Story 95: "Iolokus" by Mustang Sally and RivkaT

[wendelah1]

A few days ago, someone was talking about fic and the phrase "most famous fic in our fandom" came up. I'm not sure what story she had in mind but surely "Iolokus" has to be a contender for that title. I have seen it nominated by many people for the best fan fiction novel, not just in our own, but in any fandom. I have also seen people say they couldn't finish it because Mulder and Scully were too "out of character."

The misspelled monster that started it all. Although I'm told it promotes heteronormativity in the end, we were more going for polymorphic perversity; you'll have to judge for yourself.

Summary: Painted across the barren and desolate reaches of Texas, the shadows of the Project put additional pressure on Scully and Mulder's already fragile relationship. After a hostage crisis raises more questions about the Project's breeding program, Scully begins her own investigation, leaving Mulder to choose between saving her and saving himself. Finally, the investigation leads to tragedy and Mulder and Scully find that more questions have been asked than answered.

The title reference was to an island mentioned in Medea, to which we turned for fairly obvious reasons.

Warnings: extreme violence, including the death of children.

There are four long sections to this behemoth. My first time through this fic I hadn't much knowledge of canon, so I am curious to see what I think of it now. Thank you to sangria_lila for this excellent nomination. If there is enthusiasm to continue, I suppose we can forge through to the end or just quit with book one. It's your call.

Please leave feedback for the authors and then come back and let us know what you think. Nominations for next time are made here. Since rivkat's site is down at the moment, the link is to the wonderful Fugues Fiction Archive. Of course, the story is also available at Gossamer.

Iolokus

Edit: Since Rivkat's site is back up, here is another link to the story: Iolokus.

Comments

[sixpences.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I have time to re-read the entire thing at the moment (it took me three days last time but I pretty much didn't do anything else) but I'll endeavour to at least go back over the parts I don't remember so well. This is definitely a fantastic suggestion.

[wendelah1]

I'm looking forward to your thoughts. I found it a pretty enthralling read the first time through as well.

[scarletbaldy.livejournal.com]

http://www.rivkat.com/index.php?set=fiction&story=72

This link works very well for mwe. And the advantage is that you can get the fic in a neat and tidy PDF file. :)

And may I say WOOOHOOO! The person who nominated this is gonna be my new best friend. It is common knowledge that I absolutely worship Iolokus, that I have never read anything as outrageously superb and that no writer has IMO ever come close to matching the sheer sick genius of Mustang Sally and Rivka T. This is the fic that made me start writing.

I am not saying the story is perfect. There are many flaws to it. But there are so many moments of sheer genius that you forgive the stuff that could have been tweaked a little bit better.

I have a week off, so I'm going to go re-read this and I'll be back (MWAHAHAHA)

[wendelah1]

It's working for me now, too. But the site was down last night, no question about it. Wow, a week off. Enjoy! I'm looking forward to your thoughts. I knew I could lure you back here somehow.

[sangria-lila.livejournal.com]

I think the Mooselet is sheer genius. You can practically feel the cuteness radiating off the page.

[aloysiavirgata.livejournal.com]

I tried to read this story when it first came out and I was 17 or so. And I totally didn't appreciate it. I was too young and I didn't understand the emotion behind it yet. Then about 10 years later, I came back to the fandom and sat down to read it. And I read and read and read. Lost track of time, and had to call a friend's nanny to pick my kids up from school.

There are a number of serious WTF moments for me, make no mistake. But it's long and that's just going to happen, you know? What captivates me about Iolokus is that the characters are so skewed and distorted in places, but I can still see them every time. This is Mulder and Scully given the gift of their (possible) emotions and reactions, rather than Mulder and Scully as week-to-week TV characters who need to keep things together.

I go back and forth sometimes, wondering whether the Emily arc or the William arc is more cruel to Scully. And there are times when I think it has to be Emily, because Scully had no choices anywhere along the line. And as a fellow control freak, I find that so, so horrifying.

Excellent choice all around, sangria_lila.

[wendelah1]

I go back and forth sometimes, wondering whether the Emily arc or the William arc is more cruel to Scully. And there are times when I think it has to be Emily, because Scully had no choices anywhere along the line. And as a fellow control freak, I find that so, so horrifying.

That is an excellent point. But I always assumed that Scully gave William up for adoption because she was forced to do so. She felt like she had no choice. I also assumed that losing a child you had known and loved passionately was worse than losing a child you had barely met, even though the circumstances of her death couldn't have been more horrifying. I believe that Scully could eventually become reconciled to the loss of Emily, the miracle that wasn't meant to be. I don't believe she could ever get over losing William.

