Biggles and the Endless Email Chain

[sholio]

Continuing on the topic of the Biggles books (and by the way, I think Biggles is perhaps THE WORST name to contemplate writing porn with, easily beating out Helmut Zemo and the entire cast of Dragonball Z) ...

... I hoped I would enjoy these, but I really wasn't expecting to get as hooked as I am! I've bounced hard off a couple of them (there is a lot of Period Typical Everything), but the better ones are not only compulsively readable with great action scenes, but also have lavish descriptions of scenery, really lean into every aspect of their premise, and have unexpectedly likable characters treated, on the whole, with a great deal of sympathy. Biggles in most of the books is a lot less Macho Action Hero Man than I was expecting; he messes up, makes mistakes, worries about his friends, is sympathetic to most of his enemies, and generally comes across as a really sweet guy.

rachelmanija, scioscribe, and I have been reading these together (although not necessarily reading the same book at any given time; I had a head start on the rest of them), which tends to result in long email chains liveblogging our reactions. A lot of it is just random commentary on various aspects that happened to catch our eye:

sholio: I just looked up the Biggles books in order:
#74 Biggles Takes It Rough
OKAY THEN.
scioscribe: Damn, Biggles. Respect.


We are genuinely really enjoying these books, but at the same time, there's also, for example, Biggles' tendency to swear by saying things like "Stiffen the crows!" and "Shades of Guy Fawkes!"

scioscribe: I think Biggles definitely makes up most of his sayings. I almost wonder if that's supposed to be the case--maybe a kind of Bertie Wooster-ish vibe where he's charmingly a little addled? But these books don't seem long on irony, at least not from these bits.

sholio: I don't think he's supposed to be intentionally doing it, but I like the headcanon that he's either that much of a weirdo and makes every one up from scratch, or can't actually remember them and everyone around him is just being kind about it.


sholio: “Not so fast, my cock,’ growled Biggles, as he stood on the rudder and shoved the stick forward.”
I'm just gonna leave this here.


sholio: “Biggles smiled, and took a small, flat, sealed package from his pocket. ‘Look at that,’ he said. ‘Fifty thousand jimmy-o’-goblins’ worth.”
He is 100% making these up.


I looked this up later and it's actually Cockney rhyming slang! Which is an interesting character note, actually. Period Typical Everything aside, Biggles in the books does actually come across as someone who is friendly with people from all walks of life and generally pretty open-minded towards people he meets. He is absolutely someone who would have absorbed bits of slang from fellow soldiers or just random people he runs into.

I still choose to believe he makes at least some of them up, though.

More excerpts from our email conversations under the cut. A lot of it is talking about Biggles' rival/our main ship for him, German spy Erich von Stalhein. I have no idea how much sense this will make to anyone who hasn't read the books, but I just threw in various bits that amused me.


sholio: “What about the Atlantic, though?”
“Dash the Atlantic."
Biggles, no, I think you still need to deal with the Atlantic.


sholio: By the way, when/if you guys read the later books in the series, I'd like to know if you can figure out Biggles' living situation. It seems very much as if he's living in a London flat with several of his closest bachelor friends and co-workers, which is definitely A Certain Vibe.
scioscribe: Biggles is very committed to occupying a certain British niche.


sholio: “Do what?’ ejaculated Mayer. ‘What are you going to do?”
I have encountered my first ejaculation sighting in these books!
Also, Biggles Flies East is genuinely really fun. At the moment he's lost in the desert trying to save the life of an injured German pilot (not von Stalhein, unfortunately).
scioscribe: I feel obscurely betrayed by Biggles saving the life of a different German. He's cheating on von Stalhein!



sholio: Of all the amazing aeroplane crashes that surely holds the palm.
This is from the author's note on one of the books. Maybe Biggles talks that way because the author also talks that way.
scioscribe: Yeah, that's a real "mystery solved" moment right there.


