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xf_book_clubThe next fic was nominated by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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.
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.
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Date: 2012-02-25 11:52 pm (UTC)I suppose I could use this, my confusion over the tags, as some kind of a jumping off point for talking about the nature of "five things" fics. The way revelation is such a huge part of them. What's changed? What's different? When and how will you be shown? Will it be a fast reveal, shockingly abrupt, or a slow reveal, the creeping sense of understanding, of an idea taking shape? The "five things" fic is inherently imbued with it's own kind of tension; one is entering into a story in which anything could happen, from which closure cannot be expected, in which there is always, for the reader, a sense of loss, and the real question is what the nature of that loss will be - how much bitter will it contain, and how much sweet?
Okay, well, that's a start.
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Date: 2012-02-26 12:06 am (UTC)1 - While I'm not the biggest fan of domesticated Mulder and Scully, the fact that they're both still working on the X-Files (at least, I'm assuming they're still on the X-Files, Mulder was only "on loan" Violent Crimes) while living together and raising a family made me like this. I don't like to think that they can only choose between one of the two, living a "normal" life, or working on The X-Files (though I suppose that Mulder would have to greatly tone down his reckless, risk-taking behaviours upon becoming a "family man" -- though that's probably something he should do, anyway, ha ha).
2 - I liked this one, but I'm not sure if I buy the idea of Samantha basically being a female version of her brother.
3 - The problem is, Scully doesn’t really know how to be someone’s mother; she’s never been very good at hugs; she’s rubbish at make believe. She only knows how to tie her shoes one way (and it doesn't involve bunny rabbits). But she tries. She goes through the motions; bath time and band aids and hold hands to cross the street. She does it again and again and eventually it becomes… well, if not natural, at least second nature.
This is pretty much how I'd imagine Scully would approach motherhood.
4 - I find it very believable that Mulder would start out rambling on about some random supernatural topic before jumping in to tell Scully his feelings. It's like he had to make himself feel comfortable at first by beginning to talk about the kind of stuff he feels most at ease discussing, before doing something he probably feels a lot less comfortable doing.
5 - Short, but effective.
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Date: 2012-02-26 12:13 am (UTC)The way revelation is such a huge part of them. What's changed? What's different?
What I like about this -- and other -- "what if?" fics, is that it gives a bigger picture of who these characters are -- well, at least, as understood through the minds of the individual fic writers -- because you can see how they would act in situations the show would never have put them in. Reading this is actually jump-starting my brain to conjure up "what if?" scenarios of my own (which I may or may not turn into an actual fic, ha ha).
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Date: 2012-02-26 12:21 am (UTC)"5 things/times/ways" are one of my two favourite types of fanfics (along with 100 word drabbles) and this one is by far my favourite of them all!
I love how understated and, as the OP said, simplistic it seems at first, but then you realize it's really not. And there's the last one, the shortest of all, but also the one that stands out the most and makes for the perfect conclusion.
The first time I read the last one, I gasped out loud, felt like someone had punched me in the stomach and had tears in my eyes, because it reminded me of how different my own life would have been, if this show had never been made, been made in a different way or if somehow I had never started watching it or if anything else along the way had been different and it wouldn't have had the impact it has had on me.
Those three, down to the point, lines evoked a lot of thoughts in me and that's the beauty and shows the true brilliance of threeguesses' writing for me.
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Date: 2012-02-26 03:59 am (UTC)I loved all of these, but #3 broke my heart (in the best possible way) and #5...wow. It said so little but so much.
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Date: 2012-02-26 06:26 am (UTC)I didn't read it so much as being a female version of him. I assume he's the one who's been taken in this scenario, and so she's become the one working the X-Files because of the impact the abduction had on her. I always thought "spending lots of time trying to learn about UFOs" was a pretty reasonable life choice for someone who believed they'd seen a family member abducted by aliens.
It's logical that they'd have other things in common (channel surfing, smirking :); they're siblings.
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Date: 2012-02-26 10:33 pm (UTC)I liked the happy stories best, natch, but the unhappy ones didn't hurt too much because... moving on. The Samantha Mulder one was not to my taste. She is not her brother. Still, why not? As long as you keep moving.
I of course loved the "happy ending" pillow talk, and I do think it carefully thought and shapely. Mulder, in rambling about ghost lights, is actually implying that he may have been lured astray and would rather come back to the human mundane. "I always wanted you to marry me" is such a poignant truth, so cut-to-the-chase. ( It seems to me that someone--Alelou--had Mulder saying something like that before the two had even kissed. Played for laughs, that one.)
Great head-butt ending. The possibility of no possibilities. Like edisto0304, it made me wonder how not just Scully's but my life would have changed as well.
These are beautifully done; threeguesses is a good writer. But I wonder--how to say?--if we get how close to meta they are. They are really like improv, practice, hinting at events that can't seem mortally serious because they "never happened." They make us think of the ephemeral quality of fic, but more regretfully of the let's-try-this hodgepodge of the last years of show canon. The X-Files was a cunning experiment in series tv and an enduring influence. I'm thinking if CC had treated it less like a "five things" hobby, it would have been a proud epic for whatever of the tech entertainment age we have left.
