A Bunny of Sorts

[lifeisame.livejournal.com]

On the somewhat SERIOUS lines of fanfic:

Something that bothers me late at night is the thought of the time period J and W live in. Pretty soon the depression hits in the US, and I know England didn't suffer nearly as hard, but I wonder how they got by with that? And then of course, the scariest thing is WWII!! (and my knowledge of London life during this time is really limited to what I remember from high school history. Which isn't much.)

I mean, did Wooster have the money to avoid the military? Or did Jeeves for that matter? Or did Jeeves manage to get them both out of it? *fret fret* I'm pretty sure there's ample slash opportunities either way.

>_> These things keep me up at night. LOL, it doesn't make a very good plot bunny for me, but I figured I'd post these disturbing ideas here, in case someone else gets a bite.

I think waaaaaaaaaay to much into historical fiction and real history.

Comments

[tootsiemuppet.livejournal.com]

Hm, is what I meant. I've been racking my brain to remember where it was but i'm quite sure Jeeves makes a reference to it somewhere. Can't. Quite. Remember. Ack!

[anima-mecanique.livejournal.com]

That's actually a good point...the American History view of the Depression tends to emphasize that it was an AMERICAN depression, but the truth is that a market crash that catastrophic is felt all over the world.

I'm not sure what this says about our worldview, but meh. My knowledge of the '30s is pretty much limited to bank robbers, so I probably shouldn't be talking.

[anima-mecanique.livejournal.com]

However, I highly doubt that any of Bertie's friends would have needed a stock market crash or a war to end up broke *L* I don't know, I guess I've read so much about young well-born chaps losing all their money to a Misspent Youth that the proportion of them didn't register. I'd come to expect it by now.

[tootsiemuppet.livejournal.com]

Haha, point taken. Except, of course, hardly any one of Bertie's friends really has money of his own. They're just all mooching off their parents or aunts or uncles.

I may have been horribly corrupted by reading 'Remains of the Day', of course. With all the big houses dismissing all or almost all of their staff because of financial issues. Butler POV is a beautiful thing.
Grah, I need to see that movie.

[potatofiend.livejournal.com]

- squee! Omg! He's so cute.

ELIOT BLOMP!!!

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Jeeves says at one point that he fought in the Great War (aka WWI -- which, I'm told, if you were there at the time, really wasn't that great).

[lifeisame.livejournal.com]

Do you remember which book, or what tv episode he said that in? That's interesting.

[lonelybrit]

The only thing I remember regarding The Great War was in the story where Jeeves is on loan to another family and Bertie is, sadly, nowhere to be seen. It's mentioned that after The Great War, lots of aristocrats were being made/under pressure to learn how to be more independent. They were *gasp* getting jobs. Bertie's absence was put down to him attending a school and going on a course to teach young gentleman how to look after themselves. Of course, he does terribly and winds up getting chucked out and having Jeeves return to his side. But that's the only reference I can remember...

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

If I were home, I could find out in about two seconds. Alas, I've Googled my brains out and can't find out here. I'll have a look tonight.

[lonelybrit]

Just been having a quick google round. Apprently the only time mention of the war was really made was in: Aunts Aren't Gentlemen, and Ring For Jeeves. (Mentioned here.)

[derien.livejournal.com]

Lord Towcester, but someone did misspell it in a fic as Rowcester, I'm not sure why.

And in my fic off that story I had it that he really couldn't make that work, but I had it be a bad fight between them that caused him to do that, not lack of money.

[peak-in-darien.livejournal.com]

I suppose one could say that those kinds of things do exist, but are usually used for comic purposes. One example I usually think of is Roderick Spode being referenced as a "dictator" and all the dictator-related jokes.

Psmith's street is the only exception I can recall... (and I think Wodehouse got a bit more social in that book, the whole American gangland thing...).

[derien.livejournal.com]

That would be an interesting detail for the background of an American adventure, especially if it were one told from Jeeves POV. Keeping his Bertie clueless to all the badness happening back home.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I mean, yeah, Bertie couldn't make it work to learn to stand on his own two feet. Although I'd like to think he could actually do a few basic things, it'd mainly be that he just can't keep ahead of it all, and he'd miss Jeeves too much.

(Jeeves would certainly go back to him without there being any money to pay him.)

[derien.livejournal.com]

That was in "The return of Jeeves," but it doesn't mention it as "The Great War" it only mentions "post war," so I assumed it was WWII they were referring to. I did a ficlet off it, though now I'm thinking of doing another (conflicting) version.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Got it. Ring for Jeeves, p. 141 of the Overlook edition. Jeeves and Bill Belfry, Ninth Earl of Rowcester:

"Were you in the First World War, Jeeves?"
"I dabbled in it to a certain extent, m'lord."
"I missed that one because I wasn't born, but I was in the Commandos in this last one. This is rather like waiting for zero hour, isn't it?"
"The sensation is not dissimilar, m'lord."

[sivib.livejournal.com]

adina_atl wrote this wonderful fic. It's a Jeeves and Wooster/Lord Peter Wimsey crossover and it is terribly good and terribly sad and very much along the lines of the topic at hand.

Green Ice (http://www.livejournal.com/users/adina_atl/58365.html)

[tootsiemuppet.livejournal.com]

Apparently it's not a misspelling. In the American edition, it's Towcester, in Britain it's Rowcester. What fic was that? Did I miss it?!

[tootsiemuppet.livejournal.com]

Jeeves wouldn't leave Bertie for the world. He's far too attached to the man and he knows it.

Ah, Jeeves, how I love your extreme devotion.
Not imagining master/servant games in the bedroom. Of course not. Nooo.

[derien.livejournal.com]

On Bended Knee - you commented on it, you didn't miss it. :)

http://www.livejournal.com/community/indeedsir/28798.html

[derien.livejournal.com]

And how bizarre! I wonder why they would change the spelling of the name in the different editions!

[derien.livejournal.com]

Of course not, not after the nice, wholesome and non-kinky bit of fic I just sent you to beta, not at all.

[peak-in-darien.livejournal.com]

Hehehe.

*Eliot glomps and boogies, Waste-Land style*

[peak-in-darien.livejournal.com]

That's actually quite a disturbing thought.

*mind boggles*

[anima-mecanique.livejournal.com]

Checking thread responses from way back here....

Whoa. Seriously? Jeeves was in the war?

Now I have this mental image of Jeeves as some kind of super-spy who single-handedly stepped in and ended the whole thing.

Too bad they didn't have him stay for the treaty-drafting. Would have saved an awful lot of trouble.

Which, come to think of it, might be an explanation for why Wodehouse-verse doesn't seem to have hit WW2 yet (Ring for Jeeves notwithstanding).