Story 203: "Living with the Dreaming Body" by Punk M

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

After the considerable word count of our last fic, now seems like a good time to take a bit of a breather with a nice short read. This week's fic was recommended by lightlack. It takes place sometime not too long after the events of "Christmas Carol" and "Emily" when Mulder and Scully end up back in San Diego on a case. The fic is focused on Scully and how she is coping with recent developments, the turn her life has taken, what it all means for her, and where Mulder fits in amongst all the chaos and wreckage.


Living with the Dreaming Body by Punk Maneuverability


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

Comments

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I'm late because I was in another (nondream) state, and everyone has already been wonderfully intelligent. I love this story because I love everything Punk Maneurverability has ever written. She has written absolutely hilarious stuff, which confirms my theory that the brilliantly funny writer can go both ways brilliantly. DWTDB especially impresses me as it is an interior story, an emotional adjustment story, all about what one character is thinking/feeling with very little action or dialogue in support. There are thousands of these and most are bad. Punk did it right.

I should chime in on some of the contested issues. I don't find Scully's lack of anger at Mulder terribly hard to understand. I realize he performed incorrectly here, but he was trying to protect her, and I am old enough to see male protection as a comfortable thing. She has to come to terms with her loss, and nobody else can do it for her. As for the "fearing" of infertility, I think I get that. Now that she is sure of her condition (I believe there are fannish arguments that absolute sureness wouldn't be possible: another subject) she fears *living* with it. She fears her identity as a woman who cannot bear, a state of being that many consider pitiable and that she does not welcome. Further adjustment is necessary. But "it will be okay."

I loved the care with which the story slipped in and out of dreams. I personally can say that I have distant memories that I *cannot* identify as being real or dreamed. I don't think this is unusual, and it has gotten us in something of a societal quandary on the issue of child abuse.

I love the sex scenes, because they weren't.

Welcome back!

[wendelah1]

I love Punk's writing, I just don't love this story.

You say that you don't find Scully's lack of anger at Mulder terribly hard to understand because you "are old enough to see male protection as a comfortable thing." You have said this (or something similar) on multiple occasions here, and I believe you. But the point is Scully isn't of that generation. She was born in 1964. And Scully of all people would not see Mulder's protecting her as comforting.

Would Scully, acting as a federal agent carrying a loaded weapon, and assigned to a case, allow herself to wander about confused as to whether she is awake or asleep? It's well-written but I still don't find it credible.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Scully loved her father, and he was a protective and actually domineering male. But she defied him, and I take your point. I was actually just reporting on my own feelings.

I don't believe that Scully didn't know whether she was awake or not. A moment's waking confusion is not the same thing as carrying out professional duties.

I respect your recusal. You are the strongest Scullyist I know.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I'm late because I was in another (nondream) state

Ha!

it is an interior story, an emotional adjustment story, all about what one character is thinking/feeling with very little action or dialogue in support. There are thousands of these and most are bad. Punk did it right.

I agree. And for me a big part of what makes this story work is that it starts near the end of Scully’s ‘emotional adjustment’. I don’t think Scully is working on any new conflicts in LWTDB. They seem to be things she’s been coming to terms with for some time already. It’s like punctuated evolution: the story picks up quite unobtrusively just a short time before a punctuated leap. It’s not that Scully goes from zero to sex-with-mulder in seven pages and a thousand words, it’s that she’s already mostly there when the story starts.

I am old enough to see male protection as a comfortable thing. She has to come to terms with her loss, and nobody else can do it for her.

I’m sure it will come as no surprise that I am not comfortable with “male protection”. As a concept it make me feel angry and a little ill (mainly because what male society has often meant when it says “protection” is something akin to “possession”). However, protection can also be genuine. There are times when it may be needed, times when it may be helpful, and times when it may be wrongly given but is at least understandable. I think in Mulder’s case what he does is wrong, but understandable.

And I do agree with you that nobody but Scully can come to terms with her loss. LWTDB seems to be written accordingly. Mulder tries to express his anger on her behalf, insisting that “it’s not okay” but Scully simply says “This is my body. It will be okay.” It’s a matter of Scully’s feelings, Scully’s body, Scully’s life, and I like that Mulder doesn’t have a bigger part in it. It’s just not about him, or what he thinks, or his pain – even if it is on her behalf.