[This is probably more context than anyone really cares about, but the initial bit here is in reference to hugelkultur, a German/Eastern European technique for building raised garden beds in cool climates that I've recently become an aficionado of, which we were talking about in an earlier email.]

sholio: I need to go out and finish hugeling my beds*, but I don't want to.
*This sounds like something Biggles would say, except in that case it would mean something like "the look of surprise on an enemy pilot's face when you shoot their landing gear off."

[shortly]
By the way, you know what really hugeled my beds about the Biggles books? I completely mis-osmosed Von Stalhein's role in the series. I thought he was a pilot! Without really thinking about it, I assumed the entire basis of his and Biggles' frenemyship was a Red Baron kind of aerial dogfight antagonism. HE'S TOTALLY NOT.

rachelmanija: Me too! TIL.
"Strafe me again and I'll hugel your beds!"



sholio: I appreciate the detailed description of von Stalhein in this book. This is very useful for people who might be writing porn about him later.

rachelmanija: I am also surprisingly into von Stalhein.


sholio: Description of Lt. Sterne, which turns out to be his first view of von Stalhein:
“As he walked swiftly towards the aerodrome where he had left his machine he paused in his stride to admire a beautifully mounted Arab who swept past him, galloping towards the camp. The Arab did not even glance in his direction, and Biggles thought he had never seen a finer example of wild humanity.”
That's it, Biggles, just be subtle with that crush.


sholio: From the one I'm currently reading, Biggles & Co:
“There’s a lady to see you, sir,’ she said.
‘A lady!’ Biggles frowned. ‘What sort of a lady?’
‘Oh, quite a lady, sir.’
‘But I don’t know any ladies.”
[....]
“And don’t stare at the door as if you’d never seen a lady before,’ he added, turning to the others.”
James Bigglesworth: Confirmed Heterosexual.

scioscribe: Very straight, much heterosexual.

rachelmanija: None of his totally platonic roommates know any ladies either.


sholio: “And secondly, this crook gang will be getting peeved after the way we’ve diddled them twice in succession.”
Biggles, why are you like this.

sholio: "We'll diddle the swine again."
STAAAAAHP.

rachelmanija: ... Someone please tell Biggles what diddling means.


sholio: "Shades of Guy Fawkes!" he ejaculated.
BIGGLES PLZ. No one swears like that but you.

scioscribe: Pls give me all the “von Stalhein is reluctantly charmed by Biggles’s bizarre swearing.”



[We are now all reading Biggles & Co]

rachelmanija: IIRC, Algy and Von Stalhein didn't meet in person, right? Please tell me I'm right about that, because this means that Biggles just described him at length, memorably enough for Algy to remember it.

sholio: OMG, you're absolutely right, and I hadn't even realized that! I am now picturing Biggles describing him in endless detail in the intervening 5-10 years or however long it's been.
Biggles: And he has the bluest eyes you've ever seen ....
Algy: SHUT UP ABOUT THE GERMAN SPY ALREADY.

scioscribe: This is EXACTLY what I was imagining. Poor Algy just sitting there thinking that at this point he could draw this guy from memory; Biggles reminiscing about the distinctive way von Stalhein tapped ash off his cigarette.

rachelmanija: "And he rode magnificently!"



rachelmanija: The Biggles/von Stalhein content in this book is amazing.
I also want to note that the cake is specified to be homemade. No store bought cake for Biggles!

scioscribe: Von Stalhein so made that cake.

sholio: They're the very definition of that Kate Beaton comic about sleeping with your nemesis's picture under your pillow. Or, in this case, baking him a cake.



scioscribe: “At the sound of the well-remembered voice Biggles’ nerves slipped back to normal like a piece of elastic when it is released from tension.”
You know, the way anyone reacts when hearing the voice of an enemy who essentially has them at gunpoint.


Biggles & Co. is definitely one of my favorites so far, by the way. It's got a delightful screwball-heist vibe and some really fun set pieces, as well as Biggles and von Stalhein unsubtly flirting all over a castle while both of them are trying to steal a box of jewels from the other one.

Since we're still reading the books, there will probably be more to come.

Comments

[ellenmillion]

This sounds amazing!