After I have reread the story, I may ask for your take on the WTF moments.

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

I've read thousands of fanfics over the years in at least ten different fandoms, and Iolokus is my gold standard.

And it's funny, I can easily pick out half-a-dozen things I really don't like about it (wrt to some of the above comments, there are plenty of places where I myself can't "see" the characters as Mulder and Scully (I have had a bunch of arguments with my dearest Phileish friend about it--she thinks the characterization is perfectly "them". We both love the story but for different reasons).

I love so much that it's so balls-to-the-wall, so unafraid and that it pulls out all the stops. It borders strongly on parody, but I think it's so well written and such a tearing good story that it's hard to be offended.

[aloysiavirgata.livejournal.com]

And it's funny, I can easily pick out half-a-dozen things I really don't like about it (wrt to some of the above comments, there are plenty of places where I myself can't "see" the characters as Mulder and Scully

Yes to this. I should have been more clear and said I can see them every time I read the story - not in every given scene. Which sounds like hair-splitting, but hopefully you'll see what I mean.

[wendelah1]

I just finished Iolokus last night and whoa, it was even wilder than I remembered. Balls-to-the-wall is right. I'll be back with something more coherent later, I hope.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, I'm pretty new here, but I thought I'd put down a thought or two. I've been leery about starting this story, just because of its reputation, but decided to give it a shot.

Maybe I should hold off judgement after I've read the whole thing (if I can get there..) I'm maybe a fifth of the way into the first section, but it's getting harder and harder for me to continue reading.

I just don't see the characters anywhere in these characterizations. Here, they're both so angry and cold and malicious, taking pleasure in the ways they can hurt and use each other. That a partnership or a personal relationship could function or be maintained this way is ridiculous. Even the ways they think about each other, or remember the past, are either malevolent or emotionally barren. Huge chunks of Mulder are entirely absent - his kindness, his empathy, his humor, his respect for his partner. Even his respect for Skinner or his fondness of Frohike. Likewise, while Scully of course holds huge pieces of herself inside herself, the Iolokus characterization is entirely off the mark. She seems a shell of person, shallow and bitter... and I don't believe either of them would treat sex with one another so casually, or use it as a weapon against one another. I love Mulder and Scully, but I don't even like either of the characters in this story. They're needy, ugly, abused and abusive, and beyond dysfunctional.

Ok, I'm done, sorry for the rant... it may be hard for me to suspend my disbelief and continue reading this story, but I want to try. So far, I'm not seeing what all the fuss is about.

Thoughts?

-Kate

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

Hi! I'm kinda new here myself and before I say anything about the story I'll warn you I'm not very smart, so take my opinion with the pillar of salt it deserves.

I remember reading this story for the first time (o long years ago) and, when I was part of the way through the Iolokus I, sending a long email to the friend who'd pressed it on me that was basically a very long-winded "why the HELL did you tell me to read this?". Her answer was simply "Keep going", IIRC. I did, and I was, and still am :), so glad. It's an amazing story, but it's not an easy one.

I still have big problems with the characterization in parts. There are parts of the story that work for me and others that really don't. Some things make me cringe, some make me flinch.

I think what makes it a good story for me (and bear in mind, plenty of people really dislike Iolokus, so don't feel like you're the only one not appreciating this high-and-mighty fandom classic, or anything) is that it *is* a struggle in places. It's huge and kind of messy and it has jagged points. It's bleak and upsetting and almost hopeless (something I find very hard to forgive in any story), but when it turns around, oh my, it'll shine the sun straight into the pieces of your heart it just broke, and you'll be begging for more.

[aloysiavirgata.livejournal.com]

So many of things you hate are what I love. *laugh* I read Iolokus not as though it's who Mulder and Scully are, but rather as though it's who they could have been. Sure, they're angry and cold, but not nearly as cold as canon tells us they must be. Bury Emily, next case. Put William up for adoption, make Skinner tell his father. That's absolutely chilling to me. But to love someone so much that when you're sinking into despair you trust them to stick with you even though you hurt them and punish them because you don't know what else to do? I can believe that of people who have become extremely codependent and insular. There are great gaping holes for me in places, and parts I don't buy at all. But as a complete package - particularly based on where this is set in canon - I can see it.

