xf_book_club | Story 72: "Flea Market Economy" by Punk Maneuverability

So... this is the first time I've posted a rec here, obviously! I'd have backed out like the easily intimidated little fandom squirrel I am, but Wendy poked me with a (figurative) stick and asked me to post this for her, and who am I to deny our lovely moderator? ;) After all, she asked for more humorous suggestions in a thread in the previous rec post, and I was the one who just had to jump in and open her big mouth. I can't be sorry about that though, because either you've read this fic before (it is rather infamous) and will not be at all sorry to give it a re-read, or you never have and you clearly need to remedy that right now.

Believe me, I'm the first picky reader to shake their head in disdain when you say "genderswap" to me, especially if you do it with a straight face. It's been so long since I first read this fic, I can't even remember what ultimately pushed me over that "NO" line and into it... I'm guessing I gave it an initial shot because I was on a PunkM kick and figured that if anyone were to do it right, this would be my one shot to see for sure.

And of course, it's done wonderfully. Hilariously, incredibly, you've-got-to-read-it-to-understand; all that and more. I can't help but wonder whether PunkM has ever had a dream of some sort that involves waking up inexplicably in someone else's body, because that's how it feels to read this fic, and it is all the more excellent for it. And as you might imagine, hijinks most definitely ensue. (How could they not?)

Flea Market Economy

What are you waiting for? Go read, laugh like mad, come back, and discuss! If you have a suggestion for reading, you can let us know here. And remember, as

dashakay is always telling us, feedback matters.

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From:

lsugaralmond.livejournal.com

Aw, yay! I LOVE this story, thankyou for reminding me of it. The bit about Mulder looking like a special agent of porn makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

Also, testament to the quality of the writing, I can totally visualise this story as if it were filmed as an episode. And what a GREAT episode it would have made! They would have had to leave the showering bits out, I imagine, to satisfy the censors, but it would still have been hilarious. Like someone said in comments to the OP, DD and GA would have been great acting as a body-swapped Mulder and Scully. Can you imagine? Oh man, I wish this had been an episode.

From:

leucocrystal

You're welcome! Haha, my God, "Special Agent of porn." I could quote this story all day. I was originally going to go to bed, but the inauguration is just an hour and a half away, so there goes that idea... I think a reread right now is definitely in order. ;)

You're right, it would've been an awesome episode. Especially considering the Gunmen make an appearance! Throw them in, everything gets better. And seeing what a fantastic job DD did portraying another person in his own body in Small Potatoes... oh man, I can only imagine.

Edited Date: 2009-01-20 03:27 pm (UTC)

From:

wendelah1

Oh man, I wish this had been an episode.

That would have been awesome. They would have been hysterical.

From:

leucocrystal

I think they discuss it in the comments to the story, but Dreamland was a whopper of a missed opportunity for something like this. (That said, I'm not sure the show's writers had it in them to be nearly this hilariously clever at the time...)

From:

simplytoopretty.livejournal.com

I had never read this and I'm glad you recced it. It was a fun, easy read. Genderswaps can difficult to do well, but PunkM did it really well. Mulder and Scully are in-character and they're hilarious.

Mulder's troubles with the pantyhose and the underwear and the bra and the heels made me laughter repeatedly, as did Scully's issues with having a penis. Those parts were just really funny.

From:

leucocrystal

Ooh, a newbie to this one! That's always fun when you rec a fandom classic. Genderswap is indeed tricky, but I've always felt spoiled by this one; I can't imagine it being done better. Not just because everyone's wonderfully (and hilariously) in character, but because the details within those perspectives are so perfect, and as accurate as the imagination can speculate.

From:

dictatorcari

Scully's "let's go chase monsters" and the reference to "paramasturbatory" had me rolling on the floor. Nicely done. :)

From:

leucocrystal

Heh, the amount of one-liners in this one is almost too good to be true. Glad you enjoyed!

From:

hlbr.livejournal.com

I had read it before, but it was hilarious the second time around, too.

