Story 183: "All the Children Are Insane" by MustangSally

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

In The X-Files fandom there are debatably no two authors more closely associated in the minds of fanfic readers than RivkaT, the author of our last fic, and MustangSally, who are indelibly linked by their co-authorship of "Iolokus". Which is why this week we're going to be reading "All the Children Are Insane," perhaps MustangSally's most widely read solo fic.

It's a vignette set in the summer after S5, with sex, angst, and the burnt-office base notes of existential crisis. The posting date stamp on "All The Children Are Insane" is June 18th 1998, just one day before Fight the Future hit theaters. To me the writing has always hummed with the captured tension of that summer, the fever pitch of fannish excitement and anxiety.

All the Children Are Insane

mustangsally78 is still around; sending feedback never hurts. And as always, our recommendations thread is over here.

Comments

[wendelah1]

The way the mytharc is built, there are no truths, no answers. Everything is ventured in a matter of time, and nothing of certainty is ever gained.

Was the mytharc planned or did it just evolve haphazardly? It's not internally consistent, but I had always thought that was a problem with the writing rather than a philosophical position... Seriously, Mulder and Scully as characters represent the antithesis of nihilism to me. Just because the truth hasn't yet been revealed doesn't mean it doesn't exist, not for Mulder. Just because we haven't brought the Consortium to justice doesn't render that goal as meaningless, not to Scully. The over-riding importance of their characters to the series trumps the incoherent narrative.

"Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee."

I don't think we're quite there yet, not even in this story. And I don't think that was the direction the show was headed, as much as it could be said it was headed anywhere when it was canceled.

Except love. Which makes all the difference.

Yes.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Was the mytharc planned or did it just evolve haphazardly? It's not internally consistent, but I had always thought that was a problem with the writing rather than a philosophical position...

I'm sure the majority of the internal inconsistencies are flaws in the writing, but that doesn't change the impression of the story as a series of unsolvable problems that are all somehow joined together into one giant, unsolvable, unstoppable, and - to an extent - unknowable...thing.

My comment was not about the nature of the story or the characters, but about how I (and perhaps others) sometimes view the story - the impression the story gives.

Re: Hindsight is 20/20

[wendelah1]

No, no, no. This is the best discussion we've had here for months! Here's what I wrote in my personal journal: "I'm excited about 'All the Children Are Insane.' Excellent porn plus a controversial Scully characterization should make for good participation, I hope."

Seriously, I think I wrote AtCaI over a day or two without a serious beta and it was never structurally sound enough to handle this much examination!

Well, but why not? How else are we to learn about the writing if we don't analyze and discuss it? I'm not trying to embarrass anyone, let alone you. I believe I speak for the majority here when I say we idolize you and worship the ground you walk on. You were trying to create excitement and you did back then, and look! You still are, after all of this time. I think you have to count this as a winner, warts and all.

As amyhit pointed out, your story is clearly a creation from a particular time and space, an amazing and mythic time for we latter-day Philes, one which many of us were not around to experience first-hand. Some of us were too young; some of us were too busy; some of us didn't know how to turn on a computer, let alone understand what the internet was (that someone would be me, ahem). This is just our tiny contribution to the larger conversation.

Strangely enough, I saw someone mention Sherlock in the comments and that made me laugh - I'd been playing with an idea of writing a girl!Watson fic and realized that it was just the XFiles and I'd done that already.

Now, I love "Sherlock BBC" but I don't see how you can compare Mulder and Scully with Sherlock and girl!Watson. These pairings have pretty different dynamics and agendas and universes. Go ahead. Play with it. Write it. I'll read it, and I bet I'll be standing in line.

But thank all of you for still giving a shit about something that was written so long ago with so little thought. I'm feeling the love here!

Yes, yes indeed. Now you're on the right track. Love is all around. <3

[wendelah1]

Yeah, she's thoroughly pissed and pissed-off.

[wendelah1]

the impression of the story as a series of unsolvable problems that are all somehow joined together into one giant, unsolvable, unstoppable, and - to an extent - unknowable...thing.

Sounds mysterious for sure but I'm still not seeing the connection TXF has to nihilism. But Lord knows I am no expert on philosophy.

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Cool, it's here.

http://undertherug.net/Scarlet/Stories/saligia.html

My one (and probably only) fic that deals with William's adoption. (I think the pregnancy/William arc was 1013's biggest fuck up ever.)

Never Again Lovers Anonymous: The Return.

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Hold on just a minute, folks. It's not just a burnt-up office she's dealing with here.

Yes, you're right and you make some very good points here, Wen, but as amyhitsay it doesn't sell me on that the way Iolokus did. Maybe a few lines on how Scully had changed following all the crap that happened to her would have made her attitude more 'buyable', I don't know.

Hmmm...I'm not sure how far deep in her inner voice Scully's control extends, she *is* a serious control freak.

And I would buy a "fuck me Mulder" (and you know I would NEVER want a "Make love to me,Mulder" line!!!) but the "don't screw around" bit just seemed unecessarily crude and I'm just not buying Scully saying it, not even drunk.

Yeah, like amyhit said there's a macho swagger to her tone that is indeed unScully.

