Canon vs. Fanon

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

So, anyone feel up for a little light discussion?

Inspired by the comment thread here, in which I managed to walk slap-bang into the plate-glass patio doors of my own unexamined fanon interpretation, I thought I'd open the question to the floor: What points of fanon do you have in your Johns-iverse? How do the characters look when you imagine them? Does it even vaguely resemble the descriptions in the books? Are you inwardly certain about which univesity and college Bertie attended? Does your Biggles go and dine with Von Stalhein in the same London club every week from the end of 'Buries A Hatchet' onwards? Don't worry if you suspect that your fanon interpretations might be contradicted in the canon somewhere you haven't read - that's part of what this discussion is designed to find out!

By way of kicking off - in my fanon-in-my-head Bertie backstory, he attended Oxford, most probably at the same time as Gimlet. As for college - well, I have my suspicions that Bertie is a Balliol man. It may well be something to do with the resemblence to Lord Peter Wimsey - who would, if one thinks about it, have been up at the University only a couple of years before Bertie. I'm not quite sure what he read - I'd almost be inclined to say history, though there's part of me which thinks it might have been something curiously logical, like mathematics, which contrasts strangely with his silly ass-ish persona. As for Gimlet, I suspect he read Lit. Hum. (or Classics, as non-mad places call it), and probably at one of the older colleges - Magdalen, New, Christ Church, one of that crowd. He may have a lovely counter-tenor voice and have been a lay-clerk in the chapel choir, who can say. I'm not entirely certain how he met Bertie - possibly through cricket, or the hunt. They may even have been at Eton together.

Over to you - no matter how unfounded the fanon interpretation may be! It's always interesting to see how other people interpret the characters and the stories.

And, on a similar topic - would people be interested in holding an occasional series of 'canon discussion' posts, to discuss points of Johns-iverse canon on a semi-regular basis? I'd certain be interested in gathering info from this impressive sorting-house of Biggles-knowledge on topics like 'What do we know about Biggles' family?' or 'when and why does Algy start being left with the plane all the time?' It would certainly be valuable for any of us contemplating fic, I'm sure.

Comments

[pearbean.livejournal.com]

In my head Algy keeps house plants and window-boxes full of geraniums in Biggles' flat. And makes Ginger water them.
He probably talks to them as well.

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

...your Algy is adorable. I hope that is true. The question is, what colour geraniums? Personally, The Little White Horse made a big impression on me at a young age, so they'll *have* to be salmon pink geraniums now.

I still want to know just how their domestic arrangements work. How many bedrooms do you *get* in gentlemen's apartments on Mount Street?

[pearbean.livejournal.com]

It's always "his" apartment in Mount Street, isn't it? But then the others always seem to be there eating bacon and eggs when Biggles opens his correspondence...
On a re-listen of "Flies North" I notice that he enters the "breakfast room" too, which would seem to suggest a flat of some size?

Not being immediately familiar with Mount Street in particular, I snuck off for a quick google image search, and here we go:


I should also confess that I just did a property search as well to try to solve the bedroom question. The prices nearly killed me and I'm sure that most of them will have been developed now, unfortunately. 3 bedrooms did seem to be the standard though, surprisingly! (Some of the places are just gorgeous... have a look (http://www.carterjonas.co.uk/residential-property/psearch_details.cfm?schID=2627&pagID=2&ordID=3&prpID=4396&ret=results).)

[violetknights.livejournal.com]

When I was 18 and in my first flush of fangirl love with biggles I went to London and did a tour - Mount Street, the RFC and wandering the serpentine! I suspect that most of the flats these days are subdivides from when Biggles had his!

[pearbean.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly! I had no idea what Mount Street was like at all and I was quite shocked to see it! I had imagined a cosy little place (a la Sherlock Holmes) rather than a huuuuuuge suite of luxurious rooms! Still, it's quite fun trying to work these things out. :D

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice work ^_^ Even if the flats do look like St Pancras. Or Keble.

I believe there were several blocks of gentlemen's flats on Mount Street - I've got some notes somewhere on which building Bunny Manders must be in, given various references in the canon to the lift and the lack of a porter. I'll dig them out, see if they're useful at all. I can't recall such useful references in Biggles - anyone got any thoughts, or the energy to start chasing scenes at the flat through the various books?

For some reason I have the mental note that they shared the flat, but that could be my wishful fanon thinking ^_^ Could possibly also be a result of the fact that I can't begin to imagine Algy living anywhere *but* with Biggles, but there we are. I've got the flat-sharing note associated with the first couple of chapters of 'Buries a Hatchet', so I'll check it when I get home from the library and see if I'm hallucinating.

[pearbean.livejournal.com]

Hahaha Keble was what I thought too :D

On a quick glance through the books i have with me, we have:
- the chaps all over eating breakfast in Flies North
- Ginger "passing a wet afternoon usefully by pasting up some photos in an album" at the beginning of Secret Mission (and the housekeeper is Mrs. Symes)("Ginger, slip down and ask Mrs. Symes..." suggesting a Holmes-style Housekeeper-kept set of rooms rather than a completely detached flat?)

I had the mental picture of them sharing rooms as well, i just happened to notice that it was often referred to as Biggles' flat.

[violetknights.livejournal.com]

My fanon is huge and twisted - it involves much hurt/comfort, multiple and complex pairings all with angsty backstories and complex reasonings! Also many cups of Tea and sympathy for the poor Housekeeper who must have got very fed up with washing the sheets!

I do believe that Gimlet and Bertie met at Oxford and at one point wrote extensively in a 'verse exploring the idea! since much of my knowledge on this was derived from Brideshead Revisited (on TV) it probably wasn't very realistic!

I think regular discussions would be great fun and I'm definitely up for joining in :)

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

*grins muchly* Brideshead is a totally reasonable place to get knowledge of Oxford. I wandered past some filming for the new version of Brideshead a couple of months back, and if it wasn't for the large cameras cluttering up the square, *you would honestly never have noticed that there was anything odd going on*. Boaters, striped blazers, linen suits and ancient bicycles, FTW.

Huzzah, more support for the canon chats ^_^ We'll have to start thinking up topics...

[fuskersawitall.livejournal.com]

Hallo...I've rushed in here because I have a very particular image in my little brain of my personal favourite Algy. I've always imagined him to be the smallest one, (even though I'm aware Biggles is said to be of below average height)with longish, rather big brown hair. With large brown eyes, and rather handsome in a...small, slight way! Anyone feel he may even slightly resemble this?

[id-ten-it.livejournal.com]

Look what I rediscoered!
We should so have regular discussions on this sort of topic...My Algy is more of a beanpole than yours I'm afraid.

I'm sure they set out to share a flat but equally sure they spend time out and about, more as a hotel in some respects, albiet a very comfortable one.