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

I had to post this thought before I forgot I thunk it

[wendelah1]

Not that it's all that interesting on further reflection.

You know, I think the bits of purple prose rather fit the spirit of the thing, which I think was better suited to the readership back in the heady, hormonally-charged atmosphere surrounding the show in its heyday, with The David Duchovny Estrogen Brigade, those Mulder Clones that people could send for, and so on.

I'm still working on my great unifying Theory of Parrotfic.

Re: I had to post this thought before I forgot I thunk it

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

It's funny you should say, because I know I liked this better at one time. It's possible that the whole overheated phenomenon was floating on rowdy fan response, almost as if it had been posted in some kind of feminist strip club while beer was being chugged. It was a gestalt. (Gotta look that up again.)

Sober, we're left with a whole bunch of rather embarrassing morning-after metaphors that simply can't recreate the experience: beads and sequins and feathers all over the floor.

Sigh. Back to the dead parrot.

As for Scully behaving ooc, what was that about her searching for sleep medication? As a doctor she presumably has access to some strong stuff which she wisely doesn't take often, and yet she's ready to take a pill *when she has an autopsy scheduled in like three hours*. This may seem a petty point to some, but not to an insomniac. (Her sleep-deprivation was part of the Scullytorture. Don't hurt her like that!)