[sholio]

They're really fun. Actually, E might be getting to an age where she'd like them - I wonder if the library has any? (I'm reading them as ebooks.) I could see myself having been all over these books if I had discovered them at her age, although they are definitely the sort of books where you'd want, as a parent, to pre-vet first due to the Period Typical Everything. I can get you the titles of the ones that I think I would have been most enamored with as a kid, which are the more action-y ones.

[philomytha]

MY PEOPLE

The cake was absolutely homemade. I have a whole mental image of some startled guard who was going to provide bread and water getting STRIPS torn off him by von Stalhein when he saw the tray.

There's no helping writing porn with Biggles. You just have to take a deep breath and hope eventually everyone stops noticing. I have seen some fic writers go for James instead, but I'm fairly sure if you said 'James' around him, he'd look around for some other guy.

[scioscribe]

The cake was absolutely homemade. I have a whole mental image of some startled guard who was going to provide bread and water getting STRIPS torn off him by von Stalhein when he saw the tray.

I am now absolutely and wholeheartedly devoted to this idea.

[sholio]

Apparently I had to read 50K of fanfic for these books to finally read the actual books, but I HAVE ARRIVED.

The cake was absolutely homemade. I have a whole mental image of some startled guard who was going to provide bread and water getting STRIPS torn off him by von Stalhein when he saw the tray.

I need this deleted scene.

I also love Rachel's point that Algy never actually met him, at least not up close, which means that Biggles has described him so thoroughly that Algy realized at a glance that this was the German spy his BFF has been talking about nonstop for the last 8 years despite the fact that everyone thought von Stalhein was dead and it shouldn't even have been an option!

have seen some fic writers go for James instead, but I'm fairly sure if you said 'James' around him, he'd look around for some other guy.

The hilarious part is that if I DID do this, it wouldn't even be my only fandom in which the morally gray enemy/sometimes-ally is the only person in the story who refers to the guy with the ridiculous two-syllable nickname starting with "B" by his real first name, James. This is so weirdly specific that you really wouldn't think it would happen more than once. AND YET.

But yeah, I don't think Biggles would know how to react if anyone called him James.

[rachelmanija]

I'm sure it went exactly like that.

[black_bentley]

There are so many comedy Biggles quotes that I made an entire Biggles-themed Cards Against Humanity deck (with 300+ cards). I wish I was joking...

[sholio]

That's amazing. This would make a *great* Cards Against Humanity deck.

[schneefink]

Fun xD

[sholio]

I am enjoying myself immensely. :D

[sgac]

With regards to Period Typical Everything, how are the class issues? Because I can take almost any amount of -isms and -phobias, but the 'lower classes are a different species' and 'servants are not real people' drives me crazy.

[sholio]

I feel that a British person would be more qualified to answer this rather than me. T__T With the caveat that I'm American and therefore not going to ping on really specific British class-marker stuff, it seems pretty decent about it, honestly. It's not like Heyer or Christie where you really notice the narrative singling out people from the lower classes as Stupid and Bad. I would say it's more oblivious than mean - i.e. the protagonists are mostly people with unmarked accents who don't have to worry about money, and side characters they interact with often have phonetically described Not Middle Class accents, but are still more like people living their lives than people who are portrayed as stupid or bad for just not being like the protagonists. One of the main characters is from a working-class background and isn't treated as less because of it, fwiw.

[ratcreature]

The swearing seems quite weird. Also I don't think "diddle" as an euphemism for having sex is new, when I look it up, that meaning is from the 19th century? Though it meaning masturbation only was around the 1950s apparently...

[sholio]

These books are ridiculous, but very fun. I think the author would have benefited from a dictionary of modern slang, which he was completely out of touch with by, oh, say, 1940.

[lunabee34]

Wow. You've got me sold.

[sholio]

YES. I mean, my nefarious plan works again.

I might have a source of nearly every book in ebook, if that might be something you'd be interested in having DM'd to you.

[trobadora]

Haha, I've been reading philomytha's posts about this for ages, and it's amazing to see more people falling into it! These quotes are delightful.