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Date: 2012-02-26 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-27 10:21 am (UTC)So, as much as I loved
The only one I really liked in this was #5, because it's a perfect way to end this kind of story. And who hasn't wondered what would have happened if Scully hadn't been well, Scully?" (and please nobody says "Cynthia Nixon" or I'll shoot. )
#1 made me cringe, but it's no secret I have a terribly low tolerance threshold for sweet and cuddly baby fic.
#2 Interesting idea but this Samantha sounds too much like a dude with her "Pretty girl like you and a place like this." and not a very subtle one at that. Plus, making this Samantha gay feels sloppy to me, because this means the writer doesn't have to make too many efforts to make this character sound like her brother - being all flirty with Scully. The real challenge here would have been to keep this Sam straight and still manage to convey the thing (you all know that thing) that sparks between M&S. Now there, I would have been impressed. As it is, meh. ( And just to be on the safe side in case anybody decides to get offended for the wrong reasons, I have NO issues with Sam being gay or Scully being gay. Their sexual orientation is not what I'm talking about here.)
#3 See, I don't buy Scully not knowing how to be a mother. We've seen many times that Scully is great with kids. As much as I loathe baby fic I do see why people would want to write about Scully with kids in tow. She's got this all emcompassing compassion and kindness coupled with this no bullshit attitude that is the trademark of great motherhood. And besides I don't buy her losing touch with Mulder, not like this. So to me, this "what if" just feels pretty pointless.
#4.Nothing much to say about that one. It's not bad, it's just not very original is all.
So yeah, it's definitely well written, and I love this author's lean writing style and effortless humour, still, I don't think this one is anything much to write home about. But since I don't really care for the genre this kind of story is always going to be a hard sell. *shrugs*
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Date: 2012-02-27 11:27 am (UTC)Honestly, in regard to the topic, I think that the "five things" trope(?) means that you aren't committed to buy any of them. You're just indulging in multiple universes. I prefer fics that take the au idea more seriously, like "Lullaby for a Stormy Night" or "Tikkun Olum."
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Date: 2012-02-27 06:02 pm (UTC)I know you're not supposed to buy those "Five Things" but they still have to have a minimum of credibility in their particular universe. I can buy Scully wanting more kids, but I can't buy her sucking at motherhood because it doesn't make sense within the character's canon.
Who wrote that Lullaby story you speak of?
Tikkun Olam, guhh I hated that fic! I found it nasty and soulless without any of the redeeming values that had made Iolokus so great. Probably my biggest disapointment as a reader.
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Date: 2012-02-27 06:21 pm (UTC)The first time through, I enjoyed reading this one more than you. I was completely engaged in it, but this time around, I can totally see where you're coming from. I agree, #5 absolutely was the knock out blow, a perfect ending for this story. It made me gasp the first time around.
#2 Interesting idea but this Samantha sounds too much like a dude with her "Pretty girl like you and a place like this." and not a very subtle one at that. Plus, making this Samantha gay feels sloppy to me, because this means the writer doesn't have to make too many efforts to make this character sound like her brother - being all flirty with Scully. The real challenge here would have been to keep this Sam straight and still manage to convey the thing (you all know that thing) that sparks between M&S. Now there, I would have been impressed. As it is, meh. ( And just to be on the safe side in case anybody decides to get offended for the wrong reasons, I have NO issues with Sam being gay or Scully being gay. Their sexual orientation is not what I'm talking about here.)
You put this very well. Not only that, Samantha's character isn't developed enough. She just seems like a knock-off of Mulder, rather than a person in her own right. Not only that, and this was my problem with this section when I read it the first time, she in no way resembles the Samantha we saw on screen. Or the Samantha hybrid, whatever. Stupid myth-arc. Also her line sounds just as stupid coming from a woman's mouth as it does from a guy's. Ugh, Maybe worse. I am sure she had her fine qualities but we never got to see them.
Anyway, I don't think any of these scenarios was meant to be taken seriously for their plots; instead, I think collectively they all must be a statement about the series itself. It must be a metafic, because not only did none of these things happen to Dana Scully, none of them could have. They aren't true AUs, except maybe the Emily one, and even there, I can't see it happening. Scully would never let herself lose touch with Mulder, even if she did go back to work at Quantico in order to raise Emily. Mulder would never let himself lose touch with Scully. The only fic I've ever found myself going, okay, maybe I can buy into this scenario was Syntax6's last, still unfinished story. I even had problems with Rivkat's "Up the Ladder." In rejecting it, I learned something about how I see Mulder and Scully.
Number one couldn't have happened because David Duchovny left the series, which made the happy family alternative an impossibility. It's an AU, but only if you throw out season nine, which isn't a bad idea, now that I think about it. The closest story to this that I can think of is mine, the cross-over. But to get that to work, I had to move them to an Alternate Universe on a completely different show. This isn't any longer "The X-Files," it's something else, which tells me another thing about how I see the show. It would have been fun to read had she developed it further.
