The Genesis of Jenny Everywhere (novel)
The Genesis of Jenny Everywhere was a Jenny Everywhere webnovel begun in 2015 by Richard Prediger, intended to explore the backstory of Prediger's version of Jenny Everywhere, who would go on to appear in numerous other stories in Prediger's Tales of Lyniezia. It was discontinued after two chapters were released.
Contents
Plot
Part 1
On an ordinary September morning, Jenny's mother wakes up her daughter Jenny Bainbridge so she can get to school on time. Jenny is reluctant, as she much prefers her constant dreams of other, adventurous lives to her everyday routine, which not only involves boring schoolwork, but also constant bullying by the other girls at the school, who make fun of her for being “crazy” and not feminine enough. Her mother insists, however, and she complies.
Part 2
Still half-asleep, Jenny puts on some music, does a bit of washing up and puts on her clothes for the day. She heads down to find that her mum has headed outside to hang some clothes out to dry, leaving her father alone at the table, munching on toast and complaining about the latest news from Mongolia in the Morning Post. He tries to start a conversation about an upcoming football game between Cranchester and United, to which he wants to take Jenny, but Jenny's mother returns and squashes the topic, insisting that Jenny must hold all her attention on her studies and shouldn't be thinking about frivolous things like sports at the moment.
On her way to Levendale West Academy, Jenny meets up with her only friend there, an eccentric younger girl called Leelee who often skips school and likes to listen to Jenny's stories of her dream-adventures. They are soon beset by bully Charlotte Mitchell and her posse of mean girls, leading to back-and-forth snark which is only broken up by the intervention of maths teacher Mr James, who acts somewhat patronising to Jenny and Leelee but still scolds Charlotte and her girls for the teasing.
Worldbuilding
Jenny Everywhere
- The story features a version of Jenny Everywhere who's currently in high school, on the cusp of discovering her powers. Her birth name is Jenny Bainbridge. She is an only child living with her Mrs Bainbridge|mother and father. The footnotes suggest that she is somewhere on the ace spectrum, describing her as “[not interested] in either girls or boys in quite that way”. Her outfit is described in detail as consisting of an off-white blouse, a dark blue sweater, dark blue slacks, a bomber jacket, and of course her aviator goggles and scarf. She owns multiple scarves, and usually wears a silk one due to her mother thinking that the “green-and-purple Levendale United one” should not be worn “except on match days”.
- Jenny gets glimpses, in her dreams, of adventures other versions of her are having, including:
- Battling airship pirates over the Alps;
- Riding a mammoth across the steppe, and in possibly the same world, “charging the Mongol hordes” astride the same;
- “Trekking though the Amazon” searching for “the treasures of El Dorado”;
- Getting involved shootouts with gangsters in a run-down part of “some American city”;
- Walking on the Moon.
Universes
- This story takes place in an unnamed universe hinted to be some sort of alternate history, presenting a world with details intended to strike a knowledgeable reader as anachronistic. Among other things, British education appears to have been overhauled, with truancy bans and uniforms abolished, but retaining the “forms” framework; airships are in common use; Imperial Japan still exists as a warmongering power making their way inland in Asia, controlling Manchuria and now making its way into Outer Mongolia; and BBC Radio 4 is still referred to as “the Home Service”.
Other
- One of the things Jenny studies at school is supposedly “drought problems of the Democratic Republic of Muganda”, although as the footnotes mention, it is possible that no such country actually exists and she's just using an imaginary example.
- Jenny's favourite food is, of course, toast.
- Jenny overhears the end of Thought for the Day, hosted by Sister Belinda Snodgrass.
- Invasive Japanese knotwood is a concern in Britain.
- Jenny quotes Shakespeare's Henry V: “Once more unto the breach dear friend, once more…”.
- Charlotte Mitchell derisively calls Jenny “Amy Johnson” and asks if she's flying to Australia, America or Cloud Cuckoo Land.
- Leelee tries to talk Jenny into going to the movies to watch a film called Grenadier Mary and the Great Zombie Massacre of 1987.
Behind the scenes
Background
When Richard Prediger posted the story on his blog, he did so with the following foreword:
| Some people might have heard of a character called Jenny Everywhere, who is supposed to be an “open source” character originally designed to be used anybody could use in any story you want, unlike, one presumes, Superman or Wonder Woman or whoever which you’d have to get rights to legally use (not that such stops a whole host of fan works, but that’s a grey area). She’s supposed to exist in all possible dimensions (implying fictional worlds as well) and has the power to “shift” between them. You can find out more about her here, though I don’t endorse all the works posted thereon. A couple of years ago, I started to write a tale based on what I thought one version of this character might have started out as. After all, when Clark Kent was growing up in Smallville he wasn’t quite Superman and was just discovering his powers and Kryptonian heritage. Bruce Wayne had to go through a lot before he became Batman. Peter Parker wasn’t Spiderman before he got bit by that spider. So how did the Shifter start out? Lately I’ve been trying to update it, if sadly I’ve been a little too obsessed and letting it get in the way of other stuff, as ever. For the benefit of those who were requesting it and for the sake of slightly broader publicity, here is a working version of the same. Constructive criticism very welcome, as is any advice on whether I shouldn’t bother wasting my time on such. There’s also a page on the website TV Tropes for the work, which may be edited by members. |
| —Richard Prediger |
It also included an author's note as part of the story proper.
| This isn’t exactly meant to be the absolute origins of Jenny- after all she’s supposed to exist in every possible reality, probably at any point in history as well. Rather, it’s meant to be the story of how one particular Jenny discovers that she is, in fact, a Jenny Everywhere. After all, there must be millions of them, and they have to start somewhere. And her surname isn’t Everywhere to begin with either- it’s sort of a moniker, a general name used to denote the state of being Jenny Everywhere, in this version at least. And don’t ask where Levendale City is. The real Levendale is a small suburb somewhere in the vicinity of a small town called Yarm. This isn’t it. It’s a lot bigger, for one thing. Like Springfield, it’s everywhere — in fact, just like Jenny. And yet, nowhere. |
| —Richard Prediger |
Finally, at the end of the post were a series of seven “additional notes”.
| Additional notes: 1. Jenny’s dreams are actually a manifestation of her ability to read the thoughts of her other selves in other universes- these portray adventures other Jennies are actually having. Apart from perhaps the fighter pilot one, which is probably just wandering thoughts inspired by her dad’s commenting on the newspaper. 2. Amy Johnson was a real-life aviatrix who set a number of long distance records and was eventually killed in World War 2 whilst serving as an auxiliary pilot. 3. A “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”, for those who don’t know, is a kind of romantic fantasy figure, basically a crazy, free-spirited girl who shakes up the boring male protagonist’s life. Whether Leelee would actually make a good one is left to the reader to decide. 4. Lest anyone get any hints from this story that might seem to suggest such, Leelee is not interested in girls either, in any particularly sexual way. Nor is Jenny in either girls or boys in quite that way. This isn’t meant to be a lesbian romance story or a “straight” one either, and I certainly don’t want any “Rule 34” in years to come (remember the characters’ ages). If you want to do that kind of story, remember Jenny is an open-source character, and you can always write your own with her and your own original characters (not that I’m particularly endorsing such). Charlotte is probably interested in boys (as are the members of her Posse), but clearly would not be interested in either Jenny or Leelee. [Edited this note as it was sounding silly before.] 5. School attendance in this world is intended as a matter for the parents alone to decide, not the state. Hence the state can legally do nothing about it. Nor can they keep kids for after-school detention, only at lunchtimes (hence what Mr. James says). 6. Levendale is also partly inspired by a certain village called Leven, probably in East Yorkshire, the author visited as a kid. Certain readers may be familiar with it. Also, the River Leven which is a tributary of the Tees. 7. The narrative is very much sympathetic to Jenny’s in-story point of view, and as such may not reflect the author’s actual opinions. |
| —Richard Prediger |
The second chapter ended on a teaser for a never-released Part 3:
| In our next episode, the school day drags on and on, Jenny gains an unwanted admirer of the male sort… and Leelee, watch out for that bus… |
| —Richard Prediger |
Further details about Part 3 were also revealed on [ the story's TVtropes entry]:
| An unpublished attempt at a third part had Jenny daydreaming (in the middle of a maths class) of being a gunner aboard a zeppelin, which ends up being attacked by fixed-wing fighter aircraft and alt!Jenny possibly being killed (or did she shift at the last minute?) Needless to say this dream was not pleasant. |
| —TVtropes |
Read online
Although no longer available at their original location, the story's two chapters can be found on the Internet Archive.