It's excellent as genderswap and excellent as a comic story, too. I really appreciated that among the funny bits there was sort of serious commentary, like this:

Starting to forget what it's like to dress to the left, to see the top of her bookshelves, to be spoken to first, to be Mulder. But she doesn't need to remember what it's like to be Mulder because he's standing right next to her.

Scully's theory FTW, even if it didn't resist further analysis. That is, that was exactly like the show. Like everyone above I totally believe this could've been an episode.

Mulder's fight with feminine garments is excellent, as is Scully's attitude of treating his body 'as if it was a hotel room'. Just--to full of funny quotes to cite everything!

From:

leucocrystal

I think I've lost count of my rereads on this one, lol. It's one of those fics that never fails to cheer me up in a wonderfully ridiculous manner.

Like you, I love how PunkM is able to throw in some serious bits and still have the flow work wonderfully. You feel that same vibe in the couple of scenes where Mulder and Scully start to seriously wonder what they'll do if they're truly stuck, all comic relief aside.

From:

estella-c.livejournal.com

I so wanted to comment on this, one of my favorite fics, but I love it so that "love, love, love" is pretty much all that comes to mind. I get all choked up with the laughter.

So Wendelah's husband posted a metafic (linked on her blog) and by bizarre association I thought of my husband the sometime movie critic and alltime afficianado of off-center sexuality. He's never read fanfic but I said "bodyswap" and he was there. He read the *whole thing.* Punk M. has no idea how highly s/he was complimented. I asked for a blurb and he came up with "a cross between Tootsie and The Crying Game." Well, duh. I was hoping for something more insightful.

Considering the potential this subject has for lowbrow porn, I think the writer has come close to creating art. Not *high* art, maybe, and of interest only to those of us who value the source material. It has a limited audience and won't be around in fifty years. But it's as good as Some like It Hot!

Mulder coping with an underwire bra recovers Muldertorture for the comedians. And I enjoyed the weird bleed-in of erotic attraction when Scully notices Mulder's(her) hands on her(his) tits.

From:

leucocrystal

Hee, I am with you, believe me. A friend and I reread it together (over AIM), and all that basically consisted of was the two of us quoting every line back to each other and snickering like crazy.

That's awesome that your husband read the whole thing, especially if he's never ventured into fic before! That's definitely a high compliment, but it's totally deserved in this case, so.

I can only chorus in with your last bit. I like how it's 90% comedy, yet the 10% serious really hits it out of the park, too. I just can't imagine bodyswap fic being done more expertly than this.

From:

amyhit.livejournal.com

I’m not really a comedy person, in this fandom in particular, so i was shocked and charmed senseless by how great FME was. I’m a cold fish so comedy generally has to catch me off guard and keep me off guard from beginning to end, which is absolutely what FME did. God, it was great. thanks for the rec leucocrystal

As everyone’s already said, Punk mixes the comedy with a dash of profundity, which goes a long way in keeping the fic from blowing apart with how INSANE the general premise is. Yet at no point do i feel like the narrative gets weighed down or looses track of the manic tone it’s out to maintain or the story it’s out to tell. One of the things that makes me absurdly happy when i’m reading a fic is when the author has an unwavering grasp on Mulder, Scully, and the story. Sometimes it's more important that they know and can define who their Mulder and Scully are than that their Mulder and Scully are close to mine. Punk clearly knows who her characters are. keeping that sturdiness in the story seems to be particularly difficult when writing humor fics. It seems like humor fics can so easily slide into inanity and chaos.

The thin man's holding forth over a table of assorted junk. Tall and greasy as a slim jim, he's in a black suit, white shirt, and a tie that's as thin as he is.

"Greetings," he says to them. "Might I interest you in an antique bottle opener, purported to once be owned by the king himself?"

"Elvis?" says Mulder eagerly.

"Henry," says the thin man. "The third."

"Actually," Scully says, breaking in, "we're looking for an antidote."

"Ah, a discerning customer, I see. Are we talking mystical or pharmaceutical?"

Scully puts her hands on her hips, a holdover from when she couldn't use her size to intimidate and had to scare suspects into cooperating with the sheer power of her pointy authoritarian elbows. Now it just makes her look kind of gay. "You tell us," she says. "Your partner sold us a mind-altering alligator and then disappeared. We'd like the effects reversed."

