Story 251: "Your Platonic Relationship: An Owner's Manual" by Nanda

[wendelah1]

I'm still going back through the older comments at the nomination post. Way back when, someone nominated "Syncopation" by Lilla Vaughan, which I wasn't that crazy about to be frank. I don't remember why. But then I remembered she'd written this fic, which I do like a lot.

In her summary Nanda writes, "I think the title speaks for itself. Oh, and there are rocks falling from the sky, too."

The link is to AO3 but this fic can also be read at Gossamer.

Read Your Platonic Relationship: An Owner's Manual

Comments

Part 2/2

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

BEST FRIENDS

One final thing I want to talk about, regarding YPR, is Vaughan's choice to refer to Mulder as Scully's "best friend." I keep turning that over in my head, trying to decide how I feel about it. I want to like it. I definitely like fics that emphasize how much Mulder and Scully mean to each other even beyond their romantic feelings. In hindsight, that may have been one of the best things about the much beloved Parabiosis, the way it so clearly depicts Mulder and Scully's relationship as multifaceted, with such a strong chord of both professional and intimate friendship--and then love as something that essentially suffuses their friendship without subsuming it. So yeah, I'm a big fan of Mulder and Scully as "best friends." But I don't think I like the way YPR uses that idea. For one thing, it feels a bit forced - a "tell not show" kind of attitude. For another, it reinforces that Mary Sue vibe I get from Scully. Because crushing on, lusting after, falling in love with your best friend -- well that's just so normal, so relatable, really. I myself have never fallen for my best friend, but I know six or eight people who have. Which is why it's one of the most Mary Sue/Marty Stu plotlines there is!

Whereas Mulder and Scully seize on the idea of "partners," and from quite early on they begin using it as their way of explaining - to themselves, to each other, and to the rest of the world - what their relationship is. It's a catch-all term, a way of never having to unpack the idea of what they are to each other. So hearing Scully in YPR repeatedly define them in another way - as "best friends" - kind of throws me off. Because maybe they are best friends, but that was never, in my mind, how they chose to define themselves.

Re: Part 2/2

[rainatlas.livejournal.com]

I agree with what you've said, except I think the best friends distinction feels forced because it is meant to be forced (subtly but deliberately, in that "tell not show" way), by Scully, rather than by the author. They are best friends, so Scully isn't lying to herself, she's just trying to separate shades of gray into black and white, using a term she has convinced herself is intimate enough for their relationship but lacking the sexual aspect she's trying to avoid, however seriously. "Partners" wouldn't have had the same tone or emphasis, I don't think, so I'm defending the author's choice.

There's a kind of somber, distanced, tongue-in-cheek thing going on here and I like it. I agree, it's very meta and I think that's what makes the whole thing work. I love the case file.

Re: Part 2/2

[wendelah1]

They are best friends, so Scully isn't lying to herself, she's just trying to separate shades of gray into black and white, using a term she has convinced herself is intimate enough for their relationship but lacking the sexual aspect she's trying to avoid, however seriously. "Partners" wouldn't have had the same tone or emphasis, I don't think, so I'm defending the author's choice.

That's what I thought as well. She's creating a more intimate relationship for them in her headspace, one that doesn't cross the line she's drawn, but which is light years away from work partner.