Story 258: "SN 1572" by prufrock's love

[wendelah1]

I'd been thinking about posting this so when it was nominated by an anonymous lurker, I decided to go ahead. It's a major new work by a talented writer. Dear Anon, thanks for the suggestion. I hope you will join the discussion.

Title: SN 1572
Author: prufrock's love
Email: prufrockslove@yahoo.com
Rating: NC-17
Classification: Novel, Post-colonization, Angst, Dark MSR, Other
Summary: After colonization and Earth's devastation, Scully remains in one of the few safe, walled colonies, remembering the past and praying for some future with Mulder. Whatever the hell Mulder has become.
Author's Note: A reworking of Negative Utopia

This fic follows the general outline of "Negative Utopia," which we read many years ago. If you want to see that discussion, here it is, along with a working link to the story: Story 76: "Negative Utopia" by prufrock's love. The changes to her earlier fic are more than substantial enough to warrant the re-titling. I loved "Negative Utopia," and, to be honest, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this fic. I am happy to report "SN 1572" is also an excellent story, though not without its flaws.

Read SN 1572.

After you've read the story, please come back and let us know what you think. The nomination post is always open for your suggestions.

Comments

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd commented on it at the time but maybe I wasn't a member when we discussed Negative Utopia. NU was the first fanfic I ever read and I remember it very fondly although I haven't revisited it in years. This should be interesting.

somewhat spoilery response to story

[zinnia03.livejournal.com]

I have read many of the stories but seldom comment. Thanks for continuing to post these in the face of apparent apathy. I think we are out there but speaking at least for me, RL doesn't allow me much time to indulge myself in reading (I'm the half-hour before bed kind of reader these days), or even much brain space to think about the things I read when I get a chance to read them. This story I stayed up late to read over two evenings.

I didn't go back and re-read the original story but I remember it as being relatively short, sharp, and having a fairly hopeless view of the future. I was new to fanfic and devoured pretty much everything in my path at that time, but "Negative Utopia" is one that stuck with me.

I like this re-working of it for the way it fleshes out the post-colonization world. Also, it's unusual for Prufrock to write from Scully's POV - most of the stories I've read by her are Mulder POV. In them, Mulder often seems to view himself as somewhat inept and socially backward, so to see him through the filter of Scully - where she finds him almost as much of an enigma as he finds her -- is interesting.

I thought a lot of about the role of women in this story and correlating it to the kind of stuff that continues to happen in RL but I'm not very articulate about it. I can only observe that it seems that women will always be seen as a commodity -- something to be fought over and used not for their knowledge or skills, but as a mere fact of biology. And that a double standard still exists regarding women's choices. There seems to be a different perception of Lynne - where the concern is that she is being held against her will, and the pregnant woman outside the bunker (not even identified by name at first) who is pregnant and is "prostituting herself." The point is brought home many times that if Scully was not perceived to "belong" to Skinner, then some other man would lay claim to her.

I guess I could see Scully's decision in the end as a noble one -- to do her part to save the world -- to trade relative comfort and security for an uncertain life of great danger and no guarantees -- but that is a choice she has made over and over again to stay with Mulder.

[whithersoever.livejournal.com]

I'm about halfway through, but I thought I'd comment on what I've read so far just to get the ball rolling. I took notes as I read, so sorry if my thoughts seem disjointed!

Disclaimer: I haven't read Negative Utopia, and I couldn't get into Hiraeth/A Moment in the Sun/Paracelsus enough to finish, though I did try. Also, in my real life I'm just a band director/musician with no creative writing training so my opinion is basically worthless!

I know pru has a large following, and I can certainly agree with and appreciate her talent for very fleshed-out worlds and unique, interesting plots. The majority of her writing in this story is smart (I will expound upon this point later); however, there has always been something about her characterizations that fall a little flat for me. There's definitely enough recognizable about her characters to tell an entertaining story, but there is rarely a time when I can 100% reconcile her Mulder and Scully with the Mulder and Scully we see on the show (jeez, I'm going to get crucified for this, but I also feel the same way about some of the works by other much-beloved authors, like syntax and penumbra). Of course that doesn't mean that I don't still enjoy reading these fics or find them well-written in other ways. I do! It's just that the X-Files is so much about these characters and their interactions that everything else is almost secondary for me, and it's difficult to feel invested in a fic if I don't recognize M&S. Having said that, I feel like this works in prufrock's favor in this story: of course Scully/Mulder/Skinner would be a bit out of character and/or unfamiliar to the reader in this new world they're living in after colonization. That makes perfect sense. I guess what I'm saying is I can appreciate these kinds of characterizations better when I know they're important or relevant to the story (as a side note, I would love to read some of prufrock's original fiction; I think she'd be excellent).