"We're having a little physical displacement issue," Mulder says, trying to speak the thin man's language.

"Heh, heh," says the thin man. "Ain't that always the way. Youse gotta be careful with the alligator. Very tricky species."
Scully looks like she's about to pop him one.

"Yeah," Mulder says, "the trickiest. Can you help us or not?"

The mad brilliance of this passage (and several others) makes me beyond gleeful. My personal favorite type of comedy is the ‘Go With It’ narrative. That is, everyone is hip to the ups and downs of the universe they exist in. They don’t just flounder, the joke’s not on them – the whole universe created in the story is one cohesive joke. Crazy things happen and yet no one bats an eye because on some level there is an attitude of: ‘no shit. Crazy things are always happening.’ As the Cheshire cat says to Alice: ‘We’re all mad here.’

I did have one issue (problem?) with FME though. I wasn’t sure when canonically the fic was happening. This mattered to me because i wanted to know if Mulder and Scully were already having sex in this universe. It generally seemed like they weren’t, yet there were times when the dynamic they slid into with each other was too casual and brazen for me to believe their relationship had been platonic up until the bodyswap. Yes, the shower scene(s) had a lot to do with it. And the dressing scene. If they weren’t having sex before hand then i find those scenes out of character. Funny, certainly, but also OOC.

From:

leucocrystal

Wow, I'm so glad you enjoyed this fic so much! Particularly if humorous fic isn't really your thing (which is understandable; it's rarely done right or in a truly in-character or enjoyable way).

Sometimes it's more important that they know and can define who their Mulder and Scully are than that their Mulder and Scully are close to mine.
Exactly! I think this is why it's only the great writers who can convince me of something that might be supremely AU, supremely whack (such as, say, bodyswap), or something decidedly different from my own interpretation of canon. Granted, there are thousands, if not millions, of interpretations out there, but it takes a good writer to really sell one, and like you, the first step to pulling me into someone else's world is by making the characters real, 3-dimensional and recognizable (even if they may not exactly match my personal view on them). It's a tricky thing, but PunkM is, I believe, one of the best.

That is, everyone is hip to the ups and downs of the universe they exist in. They don’t just flounder, the joke’s not on them – the whole universe created in the story is one cohesive joke.
That's a wonderful way of putting it! I think that's especially why the flea market scenes work so well and feel so real in this story; Mulder and Scully are the ones floundering around (because they're at a loss as to what to do), but everyone around them is just out there, doing their thing, selling their (possibly mystical) junk. I love it.

I'd say, in terms of canon, it strikes me as fitting into S6, undoubtedly before TF/OS, but I only say that because (a) there are references to the infamous wheedwhack haircut on Mulder, and (b) it's got a tone quite similar (yet much cleverer) than the lighthearted episodes that were going on about that time.

I can buy the physical issues that you point out, mainly because of how PunkM paints the characters; Mulder is mildly fascinated by Scully's body (in a genuinely male way, which is so hard for the female-dominated fandom to get right, I think), but he's caught between his rather adolescent desires to take advantage of the situation or at least make cracks about it (which his usual innuendos illustrate), frustration at how uncomfortable the entire predicament is (very realistic, I'm sure), and quiet guilt at trying or thinking about any of these things in the first place (again, a very Muldery characteristic). As to Scully, first she's stuck in understandable and characteristic denial, then a bit of fear and resignation, and then seems too driven to try and fix the situation (which she still is conflicted about even deeming as "real") to think too much about the space she's currently inhabiting. It's a very delicate balance for both characters, and I can see why it might stick out negatively for you, but I think there'd be much less fascination and curiosity going on in both their heads were they already involved at this point.

(Whee for newcomers to the story and good discussion!)

