Story 98: "Untitled Random Case File #4664" by Jess Mabe

[wendelah1]

Continuing my unofficial boycott of all things serious, I bring you something different, courtesy of a timely nomination by infinitlight. This metafic by Jess Mabe is clever, funny, and offers some interesting observations about writing fan fiction. She rates the fic "R" for Raunchy "but no actual sex was harmed in the making of this story." Damn, even her liner notes make me laugh.

Although the author has left the fandom, and has no working email address, at least none that I am aware of, we would love to know what you think of her story. Please leave us suggestions for next time, too. Humor is especially appreciated by the management at this time.


Untitled Random Case File #4664

Comments

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

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.

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

And as soon as I posted *this*, I remembered the name of the funny "bad" fic. It was Wedding Fit for a Princess, by campylobacter. ("My sister looks just like an angle" has been a running joke between an online friend and myself for years now.)

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

First off, infinitlight, everything you've just said about fanfic is absolutely charming and lovely, and i couldn't agree more. for all of the reasons you've highlighted, fanfic has been a fulfilling and fabulous source of interest and entertainment for me for years, and frankly, i feel i would be a significantly different person, conceptually, were it not for fanfic. and reading what you have to say makes me wonder (delightedly) how many others could say the same.

Even when stories like this don't work for me, I respect the writer for trying to do something new

i think this is the camp i fall into. i read this fic a while ago, and i'm not sure if i'll reread it so as to be able to discuss it properly, because while it tickled me, it didn't thrill me. i tend to be much more sensitive to the absurdity and clumsiness of humor than to it's complexities and charms. even so, i feel that fics like this are a more profound testament to how solid and prescient fandom and fanfic is/are than is commonly recognized.

the simple fact of the existence of fics like this indicates how vital, creative, divergent, and expansive fandom is. if straight-up meta is the history and science of fandom, then meta-fiction strikes me as being fandom's philosophy. and is awesome. *g*

[wendelah1]

I'm sorry you've decided not to reread this. I'm interested in your reaction to it as a fan fiction writer, not just a reader. I was hoping more of the writers who I know lurk here would come out of their shells and expound on this gutsy, funny story.

It was just my imagination, running away with me

[wendelah1]

--part of the fun of Untitled Case File is the more serious snark just below the surface).

This is a smartly written story by a writer who is not shy about revealing her reasons for writing fan fiction.

"I had this terrible case of writer's block. It had lasted nearly five years at that point and I was feeling a little less than confident about my prose. I read an article in Entertainment Weekly about fanfiction and I was really into the show, so I thought I'd go check it out. I got hooked, and all these ideas started popping into my head. So I wrote a story called 'Goblins and Ghosts' and posted it. And suddenly, all these emails came in telling me how much people had enjoyed it and that I was a really good writer. It was like my writer's block had never existed. I just... I think I owe the novel I'm working on to fanfiction. It saved me. You both saved me."

By the time I'd finished, I was blushing again. He was staring at me with
those incredible gray/brown/green eyes and he seemed to see into the center
of my soul.


She takes some well-aimed blows at the conventions of fan fiction: Scully's eyebrow, Mulder's propensity to babble, Mulder's eye color, Scully's strawberry-scented hair and eccentric wardrobe choices, Mulder's suits and how they--hang. Then there's the sex.

"You could stay here," Scully said, her voice all sweetness and light. "It is a suite, after all."

"Stay here?" I gulped. She moved to where Mulder was sitting on the couch
and straddled him. She wasn't wearing any underwear.

"Sure," she said, in between sliding her tongue over his ear. "We don't
mind. In fact, we'd just love it if you.... would."

I couldn't breathe. Were they really proposing what I thought they were
proposing? It's amazing what seven years of public coitus can do to a
couple.

