Story 255: "atlas" by sohmer

[wendelah1]

Commenting is fixed, thanks to LJ support.

Since my last post, Fox made the announcement that The X-Files is coming back for six episodes, date as yet to be determined. I hope Chris Carter has some idea of how to bridge the distance between IWTB and whenever he decides to set these six episodes. From past experience, my guess is he won't. It will be up to our fanfic writers to fill in the gap.

As it happens, our next story is gap-fic for the period between "The Truth" and the second movie, by a fine, new-to-the-fandom writer. It's episodic, character-driven, and written in third person omniscient, which almost never works for me in fic. It works here--the transitions feel seamless and naturalistic. Sohmer understands these characters, and writes them with unusual empathy and intelligence. I loved this fic and I hope you do, too.

Rating: Teen
Warnings: Author chose not to use archive warnings.
Characters: Dana Scully/Fox Mulder
Word Count: 3697
Summary: "This is how they live: shadow people on an edge of reality, here but not, shapes phasing into the periphery, deeper into some ghosted liminality."

Read atlas.

Comments

[wendelah1]

Why "Atlas"? It's a word with more than one meaning, which is helpful if you're choosing a single word title. It's a story about people who are on a journey, who are trying to find their way. An atlas is a book of maps, useful for journeys. Atlas is also the name for the Titan who holds up the planets, including Earth, for all eternity as his punishment for siding with the older gods against the Olympians.

I think both Mulder and Scully have been forced to shoulder heavy burdens because of their role in fighting the Consortium, fighting colonization. They're both strong people, in their own, complementary ways.

The title works for me.

My real problem is a matter of taste. I simply don't enjoy the fanciness of the style. A line like "it passes like second-hand smoke, an unreal dreamscape buzzing at the nape of her neck" to describe a haircut seems to be trying too hard. And why "second-hand" anyway? Smoke is smoke. Unless you're trapped in a burning room.

It is a matter of taste. I like her style. It suits the story she is telling. The line isn't about the haircut itself so much as it is about the character's state of mind. Why secondhand smoke? Secondhand smoke has a different connotation than ordinary smoke. It's more specific, it comes from cigarettes, when you breath it in, it's not something that you're doing to yourself, it's not of your choosing. Someone else is doing the smoking and you're getting to breathe in their pollution. Smoking has a specific and very negative association in TXF universe because of the Cigarette Smoking Man, aka Cancer Man. "Second-hand smoke kills." Need I go on?

Cutting is something people do as a way of coping with emotional pain, feelings like sadness, rage, guilt, self-hatred, emptiness, and so on. It's also a way of taking back control when your life otherwise feels out of your control. She's cutting her hair, which is socially acceptable, rather than cutting into her skin, or burning herself, which is not, but the need is the same. She may not be trapped in a burning room, but she's trapped. The fact that it's partly because of choices she's made along the way isn't much comfort.

Smoking can also be something people use to cope. Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs but it's also a drug that simultaneously calms you and makes you more alert. The mysterious smoking woman? I think she's whatever or whoever you want her to be. But I don't think she's analogous to Nurse Owen in "One Breath." For one thing, I'm pretty sure Scully has never told Mulder about Nurse Owen.

Maybe instead of being her guardian angel, she's Scully's shadow self, appearing out of nowhere, offering her a cigarette. Maybe it's bad advice but what advice would be better? Don't take the job? Use condoms? Run away just as fast you can and don't look back? When you're in a classic no-win scenario, "taking a moment" may be as good as it gets.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Your alternate definition of the title cleared it up for me. They're tracing a map.

The style still bothers me. It's a mundane thing: getting a haircut. To call in multiple (and familiar) connotations to convey something subtle to the reader is, I think, overthinking on the part of the writer. But this vague existence to which God Carter consigned M&S is irking the entire fandom and getting in the way of creativity. I say ignore it and create your own situation, but it's an individual call. I suppose canon remains canon, GD it.

This forthcoming series will change things. If not necessarily for the better.

[wendelah1]

The style still bothers me. It's a mundane thing: getting a haircut. To call in multiple (and familiar) connotations to convey something subtle to the reader is, I think, overthinking on the part of the writer.

I don't see how a writer can over-think something. Every word is supposed to matter. Maybe you meant something else? Maybe you think she's using the wrong words?

Getting a haircut can be a mundane thing, and perhaps it is for you, but it isn't for everyone, and it certainly isn't in every situation. When I cut my hair after being accepted into nursing school, it was a kind of rite of passage for me. I had long hair, well past my shoulder blades, and it had taken me years to grow it that long. When my husband started working for The Man and got his first corporate haircut, it was a big deal. Other haircuts that aren't mundane: a little boy's first haircut, Samson's hair being cut, the buzz-cut soldiers were traditionally give upon entrance into the military, a novice cutting her hair and taking her final vows.

Maybe that element of characterization doesn't work for you but it's quite deliberate--and she is not the only XF writer to have used it.

But this vague existence to which God Carter consigned M&S is irking the entire fandom and getting in the way of creativity. I say ignore it and create your own situation, but it's an individual call. I suppose canon remains canon, GD it.

He'll never be able to please everyone--the fan lists of demands are extensive and often mutually exclusive. Yes to William. No to William. Yes to the myth-arc. Monsters of the Week are only acceptable episodes. Some fans are happy that they're bringing back the old favorites, like Cancer Man. Personally I never want to see that old fart's face again. Some people are happy we are getting any new canon at all, some people are refusing to watch because we aren't getting a 20 episode season. (Yes, really) I'm sure if CC is following the internet chatter, he's wondering why he ever agreed to this in the first place.

I see the messy canon as a source of creativity not an impediment. YMMV.