Edited Date: 2009-01-24 05:40 am (UTC)

From:

amyhit.livejournal.com

I think there'd be much less fascination and curiosity going on in both their heads were they already involved at this point.

yeah, i think that's a big part of what made me assume they were not yet sleeping with each other. ultimately that's what i thought too. on the other hand, i just can't ever see mulder and scully exchanging words about masturbation. i completely believe they would masturbate in each other's bodies (how can that be so squick and so damn hot at the same time?) but i don't believe they would EVER cop to it. even if scully had noticed her body sporting that telling rosy glow, she would have said nothing. mulder's comment about 'driving stick'? i just can't fathom it. even if they were sleeping with each other i'd have a hard time with the idea of mulder and scully talking about it using those terms.

it didn't make me dislike the story. in fact, i think the story needed that sexy bit of kick and was made better for it, really. but all the same, it wasn't something i had an easy time accepting coming from anybody's version of mulder and scully.

Whee for newcomers to the story and good discussion!

i, er- i think i was looking for smutty crackfic one day and found this and scanned it and decided it probably wasn't smutty enough and back clicked, which is why this seemed familiar somehow. HOW SHAMEFUL IS THAT! shhh, it's a top secretiest secret.

From:

leucocrystal

Ah, that makes a bit more sense (I mean, now that you get more specific about it). On the one hand, they've joked about porn on more than one occasion, so I don't think it's entirely out of the realm of possibility (considering that Scully has got to be aware of how closely related porn and masturbation are)... but on the other, addressing it directly is a bit more personal. I think I always just get too caught up in the story for it to bother me.

My lips are sealed! ;) At least you came around this time.

From:

estella-c.livejournal.com

Just to say that I can relax with a writer of PunkM's mastery and go with whatever universe she creates. It's a matter of tone control. In my mind, talent trumps canon every time. (Canon itself was created by numerous writers, all under orders and certainly not always reaching their varying potentials.)

Has everyone read Punk's "Our Mulders," "Our Scullys," and "Our Kryceks"? Wonderful metafic ruminations on what fandom has done to the characters we love.

From:

leucocrystal

It's a matter of tone control. In my mind, talent trumps canon every time.
I think we can pretty much agree there! (And that applies to the two, sometimes very different depending on the individual; both "actual" canon and "personal" canon, I think.)

I definitely have! Classics. But then you saw my recs to Wendy in the other post; I have a huge soft spot for that very small amount of well-written metafic out there.

From:

wendelah1

I have no idea why but I was assuming this was taking place in season seven. I made that up because I went back and looked and there is no mention of a time frame anywhere. Maybe because I was also reading a fic that was set in season seven? Season six works for me.

I agree, they are not involved sexually at this point. In fact, Scully thinks to herself in the shower scene that she had imagined herself doing what she was doing to Mulder's erection, but using her own hands not his. She wasn't masturbating, she was just washing up. He notes while gazing at himself in the bathroom mirror that he had seen her breasts before, thanks to those decontamination showers, just not up close. Definitely not sexually involved. I think their reactions to their new sex organs are very in character. Scully is in denial for as long as she can possibly maintain it. Mulder just wants to put his fingers where they don't really belong. Mulder is pretty open about sexuality, and he enjoys teasing her and making bad jokes. She doesn't rise to the bait. So to speak. Mulder is also more open to extreme possibilities, and seems to be enjoying the situation, apart from missing his dick. He is convinced that they'll solve the case (don't they always?) so he is mostly relaxed, once he ditches the pantyhose and high heels. Scully, not so much. Remember in Small Potatoes, when Mulder asks her who she would want to be, and she first answers herself? She can't even imagine wanting to be anyone else, let alone another sex.

From:

leucocrystal

Ack, that entire second paragraph! Leave it to Super Wendy to sum my thoughts up more articulately than I managed to. ;) (In short, that's pretty much exactly what I was trying to say, but I stumbled over it a bit up there. I think this is why I feel the entire thing is very much in character, not just in PunkM's universe, but the one I recognize in my own head and on the screen.)

Heh, Mulder sticking his fingers where they don't belong. Was there any other icon I could possibly have used?

From:

amyhit.livejournal.com

Mulder is pretty open about sexuality, and he enjoys teasing her and making bad jokes.

