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amyhit.livejournal.com) wrote in
xf_book_club2012-03-12 05:57 am
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Story 200: "a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" by zauberer_sirin
Gosh, look at that startlingly large number in the heading! It appears that our little (but oh-so-tenacious) community has reached its two-hundredth fic.

Cheers everyone!
I must say, I’ve been adoring you guys’ recommendations even more than usual lately. There have been a few fics I am particularly fond of come up, including a very recent rec by
littlegreen42, which I am going to pounce on immediately like a cat on a jubilant grasshopper. It was written in the pre/post IWTB era, making it relatively new by this fandom’s standards. It’s short – but with an endearingly long title – and the prose has an idiosyncratic sort of poetry about it. Ultimately, I think the author herself sums it up best when she says, These are not all the ways and whys and hows Mulder loves Scully, just some. In reverse.
Read a weatherman to know which way the wind blows by
zauberer_sirin

Cheers everyone!
I must say, I’ve been adoring you guys’ recommendations even more than usual lately. There have been a few fics I am particularly fond of come up, including a very recent rec by
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Read a weatherman to know which way the wind blows by
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The style of Weatherman is its major selling point. It has an eccentric, witty, poetical mode of Mulderexpression, and it is endearing and repays close attention. I also especially liked the backwards direction of the thoughts. It's so--time-travely.
The author does admit to a bit of Scully-dislike, and I'm afraid this comes through not in a harsh perception of Scully herself, heaven forbid, but in a very mother's-favorite take on Mulder. This is not a very long fic, but it long enough to make the Mulderangst cloying. Mulder is so much in love with his partner and so down on himself that the reader is almost brought to the point of wanting to warn Scully that she has an emotional dead weight on her hands. Which is unfortunate, because we all love Mulder and want him to be loved back by other than moony extratextual fans. The problem, I think, might have been solved if zauberer_sirin had elected to make Mulder fall in love a bit later than episode two or three. It would have been fun to see Mulder deny and tough out his attraction to his partner, and would have lent some suspense to the downcounted chapters. How often, really, do we need to hear about his unrequited, unspoken adoration. Better to hear about him fighting his lust as his respect for Scully disarms him. Really, the piece would lend itself to a simple rewrite. I'm not offering, for heaven's sake. And I almost never give even this much advice. Who do I think I am?
It's a good choice and I think lends itself to discussion. Even though it veers pretty close to Mulderemasculation.
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200 Stories, 250 members, 4,430 comments received
I like that we're mixing it up a bit and reading more contemporary fic, too.
Here's to many more days and nights of reading and discussing X-Files fanfiction. Now I'll promise to read the story and try not to post too many irrelevant off-topic comments.
Edited to make the picture smaller.
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On the subject of this fic focusing heavily on Mulder's thoughts/state of mind, I'd like start by positioning myself firmly on the Mulder side of the fence here. I do love Mulder-centric stuff because as I've said before, I am a Mulderist, but also a shipper (sorry Wendy) so a huge part of me really enjoyed reading him as a love-struck, 'pile of mush' ; I suppose that secretly I hope deep down that maybe, just maybe, this might be an accurate insight into Mulder's actual thoughts at each stage of his relationship with Scully. It made me want to go and have a mini-rewatch of some of these scenes all over again in the light of this interpretation. However, that said, I did shudder a little at the rather too familiar, over-used fanfic trope of Angst!Mulder and his over-active guilt complex. I just can't quite see where fanfic writers got this idea from but it pops up everywhere in fanfic, almost as if it is based on actual canon (fanon more like!). I've watched the whole 9 Seasons over several times and I just don't see this guilt-tripping, "I'm such a bad person" Mulder to any great significance in the show itself, so I wonder where this trope originates from, and - oh dear, now it's here too, in this otherwise excellent story. However, despite the criticism, I did still greatly enjoy reading this and re-reading it a second time was a pleasure. Great choice.