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Date: 2012-02-27 06:48 pm (UTC)I agree, whether it was intentional or not, this fic feels more like a commentary on the canon itself than a real story.
Naturally, I thought the "happy ending pillow talk" seemed pretty unlikely, but not the least unlikely of the five. The one that really didn't work for me this time around was number four. "I always wanted you to marry me" is such a poignant truth, so cut-to-the-chase. It is certainly cut to the chase, but it doesn't sound like something Mulder would say to her ever, which is what makes it metafic, at least to me. I don't think marriage was ever what he wanted with her, and I sure don't see her ever wanting to marry him. That's so—conventional—so not them. (The only way I could make that work was to transport them to an AU in an alternate universe on an entirely different show, where they cease to be the Mulder and Scully of our "The X-Files." I still love them, wherever they are.)
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Date: 2012-02-27 07:04 pm (UTC)If you don't mind my asking, why would you think that about her, in particular, as a character? She seemed to be having no problems interacting with Emily during the short time we saw her on screen with her. She had a mother who loved her and took good care of her, so she knows what good mothering looks like. She seemed like she was doing fine with being William's mother, apart from the shitstorm the writers threw at her.
She does it again and again and eventually it becomes… well, if not natural, at least second nature.
I can't help but approach this issue from a different angle. The truth is, no one knows how to be a mother, to be a parent, until they are one. And every time you think you've got it down, the kid gets older and the issues change, and you are right back where you started from, knowing nothing.
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Date: 2012-02-27 07:09 pm (UTC)Maybe, maybe not. I have very little in common with my siblings, and channel surfing is surely learned behavior, and probably smirking, too. (I'm not sure why but I have developed an intense dislike for "smirking." It's so over-used and misused in fic. I want to erase it from every story, including my own.) The problem is she doesn't seem like a real person to me, and I'm not sure she's even meant to.
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Date: 2012-02-27 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-27 09:44 pm (UTC)I agreed with your five-things-fic-as-meta comment, too, although reading over my notes, it looks like I came up with a version of it independently.
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Date: 2012-02-27 09:44 pm (UTC)I think what charms me is how *unlike* the Mulder we know it is. I really like different takes on the same characters. As I once said to you, we are stuck with the same two except for occasional forays into Diana or Krycek or CSM country.
There is no way to preview this, so I apologize for screwed-up ital.
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Date: 2012-02-27 09:53 pm (UTC)I think what charms me is how *unlike* the Mulder we know it is.
Yeah, these really are characterization AUs rather than the usual setting or plot point AUs, which is why they feel more like commentary than fic to me. They're so far off from our show that they obliterate it. It's pretty damn clever of her.
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Date: 2012-02-27 10:12 pm (UTC)As for LFASN, I could have sworn we spoke of it here--Wendy?Amyhit?--but I couldn't locate it under au and I can't imagine how else it could have been tagged. You have visited the old Fic Talk site; it was discussed there. It's by Loneraven (aka Raven) and was posted here at Livejournal. Someone can set us straight. Oh--it also has an FBI Samantha.
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Date: 2012-02-27 10:21 pm (UTC)The discussion and link to Raven's "Lullaby for a Stormy Night" is here. It's a great story.
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Date: 2012-02-27 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-27 10:56 pm (UTC)I admit this is a short story and Samantha's barely more than an outline of a character here (deliberately, I assume). She's more of a way to make a point than an actual developed person.
I don't hate "smirked", used in moderation. I am pretty sensitive to eyebrow "waggling" (ugh, I don't even like writing the word).
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Date: 2012-02-27 11:00 pm (UTC)Yeah, absolutely. I think the point is to obliterate the series as we know it. Very cleverly done, too.
I am pretty sensitive to eyebrow "waggling" (ugh, I don't even like writing the word)
Hee, hee.
Ack. I got so distracted by laughing at the waggling eyebrows that I forgot what I wanted to say.
If Samantha was raised in that environment in his stead, she'd have some mannerisms in common with him.
Maybe. But I think they'd be fairly superficial. Besides, she wouldn't be growing up in the same environment: she's a girl, growing up in the horribly sexist (trust me) sixties and seventies, a youngest daughter, not an oldest son. They wouldn't have held her responsible for her brother's disappearance they way they did Mulder. He was in charge of taking care of her, not the other way around. And Mulder didn't come to believe his sister had been abducted until after he'd undergone hypnosis, and that was after he'd already been in the FBI, right? His interest in psychology and criminal behavior we might attribute to his sister's disappearance, but the belief in aliens, that came later is my memory of it. The other problem I have is I just can't picture a woman making comments like that to another woman whom she'd just met, who'd been assigned to work with her, regardless of sexual orientation. It just sounds—off—to me.
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Date: 2012-02-27 11:19 pm (UTC)Samantha even makes the first move. I can't see Mulder doing the same in the circumstances.