The Folly of Men (short story): Difference between revisions

| hero(es)= [[Jenny Cornelius]]

| villain(s)=

| setting= [[London]], [[Universe (The Folly of Men)|unnamed universe]]

| crossovers =

| seriesnav = [[Scott Sanford's Jenny Everywhere stories]]

| previous =''[[Fragment: Professional Ethics (short story)|Fragment: Professional Ethics]]''

}}'''''The Folly of Men''''' was a [[Jenny Everywhere]] short story written by [[Scott Sanford]] in 2022. Instead of his [[Jenny Everywhere#Kim's friend|usual Shifter]], it featured [[Jenny Cornelius]], a “very English” Jenny native to the 1960s.  

When she calls him back, it is to announce that she hasn't thought of anything with “plausible deniability”, but does have a plan if he is willing to try “implausible deniability” — that is, creating a completely baffling distraction to create chaos and confusion amidst which the British soldiers will have a shot at making their escape. Stewart reluctantly takes her up on the offer, despite his uneasiness at being unable to get her to say precisely what she's planning.

A short time later, Jenny appears in the secure office where a number of international military representatives are panicking together about the unfolding crisis: a [[Godzilla|giant sea monster]] has risen out of the [[Sea of Japan]] and is heading towards [[Pyongyang]]. It does not take long for the Captain to realise that ''this'' is Jenny's doing, especially when she walks up to him and casually asks whether the trapped soldiers have made their escape yet. Trying to stay inconspicuous, he advises her to lie low as long as possible if she really is behind this, to which Jenny replies: “I’ll try to be somewhere else for a few days. Lying low and being unnoticed isn’t really my best skill.”.

====Laura Drake====

====Universes====

====Other====

* [[Jenny Cornelius]] lives “a thousand feet from [[Carnaby Street]]”.  

* Jenny describes [[Russia]]n-occupied [[North Korea]] as “not really the [[Isle of Wight]] as a vacation destination”.

* Laura asks Jenny if she's heard of [[Lee Ho Fook]], a Chinese restaurant “down in [[Chinatown, London|Chinatown]]”.

* Jenny muses that “in [https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/UNIT_dating_controversy ten or twenty years]” Captain Stewart will have “shot up the ranks”, becoming “a brigadier or something”.

=== Continuity ===

* A [[Jenny Everywhere#Adventures with the Cupids|different Jenny]] was previously shown having a good relationship with [[Universe (You've Been To Eden, I Perceive)|another universe]]'s “[[Aziraphale|Mr Fell]]” in [[PROSE]]: ''[[You've Been To Eden, I Perceive (short story)|You've Been To Eden, I Perceive]]''.

* The ''[[Plasmanomicon]]'' originated in the early [[Barbelith Stories|Barbelith Story]] [[COMIC]]: ''[[My Bloody Valentine (comic story)|My Bloody Valentine]]''. It was also mentioned in [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Hermetic Garbage of Jenny Everywhere (novel)|The Hermetic Garbage of Jenny Everywhere]]''.

* Jenny is in contact with a “very special person in the book trade” calling himself Mr Fell, who owns a bookshop in {{w|Soho|Soho}}. This is transparently [[Aziraphale]], the [[angel]]-turned-used-bookshop-owner, from {{w|Neil Gaiman|Neil Gaiman}} and {{w|Terry Pratchett|Terry Pratchett}}'s 1990 novel ''[[Good Omens (series)|Good Omens]]''. Jenny describes him as “very polite, handsome, well dressed, and gay as a tree full of monkeys”, paraphrasing the first description of Aziraphale in the novel: “Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide”. Aziraphale made a personal collection of books of prophecy and other similar tomes, among which the ''[[Plasmanomicon]]'' presumably fits right in. The book ''[[Biggles Goes to Mars]]'', not a part of the real-world ''{{w|Biggles|Bigges}}'' series, was brought into Aziraphale's possession at the end of the novel by [[Adam Young]] when he recreated Aziraphale's bookshop with a few touches of his own. This latter plot point introduces a minor discrepancy in the 1960s setting of ''The Folly of Men'', as ''Good Omens'' quite clearly took place around time of publication, some decades later, and Aziraphale makes it clear he did not have a copy of ''Biggles Goes to Mars'' beforehand, with the implication that no such book even existed.

* The “giant atomic monster” which rises out of the [[Sea of Japan]], described as “something that at first glance could be mistaken for an actor in a silly rubber monster suit”, is evidently [[Godzilla]], as featured in a {{w|Godzilla (franchise)|long-running Japanese film series}} from 1958 onwards. One of the men at the emergency meeting mentions that, unlike the rest of the world, the Japanese already had a contingency plan in place for an event of this kind, nodding towards the character's Japanese origins, although this plot point does not fit the actual continuity of the film series, where Godzilla's first rampages were clearly known to the rest of the world, being too massive to conceal.

* Jenny tells Captain Stewart “If anyone asks where I came from, you can tell them that one day I escaped from my pram in [[Kensington Gardens]] and ran for it. Never looked back”. This is an allusion to the backstory of {{w|Peter Pan|Peter Pan}}.

===Read online===

[[Category:Stories]]

[[Category:Released in 2022]]

[[Category:Featuring Jenny Everywhere]]