Story 14: "Blood and Breath" by RivkaT

[wendelah1]

This week's choice is mine. I decided to look through the spoiler category in Gossamer for Gethsemane. I felt there had to be another, more satisfying take on the episode. Look what I found! "Blood and Breath" is by one of my favorite writers, rivkat . I love the way she sees Scully and this is a very Scully-centric piece. Like "Primal Sympathy," it was posted in 1997 during the hiatus, but it is a very different approach to the cliff-hanger at the end of Gethsemane.

Here is what the author had to say about the work:
Classification: XAR
Rating: R for violence and sexual situations
Summary: Post-Gethsemane, and major changes are afoot. If there's a genre you don't like (and I think you know what I mean), stay away.

There are spoilers in the comment thread.

Let us know what you think; let the author know what you think; and please, let us know your suggestions for next time. I promise we will get back to the queue in a couple of weeks.
"Blood and Breath"

Comments

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

In general, what strikes me about this story is that it's actually less of a post-ep than "Primal Sympathy." It starts with the set-up of "Gethsemane," but it quickly moves off onto its own territory. The most noticeable aspect of this is the shift from Mulder-centered to Scully-centered. "Gethsemane" was all about Mulder's angst and failure; here, we get rid of Mulder and find him again fairly quickly, and then move on very quickly to the real business of the story, which is the testing of Scully.

"Gethsemane," "Redux" and "Primal Sympathy" are all about people doing things for Scully, or on behalf of Scully, admitting it or concealing it, but still considering themselves to know better than her in some important ways. "Blood and Breath" is about Scully herself. She finds her own cure, even though she has to compromise herself in doing so. The story asks how much it takes to break her, how much she is willing to sacrifice in order to get the cure, and whether you can really recover after having gone through all that. It asks just how strong Scully really is. The answer is that she is very strong, and that in the end, maybe simply living is enough.

[wendelah1]

This a really, really good review. I have much love for this story. I will need some time to properly respond. You are so fast at this.

I can see why you see this as less of a post-ep than is "Primal Sympathy." It does go AU very quickly after resolving the cliff-hanger of Gethsemane, and had very different goals than did Lydia Bower's story. I think you would agree that it was far more successful at achieving those goals.

I have a little different take on the story. I think the story is about how much it takes to break Scully, how much she is willing to do to live without unbearable pain, and what that self-knowledge finally brings her. I don't believe that she found her own cure, not for the cancer that was rapidly growing within her nasopharynx. The royal jelly was forced upon her as part of the torture that drove her into collaboration with the enemy. She does face her weaknesses and her fears. As a result of being forced to live in order to serve the interests of the Syndicate, in the face of having committed what she would surely see as sins, or even crimes, she does what she never hoped to do in the face of her death: she changes. While attempting to put her shattered life back together, after her escape and reunion with Mulder, she confesses to him that she is afraid. Despite that fear, she chooses to try to create an intimate, loving relationship with him. Not dead yet? In the face of all that has happened, I think she is choosing to live.

You have covered so much already, plus I think I just used up all my best lines. I may have to write a contrast and compare for the sex scenes. Or tackle the religious symbolism. Or, something else.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

You are so fast at this.

I only got through it so fast by not actually thinking very much as I was doing it. I thought it would be fun to try to get down my initial reactions as I was reading the story, but in doing so I did say a number of things that weren't quite right or weren't very well analyzed. So now it's time to backtrack!

I don't believe that she found her own cure, not for the cancer that was rapidly growing within her nasopharynx.

You're right. I was emphasizing that idea in order to emphasize Scully's agency, and the idea that no one else had done it for her. She didn't find the cure, but she did win it for herself by her own attempts (that is, escaping along with the jelly). I guess I almost see her time in captivity as a sort of allegory for her "dark night of the soul" with cancer. I don't know why that is, and I can't articulate my feeling very well, but it is almost like the dark mirror version of the hospital and the chemotherapy and all the rest of it. The place where you live, but lose your soul.

One thing that I wonder is about the difference in the result between Scully surviving because of her own toughness (as in this story), and Scully surviving because of the efforts of others (as in the show and in the other story). You might think that it would make more sense for her to learn to trust based on the latter scenario and not the former. But perhaps Scully has to reach out from a position of strength?

Despite that fear, she chooses to try to create an intimate, loving relationship with him. Not dead yet? In the face of all that has happened, I think she is choosing to live.

Yes, I do think you're right. I suppose I was just withholding judgment, both because the story ends so quickly there and because sex in rivkat world is so rarely unequivocally healing or healthy. A good analogue here is the resolution of Tikkun Olam. I know that was too fast for a lot of people, and not a tangible enough improvement. It is clearly the style of this writer not to offer a long drawn-out resolution phase to the story (as compared with Arizona Highways, for example). She suggests the change of heart, and lets the reader fill in the rest. It is the change of heart that's the important bit, after all.