Story 200: "a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" by zauberer_sirin

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

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

Comments

[nailseabelle24.livejournal.com]

I agree that there are good plot indicators as to why Mulder should have feelings of guilt, but if he is experiencing them to the extent often described in fanfic, then I find it hard to believe that this wouldn’t manifest itself more in his outward behaviour.  In canon, as you have stated yourself, he seems a little too confident, if not arrogant, to be as cowed/insecure inside as he is so often depicted in fanon.
Re the James Joyce literature seminar I referred to, of course I wouldn’t dream of trying to comment on whether Mulder could have attended literature classes at Oxford while doing a psychology degree. Despite being English, I’ve never been to Oxford as a student, and feel hopelessly unqualified to pass judgement on that subject. My intention was to draw attention more to James Joyce himself and his style of writing (i.e as seen in ‘Ulysses’) & possible connections to the writing techniques employed in this story.  Happy to be shot down over that if everyone thinks I’m barking up the wrong tree!

[littlegreen42.livejournal.com]

I think Mulder very clearly has a guilt-complex toward Scully, and I think it does manifest itself quite a bit in his outward behaviour. One thing I can think of is the way in which the people behind the conspiracy tried to convince Mulder that Scully had been given cancer to "make him believe." That, to me, shows that they understood Mulder's mental process, that he does in fact have guilt over the fact that Scully's work on the X-Files has often led to negative consequences in her life.

And yes, Mulder does seem confident and arrogant on the outside, but some of that, I think, is an act. You can see indications that Mulder doesn't really like himself that much, or realize that how much he means to others -- specifically, to Scully. In "End Game," he travels to the arctic to find the alien ship and leaves this note to Scully: Scully, when you get this message, I will be too far away for you to stop me, but where I'm going I cannot allow you to follow. I won't let you jeopardize your life and your career for reasons purely personal to me. You were right, Scully... you said a line has to be drawn somewhere. I'm drawing it for you here. I'll contact you when I can. Mulder doesn't seem to be taking into account that Scully would miss him if he were lost, he wants to protect her from danger herself, but he doesn't seem to realize that she would be hurt if he were the one in danger.And then there's the hallway scene in FTF, where he tells Scully that he owes her everything and that she owes him nothing. I don't think he's just saying those things to manipulate her, I think really doesn't understand how much she values him. There is a clear sincerity to that scene. (I'm not saying that he *always* and *only* believes she doesn't value him much -- I think a lot of the time, he does realize that she does, it's just when he's dealing with difficult emotions, he can sometimes go into that dark place where he's more insecure).

A person can seem confident on the outside, but that doesn't mean they're free from insecurities. Mulder's a man, and even though he's not the kind of guy who's overly concerned with seeming "macho," he at least realizes that showing vulnerability is considered a bad thing for someone of his gender, and I think that he does a good job of hiding his insecurities behind stoicism and overconfidence, but I think they're still there, and they can be seen. I think that Mulder being both confident and insecure makes him a more complex and interesting character. I don't think it's a case of "is Mulder confident, or is he insecure?" I think it's both. Sometimes he's so sure of himself he does stupid things, but at other moments you can see some insecurity. I don't think it's all just fanon.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Good analysis. As for hiding his insecurities, that's probably part of the FBI agent skill set. Who wants a fibbie who admits he's worried about how to handle a gun.

[nailseabelle24.livejournal.com]

I take your views completely on board and you have in fact mentioned a couple of examples of where I had noticed that Mulder does show some signs of insecurity, so I do concede that point, along with the one you make about how a person can seem outwardly confident while being pretty insecure underneath. I don't know what else to say here except that I still feel it's been rather overdone in this story, to the point of emasculation (as an earlier commenter described it), and to the point where I start feeling almost embarrassed for him. I really adore the character of Mulder, and this take on him is kind of sweetly endearing, but I still don't accept that this portrayal is completly true to the canon character (but we all see & interpret the characters in differing ways, so it's no surprise that we don't completly agree!)