Story 110: "Gutless" by Magdeleine

[wendelah1]

Yep, this is the one with the talking parrot, a pretty good casefile, and Scully having "Mulder Awareness Days." The author refers to the latter as Uber-UST in her summary. I think the term "parrotfic," not to be confused with parrotfic, might have originated here. "I mean why read babyfic when you can read parrotfic, right?" Truer words were never spoken, er, written, Autumn. There is a talking parrot in a Syntax6 story that I bet is a little shout-out to "Gutless." At least, I think it is a parrot.

If you don't find this to your taste, try "Bonemeal," which is a very different kind of story. You can find it on her author's page at Gossamer, along with "Gutless" broken into smaller bites. "Bonemeal" deserves its own discussion, but it's so short, I doubt we'll ever do it formally. If anyone knows if this writer changed fandoms, has a different email address, and is perchance still around somewhere, please let us know. Thanks to an anonymouse, you can go leave Magdeleine comments on her story at Archive of Our Own. You can read her fic for The Office there, too.

This story was suggested by amyhit as being one that would generate discussion. I guess it's time to read it and find out.

"Gutless"

Upcoming attractions: "Fathoms Five" by Penumbra, "Melancholia" by Jeylan, and "This House is Burning" by Tesla. If you don't like those, you can always go post your own suggestions at the nominations post.

Comments

[elizabethannfic.livejournal.com]

I suppose I'm in the minority here, but I thought the UST went a little too far. I like UST. In many case I like it better than MSR. However, Scully acting like an animal both in thought and action--clawing at the air or whatever it is she does in the car at one point--seems to me to be too much. The case was interesting. The writing was well done. They seemed generally in character. I enjoyed the fic. At some point--for me--the UST crosses over into something repetitive and over the top. I did like that they don't jump in bed at the end.

[wendelah1]

I suppose I'm in the minority here, but I thought the UST went a little too far.

Actually, I also think it went too far. I much prefer UST to MSR, and gen is even better. Frankly, if Scully was really having "Mulder Awareness Days," she was sure hiding it well on the show. She mostly just looks annoyed at Mulder to me.

I was reading this story under the assumption that with the "Mulder Awareness Days" the writer was poking gentle fun at all of the Mulder(and David Duchovny)obsessed fangirls, and probably included herself in that group. This is the only way I can read this story. It does have a pretty good x-file, it's mostly well-written, which it damn well should be given the beta list.

The juxtaposition of the horrible, graphically described deaths and Scully's lusting for Mulder didn't bother you at all?

Filmed, and minus the interminable internal monologues, this might have made a damn good episode. The parrot was funny. I was shocked when she shot it, although I had made the parrot as the host before Scully did. I feel the need to go find a parrot icon now.

Editing to include new parrotfic icon. Thank you, amyhit.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I suppose I'm in the minority here, but I thought the UST went a little too far.

no, i don't think you're in the minority at all. i can absolutely understand where people are coming from when they say this fic feels 'over the top' to them. in truth, it really is over the top, IMO. it gets away with being over the top because it's supposed to be. the UST is paranormal in origin - thus, it doesn't have to be within realistic bounds, and because the plot was fairly well developed in its own right, but that doesn't change the fact that on some level, i think the entire point of the fic was to have a UST-a-thon. IMO, ultimately this fic was much closer to pure erotica than it initially appears.

and that's basically what makes me adore it. if the focus of the fic was on the casefile i would be fairly unimpressed. it was a perfectly legitimate mystery, but i've read plenty of better ones. i don't even think the characterizations are overly fantastic. but given the extreme demands that the plot called for scully in particular to go through, i'm amazed at how much subtlety and believability wasn't lost.

what makes me adore this fic is that i've never read another fic this dedicated to developing this degree of UST. a lot of fanfic writers act as if UST can thrive on its own, which to me is like thinking a jellyfish is going to thrive on land. by using a plot to give substance and oomph to the UST, Magdeleine has given UST a kind of legitimacy in it's own right. she's made it a vertibrate, to go with my jellyfish metaphor.

UST is so rarely given that kind of legitimacy, mainly because i think it is excruciatingly difficult to manage it. UST is naturally more than just a distraction. Biochemically speaking, attraction and arousal actually preempt and inhibit many other brain functions. it's hard to be reasonable or rational when you're dosed full of hormones. and the same can be said for plot. as soon as you begin writing a substantial amount of UST into your fic, the focus (of both writers and readers) tends to shift. if the writer actually feels the UST they're writing, they're going to have to work harder and harder to keep the fic moving forwards on course. the UST is going to be doing its damndest to draw their focus away from 'business' and onto 'pleasure'. the inherent tension of this fic comes largely from that very struggle. readers struggle to split their focus between plot and UST, which mirrors scully, struggling to wrench her focus back onto task and off mulder.

The repetitive electrical touch of Mulder's hand is cliche

i agree that this fic used quite a few devices that are typical of UST-heavy fanfic. usually i would probably roll my eyes at them, too. in this case i didn't mind because at a certain point i think all desire must lose subtlety as it gains potence. i'm not exactly excusing any and all cliches. the writing could have been better, absolutely. but for every argument against the cliches i can think of an argument for why they make sense within this one specific context.

I did like that they don't jump in bed at the end.

for me, the ending of this fic (everything after the parrot is shot) is what makes the fic better than just erotica-with-plot (though i love it as erotica with plot). Magdeleine spikes the characterizations of mulder and scully into the red, but she doesn't just haphazardly leave them there, all bent out of shape, as soon as the UST reaches a climax. she brings them back to down earth again. nothing is resolved, there was none of that "sex is the miracle cure to everything that ails you!" crap that is so popular in fanfic, nothing between them afterwards has been simplified or clarified by what they've gone through. they're still them - careful with themselves and each other, tentative, and uncertain. in fact, i don't think there is a single point in the fic in which i have more esteem for magdeleines writing or her characterizations than i do at the very end. which i guess is something else i like about this fic, and that i'm unaccustomed to. i rarely read plot-having fics (or smut-having fics) that i like better in resolution than in build-up.