I hadn't thought about this fic for a while before we started discussing Malus Genius, and I got to thinking about fics I'd liked that were mostly humorous (I don't think I've ever liked a fanfic that was played completely for laughs (1)--part of the fun of Untitled Case File is the more serious snark just below the surface).
One of the things I like so much about fanfic (and I think we talked about this in the Iolokus discussion) is the glimpse into writers' imaginations. The sky is the limit in fanfic--want Mulder and Scully to get married, have lots of tiny babies and go shopping for curtains? Just write it and it's real. Want them tortured and to psychologically have to pick their way back to health? Want them to open that connecting door between hotel rooms? Want them to get in a spaceship and fly through the galaxy? All you have to do is pick up a pen and it happens. And what's truly amazing to me is that so many people have done it, for no payment and just for fun. People think up stories that would never have crossed my mind (the once-ubiquitous "FBI formal dance" stories spring to mind) and things that I would have loved to see on the show (post-colonization), and things I daydreamed about myself while waiting in line or procrastinating on writing essays (casefiles, mostly. I don't have a very good imagination (and a pretty low sense of romance, I suspect), which is part of why I love to read. Other people will imagine for me).
Fanfic (when I'm in a good mood :) teaches me how powerful stories are. The sky is the goddamn limit, if you'll excuse my French, and it excites me and delights me and takes me to new places. Kickass.
So the reason I liked this story is because it draws out so much of what fanfic writers like to do. It feels like we are right there with Jess, writing the story, meeting M & S, and yeah, wincing at the way we, as fandom, have treated them :). (I love this:
Mulder glared at me.
"Oh wonderful," he said. "Another cancer case. Can't you people just leave it alone?".)
Untitled Case File reads like a very much smartened-up version of the kind of thing I'd make up in my own head, only funnier and, you know, done by someone who can write. I can't resist stories that mess around with format and style, that don't follow the conventions everyone else is taking. Even when stories like this don't work for me, I respect the writer for trying to do something new and exciting.
I like irreverancy and even parody of the show, when it's done right, and I think this fic toes that line very well. The time-tags (also mocking fanfiction writing), Mulder's rambling and Jess (the character)'s monologue, "the obligatory sickly redneck who can't act".
(1) As soon as I wrote this down I remembered a deliberately bad fic that I found really funny, but I can't remember the title of it, just a few lines.
no subject
One of the things I like so much about fanfic (and I think we talked about this in the Iolokus discussion) is the glimpse into writers' imaginations. The sky is the limit in fanfic--want Mulder and Scully to get married, have lots of tiny babies and go shopping for curtains? Just write it and it's real. Want them tortured and to psychologically have to pick their way back to health? Want them to open that connecting door between hotel rooms? Want them to get in a spaceship and fly through the galaxy? All you have to do is pick up a pen and it happens. And what's truly amazing to me is that so many people have done it, for no payment and just for fun. People think up stories that would never have crossed my mind (the once-ubiquitous "FBI formal dance" stories spring to mind) and things that I would have loved to see on the show (post-colonization), and things I daydreamed about myself while waiting in line or procrastinating on writing essays (casefiles, mostly. I don't have a very good imagination (and a pretty low sense of romance, I suspect), which is part of why I love to read. Other people will imagine for me).
Fanfic (when I'm in a good mood :) teaches me how powerful stories are. The sky is the goddamn limit, if you'll excuse my French, and it excites me and delights me and takes me to new places. Kickass.
So the reason I liked this story is because it draws out so much of what fanfic writers like to do. It feels like we are right there with Jess, writing the story, meeting M & S, and yeah, wincing at the way we, as fandom, have treated them :). (I love this:
Mulder glared at me.
"Oh wonderful," he said. "Another cancer case. Can't you people just leave it alone?".)
Untitled Case File reads like a very much smartened-up version of the kind of thing I'd make up in my own head, only funnier and, you know, done by someone who can write. I can't resist stories that mess around with format and style, that don't follow the conventions everyone else is taking. Even when stories like this don't work for me, I respect the writer for trying to do something new and exciting.
I like irreverancy and even parody of the show, when it's done right, and I think this fic toes that line very well. The time-tags (also mocking fanfiction writing), Mulder's rambling and Jess (the character)'s monologue, "the obligatory sickly redneck who can't
act".
(1) As soon as I wrote this down I remembered a deliberately bad fic that I found really funny, but I can't remember the title of it, just a few lines.