I’ve always seen mulder’s sexual humor and his vague come-ons as being protective, nay preventative, of ‘the real issue’. Not dissimilar to a class clown making a fool out of himself because he doesn’t know the answer to the real question. When, in the fic, he was making sex jokes while they were largely unfounded (‘i’d let you sleep with people in my body’) that seemed in character to me, but when he has actually seen Scully touching his/her penis (with some interest), i don’t believe he would be comfortable bringing it up. i see mulder’s capacity for denial to be just as deep as scully’s when it comes to he and scully's sexual (non) relationship. the denail just manifests differently in his case.

I think their reactions to their new sex organs are very in character.

I think their reactions to the organs are in character. I just don’t think the way they broach the subject with each other was exactly in character. Maybe in character within the fic.

You’re absolutely right about them not having had sex yet though. It’s pretty obvious once you go back and cite the sources. I guess it was just that brazenness they showed with each other that kept distracting me from the obvious.

And leucocrystal? That is positively the only icon you could have used. (i feel so crass;)

From:

leucocrystal

I’ve always seen mulder’s sexual humor and his vague come-ons as being protective, nay preventative, of ‘the real issue’.
That I can see, but only up to a point (if that makes sense). I figure that after that many years, he's going to reach a place where he might (at least subconsciously) wish to try and almost provoke Scully into some form of action, if only because Mulder is almost always the aggressor in any steps forward they take. Still, I can see the other side of that too, of course.

From:

amyhit.livejournal.com

Mulder is almost always the aggressor in any steps forward they take.

this is a bit off topic, but i'm so glad you happened to say this. I've been fretting with some character enneagram typing in the last day, and one of the things i was trying to understand for myself was that dominant/proactive vs. submissive/passive aspect of each of them and then how it related to their relationship. just hearing someone else call mulder the aggressor suggests i wasn't completely off base, because it is such a dicey subject.

I figure that after that many years, he's going to reach a place where he might (at least subconsciously) wish to try and almost provoke Scully into some form of action

there's such a wide array of ways that fanfic represents this potentially provocative period in mulder and scully's relationship arc. i'm not sure if i ever felt like mulder and scully reached that point, exactly, but there is certainly a precedent for it in fanfic, and i'm sure it could easily be argued that such (subtle) provocation was evident in the show. i'm not sure i've ever seen this subject adequately discussed in fandom, but i'd love to.

From:

leucocrystal

It is very interesting, isn't it? As to enneagram typing, the very best breakdown of that sort (well, not exactly that type, but close -- rather, Meyers-Briggs) that I've ever seen of Mulder (who is a solid INFP) was done by

bardsmaid, and you can read it here. I revisit it often.

That said, it is very interesting when you consider Mulder and Scully's relationship, and try and pin down who's dominant, who's submissive, and if one of them ever remains fixed in that position or not. I will point out a few obvious things, just in case: Scully, that we've seen in canon, has never initiated a kiss (though she comes close in The Truth). In FTF, she waits, absolutely still, and looks as though she's anxious, but will still allow Mulder to kiss her. Mulder is also the aggressor in Millennium, and in The Truth (when he walks to her and reaches for her).

I've always found this pattern quite interesting, considering Mulder's tendencies for self-flagellation and lack of self-confidence as to his worth as a friend, partner, and likely as something more. Then again, it is still in character, I think; Mulder is prone to leaps, both of logic and faith, and it seems that translates to other passions as well. ;)

Edited Date: 2009-01-25 08:32 am (UTC)

From:

amyhit.livejournal.com

i should mention that i did read bardsmaid's essay. i've been hearing about her fab meta since i first got into fandom and somehow have yet to check it out, so this essay was my first. it was very well supported and clear. i was impressed, and i think she's very right about mulder's character on almost all accounts. i'm not nearly as smitten by the MBTI as i am by the enneagram. something about the enneagram just clicked with me instantly. then again, the enneagram actually says that it will almost definitely be appealing to 5s, so there you go. there's such huge opportunity for extrapolation and interpolation in the enneagram, which is mainly what i love about it. i've been fretting with scully's type though. some time ago she was deemed(by myself and a few others) to be a 1, but... well, i still think she's a 1, i guess, but i see so much 6 in her. hmmm.

