Story 201: "Sandcastles for Pele" by JL

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Of all the XF fanfic authors I can call to mind, I tend to think of JL (the artist previously known as Jamie Lyn) as the one whose writing has undergone the greatest transformation over the years. Even accounting for the fact that her fics were posted over an almost ten year period, there’s still a remarkable transformation in her work, from the enjoyably dramatic and tempestuous fics of 1999, to some rather more somber, subtle, and conceptually complex fics in later years.

This week’s fic, "Sandcastles for Pele," was recced by selynne. It’s going to be another one of those times when I’m reading along with those of you who haven’t read this fic before. I can, however, at least tell you that it’s post IWTB fic, and that at least part of it takes place in Hawaii - a long way from the DC-basement days of old. In the author's notes JL says, "If I had to describe it, I would say that it is... not at all what you think it is." Going by my memory of some of her other fics, I doubt she’s overstating things.

Send feedback, give us your recommendations, and please do come back for the discussion.


Read Sandcastles for Pele.

Comments

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

I didn't really click with the writing right from the start, to be honest. Everything's a little flowery and overdescribed for my taste. In a longer fic like this one, I think too much description can drag. The repetition of the scenes with the red dot of light got grating.

I liked the central tenets of the story, though. The offerings to Pele were interesting and the kind of thing Mulder might do, half-joking, half-seriously. The scene between Scully and the woman in the hospital waiting room (I really need to learn to use that spoiler text thing) was good, and emotional. I thought the use of her name at the end was overkill, though.

I didn't really understand why Scully was SO shocked to be healthy, at the end. I mean, she went from terminally sick to in perfect health with no real explanation before. Is it so strange that she'd be completely healthy? I'm also not so sure about the doctor's dialogue.

"You're more than welcome to go wandering up and down the coast getting second, third, fourth, and fifth opinions for whatever strange reasons you deem necessary. I have no doubt you'll get the same results each time, although if the hunt for those results is what gets you off, then by all means, knock yourselves out."

That's, uh, quite a bedside manner.

[wendelah1]

I didn't really click with the writing right from the start, to be honest. Everything's a little flowery and overdescribed for my taste. In a longer fic like this one, I think too much description can drag. The repetition of the scenes with the red dot of light got grating.

Yeah, I guess it was supposed to be a little shout-out to "Paper Hearts," but it didn't work for me. I thought it was just because that is my least favorite episode ever.

I didn't really understand why Scully was SO shocked to be healthy, at the end. I mean, she went from terminally sick to in perfect health with no real explanation before. Is it so strange that she'd be completely healthy? I'm also not so sure about the doctor's dialogue.

"You're more than welcome to go wandering up and down the coast getting second, third, fourth, and fifth opinions for whatever strange reasons you deem necessary. I have no doubt you'll get the same results each time, although if the hunt for those results is what gets you off, then by all means, knock yourselves out."

That's, uh, quite a bedside manner.

I don't understand what kind of insurance they have that would be willing to let them go out of network for such extensive non-emergency care. Using a half a dozen tissues isn't much of a nosebleed. I've had much worse. If the doctor really thought there was a bleeding problem, Scully'd be heading back to the hotel with a couple of tampons hanging out of her nose, with instructions to avoid strenuous activity and come back the next day, but I guess that wouldn't be really conducive to spontaneous "why don't we do it in the road" sexing.

The work-up they have had to have done for Scully even be given that result is the kind of thing you'd do on a fertility patient, which she was not. She was being worked up for a recurrent nasopharyngeal tumor (In Hawaii. When they live in West Virginia? Or was it Virginia? It it were me, and I thought I was dying of cancer, I'd head straight to the airport when that storm was over and get my ass into Johns Hopkins, which is in Maryland, a neighboring state, and even more important, is the top hospital in the USA.) Why would they be doing any tests on her reproductive organs? She's in her forties and not trying for another kid, not at that point.

I guess the medicine isn't any worse than what the show gave us.