Love that Skinner is in charge of the colony. It feels believable and I like seeing his military background surface. Don't love the Skinner/Scully aspect, but that's just personal preference; I understand and appreciate its larger function in the story, even though the whole "Scully is a commodity" thing makes me uncomfortable (which, again, is probably the point: pru shows humanity/society pared down in some ways to its most basic, animalistic form post-colonization). It's an interesting concept for Mulder to "use" Skinner's body in order to be intimate with Scully. I don't know that everyone in that scenario would just be as immediately comfortable with it as they're presented in the story (and would Mulder really be selfish enough to influence their thoughts and feelings to get what he wants, even if it's at the expense of other important work being done in the colony? I don't know, but then again he may not be Mulder anymore, which would explain it), so that kind of put me off a little.

Pru has a tendency to get caught up in details, I think. Sometimes it works great and adds something to the story (like Byers never wearing his holster, loved that little bit of info), but other times it can make some of her passages seem too dense and slow the pace down. Right now, about halfway in, the pace is and has been too slow for me. I'm also not crazy about the writing style in the flashbacks to the beginning of Mulder and Scully's relationship in and out of the bunker. The romantic language/similes feel a bit cliche ("You're my girl" pleassssseee no, that really took me out of the story every time someone said some iteration of it), but I think this is because I know prufrock is absolutely capable of some beautiful prose (or possibly because I read way too much MSR).

(continued)

[ledez-dreams.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Although I love post-col stories, this didn't work for me, same as Negative Utopia never has. I do however have a hard time figuring out why exactly this is the case. I like the detail, and this story definitely fleshes out Negative Utopia in a way that complements them both. The world is described well and I find it quite believable. I have probably read and watched too many dystopian movies and books that I have a dim view of what would happen to the position and rights of women in such scenarios. So I did find Scully's position believable as well.

That being said though, I think it was Scully's lack of control in a post colonization world and her seeming acceptance of this. I suppose this is somewhat in contradiction to what I just said in the previous paragraph, but it does bother me. She relies on Skinner to protect her, and having to be labelled as "his" as a result, and she also requires Mulder's protection to an extent once she is reunited with him.

In general I agree that characters can (and probably should) be OOC in stories such as these, but this just one just seemed to take away Scully's fighting spirit a little too much. I know she exerted some authority as a physician back at the camp, but it almost seemed like an indulgence afforded to her, and this was proven when it became apparent that Skinner was actually preventing people like Byers from reaching her and he faked an injury just to come talk to her. (Incidentally, I agree with whithersoever that Byer's characterization was a pleasant surprise in this story, I very much enjoyed him). I suppose you could argue that this story picks up a long time after this new society has been going on, and that Scully would have had a long time to acclimatize herself, but I still think she could have had more agency. The best dystopian stories (in my opinion) feature strong characters that are trying to subvert the society in which they live. It seems to me there was an opportunity to give her more of an empowered role that the author didn't seem to want to take. I'm really glad the other reviewers are touching on this also, I agreed with most of what I've read here.

I also didn't really like that despite all the detail and building of this world, there really wasn't more to the plot than Scully wanting to be with Mulder, and Mulder wanting to be with Scully. I know it's not exactly that simple, but that is sort of what it boils down to. It misses out on the fact that the best thing about Scully and Mulder is that they have their commitment to each other, but also shared commitment to their work. The story sort of gives Mulder all the power and reduces Scully to a bit of a sidekick to him, the equality in their relationship seems to disappear in this world, which even if it's plausible given the circumstances, I don't like it.

I think I would have enjoyed the story much more had they been reunited earlier rather than Scully pining for him so much. The story then could have explored their relationship in a changed setting while simultaneously had them actually do something to learn more about the colonists, or fight back. Life during Wartime was an excellent example of this. So basically, I guess I just want a whole different story, haha.

Sorry also if my review is a bit vague and I may have also gotten some of the details muddled or even flat out wrong. I read this over a week ago and about halfway through found myself skimming more than actually reading. Which is unfair to the work, but I also didn't want to spend a lot of time reading something that really wasn't doing it for me.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello hello! I hope its okay to leave a comment, I’ve never been a part of this reading group. I have known of its existence, and ages ago would pop on for a story recommendation here or there… and I am pleasantly surprised to see it still up and running! I used to love reading x-files fanfiction years ago, but only now has my interest re-sparked with the upcoming new series. I’m pretty out of the loop and have no idea who the good authors are anymore.

