violence as a mean to enhance their position. But Jack is not at all like that. I actually appreciate how the series depicts him. He deals with his experiences both from his life as a policeman and from the war in a way that is quite unusual in pop-culture of today. Especially for a male character. He desperately wants to hide his emotions, but they more or less run straight off of him anyway. Nathan Page is also extremely good at showing them without saying a word. You see it in his face, usually in less than a second so you miss it if you blink. (Essie Davis, who plays Phryne, is just as good at this.)

From Dead Air

While Phryne is the super hero, Jack is totally human. He really feels compassion for both the victims and the criminals, not least shown through his special relationship with Elsie Tizzard that is revealed in Blood and Circuses. His way of dealing with violence is similarly refreshing. He does not, like for example the character Gunvald Larsson from the Swedish police film series Beck, do it to enhance his position at all. He limits it to when it is inevitable to use it to save himself or someone else and even then he seems to be unwilling to use it to kill someone.

From what I have gathered from fan discussions and fanfictions on the Internet, Jack is generally understood as "broken", but I do not really see that. I think he might have been broken when he got back to Australia after the war. He says the war changed him and he probably has suffered depression and/or PTSD. However, he is not broken when we meet him and this is actually where I think the vemod comes in because there really is a sad longing to him which is positive in nature and makes him a rather unique character. He is definitely the best depiction of how someone who has gone through a depression really is. There will always be a sadness left, but that sadness is not exactly negative and does not prevent you from having fun. I know. I have suffered from depression myself. Besides, the word vemod itself is poetic and beautiful. Just like Jack!

Jack and Phryne

Kerry Greenwood - Death at Victoria Dock

The fourth book about lady detective Phryne Fisher is called Death at Victoria dock. In this one Phryne first gets involved in a shooting as she is passing through the dock late one evening. A couple of anarchists have shot a young one of their own and he dies in Phryne's arms. Her other case is a domestic one as usual. The books start to feel a little formulaic to be honest. This one is also with a young girl who has been abused sexualy. Anyway Phryne is also hired to find Alicia Waddington-Forsythe who has gone missing. In this case Phryne gets help from her adopted daughters Jane and Ruth who go to the same school as Alicia.

There are sadly just a few mentions of Jack Robinson in this book, but we get introduced to Constaple Hugh Collins and Dot already from the start takes a fancy to him.

'That nice young constable is coming at eleven, Miss, and I thought you'd prefer rolls and marmalade today.' 
'Phryne thought she detected a blush on her maid's cheek, but it might have been the sun. (---)
'What is his name Dot? The constable, I mean.'
'Hugh, Miss... I mean Constable Collins Miss.'
It definitely was a blush, no doubt of it.

~ Kerry Greenwood, Death at Victoria Dock

Like I said in the entry about comparison between the TV episode and the book of Murder on the Ballarat Train I am a huge fan of Hottie. They both are so unbelieveably sweet together in the TV series and, unlike Phrack, this seems to be pretty much comes straight from the book.

Since this is one of my least favourite episodes of the TV series, I did not really expect to get into it so much as I did. I enjoyed Phryne showing a more vunerable side of herself. She seems really humble in the face of death this time and I cannot help loving her even more than I did before because of it. I know a lot of people want her to be totally unapologetic and do whatever she wants, but to me a really strong character is one who still can be humble, emotional and admit that she is wrong and apologise if she hurts someone. In light of recent event I think showing compassion is more important than ever. It is not that she hasn't shown compassion before, but she has never been so emotional. Getting shot at while driving seems to have really shocked her and I like it that she can be, but how she does not let it scare her off. It just adds to her strengths. It makes her human!

I must be going mad, she chided herself. I've seen lots of dead men. And I do not smell of blood. It is washed off me and I am wearing different clothes.

~ Kerry Greenwood, Death at Victoria Dock

As a Swede I couldn't help but smile at the telling of the colonial interest Sweden has had in Latvia, a part of history most Swedes do not know anything about at all. Yes, Sweden did have colonies as well. We were actually the big super power in Europe during the 17th century, but we mostly focused on colonising our neighbours.

 The second image was borrowed from here.

Disney - Zootopia

I recently watched Disney's animated film Zootopia and I can seriously not understand why it has not got more publicity, not least over here in Sweden. The film is seriously very good and extremely thoughtprovoking. It is an interesting take on "multiculturalism" and go against "racist" stereotypes.

The film centers around Judy Hopps who becomes Zootopia's first rabbit cop. Zootopia is a city where all types of animals (predators and pray) live in harmony. Or should I say, pretend to live in harmony... On a closer look, however, things are not as harmonious as they first appears. Predators are kidnapped all over the city and Judy teams up with the nice, somewhat criminal fox Nick Wilde to solve the case. They both also need to face the prejudices others have about their spieces and the villain might just be a wolf in sheep clothing...

The theme of the film is a really interesting and fits extremely well into the politics of today. Not least questions about biological differences in spieces that are living together. It is all about fighting racism and living together in peace even though you are very different. It is also about how outcast "people" might be made prejudice just because they feel left out and powerless. The film also shows that it is a choice how we deal with this powerlessness.

I really wonder why it has not got any more publicity and I think the reason is the over-exposure of Frozen, which the film actually jokes about quite a bit. I like Frozen just fine, but this film deserves to be acknowledged and praised, not least because it deals with topics that we really need to discuss more. This is why I can overlook the (too common) use of Stone Age as something savage.


Image borrowed from here.