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

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

comment 1/2

Well, there really isn’t any sense in attempting to sugar coat it: I didn’t like this fic at all. Which I honestly wasn’t anticipating, because JL has three or four fics from the second half of her fanfic writing days that I like very much.

Before going any further, I want to give my apologies to selynne, because reccing something only to have it criticized at length really sucks (I know from experience) and it’s bound to suck even more when one is a new participant in the community. Please don’t let my rather emphatic negativity put you off.

Going by what I remember of IWTB, I think the characterizations in SFP are actually quite in character with the Mulder and Scully of that film. But I’ve never been able to make any sort of a connection between the characters in IWTB, and the Mulder and Scully of the series – they may as well be different people to me. So I guess what I’m saying is that I find the Mulder and Scully of SFP to be as completely and bafflingly OOC as they are in the second movie.

It’s a mark of how much the fic wasn’t working for me, that when Scully got that nosebleed my first thought was, “Oh thank GOD. Maybe this will shock Mulder and Scully into being themselves again.” No such luck. Considering how inherently dramatic and painful the circumstances of this fic were, it’s almost unfathomable how Mulder and Scully could have wandered through it all in such an inane fashion.

I find Mulder’s reaction to the potential return of Scully’s cancer incredibly selfish. Was I supposed to sympathize with him because he had to face the possibility of losing Scully? I would have, if he hadn’t been so self-involved the whole time. Scully had just realized she might be dying imminently, but every time she tried to deal with the situation in the way she needed to, by talking about it and facing the worst, all he would think about was his desperate need to not be forced to face the fact that he might lose her. That’s is just not what you do. The more you love the person and the more it’s going to wreck you if they die, the more you forget what you need at the moment and focus on helping them as best you can.

The x-file would have been okay if they’d been pursuing it in some other context (during a tropical vacation or something), but the extreme seriousness of Scully’s situation in this fic made the rather hokey, non-serious x-file seem badly out of place.