[notacrnflkgirl.livejournal.com]

My opinion as well.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I've always loved Iolokus for reasons semi-mysterious even to me, a shipper who rereads Jess Mabe comedies for comfort food. Part of it is the language: all the bravura metaphors and flamboyant descriptions. Part of it is the way every painful moment, every transgression and humiliation, is parried with a bitter joke. Laughter, the best medicine. I'll miss The Reader's Digest.

Aloysia is onto something important, I think, and that is the way Iolokus overturns the limp conventions of 90s series tv by approaching the story as if it *isn't happening to tv characters*. When people are duped, kidnapped, medically abused, subjected to trauma after trauma--well, they go a little nuts. There's plenty of fic to satisfy our need for heroism. This is a celebration of victimization.

With jokes. And an eventual happy ending, which I doubt spoils anyone.

Iolokus is great storytelling, too. We haven't gotten to the Multiple Mulders yet!

Nit: I didn't think there was an Emily autopsy.

[scarletbaldy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think that, because of its dark side people tend to forget another major element of Iolokus, its humour.

Zippy's comments, the Mooselet of course, Catzilla...etc, this story is full of fun moments and witty repartee, some more subtle than others.

And the mutiple Mulders are a damn interesting concept, I agree. Then again, I always had a thing for clones. :)

[sixpences.livejournal.com]

I essentially agree with what's already been said about Iolokus as an AU with a specific premise; while my personal view of the characters is quite different (though I must admit to having been very influenced since I read it), I can accept the grounds on which this story is built and let it run from there. This is not my Mulder and Scully, nor one I'd like to read about too often, but the overall vision is so compelling that I believe it. It certainly doesn't hurt that the writing just pops off the page- it manages to be at times gorgeously cinematic and yet fizzing with intellect and dry wit. Iolokus is probably why other first-person fics always fall flat for me.

As I said above I don't think I can re-read the lot at the moment to comment more specifically, but I do remember being bothered in a nitpicky way by Scully coming off an SSRI (for perfectly legitimate reasons) and apparently feeling no 'withdrawal' (antidepressants don't cause genuine withdrawal, but in my experience dropping them quickly brings you pretty close to the DTs) or indeed any worsening of symptoms. But I may be remembering a little wrong, and as I said, minor nitpick.

[notacrnflkgirl.livejournal.com]

"(antidepressants don't cause genuine withdrawal, but in my experience dropping them quickly brings you pretty close to the DTs)"

Can't (http://bipolar.about.com/cs/antidep/a/0207_ssridisc1.htm) they (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSRI_discontinuation_syndrome) ever.

I agree with you. SSRI discontinuation, even unmonitored, AMA, or abrupt SSRI discontinuation, does not lead to withdrawal in 100% of cases. But it's common enough that it's worth acknowledging.

Although … in 1998, were people who had no experience with SSRIs (I'm seriously assuming here) even aware that could happen? It's 2009, and most of the never-medicated people I run into have no idea.

[sangria-lila.livejournal.com]

I must confess - the only reason I reread Iolokus is to read Book 4 and Book 5. I think the fic's great success and failing is that it takes Mulder and Scully in a completely different direction from the TV show, to the point where I don't think it's the characters we see on TV. And you know what? That's completely fine, because most of the time, the writers of the show didn't know who their own characters were anyway.

I remember someone once saying that Mulder sounded like a very feminist version of a man, and I agree. I think the Mulder here lacks the squidginess of heart and ineptness that he does onscreen. If you are squidgy and inept, you don't know you're squidgy and inept, and sometimes I think Mulder here is too self aware. But whatever. I love the writing. I love the Mooselet (I love that she's called the Mooselet), and she's exactly the kind of child you expect M&S to have. And M&S own descriptions of the Mooselet is hilarious.

I do take issue to how quickly Scully gave birth in Book 5, and to the fact that they named their twins Bram and Cordelia.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I so agree with your first paragraph, since IMO the argument that Iolokus M & S veer from show characterization tends to break down. Approximately as much as the characterization on the show broke down, which was A LOT.

I am not a canon loyalist. Fic writers can create whatever they want, provided they can get away with it. It takes talent. Iolokus is a ferocious display of raw talent.

Yes, the metaphors/similes are sometimes overdone. They can jostle each other. This, incidentally, is a view one can take of Penumbra's beautiful scenes and glittering images. Nevertheless, I love her stuff.

[aloysiavirgata.livejournal.com]

I just finished Syadiloh, and find myself dissatisfied with it once again. It feels so heavy handed, especially the beginning. I get that the end is playing on the "OMG SCULLY HAS TWINS IN A CAR!" trope, but meh.

