ext_20969: (Default)
[identity profile] amyhit.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] xf_book_club
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

[livejournal.com profile] mustangsally78 is still around; sending feedback never hurts. And as always, our recommendations thread is over here.

Re: in general

Date: 2011-10-22 11:29 pm (UTC)
wendelah1: (Default)
From: [personal profile] wendelah1
Ultimately it's that feeling of existential crisis, shock and haplessness and the suppressed violence of their desperation, that I value in this fic. And the fact that it was written that summer, before FTF, is very important to my enjoyment of the fic. It's a piece of X-Fileana, something penned at a precise moment in x-files history, when the past and the future had both been razed to the ground, and once again nothing was certain, everything was forced into transition, and anything was possible.

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.
Edited Date: 2011-10-22 11:31 pm (UTC)

Re: in general

Date: 2011-10-23 12:45 am (UTC)
wendelah1: (Default)
From: [personal profile] wendelah1
Reading your analysis made me realize that there were things here to notice and comment on but I refused to look at the story more carefully because the genre made me feel irritable and impatient. I wasn't fair to the writer. Here's the problem: I'm not sure I can be.

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: 2011-10-24 12:16 am (UTC)
wendelah1: (Default)
From: [personal profile] wendelah1
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.

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.

Profile

xf_book_club: (Default)
X-Files Book Club

July 2017

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
1617181920 2122
23242526272829
3031     

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 15th, 2025 01:21 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios