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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.
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
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Re: in general
Date: 2011-10-22 11:29 pm (UTC)I can value this story for what it is: an artifact of a particular time in XF fandom. I like certain lines. I don't think it's badly written, quite the contrary. But as a whole, I admit it does disappoint me. I'd never read it again, that's for certain. Maybe it would have worked better for me if it had had a plot of its own, if it had been part of a larger whole, as opposed to being what it is and what it was clearly intended to be: a short, first-time msr, a drunk-fic post-ep for "The End." Reading your analysis (excellent as always, by the way) reminds me of how off-kilter I am in how I see fic and how non-mainstream my fannish opinions (and my own writing) are as a consequence. It's a comeuppance and probably one I deserve.
You must have deleted your comment at the same moment I replied to it.
Re: in general
Date: 2011-10-22 11:45 pm (UTC)Will you expound on this? What was it about my analysis (I'm glad you liked it, BTW) that made you feel off-kilter in comparison?
Re: in general
Date: 2011-10-23 12:45 am (UTC)This train of thought started with a fifteen chapter Sherlock story, oddly enough, which I gave up on about half-way through, having realized that it was never going to stop being what it was: a well-written story that was about three characters having sex, over and over and over again, in many different positions and combinations, with and without sex toys, etc. It was more than that, of course, there were feelings, too. Character arc. Whatever.
I know I went into the story hoping for a plot that wasn't just about the sex and the ship and the feelings. This is not what most fanfic readers do. And it's not that I think there is anything wrong with liking to read about sex. I like to read erotica too sometimes, but I think a little goes a long way for me.
My kink is plot. It really is. I want people to write fic that makes make my brain work hard to try to figure things out. Most people in fandom simply do not care about this at all so I need shut up, get over myself and move on. Or write the stories I crave myself. It's my problem not theirs. Or yours. There is nothing wrong with me either--probably. I'm just wired differently or something.
I might have liked this story a lot better if I had read it when it was first posted, too.
Re: in general
Date: 2011-10-23 11:54 pm (UTC)Well, for the most part I think you're in the right fandom, then. Sure, a large chunk of XF fanfic is PWP, or total fluff, or something that just barely clears the PWP bar, but in comparison with what I've seen of other fandoms (especially newer fandoms), XF is the fandom to turn to for plotty, intelligent, substantial fanfic.
And no, I don't think there's anything wrong with liking, or even needing a fic to have plot in order for it to be enjoyable. That is, for the most part, true of me too. I may have a somewhat higher tolerance for PWP than you do, and I'm also someone who loves beautiful, poetic language, so there are fics that you may consider insubstantial than I consider exqusite and poignant. But I can probably count on my fingers the number of PWPs or pieces of total fluff that I really like.
I have a strange inclination to be magnanimous towards ATCAI, and I'm not sure why. I really dislike Scully's characterization, I don't really buy that they would be doing any of this in the first place, and every time the sex scene starts to get to me, it goes and turns me right off again two sentences later. Yet somehow I want to speak well of the fic. Because it was written by MustangSally? Because it was posted the day before FTF? Because one of my favorite fic writers loved it back in the day? *shrugs* I don't know why.
I think it's just the raw idea of them being left reeling that I gravitate towards. I want a fic that spans the entire summer, I want two or three feverish months of this "falling down the mountainside" feeling. I can't entirely explain it, but for me there's an eroticism in that alone, without having to even bring smut into it. It's careless of me, in a way, to have such an appetite for their distress, but it's that honesty, that humanity in the storytelling that I'm hungry for.
Re: in general
Date: 2011-10-24 12:16 am (UTC)Yes! If this had been part of a larger story, I'm sure I'd feel much differently. And if the sex had come after a longer build-up, say a couple additional months of misery, instead of one night of too much alcohol, I might like it more. I don't like drunk!fic because it feels like a cheat. It lets the characters use it as an excuse to have sex. I'm well aware of the potential for sex, drugs and rock and roll to influence sexual behavior, but dammit, I want something different for Mulder and Scully. This story just made me feel bad for them. It wasn't a turn-on at all. Quite the contrary.
You are right. There are many meaty, substantial stories in TXF, so I feel lucky to have found this fandom. Every time I branch out for a little while, I find myself coming back. It is not a coincidence that the story I still like best, and I've read quite a few now, in the Sherlock BBC fandom is a long fic by MA and OMAN. That fandom is very short on casefiles considering who the main characters are. See, there I go again. But it is, sadly.