Note: I actually like the babies' names a lot, which I understand many people don't. I mean, Bram, Cordelia, and Miranda are maybe a little matchy in that they're all from Shakespeare, but it's hardly Romeo, Juliet, and Ophelia or anything. I like sensibly named children.

[sangria-lila.livejournal.com]

Oh Syadiloh is supposed to be bad, and the saga as I see it properly ended in Res Judicata.

Where is Bram in Shakespeare?

Kate? Kaaaaate?

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I'd like to get in touch with Kate.

I was offline while this discussion was going on, and when i came back it was all too MUCH for me to fling myself into after the fact so i snagged a bunch of everyone's comments into a word file and started, sort of, "disputing" with those comments - for my own edification, of course. now i want to post my thoughts, in my own journal, but i'm not very comfortable with doing that unless i can contact the people i'm quoting and disagreeing with and let them know i'm doing it. it seems unfair otherwise.

Kate, if you come back and see this, would you maybe drop me a line or something? or if anyone else knows anything about her - email address and whatnot? please and thank you. Sorry i can't post this somewhere else - somewhere more appropriate, but there isn't really anywhere else for it.

Re: Kate? Kaaaaate?

[wendelah1]

Hey! Welcome back. We have missed you. I was pretty much offline during most of the discussion, too, due to family problems. I'd still like to hear your thoughts on Iolokus. Kate hasn't left us an email address anywhere that I have found. I wonder if she's at Haven? Try leaving her a comment on the next post. She read and loved one of my favorite stories, "Bone of Contention" and left a long comment on it.

[dictatorcari]

Hello from the future! I just started reading Iolokus today (yup, it took me SIX YEARS), and as I googled for a current link, I found this. You're famous!

[wendelah1]

Someone on USA Today mentioned us, too. (shakes head) I liked flying under the radar.

We've added to the lurker population but not the participants, alas.

Let me know what you think. I reread it--just the first section--on a long plane ride a few years back. It still held up for me.

Iolokus

[addisonzella.livejournal.com]

When I first read this fic several weeks ago I posted that I didn't care for it. However, I had only skimmed the story. A couple of days ago, I sat down and read the whole thing properly, and wow. How are two authors able to co-write so seemlessly? I only notice one voice when I read, so to speak, so the collaboration is incredible. Also, the prose is brilliant. Intelligent metaphors and a sense of humor at the same time. I'm now on the third installment, and I'm loving the world that the authors created for our characters. The authors have a unique perspective idescribing Scully's hesitation in her relationship with Mulder. They've fleshed out our beloved tv characters into real people, flaws and all. This is genius.

Re: Iolokus

[wendelah1]

I'm glad you gave it another chance. It is a brilliant, original, and compelling story. I've never come across anything comparable in any other fandom.

Musings

[addisonzella.livejournal.com]

I came across this post from one of the authors of Iolokus:

"We reversed the gender roles even more than they had been on the show with a highly masculinized Scully, and a rather effeminate Mulder. If you notice, Scully initiates all the violence, and Mulder initiates any attempt at emotional connection. It’s no wonder that in the first action scene she crawls through an air duct (vagina) with a rifle (penis) to shoot (penetrate) Bill who has taken the children hostage while Mulder tries to negotiate (nurture)....
In the matter of the various Mulder clones, we were playing with the meta idea that every writer has a different vision of Mulder – gay Mulder, homicidal maniac Mulder, tough Mulder, whore Mulder, and crazy Mulder. Hence the clones."

I hadn't noticed that there was symbolism in this story. I remember in high school English classes, I was frustrated by teachers who would ask questions such as "what does this tree represent?" I always thought 'maybe it's just a freakin' tree?' I was probably wrong, and I wonder how many other symbols with subtext are scattered throughout this particular story. Did anyone else find any?

Also, why do you think the authors had Scully sleep with Marita? Maybe to get close to Mulder in a different way? To try to see something from his perspective?

RE: Musings

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Wow thanks for adding that! Comments from the authors are always enlightening. I had heard about the Mulder clones representing all the fanfic Mulders, but the part about the extreme male/female role reversal is great. Geez maybe time for another reread with that in mind...

[sister-spoooky.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm late to the party, but the fact that I felt compelled to make an lj account and comment when this thread is almost certainly dead says something about Iolokus.

