Story 23: "Undone" by August

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Before introducing today's story, allow me to point out that yesterday's is languishing with no comments at all. You can do better, people!

Anyway, our selection for today was nominated by idella. It might be interesting to compare it with "Table for Two" (which we discussed a couple of days ago), given that both of them deal with questions of loss.

Title: Undone.
Author: august
Email: appelsini@hotmail.com
Rating: R
Spoilers: everything until X-Cops
Category: angst, M/S
Summary: "I am made by her, and undone." - T. Gunn.

Comments

[dictatorcari]

Sorry! I couldn't contain myself and read all the stories on the first day. That's my excuse for the lack of comments. Haha.

This story is really lovely in its melancholy. The thing I'm starting to realize about the X-Files is that some of its genius is in its ambiguity. You can make a strong case for just about anything not explicitly stated in the series--stories like these, in my opinion, ring just as true as some of the more, um, cheerful ones. Because the tone of the show varies so substantially from episode to episode, it's not automatically non-canon to have Mulder and Scully mope all the time. Or, conversely, to tussle over ice cream. :)

[memento1.livejournal.com]

A very good point! I've never considered that before, but it's very true. I can read angsty UST or humorous casefile and they all sounds equally plausible, if written well.

[lightlack.livejournal.com]

I speak slowly, before his damn drawl can talk me out of it. I tell him everything I know: that Einstein fell in love with his cousin, that the sun has only four billion years of energy left, that the Beatles smoked a joint in the toilets of Buckingham palace, that Nietzche was crazy with syphilis when we wrote his most famous works.

Ahhh, I love this paragraph. I love the idea of Scully really having that kind of capacious mind, able to hold all those facts in. And I mean, it's not that we're ever given any reason to believe she doesn't; I just love it when different writers have their own "Scully brain-dump" paragraph, each with their own ideas of what little factoids she can pull up at will.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I agree too. I love it when fanfic writers explore different tones, and even push the boundaries of what you might have seen in the show. It doesn't ring hollow because, as dictatorcari said, the show itself allowed so many different views of the basic theme. That's one of the wonderful things about it.

[leucocrystal]

I couldn't agree more, re: the ambiguity of XF. People whine about all the questions that were never answered all the time, but can you imagine what a huge chunk of fanfic wouldn't even exist without that ambiguity? I LOVE having such a huge playground.

[22by7.livejournal.com]

very well said indeed :]

[22by7.livejournal.com]

an observation; i read this, not out loud, but definitely in the scully-voice i heard during 'memento mori'.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Dude, you totally have read things by August! I brought her up while I was over one day, a while back, but we never decided conclusively whether you'd read her or not. She's the one I keep saying I love beyond all measure, even though her characterizations are just so gut wrenching. I'm glad you like this bit. Her writing is so beautiful, whether the characterizations are one's cup of tea or not.

[wendelah1]

Here is a working link if you get a chance to fix it: http://web.archive.org/web/20090909213905/http://appelsini.tripod.com/xfiles/undone.html

[bmerb.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Really appreciated this one, despite finding it immensely depressing. It's true what people said, part of the beauty of xf is the undefined spaces allowing for infinite interpretations. That said, it doesn't fully feel like xf to me without some tiny spark of humor, dark or otherwise. I can imagine this as one piece of the xf world but really only a tiny window, not the whole thing.