Story 167: "Waiting" by Kipler

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Kipler did most of her fic writing between 1995 and 1997, placing her solidly among the early era X-Files fanfic writers, though she didn't write Strangers and the Strange Dead - arguably her most widely recced story - until 2000.

Waiting was written, and is set, in the summer of 1997, after Gethsemane. Following the cryptic and devastating event of Mulder's evident demise, Scully inadvertently happens upon a casefile, and finds herself drawn into its eerie mystery while she bides time in and out of hospital rooms, waiting for her own imminent death to claim her. For such a small fic, there's a lot to this one. Kipler's writing is spare, intelligent, and deeply but subtly poetic - very in tune with the nuances of tension and emotion underlying surface reality.

I first read this fic about a year ago, and it left me feeling a curious combination of awestruck, dazed, a little bit sick with grief, and a little bit giddy with pleasure. But we've covered three of Kipler's fics already so I was hesitant to post Waiting for my own gratification alone. When I saw that coldthermistor had recced it, I could've hugged her.


Waiting by Kipler

I'm not sure if this Waybacked link will work. If not then you'll have to head over to where it's posted on Gossamer to read it. You know the drill, just c/p the url into a new window.

Comments

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

"Waiting" is amazing. I love the way Kipler writes--clear and visual and yet poetic. There's a truthfulness to the emotion, too, that I think is rare. You can really feel what the characters are feeling, and it doesn't feel forced or uncomfortable.

"Waiting" covers some pretty ambitious themes of death and dying. I usually find stories like this hard to read, but there's a real journey here; it's not just written to make readers sad. It's really thoughtful and beautiful.

And I am pretty picky about characterizing Scully. I think she is just perfect here--puzzling out the medical mystery and working with the kids (like in her sub-storyline in I Want To Believe (obviously written years after "Waiting")). I love her voice coming through in the story. Scully's inner voice is precise and poetic (see her journal entries), just the way Kipler writes her.