X-Files Book Club

I appreciate this comment. It's close to my feeling about DC--except of course for the familiarity of the college environment, but in some ways most colleges are alike--and I think you have a sense of why it succeeds despite the obvious way it fails.

I'm going to reread at least the second but will no doubt bloviate further.

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If I was searching for fic to read on my own and saw that author's note, I'd almost certainly backbutton. Maybe I'd keep reading in hope of finding entertaining badfic.

Well, it's definitely not badfic. Technically I guess it's a decent story? I admit I have trouble deciding whether I think it's "good" because I'm searching so hard throughout the text for something resembling Scully. I can't really understand the impulse for a good writer to write a reasonably interesting personal memoir, change the names, and post it on the internet as X-Files fanfiction, I have to admit.

Maybe I'm being too harsh because I thought Paul was a dick, and Nick and Laura and whoever-all-the-others-were, were not interesting. I did like the paragraph where Scully is reflecting on Paul and his wife's future ("Somewhere there were plane tickets to Aruba or Sydney or Florence; somewhere there was rice, and a car with tin cans behind it."). If not for her voice throughout the rest of the story, that paragraph *would* sound like Scully to me.

I did only read "Dance Card". Maybe I'll go read the sequels and see if my opinion changes.

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mushfromnewsies.livejournal.com

I love this little trio of fic, even though it definitely seems to be self-insertion fic, and I don't see real-Scully at all. But there was a lot of fic (I feel) written similarly around this time, where the female author basically kind of inserts what she thinks Scully's interior life should be [usually, inevitably, her own internal life], into Scully. But then I never thought that Scully was much of a rebel or a deliberate non-conformist, soo... What does seem in-character for Scully at least in Dance Card is how much she follows people around, but in a way that makes her seem really distant. Hard to explain.

But I love these-- especially the third, Moonshine, which for all its original-character third POV kind-of-Mary-Sueing, is just a damn good time! It's fun, and awkward, and funny to see Mulder and Scully kind of deflated, no longer mythic, from the POV of other characters. I could never tell if Sabine was just really invested in making her narrator's perspective realistic, or if she was working out her own not-so-latent resentment of Scully (or the kind of person she wrote Scully to be, which is far colder IMO than Scully actually is in canon). Kind of weird. But again, fun, and engaging. I always remember Sabine and these three fics, because I remember first reading Sabine maybe six or eight months into my hardcore fic-reading, XF fandom life. I was fifteen, and I read her fic, and even though I was kind of turned off by it, or I disagreed with it and felt like she was twisting canon, I still enjoyed it; and what's more I actually kind of enjoyed it *for* being twisted. Normally (and still today, for most fic) that is totally opposed to my reading instincts, but I can appreciate it here.

Edited Date: 2012-03-06 03:16 am (UTC)

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Yes, I feel the same. I have trouble deciding if I would classify this as a "good" story. The writing is very good, no doubt about that, but at the end of the day I found myself skipping pages somewhere around the middle, because I wasn't that interested in something that disguises itself under the label "X-Files fanfiction" but really isn't.

I'm searching so hard throughout the text for something resembling Scully.

This.

This is the story of a woman reminiscing her college years before going to the wedding of the guy she had a crush on. There is little in here that is "Scully specific". A few comments on quantum physics and the odd "I'm fine" can't really hide this fact.

I can't really understand the impulse for a good writer to write a reasonably interesting personal memoir, change the names, and post it on the internet as X-Files fanfiction, I have to admit.

Well, this is what "Mary Sueing*" is all about isn't it? Disguising yourself and your autobiographical tales under the veil of the characters? And the only way an author can pull this off without being too obvious, is if the characters share several of their personality traits with the author himself/herself.

I write Scully because she's so different from me and I'm intrigued by what makes her tick, but there are authors who write her because they feel a sense of kinship with her, authors who think of themselves as "Scullys".

I know, I know, you're gonna tell me we all put a little of ourselves and our experiences in the characters when we write, but what we have here is in a whole different ballpark.

*Mary Sueing - a Fish definition: when an author injects himself/herself in a fanfic,either as an OC or as one of the main character.

I did like the paragraph where Scully is reflecting on Paul and his wife's future ("Somewhere there were plane tickets to Aruba or Sydney or Florence; somewhere there was rice, and a car with tin cans behind it.").

I agree, this was an excellent paragraph, I loved it. And I liked the ending as well, where Scully reflects that there is no such thing as the road not taken and that she is exactly where she's supposed to be.

I haven't read the others. I'm not sure I'm interested enough in this universe to want to, unless someone convinces me otherwise.

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wendelah1

Instead of reading the stories, I spent all day deciding how I'd cast the episode/movie/fantasy, looking for actors in the right age range.