(So far I have not succumbed myself. Mostly because not enough time for new things! These books do does sound like something I'd have loved as a kid, and would have kept loving.)

[sholio]

If you ever decide you want to check them out, I have now read enough of them to give recs, and have also found a download site that has nearly all of them. :D

[naye]

Oh wow, now this is a trip down memory lane...! I was INTENSELY fannish about Biggles for a few years in my early teens, scouring second hand bookshops for the orange or green spines the publishers had put on "boy's adventure" book series. Obviously all in Swedish, so I didn't get the amazing original language (or the original titles), but my tiny little fangirl heart was all over the h/c and camaraderie.

Have you read the one with the polar bears yet? That was one of my favorites, at the same time as my know-it-all younger self was very annoyed that an adult author didn't know about the complete lack of polar bears in the southern hemisphere. I don't think I realized at the time how many things W. E. Johns did not, in fact, know...

[sholio]

Oh wow, what a cool bit of synchronicity! :DDDD I'm honestly delighted at how many people have turned up with fond memories of these books. My adult id is all over the h/c and camaraderie too! The one I just read was set in WW2 and probably had 5 or 6 different instances of presumed dead between the main group of pilots.

... Honestly, I kinda miss the days when there were a lot of MG/YA books focused on mainly adult protagonists. I mean, there were ones with kid protagonists too, obviously, but it's really not that common these days to see books with adult casts of characters but the kind of fast, fun pacing that you get with books trying to attract a kid audience. As an adult reader, I'm really enjoying the combination. Adults should get to have fun adventures in secret island hideouts and fight giant squid too!

I think philomytha mentioned the polar bear book as one of the adventure-y ones that her son particularly liked. I'm looking forward to getting there!

[sartorias]

Where did you find these! They sound so right up my alley. (I used to read every bad boys' school story I could find. There are some really ripe ones from the 1880s and 90s)

[rachelmanija]

I just posted with links to download sites.

[jenett]

My father loved them as a boy (he was born in 1931 in England, so they were coming out all his childhood, and I read a bunch when I was little. It's a very distinct speech pattern, but he thought it was entirely reasonable, just very telling about Biggles' background. (Ok, and also author having some fun with it, probably. But like 80% of it was legit language choices.)

(This is also the father who translated and explained the puns in the French Asterix and Obelix books we had, and where the accent and speech register he had as an adult was nothing like the one he'd grown up with, so I grew up immersed in conversations about Speech And What It Says About Us in the subtext.)

(Did you know there's a movie? Very 80s, but I remember it as rather charming, and we recorded it on the VCR and I watched it regularly.)

[sholio]

Oh, now I'm intensely curious what it DOES have to say about Biggles' background, if you can remember any of the specifics! I think part of my dislocation with it is just that the language choices are very much of a different era, but I don't get this much dislocation reading some other authors who were writing at the same time. So yes, anything you can remember specifically, if you can, would be cool to know!

[madripoor_rose]

Oh, I'm definitely going to have to look for these books now.

...you know who talks like that? The Middleman! "Jumping bananas, we're in dutch!"

[sholio]

Hahahaha.

I am really having fun. I didn't expect to have this much fun!

[maplemood]

Now I really want to check these out! They sound like so much fun.

[sholio]

They are really fun! Although with the caveat that - as Rachel says in her review - the level of Period Typical Everything (mostly racism/colonialism) ranges from absolutely none, to easily ignorable, to "holy shit, W.E. Johns, wtf." The farther from England the books are set, the worse it typically is! But the war and spy ones (as opposed to the "Biggles explores strange lands full of savages" ones) are genuinely good. The things he does well, including action scenes, lush scenery descriptions, and batshit yet somehow plausible plots, he really does do very well, and I've really gotten attached to the characters in the dozen or so books I've read.

[oracne]

These sound great! I have heard about them, but never read any.

[sholio]

Yeah, I think they had been vaguely on my radar for a while, but I hadn't read any.

[silverflight8]

Oh my god these excerpts