Story 198: "five things that never happened to dana scully" by threeguesses

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

The next fic was nominated by lightlack and enthusiastically seconded by myself. It’s written by threeguesses, who is one of my favorite writers to come out of the pre/post IWTB era. Her writing in this fandom was not prolific, but her stories have always stood out (at least for me) for their powerful concepts, enthralling emotional currents, and the deceptive simplicity of threeguesses’ writing. Undoubtedly you know how "five things" fics work, in which case you also know the title of this week’s fic tells you just about everything that can be revealed about it without spoiling the sense of discovery that comes with each new segment.


five things that never happened to dana scully

The author is still around and writing up a storm (though sadly not in this fandom), and I’m sure she would appreciate feedback. There’s lots to say about this fic, so please do let us know what you think. And, as always, the nomination post is open for new suggestions.

Comments

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

First off, I love this fic. I loved it more the first and second times I read it, because of how incredibly much there is to discover in it (five whole worlds!) but I still love it now. It’s one of my favorite of threeguesses’ XF fics. I love her style, how clearly and precisely she states everything, while beneath the clean factuality of her words there’s such a complex and surprisingly delicate array of emotions. I love the psychology behind each of these realities, the way threeguesses seems to understand what a situation means to the characters who are in it, the way it changes them.

I absolutely do not mind the fragmentary nature of each of these realities. In fact, I feel that part of what makes the writing so effective is the way threeguesses seems to know exactly what to reveal and how much to reveal and how exactly to reveal it, with precision and sensitivity. Each reality feels distinct and believable and emotionally coherent.

As for how a fic like this is meant to be considered, I don’t know. The way I think of alternate realities, however, is as simultaneously theoretical and real. Each alternate reality is a theoretical experiment for the author, but once created they become “real” in the same way any fictional reality is real. Once written, I consider each of these realities to exist in full. It’s just that only a small window is open for us to see into them.

As for favorite realities, mine are two and five. I think five is absolutely brilliant. It’s one of the more psychologically profound ideas I’ve come across in fanfic. After leading us down the rabbit hole and through the ever-shifting maze of realities, the last one simply, unflinchingly erases every trace of the story as we know it. Canon, the story that served as our door into this thought experiment, is written out of existence. There is a feeling of intellectual vertigo. Every reference point vanishes.

Reality two, on the other hand, is a universe I wish to explore at length. Existential conflict is so deliciously, painfully inherent to this reality. Is Samantha effectively her brother? They’re similar, certainly, which is only right given the circumstances of his/her upbringing, but I’ve always felt it’s more than that – more than mere similarity. It’s as though the universe is trying to restore order, as though Samantha’s character were liquid poured over a surface already shaped by her brother’s identity, so that her character can’t help but begin to shape into an approximation of her brother. Or maybe not. It’s far more interesting if that question is left up in the air – a feeling one gets, an intangible suspicion. Which is exactly what I feel about part two of this fic.

I also think there is something interesting about the things that seem to be different between Scully and Samantha because of the gender switch. Sam touches Scully in intimate ways that Mulder wouldn’t. They seem to be a bit more casual with each other, being able to pretend sex isn’t an issue, in a way that Scully could not have done with Mulder.

Plus I find the last line of part two heartbreaking, though I’m not sure why. I think it’s because of that inherent conflict between realities. It feels as though neither Scully nor Sam quite had a choice about ending up here. For all that they’ve done, it was always going to come to this, which is terribly unfair.

I have some thoughts about the other parts too, which I might get to a little later. Right now I’m off to read the many comments for this fic which I haven’t yet read.