xf_book_club | Story 65: "The Beginner's Guide to Tight-rope Walking" by Kel

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Story 65: "The Beginner's Guide to Tight-rope Walking" by Kel

This week's story was nominated by

hlbr but it easily could have been nominated by me. Kel is one of my favorite authors in The X-Files fandom. She writes superb dialog, her plots are tight, her characterizations are excellent, and her stories are by turns funny and suspenseful.

Making his third appearance in a Kel fic, FBI agent Jerry Luskin may be the best original XF fanfic character I have ever read. In this story he has retired from the FBI, hung out his shingle as a PI, and (gulp) hired Fox Mulder as an investigator. As Jerry will soon find out, you can take Mulder out of the FBI, but you can't take him out of the game.

The story goes AU after Requiem. Seasons 8 and 9 never happened. Mulder and Scully have a son named William, but he wasn't born in a ghost town or adopted by farmers or anything stupid like that. Kel, I love you.

So go, read it, feed the author. Then, let's discuss it.

The Beginner's Guide to Tightrope Walking at her author's page at Gossamer. Scroll until you find it.

Remember to make your nominations here for next time.

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I'd read this fic recently and meant to skim, but ended up savoring every word. It is so proficient on so many levels. Kel really is one of our could-be-pro writers.

The style is very cool and noire, though the writer's famous wit follows her around like a puppy who won't stay home. We expect to laugh and we do, but there's a lot of fear and sadness. I feel the spirit of Raymond Chandler here; Jerry and Mulder are tough guys who crack wise to avoid whining.

This time I appreciated the plot. I mean, how often do we get a mytharc-related casefile the reader has to work to figure out? Usually it's just waiting till they catch the serial killer with gratuitous sex scenes to relieve the monotony. There aren't any sex scenes in TBGTTW, but it's a powerful love story.

Years ago a bunch of fic writers posted "snippets" of stuff they'd never developed into stories. Kel posted one about Mulder and Luskin as PI's. It was pretty funny. I emailed her and begged her to continue, a request she justifiably ignored. Yet here we are.

(This is my way of taking total credit for The Beginner's Guide To Tightrope Walking. Now if only OneMillionandNine would finish that time-travel thing with Mulder and Scully aboard the Starship Enterprise...)

Poor Skinner.

Double post. How humiliating. My computer went off-line and I wrote the whole damn thing over. Now this! Curses.

How about if I just delete one for you? I'll delete the first. I am Oz, the Great and Terrible.

Thank you, Oz. It pays to have an in with the great and terrible. I keep baking cookies for computer nerds, but...

Kel really is one of our could-be-pro writers.

I agree! Kel is a terrific writer. Whenever I read something this good, I get inspired to read more of the author's work, and I was not disappointed by hers. Even her early fic, which can found with the rest of her work at Gossamer, is funny and readable.

I LOVE JERRY. Seriously, he is such a great character. He seems so real, too, not just a stock character, even if he is based on that guy from Law and Order. He has a wife who is an optometrist, and a son who acts off-Broadway. And a daughter who is interested in forensic dontolology, although in Jerry's head she's going to be hanging out a shingle. Just like every other American, Jerry remembers where he was when 9/11 happened.

I entered the XF fandom really late in the game, after the show had ended but I have read about the fandom back in the day. Someone wrote, and I wish I could remember who they were so I could credit them, that 9/11 changed everything, that after 9/11, we could no longer view the government as the enemy, because we now had a "real enemy." Another commentator even went so far as to suggest that it wasn't the bad writing that destroyed the show's ratings in the last season, it was terrorism.

Personally, I think we have to go with the bad writing and absence of DD, but I like how Kel acknowledges the passage of time here, the influence of history on our characters, integrating it into the mythology of the series. I love her Mulder, who, under his wise-cracking exterior, is as passionate and driven as ever, far more than the man we got to see in IWTB. This Mulder never gave up, never gave in, and certainly didn't sit at home clipping out newspaper articles for six years.

The way 1013 dropped the ball on that chip in Scully's neck always irked me to no end. It inspired a lot of fanfic writers who were similarly irked. I love how Kel acknowledges the distance that had to have created between them. When your best friend has a microprocessor in her that allows her to be summoned and presumably tracked by the Forces of Evil, and influenced by them in unknown ways, it's got to have a chilling effect-- on intimacy, on work, on everything. But it just never gets dealt with in any meaningful way after season five, not on the show anyway. According to the events of The Red and the Black, you would be led to believe that the most important thing to then skeptical Mulder was that Scully thought she saw a spaceship, not that she was nearly barbecued. Lunacy.

But in Kel's (and my) XF universe, Mulder is worried about the chip. He's been worrying about it ever since she was called the first time. He's still chasing after the aliens, too, in very Mulder-like fashion. Covertly. Intellectually. While hiding his activities from the person he has always been able to trust. It's positively Shakespearean, really.

Kel treats the characters I know and love with respect. Her Mulder and Scully don't behave like addle-pated teenagers, they act like adults. Frankly, I find adult relationships far more appealing, and yes, romantic. I don't miss the gratuitous sex scenes, either.

Skinner's fate is appalling, but realistically handled.

Thank you, Kel. This story is an example of fan fiction writing at its best.

Wow, EC, I hadn't heard about OMaN's unfinished time-travel story. Mulder and Scully and Spock and Kirk. Be still, my beating heart...

Ah, I never made the connection that 9/11 happened when xf was still airing. It's interesting to think it may have changed viewing patterns. It does rather (to me anyway) explain the success of shows like 24.

It's interesting to think it may have changed viewing patterns. It does rather (to me anyway) explain the success of shows like 24.

I was surprised to read it, and maybe it did affect some viewers. I think they lost more people due to their cruel treatment of Scully's character, and to painting themselves into a corner with the William plot arc. Killing off the Lone Gunmen, Krycek and Cancerman weren't brilliant maneuvers, either. Truthfully, if I had been watching back in the day, they probably would have lost me. Forgive me if I am repeating myself, but I still haven't watched all of season nine and I'm not sure I ever will.

I agree with you that the success of 24 is due in large part to 9/11. I have issues with that series, but this is not the forum to discuss them.

I had watched some episodes by tv when they were airing, but never all and never in order. I'm doing it now, but I'm only up to FTF... I don't know what I will do with season 9... I'm really contemplating skipping it. I watched the ending episode the first time it aired and I really really didn't like it.

I am thoroughly spoiled by reading ff, of course, but I don't mind. I'm reading post eps in Gossamer after every episode, too, which is a great way of finding gems (and a great way to learn to use the back button, too!).

And yes, this is not the place to criticize 24... the terrorism affecting viewing patterns reminded me of it, that's all.

Somebody on my flist had a post about 24, terrorism and torture. I'll try to hunt it down for you, if you want.

Oh, I would definitively read it if you find it, but don't feel obliged. I feel I'm always having you go looking up stuff for me. *iz embarrassed*

Sept. 11 had a profound effect on my fic habits, but I suspect that everyone lost interest in their hobbies for a while, whatever their hobbies were.

It didn't destroy the show. I think we can agree that the show committed suicide.

One of the continuing weaknesses of The X-Files was that it didn't let the characters grow or change, or even remember. Scully's chip, Skinner's nanites, little lost Gibson--ignored and forgotten.

It didn't destroy the show. I think we can agree that the show committed suicide.

Yes. I have said this before, but I am nearly certain that had I been watching the series in real time, I would have bailed long before season nine. Maybe even before seasons seven or eight.

The horrible way everyone abandoned Gibson, that shook me to my core. Mulder and Scully both behaved as though he mattered only as evidence, not as a real human being.

I remember that! It was part of an epic that got longer and longer but wouldn't end. Like "Beginner's Guide," the main purpose was to get rid of Scully's microchip, but it was just too much for me to handle.

I didn't realize OMAN had an unfinished crossover. I think she could write Seinfeld fic and make it weird, dark, and provocative.

Kel

Others have spoken eloquently about the quality of the writing. It is amazingly good. And for me, it's exactly the writing that makes the humour work. I actually stopped and called my brother to read him aloud a couple of sentences.

I mean, even the sad as hell parts have their upbeat touch:

But she did. You know, there's a lot of stuff up there. Nerves,
arteries, bones. And the brain is right there too.

"Lucky we found a medical doctor for that part," I said.

"A gynecologist. I wonder if he's planning to take the scenic
route."

The fact it featured heavily original characters made expect that I would be jumping ahead a lot (I, uh.. mhh, do that sometimes), but no way! Both Jerry and his wife are fantastical, realistic and plenty entertaining on their own. This part is one of my favourites:

She frowned. "Just how big is this?" she asked.

"Huge, but maybe it's so big that it doesn't matter. Like... like
if you're a mouse in the cellar of the Vatican when they elect a
new pope. You wouldn't give a damn."

"You wouldn't give a damn about his views on theology," she said.
"You'd sure as hell want to know if he liked cats."

One thing I like quite a lot is the subtext/text thing with Jerry's son. I've a thing for gay characters being managed realistically even when they are not, you know, plot points or principal characters, and Jerry's reaction to his son struck me very verisimilar for a guy his age and temperament.

Thanks for the quotes, hlbr. Kel is so damn quotable. With her, God is in the details.

Also about the gays and accompanying attitudes. Kel is wise without being irritatingly pc. Billy calling something "gay" in the car was realistic and funny.

Kel is very funny, and she is able to work humor into the tense moments of her fic in a way that is very like the show itself. She gets Mulder and Scully, and she renders them accurately and poignantly, with rare grace and intelligence.

A terrific nomination,

hlbr.

Thanks you, hlbr. I'm glad you appreciate Roz's pointed humor.

I've been playing with Jerry as a character for so long that a lot of the details of his life formed and jelled without much conscious intervention on my part. I've known for a long time that Jerry's son was gay.

I read somewhere that when Rufus Wainwright told his mother (Kate McGarrigle--I'm a big fan) that he was gay, her response was something like, "That's a hard life." I think that's about 80% of Jerry's reaction, with maybe 15% regret and 5% homophobia. More than anything, Jerry wants everyone safe and settled.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Story 65: "The Beginner's Guide to Tight-rope Walking" by Kel

great choice!

Re: great choice!

Re: great choice!

Re: great choice!

A great review!

Re: A great review!

Re: A great review!

Re: A great review!

Re: A great review!

Re: A great review!

Re: A great review!

Re: A great review!

Re: great choice!

The humour was the thing that got to me

Re: The humour was the thing that got to me

Re: The humour was the thing that got to me

Re: The humour was the thing that got to me