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

[wendelah1]

I love this story's prose, too. I'm seduced by it. I end up liking Scully, too, despite how unsympathetically she's been written (take that, Jeylan!).

I also got very plugged into the last lines where Mulder is feeling alone, because even the person he loves and who loves him back doesn't understand him. I felt that way, all the time when I was growing up, so that sense of alienation feels familiar, and she writes that beautifully. What I think Jeylan has missed the boat on to some extent, in her portrayal of Special Snowflake Mulder, is that the alienation is not anyone's fault and that the distancing is to a great extent, self-protective. She is a much better stylist than she is a student of human nature.

[hlbr.livejournal.com]

I like both poetic and more simple prose, but poetic prose done well is just so gorgeous. I mean, I should be really annoyed with this fic, because character bashing in general gets my hackles up like nothing else, but I'm all O_O oh pretty.

That last feeling really got me*, too, because it resonated a lot with me and what I usually feel about the people around me. All the same, that's not how I see them usually (they have their moments, of course), which is why I can't help wondering if it's just a consequence of her really hating Scully, or if it was written at a particularly place in canon when it was a common interpretation of the true nature of their relationship.

*Particularly, because I can only rarely verbalize a general feeling a story gave me, and that last part made it clear consciously for me that it was about alienation.