For Paul, I finally decided on Clive Owen. He looks darkly handsome, smart and moody; someone who can be charismatic one minute, and a complete asshole the next. (Remind you of anyone, perchance?) I picked Maura Tierney for Laura. I know this is not Maura in 1999, but look at the glasses! Plus, she can play smart and self-deprecating and vulnerable and distancing, all in unison. I chose Maria Bello for Robin, who has an important role in the last story, "Moonshine," even though her hair isn't quite right. What's more important is that she can play someone with warmth and goodness and just plain common sense, except for her own love life. She's also dead sexy. (Yes, they both did play doctors on ER.) The cap from "Unruhe" of Mulder and Scully is from season four rather than six, but the mood fits the story like it was made for it. Scully looks preoccupied and tense, first about Paul's upcoming wedding, then afterward about having slept with Mulder, while looking beautiful as always. Mulder looks on edge. He's concerned and worried about Scully, naturally, but also puzzled over what, if anything, he did wrong.

I'll try to actually read the stories tomorrow.

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I'm not sure about Clive Owen for Paul. He is several times described as having a thin face. Timothy Olyphant is a possibility--he's a good, transformative actor--but I have a hard time erasing his beautiful back-country accent. Also he's very laid-back. Okay, forget him.

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wendelah1

I know. But he can act and he's not-from-around-here (Polish was impossible to find, but I did look) and he's around the right age to be graduating with Scully. There are no actors born in 1964 without chiseled, squared-off jawlines. It was a prerequisite. You like this picture better? He's a great actor, too.

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Okay, that's Paul. You have been hired as casting director. Now CO has to keep the weight off.

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wendelah1

Here he is in 1999. Watch the trailer for "Second Sight." God, now I want to watch the entire series.

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wendelah1

But there was a lot of fic (I feel) written similarly around this time, where the female author basically kind of inserts what she thinks Scully's interior life should be [usually, inevitably, her own internal life], into Scully. But then I never thought that Scully was much of a rebel or a deliberate non-conformist, soo...

Only in so far as her choice of professions. Forensic Pathology was an uncommon choice for women back in the eighties when she would have done her residency. And of course, the FBI was not a common choice either. But I don't see Scully as a rebel without a cause and it is a little hard for me to see her running all over campus in the dead of night "chalking" when she could be studying.

What does seem in-character for Scully at least in Dance Card is how much she follows people around, but in a way that makes her seem really distant. Hard to explain.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Scully is reserved, but I think there is an underlying warmth that shows through all of the time, especially toward Mulder. I don't get where Sabine is coming from in suggesting she's cold. Not a risk-taker in the romance department by the time this story is set, but that's understandable.

I do think people had more latitude back in the day to create whatever versions of Mulder and Scully they wanted, as long they could write well. If the people who are participating here are representative of the remnant of the fandom (and I'm not meaning this as a criticism, just an observation), I don't think there is much tolerance for coloring outside the lines. I know it was controversial back in the day, but I don't think a fic like "Iolokus" even would be written today, let alone posted.

Normally (and still today, for most fic) that is totally opposed to my reading instincts, but I can appreciate it here.

And you might be one of the more adventuresome readers.

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When I think of thin with cheekbones, I think James Marsters. Yes, I think James Marsters with black hair would be perfect for Paul.

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wendelah1

James Marsters is an American and he looks like an American, except when he's playing a vampire. Besides, the fact that he is forever going to be Spike in my head, there is nothing to suggest poet or doctor or intellectual or foreigner in his persona.

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I do think people had more latitude back in the day to create whatever versions of Mulder and Scully they wanted, as long they could write well. If the people who are participating here are representative of the remnant of the fandom (and I'm not meaning this as a criticism, just an observation), I don't think there is much tolerance for coloring outside the lines.

Not sure. We had the Wicked X Witches, Godawful Trekfic (which expanded to XF and other fandoms) and the offshoot atxc discussion lists, which could get extremely volatile. Names were named and stories (and writers' personal characters and integrity, lol) were picked to pieces, sometimes in the interests of constructive criticism, sometimes not. It wasn't exclusively directed at "bad" fanfiction--very popular and objectively good writers were discussed widely too.

I'm not sure I'm current enough on XF fandom to be able to comment, but if anything I suspect the difference is just fandom output. For every Iolokus we had 400 less daring/less memorable fics.

That said, while the show was still being written the characters were more mutable. Now that there's no more canon (?), we can consider them more set in stone.

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Ugh, livejournal, quit eating my comments.

Yeah, I think we can draw a distinction between using personal experience/some personal traits (1) in a story and essentially plopping yourself down in the middle of a story and calling yourself "Scully".

(1) And I even think using something of yourself is essential to make a good story--otherwise the characters would be feelingless cardboard cutouts.

I was thinking the ending was very reminiscent of "all things", but when I checked Gossamer, Dance Card was published the year before.

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That anonymous was me by the way, forgot to log in. Spike was a poet before he got "turned". He doesn't particularly look 'American' to me, whatever that means.

And a good actor could pull off any of those traits you mention above. I just think he's got the right facial features.

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wendelah1

James Marsters went to high school in Davis, California. What does an American look like? We're always smiling, for one thing, it's part of our upbringing or something. Even if we aren't smiling, it's something about how we hold our facial muscles, our posture, our gestures...

And a good actor could pull off any of those traits you mention above.

I have no idea what you mean by a good actor then. All actors have a range they can play. I think someone can be a "good actor" but still not be able to play a particular type of character.