I get where they're going with it. Really. And in a lot of ways, I appreciate what they're trying to do in letting Mulder and Scully actually experience the trauma of everything that's happened to them. I like seeing Scully having some agency, too, since so often it seems like she's just along for the ride, having bad things happen to her instead of being an active player in her own storyline.

That being said, I just can't get behind the characterization. So much of what makes Mulder and Scully good partners, lovers, and characters is that even when things are terrible, they draw upon each other's strengths to get them through, but Iolokus completely undermines that. It's as though all of their worst qualities have become their defining characteristics. Their mutual trust, respect, and friendship have been traded in for a miserable codependence and an angry desire to consume and hurt the other. And tastes of that - that would be understandable, given the circumstances, but their entire existences, both together and as individuals, have been squashed in favor of making them as bitter and spiteful as possible. They aren't themselves, but charicarures of rage meant to star in misery porn.

I really struggle with Mulder being characterized as a literal sociopath. Mulder, who on many occasions has bonded deeply with and wept for the people he encounters in his investigations. Mulder, who was handed the people who were responsible for Scully's abduction and the perfect opportunity to kill them, but decided not to because that wasn't who he was or wanted to be. Mulder is arrogant and often too caught up in his own world to truly be there for Scully, but a sociopath? Hardly.

And then there's Scully, who stands up for women and is by all means a compassionate individual suddenly taking sexual advantage of a prisoner... And Mulder, when he's intensely drugged and in no real position to be initiating a sexual relationship. These consent issues are not only treated flippantly in the story, but they're wildly out of character for Scully.

There are elements of the relationship dysfunction that are, deep down, pretty spot-on, but they're executed to such extremes that it seems at times as though Mulder and Scully are enemies. There's certainly legitimate despair between them - they both need something from the other that they probably won't ever fully get. But at the same time, there's genuine affection and warmth and respect, and there's no evidence of that here.

I'm all for flawed characters and messy relationships and spiraling downward in response to trauma, but there still has to be balance. Almost no one is their worst self 100% of the time, and those people certainly aren't out fighting in the name of what's right and good. Mulder and Scully are human beings, and snuffing out all of their light isn't a meaningful, or realistic, way to write them dealing with trauma. Mean, sarcastic quips don't count as lightening things up.

All in all, it just seems like deeply dysfunctional despair told in a million flowery metaphors and attempts at symbolism. In it's desire to show Mulder and Scully unraveling, it completely loses track of the basics of who these characters are. In attempting to create complicated, messed up characters, this story ironically just creates shallow, angry vessels who share little more than a name with Mulder and Scully. Iolokus is all heavy-handed bitterness and fire with no nuance.

No thread is ever dead

[wendelah1]

Welcome sister_spoooky.

It's been at least two years since I read "Iolokus" from beginning to end so I can't respond to every point you've made. I get why the characterizations didn't work for you--heck, they didn't work for a lot of people, even some people who love the fic. (Read through the comments for reader-responses from some of the fandom best-known writers.) The darn writers for the series couldn't keep them in character half the time. Describing "Iolokus" as "all heavy-handed bitterness and fire" without nuance is oversimplified, although I will grant the fic is purposefully short on subtlety. *g*

The fic was written out of anger, in reaction to events of the series through season five, in particular what was done to Scully. She's abducted by Duane Barry and Donnie Pfaster; she's given cancer; she's turned into a guinea pig by the Consortium doctors, who commit medical rape by stealing her ova and using them to make human/alien clones. But that wasn't enough for the writers: in Christmas Carol/Emily, Scully gets to discover that they've used her ova to make a very sick little girl, just so that Scully can suffer, suffer and suffer some more. I'm getting angry myself, just thinking about it. I can't imagine watching it unfold in real time. (I first watched the series in order in 2006-07 when the slimsets were released on DVD.)

This story is wildly ambitious, and to my mind, the writers mostly succeed at what they're attempting to do: they want to show us how angry and insane Mulder and Scully should be, given all that they've been put through by the damned writers. It's not comforting and it's not easy reading. That's a good thing, imho, given the issues they're dealing with. But--if you make it all the way to the end, to Syadiloh 1 and 2, we (and Mulder and Scully) get rewarded for our suffering, and that alone makes it worthwhile.

The complete Iolokus Series is now at AO3, as well as at Gossamer. I should edit the post to reflect that.

If you want me to add you to the community roster so that you can post unscreened, I'd be happy to do so. I have commenting set to screen non-members for spam prevention.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. It means a lot to know that people are still reading the fic and finding the community.