From:

leucocrystal

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I do so enjoy her commentary. I can wade around in her site for hours sometimes, if I'm so inclined. She has a rather unique perspective when it comes to the (still) active part of the XF fandom, which is definitely refreshing to read at times.

As to MBTI vs. enneagram typing, I'm not partial to one over the other. (In fact, I'm not even sure what my own enneagram type is...) I do remember this particular essay about Mulder really clicking with me though, because it helped explain to me in another way why Mulder as a character comes so naturally to me and why I identify and sympathize with him so easily -- I'm an INXP (split literally down the middle between INTP and INFP), which is pretty much as close as you can be to Mulder's type without being quite the same.

From:

wendelah1

I think my Enneagram typing is spot on, but my MBTI not so much. Since I took the full length version of the latter, and the internet version of the former, I would have expected the opposite.

As for Scully, reading through the section on misidentifying types, I think I would have to go with One.

From:

amyhit.livejournal.com

between INTP and INFP

i'm an INTP! well, possibly and INTX, as the description of INTJs is very fitting for me as well.

I think my Enneagram typing is spot on, but my MBTI not so much.

my MBTI was pretty much as spot on as my enneagram was, but my MBTI didn't tell me anything that wasn't already obvious to me, versus my enneagram, which made sense of all kinds of eccentricities and anxieties and, and, and. i haven't taken the full versions of either though. one of these days, maybe. as to scully...

reading through the section on misidentifying types, I think I would have to go with One.

i was 99% positive when i was just reading that one website's descriptions, but then i took a few enneagram books out of the library and they went into more depth and had some differing perspectives on the types (not drastically different, just minor things) and suddenly it was almost an even tie between the two types. the thing that keeps me coming back to her being a 1 is the website's description of the relationship 1s have with 4s, because i've never heard anything that more exactly describes the mulder/scully relationship. the first time i read it my jaw literally dropped.

From:

wendelah1

I totally agree. The One-Four relationship description is dead-on for Mulder and Scully, although the character that was confirmed for me in that was Mulder. What is interesting to me about the Enneagram is how complex it is and how it takes into account that people do change, for better or worse, and cope more or less effectively with adversity, at different points in their lives. The three directional part just makes so much sense, as does the idea of a wing. It's not that the MBTI is wrong, exactly, but it seems much more limited in its usefulness. Also, I much more resembled an INFP as a child, but am now closer to INFJ as an adult. This does not make sense, but the continuum described in the Enneagram does, and it's theory also fits why I have such a hard time settling on a description of myself in the first place. This is totally off-topic, isn't it (looks around to see we are at

book_club, not a personal journal)? Sorry.

From:

wendelah1

I assume what you mean by easy familiarity is how casual they are about nudity. They aren't looking at another person who is nude, they are looking at themselves. They've seen it all before.

In the shower scene, Scully does her best to ignore her penis, but once she takes it in hand, perhaps the "dick brain" has taken over? Also, they both note several times that there is some kind of body memory, some residual of the other personality, that proceeds on autopilot when necessary. Plus, they both know how to operate the equipment, so to speak. They've both seen each other naked. I was more distressed by Mulder's idea of what proper work attire was for his woman-body. He would never leave the house wearing flip-flops in his body, why would he would he in Scully's? I decided to chalk it up to his hatred of her high heels. Plus, he is getting a voyeuristic pleasure out of looking at Scully's boobs in that teeshirt. "I look hot." Paramasturbatory, indeed.

From:

leucocrystal

Heh, you just reminded me; this fic includes the greatest usage of "paramasturbatory" that ever has been or ever will be. I am convinced.

From:

amyhit.livejournal.com

wendelah's asked me to post a rec that was being discussed a while back while rehashing The Airport discussion. i'm not sure if this is what she meant, as i'm fairly new here (and fairly clueless), but i'll give it a shot.

The Other Man (http://fluky.gossamer.org/cgi-bin/read.cgi?OtherMan.M) by Jess M. I couldn't find it (quickly and easily) anywhere but gossamer, sorry. It's great in a dark, eerie, and tragic kind of way.

thanks for offering to let me have a go at posting it myself, wendelah. i was tempted, but i think i'll just chill out and stay a wallflower for a while longer.