Yes. Sexual fantasy is the bread and butter of fandom. As the popularity of certain writers has amply demonstrated, all some readers want is plenty of sex and a happy ending. I think there is no doubt that Jess Mabe's most popular stories are the PWPs but her serious stories are much, much better and much more memorable. Okay, the money shot in "The Airport" is pretty memorable, too. When your audience is constantly clamoring for smut, it's got to be tempting to keep writing it, even if that isn't going to further your goals as a writer.

The longer I was around them, the harder it was becoming to keep the case
rated PG. I know smut attracts more attention, but damnit, I was going for
credibility my first time out. And it wouldn't have hurt to have been
noticed by the more... legitimate channels. But Jeez, the were doing
something to me. All that whispering, the long, lingering looks... the way
he stood right behind her, so close their clothes touched.

Maybe I was writing the wrong kind of story. Not for them, you understand,
but for me. I called a buddy of mine, who's been doing this for years.

"You gotta get the two of them into bed," she said, practically purring.
"You have no idea how big he is. And her... well, let's just say she's not
above a little kink, if you know what I mean. They seemed to get off on
being watched."

Just my imagination, part two

[wendelah1]

She also examines the complicated relationship between the fan fiction writer and her characters, who aren't really hers, at least not hers alone. This passage in particular had me squirming, and not in the good way.

"It's like this... see, I like fanfiction, I really do. In it I get to be
stronger, tougher, sexier than I do on the show. I speak my feelings and
show my heart. I get laid occasionally." She laughed and squeezed my knee.
"But Mulder... well, fanfiction writers seem to love torturing him. The
injuries he has to endure, and the lengthy, draw-out recoveries... and then
there's the fact that he's often portrayed as a bumbling idiot, dropping his
gun all the time."

I found myself reviewing my own stories, trying to see if I had tortured Mulder, or subjected him to unnecessary medical procedures. So far, my conscience is clear, though I did kill off William in one story, off-stage, but still. Anyway, I haven't done anything worse to the characters than what has already been to them in canon.

"I didn't really mean it," he said sadly. "I was just mad that she was
trying to break up. I had just told her I loved her..." He broke off for a
moment and I could see them both lean forward expectantly.

He looked up, right into Mulder's eyes, and delivered the line exactly as
I'd instructed.

"I mean," Billy said. "You tell the woman you love her and she just blows
you off. How would you feel?"

Mulder's face turned a peculiar shade of gray. He glanced nervously at
Scully, who was studiously avoiding his gaze, then turned to look at me. I
have to admit, the look hurt.

There's a reason he makes the big bucks.

"I'd imagine that was difficult for you," he said at last, voice dripping
venom. "But that doesn't mean you can threaten someone, that you can
therefore go on to hurt them."

Scully was staring at me now, and I was beginning to feel the early twinges of author guilt. I reminded myself that this sort of torture was sanctioned by the Big Guy. He did it to them all the time, right? She looked away and I stopped blushing.

"But I didn't do anything to Diane," Billy said earnestly. If he'd noticed
the effect his remark had on them, he didn't show it. God, why couldn't they
all be this good? "I was just mad, I swear."

"I understand," Scully said at last, moving forward, "that your mother,
father and sister have all died of various cancers?"

"That's right," Billy said, his voice sad and a bit whispery. "All within a
few months of each other. Sometimes this world is so f****d up, you know,
man?"

Mulder sighed and drew one hand through his hair. "Yeah," he said, "yeah, I
do."

Scully looked at him quickly, then looked away. "Billy, how would you have
characterized your relationship with your family?"

"Well, sometimes we'd fight and everything, but we got along ok, I guess."

She nodded and wrote it all down.

"Let us know if you think of anything you think might be helpful," Mulder
said, handing Billy his card. "Anything at all."

We'd been in the car for nearly half an hour before I realized they weren't
speaking to me. Sometimes characters can be so childish, you know?

"I was just going for a good audience reaction," I stressed as we walked up
toward their suite.

Mulder gave me a look that said I could kiss my own ass. I left Scully
examining Billy's family's file, and Mulder sipping an Evian with a
disgusted look on his face.

Characters always have minds of their own but fan fiction characters are the worst.