Marsters is a decent actor, but I don't know that I can see Spike as a poet, turned or not. He looks nothing like the Paul in my head. Besides I can't picture Scully being remotely interested in him, whereas I can picture her being attracted to Clive Owen. Probably because I am. LOL.

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I don't know that I can see Spike as a poet,

But he was (http://www.sinister-attraction.net/moments/epimages/foolove26.jpg), a bloody awful one, but still.

But yeah, Clive Owen as in here (http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/tN/clive-owen-pictures-1-0309-lg.jpg) could work.

Ah! I know! Viggo Mortensen (http://celebritywonder.ugo.com/picture/Viggo_Mortensen/ActorViggoMo_Countess_16310100.jpg). Foreign, cheekbones, soulful, and I'm sure he could play arrogant fuck if he wanted to.

Edited Date: 2012-03-07 05:20 am (UTC)

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wendelah1

I didn't mean to imply there wasn't criticism of fic back then. Did you ever read the X-Files fanfiction wank thread? If not, I'd try link you to it, but I think the owner deleted the community. The wank was epic. It ran for weeks. Months, even. I was rather taken aback by it. What was the motto on that icon of Khyber's? "My fandom invented this shit."

I'm not sure I'm current enough on XF fandom to be able to comment, but if anything I suspect the difference is just fandom output. For every Iolokus we had 400 less daring/less memorable fics.

It seems like there was more range and imagination back in the fandom's heyday than there is now, but you are right, that can probably be accounted for by output. There were so many more writers back in the day. We are down to just a handful now, and I suspect it will ever remain so.

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wendelah1

I am saving that picture of Clive for my-- personal file. God, he looks great. He looks perfect.

Now don't get me wrong, I like Viggo very much, but (1.) he's an American, too, and (2.) he's a little too old for the part. He's older than Mulder. He was born in '58.

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I think I missed that one! I usually try to keep my finger on the wank pulse, so to speak. It's an interesting fandom. I always thought the fanfic writer blacklist was horrible. Luckily not too many people took it seriously, but there was so much bile in the fandom for a time.

It's good that people are still writing in this fandom at all. There are still a lot of good stories being written.

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I love all of these people. I would watch this movie, even if I wouldn't read the novel.

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wendelah1

Ha ha. Yeah, me too. And it's not even stunt casting. All of these people were still television actors back in 1999, except maybe Maria Bello.

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This one will be tough, which probably means long. I may be arguing against myself.

I liked these three a lot. I know they go against the definition of what most require in fanfic; the Marysue is obvious and admitted and the material lacks aliens, conspiracies, and most of what the show was about. The Scully characterization, in particular, is far from most people's Scully.

I don't have a Scully. This one is close enough for me because I truly feel that it's fair to pack in lots of stuff to fill holes that canon left exposed. And I also feel that too narrow a perception of character is limiting. People can surprise you, and surprise is interesting.

Unlike Wendy, I can see Sabine's collegiate Scully, complete with midnight raves, cigarettes and unrequited agony. I can focus well enough. Canon Scully is a self-described child rebel. And I am able and willing to kidnap a bit of Gillian Anderson's crazy past to enhance the image. Where I do run into some trouble is seeing sixth-season Scully still fighting tears over a man she never even slept with. FBI Scully is very young, unconvincingly so. But then I found the whole Daniel Waterston thing unconvincing too.

First key word: youthful. This trio of fics is something of a contradiction. It is magnificently written, full of imagination and special verbal effects, and I believe some are underestimating Sabine's talent. She is a mature writer. At the same time the stories are full of teenager-strength angst, feelings that conventional canon Scully would not express except occasionally about more life-transforming things like losing, gaining, again losing a child and a lover. This is a stormy, Bronte-esque Scully, and frankly I couldn't always believe her. But it didn't make me stop reading. Because when a writer like this displays her wares, you at least look.

(Everybody Having a Good Time is a whole other subject. Should be labelled "danger: high explosive.")

I liked all these pieces but I think I liked "What Happened After That" best. Scully is released from her self-punishing evil spell, and here's where the New York in Winter magic happens. She wants sex with Mulder, I think, because she sees it as a rite of passage and a reward for surviving the test. Plus she sees him suddenly as we see him: a stud and a prince among men. I am so glad there is no talking-to-death of the lovemaking. It is what it is, so we have a whole evening of future complicated romance to enjoy.

Other key work: context, as in "out of." As an msr fan who is easily bored, I relish the extreme possibilities The X-Files opens for us. I favor time-travel fics, undercover fics, alternate universe fics, crossover fics, fics in which oc's are doing the observing and the talking (unless they are just saying "those two love each other" over and over). I love fresh pov's, and "Dance Card" and its siblings read very fresh and original to me, the irony being that they aren't new. DC might as well be time-travel, with its backstory, and it might as well be alternate universe, with its bright lights, big city ambiance. And there's an oc as in love with Scully as Mulder is; examining the ship under a different light is erotic.

The final key word is personal. I have a personal liking for the combination of characteristics that these stories share and a tolerance for the flaws. I would never think of trying to coopt anyone else, Fish least of all. Because she has teeth. (Yes, fish have teeth. Don't confuse them with chickens.)

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