I’d never read anything by prufrock’s love, and I usually don’t care for post-colonization or post-apocolyptic stories, but thought what the heck, I’ll give it a go. I was surprised that it immediately held my interest in a way other stories have failed to. Clearly, the writing was quite intelligent, which ticks the first criteria box. As was mentioned in earlier comments, everybody has different versions of Mulder and Scully, different head-canon, and different interests in terms of story focus, plot and theme. What I’m most interested in is their relationship, particularly their friendship, and their transition from platonic to romantic around about the 7-year mark. Plot for me is really secondary.

Because it revolved quite generally around my personal story interests, I was intrigued to see, in a pretty realistic rendering, what would happen to these two characters when pushed to the absolute extremes of duress, trauma, loss, vulnerability and desperation, and how (if?) their relationship would endure. And how the characters themselves would endure, would change.

The versions of the characters in the flashback scenes did not entirely match my personal versions of them, but it was pretty close. What I didn’t buy was their easy sexual banter, particularly in the scenes set around season 4 (Scully telling Mulder the worst part of dying of cancer would be being flat-chested, Mulder commenting she had a ‘great rack and a great ass’ etc…) or even in the season 7 scene after the New Years kiss, Scully showing him a box of tampons. I certainly didn’t buy the timeline of the in-vitro attempts, (for me, Season 6 is way too early) and again their easy sexual banter, Mulder joking extensively about buying her a vibrator for Christmas etc… for me this is all very out of character.

But the ways they looked at one another, their friendship, respect and affection, protectiveness, that all rang true. As did Scully’s voice, the way her thoughts and insights were continually shaped and informed by her science, logic and intelligence, and the things she denied herself. I’m a bit of a sap for the two of them loving each other, and the scene where Mulder looks up at the star, and gives a speech about how she’s his best friend, she hasn’t precluded a romantic future with him, and it’s not ridiculous for him to want to protect her... man did that make my heart go pit-a-pat! Also the bit about how the universe didn’t want them on opposite sides of the couch.

So given the ‘real world’ the author established was relatively in-sync with how I see it, I was equally as interested to see how the characters would change when that world fell away into bleakness and violence and desperation. That post-apocalyptic landscape was constructed, for me, very thoroughly and realistically, and was populated with characters that felt very 3-dimensional.

continued...

[(Anonymous)]

continued from 1st post...

Post-colonization Mulder remained a bit of a mystery, as he’s intended to, but I was disappointed that there wasn’t more insight into his transformation. The person he was and the person he becomes is so wildly different that I was left wanting more of an examination of his psychological and emotional state, even if Scully was happy to accept him without condition. He was tortured, traumatized, ripped from himself and from her and from reality, so his coldness, confusion, violence, indifference, self-preservation etc are all perfectly believable, but I was hoping more of the old person remained, locked up inside somewhere, and that through his reconnection with Scully he would regain something of his humanity. What humanity remained was entirely tied up in his relationship with his son, which is again, believable. And I guess you can’t expect too much of himself to resurface after only 3 or 4 days with her. You can forgive him for a lot, for having a son with another woman, for killing Skinner, using him for sex, for leaving Scully alone to pine and agonize, keeping her in the dark and taking her choices away in the name of her protection, for his violence and cruelty, and on and on and on, all under the banner of ‘he’s a survivor, not a monster’.

It fizzled out at the end for me. Where others said they were disappointed there wasn’t more to the plot, that it was only a story of Scully wanting to be with Mulder and vice versa, for me it disappointed that you never really saw them reconnect. What reconnection there was was way too subtle. (I don't mean them having sex, or him saying 'never doubt that I love you', etc.. for me it's his kindness, his gentleness, his affection and respect).

Maybe he’s too fractured to ever reconnect with her, and you can’t blame him if he is, but it’s what I wanted to see. Scully just accepts him for what he is, but without really understanding exactly what he is, what he thinks, where he’s been, what he’s done, what he wants (other than to raise his son), it’s hard to feel very satisfied with the ending. I get, they’re survivors, they’re together, they’ll figure it out, there’s hope because there’s a boy, she’d never be happy in the boring safety of the Colony, he might never be happy anyway, even with her (as was the case in the ‘real world), so hoorah for realism... I guess I just want for them something that’s impossible.

Anyway, I did enjoy the story and can always appreciate good writing, so thanks for bringing it to my attention. I look forward to your future recommendations! And I hope my post wasn’t too long!

Cheers,
Kate

[milagro-x.livejournal.com]

I read this when the link was first posted on Haven and it was SOOO good. Like always, I was slightly put off by the /other elements at first, but then the story took over and that was brushed aside. It even taught me how to write MSR that has /other elements in the beginning.