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

The next time I saw him I was
going to waste his skinny, wrinkled, dried up, hemorrhoid-ridden,
incontinent old ass. I was going to make him look down the barrel of my
Smith & Wesson and inhale lead.

Maybe I could write a
book about it and retire to a nice inbred, paranoid, provincial town in
Maine with killer dolls or something. I could write mysteries like
Patricia Cornwall, only I'd get the science right

That's feels pretty mean and bitchy to me(even if richly deserved). But yeah, she's drunk so there's no way to be sure if the mean streak I can feel here is just a product of her cracking bad jokes and being simply pissed off.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where to put this comment, so I've chosen you, amyhit.

I like a tough Scully, tough if it isn't canon, screw canon, fuck that CC shit (see, it's easy, and my family is full of protestant ministers). After all, she's just thinking all this stuff. No character need be 100% consistent with what was provided on the screen. Fanfic, is seems to me, was created to correct what we saw and were forced to endure.

MOREOVER, if we must deal with text, let's not forget that Scully had a military father and at least one military (and judgmental) brother. Don't we think she's heard a bit of bad language? And can't we imagine that her militaristic upbringing has resulted in more than professional determination and deportment and the ability to cope with paperwork?

People come in layers, like onions. And fic writing is not the same animal as tv screenwriting.

Of course, this may be another case of me not taking a story seriously enough. I think of the burnout and bitterness in ATCAI as an excellent excuse to jump into bed. Moreover, it suddenly occurs to me that Scully's top sergeant command for sex is exactly what's needed to inflame hesitant Mulder, and maybe her inner self is suddenly getting that too.

Re: Hindsight is 20/20

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

We love you, Mustang Sally, we really love you! Speaking for myself and my multiple personalities, of course.

I know you're Jersey and I used to be Philly and it was a secret sorrow that I never got to drink with you. Higher praise doesn't exist.

Never apologize.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I am estella_c, and I approve this message.

Frankly, the thought came to me out of the blue. I have no idea what it means. And of course M&S are determined idealists, but the show--no, I don't credit CC with a philosophical pov, other than a rather soggy and sentimental religiosity--strikes me as very Sisyphian. Yes, it's the result of bad writing, also bad longterm planning, but since when don't we get to evaluate canon when it suits our purposes?

We are surrounded by evidences of nihilism. Seinfeld is an excellent example, actually. Politics. We have love, which redeems. Talent helps too.

Re: Hindsight is 20/20

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I think you have to count this as a winner, warts and all.

I agree with wendelah1 on this one. Our fandom wouldn't be the phenomenal thing it is if it weren't for fanfic writers and all their many different visions of the text, and fics like ATCAI were and continue to be excellent, stand-out contributions to the larger whole.

If anything, your fic is in a tough spot with us, because your writing in ATCAI - however rushed - is ultimately solid enough that we deem it worth discussing in depth, but perhaps flawed enough that it makes our task of picking the fic apart particularly fun.

my initial image was sex on the sofa with one foot dragging on the floor and it just being ugly and sordid.

That was a very stand-out image in the fic. I love the thought that it's the kernel the fic began from.

It's also really interesting that you say you'd imagine the fic being ugly and sordid. I think that actually helps my reading a little - gives me license to embrace my feeling that "this is kind of icky." I think a big part of my problem with the fic was that I could never get a sense of how I was meant to feel about it. The writing is an intermingling of hot and beautiful, sordid and ugly. For me the balance between the two qualities doesn't sit well. I feel like there needs to be more of one or the other. But the next best thing is knowing that the sordidness was not only intentional, but a focus of the writer. As someone who is kind of hung up on authorial intent, it helps me het an angle on the fic.

Anyway, thanks for talking with us. Having the author of our current fic show up is basically the ultimate chery on top of any discussion.

[write-out.livejournal.com]

To me that's just a pissed off and drunk Scully who's reached the end of her rope and not out of character meanness. (damn, maybe that means *I'm* a bitch!)

Re: Hindsight is 20/20

[write-out.livejournal.com]

I'm just going to second everyone else and no apologies! This really has been an awesome discussion to be a part off. Your story has always been one of my favorites.

[write-out.livejournal.com]

Never Again Lovers Anonymous: The Return.

YES.

Thanks- I will read that!

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

That scene there

"What's the matter?"

"I can't get it in."

It hits me that this is perhaps the funniest thing that I have ever said
in my life and I start to laugh the laugh of a drunk. Scully's disgust
melts after a moment and I realize that she is grinning at me through her
streaked face.

"You should have taken it out to dinner first, bought it a few drinks,
whispered sweet nothings in its ear."

"What are sweet nothings?"

Her hand grabs the arm of my sodden jacket and pulls me down so my ear is
scant millimeters away from her face. Hot breath stirs the delicate
cilia inside my head and sends the short hairs on the back of my neck
into attack mode.

"Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing," she says in a voice that would not
have been out of place on a 900 number.

That's also one of my seriously favorite lines from smutty fanfic ever. I too can totally see it, and the bit about Mulder suddenly finding that line of his as hilarious actually struck me exactly the same given the circumstances. Like laugh out loud funny.

Also noticed a lot of repetition that I assume must have been on purpose, with a word repeated 2-3x in a few sentences... interesting