Story 111: "Melancholia" by Jeylan

[wendelah1]

"Melancholia" is one of the most unabashedly Romantic stories ever written in this fandom. It seems like it shouldn't work: an old, abandoned house, a graveyard in the rain, Mulder reading Marvell and Shelly and weaving a wreath of flowers for Scully's hair. Her Mulder is mercurial and Byronic, her Scully more earthbound. It's a love story for the ages.

Or is it?

Suggested by estella_c, seconded by me.

By all means, send the author feedback, and then let us know what you think. Suggestions for next time can be made at our nomination post. There is still plenty of time to read and comment on last week's Gutless", too.

"Melancholia"

Comments

[heartequals.livejournal.com]

I'm not finished with this yet, but I'm really curious what other people think of Mulder's internal monologue. I can't decide what I think of it. I'm not usually a fan of being privy to someone's thoughts but parts of this ring really, hysterically true for me. idk.

[wendelah1]

I think Jeylan really gets Mulder, so the internal monologues do ring true for me, as well, as long as they stick to poetry and life and flowers and graveyards. The problem is she doesn't get Scully at all, so whenever Mulder's thoughts turn to his one true love, it starts to sound off.

[maybe-amanda.livejournal.com]

She intensely dislikes Scully. Hates might be more to the point.

[wendelah1]

Okay. That's the problem in a nutshell. I don't know why someone who hates Scully would even want to write MSR.

So come on. What on earth did you say to her about this? Did she tone it down at all?

[maybe-amanda.livejournal.com]

As I recall (this was a long time ago) she went off on me about how I didn't *see* the real true Mulder, (not the one on the TV but the real one who lived in real reality, or the ether, or something) and how I'd been blinded by all those Scully apologists who could not see that Mulder settled for Scully-the-frigid-shrew because he had no choice in the matter - Chris and Co. wouldn't give him any nice girls to play with!!!!!!!

After that, it got weird. :D

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

whenever Mulder's thoughts turn to his one true love, it starts to sound off.

She intensely dislikes Scully. Hates might be more to the point.

in the bulk of my main comment i said that i felt like mulder was two people. now i'm thinking that perhaps Jeylan's hatred of scully has a lot to do with that divide i feel in his characterizations. on the one hand he's this gorgeously perceptive, caring person who thinks about dead family members and truth and singularity of being. and on the other hand he is (IMO) almost boorish. very selfish, certainly. it's like jeylan is taking out her dislike of scully through mulder without even meaning to. she's written an "it's all for you, mulder" story, even though she clearly tried her damndest to write something tender and romantic.

maybe_amanda, do you know why jeylan bothered to write M/S stories at all, hating scully as it sounds like she did? or is that not appropriate fic-talk? i'm just trying to understand the 'headspace' of the fic.

[maybe-amanda.livejournal.com]

Okay so...(consider this yoru two-cents warning)

over the years, I've done a lot of beta, and some of that has been for people who dislike Mulder and for people who dislike Scully. And the reason that some, if not all of them, write - or attempt to write - MSR is because that's what sells. (Some eventually moved on to writing slash, ostensibly because that gives then an opportunity to show their favourite in a *more equal* relationship, a theory I don't buy even a teeny tiny bit, but I digress). But as we've noted, you can often feel the antipathy for either Mulder or Scully in a lot of these stories, and a writer has to be more than just good with a turn of phrase to make it work.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

And the reason that some, if not all of them, write - or attempt to write - MSR is because that's what sells.

wow. *feels terribly naive* clearly i have heard that people do this sort of thing, but...but they really do it? and Jeylan is quite a good writer, too, which is worse. whenever i think of people who "write what sells" i think of people who write the textual equivalent of no-name-brand-fruitloops (colored cardboard). the idea of someone "writing what sells" and actually putting enough of themselves into it that what they write isn't lifeless is kind of troubling.

[hlbr.livejournal.com]

Well, writing what sells in fandom means you care about the community interaction and your place in it. Writers that everyone reads and loves get more power (when power is the ability to convince people to read you/interact with you/heed your advice if you ever give it), but they also get more comments (and comments are the only sure consequence of that power--everything else is hit and miss); and comments, in the end, it's just community interaction. I find people willing to put themselves into work they don't exactly love for it weirdly endearing.