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When I first read this fic, years ago, I distinctly remember thinking how amazingly well it had captured Mulder’s character. That was back when I was far more of a bothist than I seem to be now.Now I read this fic and I love it because it’s a Mulder characterization that I love to bits. It’s how I wish he was. (Well, it’s one of the ways I wish he was, though there are quite a few more, admittedly, and he’s not always this much of a woobie.) At this point in time, what I think “Weatherman” does catch remarkably well is Mulder’s impulsive, idiosyncratic, left-brained-ness. So basically to me this fic reads like it’s done an absolutely gorgeous job of capturing half of his character, and has kindly swept the part where he’s a bit of a bossy, selfish jerk a lot of the time under the rug, replacing it with heaps of private insecurities and Scullylove (two things I happen to adore in a Mulder characterization).
My biggest criticism of “Weatherman” is that Scully comes across as a bit of a shrew. Part of it is that Mulder is just so sweet and insecure and head-over-heels in love with her that she can’t help but look insensitive by comparison. But part of it is that she’s simply been written kinda insensitive. Admittedly Scully is often quite resistant and reserved and yes, sometimes a bit of a wet blanket. But she’s very rarely insensitive, so it stands out in “Weatherman” when she is.
The dialogue of “Weatherman”…is interesting. It’s in a style which is more stuttery and babbly and real-world-conversation-ish than canon XF dialogue, which was always quite direct and formulated. I like it, for the most part (ignoring the fact that Scully’s dialogue often seems OOC). It’s pleasantly informal, things falling out of their mouths in a bit of a jumble, and fitting right in with the sweetly jumbled narrative.Which leads me to what I love about “Weatherman”: (besides adorable Mulder)
The idiosyncratic poetry of the writing. I’m sure there will be people who find it bothersome, but I find it delightful. The style of it really pulls me into this Mulder’s head and makes me believe in him and connect with him (and want to wrap him in a blanket like the woobie he is, yes, that too). It makes the fic an experience.
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And it appears that this is the sort of fic I just need to comment on excessively, without rhyme or reason, so:
it has always been this way with him, it has always been Scully first, and then the rest.
I admit I…I badly want this to be true. I always have. Which I guess is basically a sentiment you could apply to this whole fic: Mulder, y u no behave like soulmate? Not that I want him to focus on Scully at the expense of the work, but it would be nice to think that she held this-- exalted position in his mind. Sadly, I just don’t think CC and Co. were nearly that romantically minded. (just don’t tell my headcanon that)
That wasn’t a date, Mulder.
It was a date. We just didn’t know it at the time.
Aww. I can see even regular canon Mulder saying this.
but sometimes he feels tempted to ask, sometimes he wonders who knew first, although he feels like he knew from the start, which can’t be quite right
Love this. Also, it feels kind of meta to me. I’ve spent way too long thinking this stuff about them, wondering when they knew they loved each other and telling myself, “You don’t believe in love at first sight, so just stop this nonsense at once.” *g*
He feels ordinary, everyday words can never ever apply to them because this is Scully, he had meant to invent a whole new language for her.
A great example of prose oddity. By all rights this ought to be two sentences, or at least there should be a semicolon, yet it would have been a bit cliché if it were properly punctuated. It’s not as though this sentiment has never been expressed in a fic before. It’s the way the last bit runs right on to the end of the chapter that makes it feel like a quick, honest truth.
When the thought strikes him Mulder catches himself thinking about Bob Dylan singing “get born”, catches himself thinking Scully like it’s the first or the last time and he just gets it.
Does this section (16) mean Mulder has realized Scully is pregnant? Or that he thinks their story has ultimately been about Scully? Or just that it’s about Scully for him? Confusing. I do really like this line, though.
Well? She arches an eyebrow.
He just shrugs, Maybe they are really, really persistent.
This is another exchange I can vividly picture them having (though I can’t really picture them holding hands, even if it is S7). Also, is this supposed to be a metaphor for their relationship? That’s what I take it as. Well, that and just them being cute whilst contemplating zombies.
So his dreams are a bit like The Last Temptation of Christ.
Never mind, because his waking up is a fairytale moment when he opens his eyes and Scully is there -of course- and crying and saving him and he is horribly convinced that he is alive just because she called him back to her side.
Nice meta/non-meta commentary there. I mean in the sense that it takes what I think most viewers already think/feel about that scene (and are probably meant to think and feel) and acknowledges it by having Mulder think/feel the same thing. Except it’s not really meta at all, because it’s perfectly reasonable that Mulder would be thinking exactly that.
Actually, he is prone to recurring epiphanies and no, he doesn’t think that’s a contradiction of terms at all. He just gets caught up in his own insights, even if it’s not the first time he has them.
Yes, this sounds like Mulder, and is actually quite a lovely insight. It can be endearing about him at times, and immature at others. But in this fic it’s definitely the former.
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Section six (post pusher). Nnnggghhh. The whole fucking thing. God. Seriously, this might actually be my Pusher headcanon.* Okay, not really, but it’s definitely my Pusher headsmut!canon (which either exists or I’m officially making it up, because doesn’t everybody have a smutty version of the show they can lay right over top of the other version, like translucent, pornographic drafting paper? *coughs* No?)
*Although a small voice in the back of my mind cannot help saying, “How about you ask Scully how she feels about this idea of yours, Mulder, before starting in with the shoving her anywhere or the fucking her at all, okay?” But I’m gonna presume that it was meant to be tacitly understood that he would make sure she was into it too.
Also—
because this is one of those times (and Mulder has watched how those moments have grown so often and near that they are practically his whole life now) when he cannot afford to touch Scully for the fear he might never stop.
The brackets! The way it comes out in this stutter-shook jumble! The angsty, unbearable hotness of it all! (And apparently ‘stutter-shook’ is not an actual saying, just a line from a song, but darn it I’m using it anyway.)
No, he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs. You don’t get it! I don’t want her to die because I don’t want her to die!
Sure, he feels guilty, and if Scully dies the guilt would become sort of permanent, but if Scully dies, he wants to tell the world, guilt will be the least of his concerns.
Love this, love this, LOVE this. Also, I think it’s at least a little bit true. Of course Mulder felt guilty about failing to protect another important female in his life, but he also seemed to be genuinely at a loss without her. Plus, “the guilt would become sort of permanent” is just great.
All of section two (Ice). Again, guh, so hot.
-everything blown to pieces, months of denial and not my type and the first friend you’ve had in years, don’t fuck it up gone in a heartbeat because all he wants to do right now it put his mouth to the back of her neck and possibly never ever stop touching her.
God, I just—wow this is sexy. The rampant denial and guilt-ridden lust-management are so delicious. The mental image of S1 Mulder refusing to be hot for Scully because he already needs her too much is…*waves hands around inarticulately*
now he is going to have to deal with the knowledge (of what he is, of what he wants, of what she means), probably for the rest of his life. Or until she has the good sense of walking away. Which he’d say should be sooner than the rest of his life but in his line of work he wouldn’t bet on that either.
How is this so clever? That Mulder would say (or think) something like this with that deadpan pessimism of his is…it’s so distinctive of him, almost definitive of him.
But that night, coming back from Oregon, it’s the less alone he’s felt in years.
I’ve never really been sure how I feel about the last line of “Weatherman”. Obviously the adjective “less” does not agree with the rest of the sentence, yet the way “less alone” is put in italics, singled out, makes it seem like its own singular concept. “Less alone” becomes a sensation, something in the present, a continuing lessaloneness, while also inherently acknowledging the aloneness of his past. Whereas, if you write “least alone” you pin the meaning down. It’s not a sensation anymore. It’s a quantity (“least”) and a quality (“alone”). There’s not the same vitality in it – literally, there’s not the same living quality.
That said, it’s still a stumbling block, and four words from the end of a fic is not generally a good place to be tripping the reader up on odd grammar. So I don’t know if I like it or not.
It is memorable, though. I’ve thought that one fragment of a line – “it’s the less alone he’s felt in years – quite a few times to myself. It does feel quite strongly a certain way.
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Admitting to not being a fan of Scully in your author's notes is never a good way to get me on side, though, and I think the author's difficulty with the character comes through clearly in the story. Even through Mulder's rose-tinted glasses, she comes across as kind of a jerk, as not really worthy of his devotion. I cannot imagine Scully saying really, Mulder, for such an egotist you are so insecure, because it seems like such an attack on his character, which she never does. (I have no such problem with turn that damn thing off, although I note that Canon Scully can sleep through just about anything).
I like some of Mulder's thoughts in terms of the relationship. For me they would work better as part of a bigger story, maybe? In the context of this (short) story, it feels like Mulder spends all his time and thoughts on Scully.
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