Story 206: "Let's Play House" by Polly Burns

[wendelah1]

One of the things that impresses me about this story, is the intensity of the (albeit short) sex scene. It's amazing what an author can do with a few choice pieces of dialogue in the right setting. If you're a Krycek/Mulder fan, and hell even if you're not, you'll find this story very appealing.
~Bright Shiny Objects

I'm not so sure about that, but we shall see.

One of the fascinating things to me about fandom is how we're not all watching the same show.

Let's try again, shall we?

While we may all be playing the same DVDs (known hereafter as The X-Files), we can have completely different reactions to the same episode. For example, I think "Paper Hearts" is one of the worst episodes of the series but a good friend believes it's the best, and we can both make convincing arguments for our respective positions. Fans can make completely opposite interpretations of what it meant when Mulder told Scully that he even made his parents call him "Mulder." What hooks us into the show (and then the fandom) isn't always the same thing either. For some fans, The X-Files is about Mulder and Scully, two heroic FBI agents who investigate the inexplicable and fight the forces of evil. For others, it's a show about Mulder and Scully, two gorgeous and sexy FBI agents who fall in love, and okay yeah, so they solve crimes sometimes, too. And for some fans of the series, the most important or at least the most fascinating thing about The X-Files is the character of Alex Krycek.

Someone posted to the Confessions from the Basement tumblr that they "wished this fandom wasn't so militantly anti-slash." I can't speak for everyone else, but I'm not anti-slash. I read slash, although less in this fandom than most. Although you've probably already read it, here you go, anonymouse from tumblr, have some great Mulder/Krycek slash.

Read "Let's Play House."

Love it or hate it, please let us know what you think. And please, especially if you want to read more slash, leave us some suggestions in the nomination post for next time.

Comments

(frozen)

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Still to Come: a comment on the actual fic!

I am of the opinion that every ship (that doesn’t inherently involve rape) was created equal.

That said, I’m going to stick my neck out a little bit here and say that in this specific fandom, for me personally, Mulder/other-male-character pairings sometimes bother me, but ONLY because it bothers me to see Scully so blatantly overlooked. Scully is a strong, compelling female character with a role that is – against the odds – roughly equal in screen time and importance to Mulder’s. She is the female lead in a show full of almost exclusively male characters. Because of this, when a fic passes over the canonical M/S ship in favor of pairing Mulder with a male character, it rankles with me on a feminist level.

However, I’ve heard people say that part of what slash does is makes up for the fact that homosexual characters have always been excluded from or marginalized in popular fiction. For that reason I think slash deserves recognition, consideration, and support.

Also, I’ve recently been spending a LOT of time reading (and adoring) a slash pairing in another fandom, and I’ve come to realize that slash – apart from having much of the same appeal as het – has certain appeals that het does not have. There is a lot more leeway to explore relationship power-dynamics, as one example. What I’m saying is that slash is not just an alternative to het, where both the characters are male. It’s an alternative to het that offers some distinctly different things that may appeal to the reader as well.

Slash is far more than just the desire to see two dudes making out. Which for most of us probably goes without saying, but given a certain narrow-minded comment posted up-thread, it seems worth saying anyway.

Despite the opinions of a few narrow-minded (I'm going to leave it at “narrow-minded” for now) individuals in TXF fandom, I disagree that TXF fandom is anti-slash. The fact is that well over half of the fanfic posted on AO3 is slash. By that standard, of course a fandom like TXF, which is primarily het, is going to seem “anti-slash.” What TXF fandom actually is, is primarily MSR – nothing “anti” about it. I can definitely say that in all my time spent on Gossamer, I’ve seen LOTS of slash, and the comment up-thread is honestly the most anti-slash thing I’ve encountered in the fandom in five years.

(frozen)

[wendelah1]

As hesychasm pointed out, slash has been around for a long time, it isn't going anywhere and doesn't really need defending—except apparently when it does.

As a Scullyist, and a feminist, and a woman whose psychic link to any show is through a female character, it even took me awhile to warm up to Mulder. As a gen person, I can see why people like M/M pairings, I can see why people like F/M pairings and F/F, too, but no pairing really hits my buttons, except on a fic by fic basis. Certainly, "Slash is far more than just the desire to see two dudes making out," although there is quite a lot of that, too. *g*

Despite the opinions of a few narrow-minded (I'm going to leave it at “narrow-minded” for now) individuals in TXF fandom, I disagree that TXF fandom is anti-slash. The fact is that well over half of the fanfic posted on AO3 is slash. By that standard, of course a fandom like TXF, which is primarily het, is going to seem “anti-slash.”

"Narrow-minded" seems like an unnecessarily charitable assessment. But getting back to the Tumblr post, what took me aback was the phrase, "militantly anti-slash," and if there were even a few comments like the one above, say at Haven, and no one countering them, I can see why the OP might feel that way about our fandom.

What TXF fandom actually is, is primarily MSR – nothing “anti” about it. I can definitely say that in all my time spent on Gossamer, I’ve seen LOTS of slash, and the comment up-thread is honestly the most anti-slash thing I’ve encountered in the fandom in five years.

I don't hang in forums much so I'm not aware of anti-slash sentiment but that doesn't mean it isn't out there.

The loyal remnant that we hang with here is overwhelmingly MSR. Certainly Haven is MSR and the few people who used to show up at TWOP were all MSR. The Tumblr crowd seems MSR. The group of people pushing for a third movie--MSR again. The small group of Philes at DW is more diversified I think, but other than me, and maybe Amal, I don't think there is anyone there who would say their primary fandom is TXF. Maybe the OP there doesn't know where the slash forums are, maybe they're less active than they used to be, so maybe the audience isn't there anymore for slash. This is all speculative, of course.

But. Fandom in general is overwhelmingly made up of people who slash various male pairings. Slash is the default setting in most fandoms. There are people who've made the argument that Mulder/Scully is a slash pairing. And even in this fandom (as in fandom in general), the most disliked characters are all female, and that group includes Scully.