A FEAST OF FANFIC (OCD version)
jordan
Feast of Fanfic 07
Summer has descended upon us like a plague
of cicadas from hell, making that horribly familiar
buzzing sound so many of us have grown to dread.
(Kinda like a swarm of bees...) The movie is over,
there's a long barren stretch of repeats ahead of us,
FOUR MONTHS of them, until the next new episode,
and we are starting to bite at our own tails like
Scully's "I'm on your back" tattoo. But take heart,
fellow fanfickers: it's times like these when the
community draws together and shows some of its
finest qualities. Some of the most brilliant and
creative fiction I've ever seen on the group has
been cropping up in the past few weeks, and I'm
only sorry I don't have the scope or ability to deal
with it all here. All I can say is, the desert is
blooming; there are flowers on every cactus, and
not a stalk of corn anywhere in sight, except for
the corny turn this metaphor has taken.
In the middle of all this burning emptiness, of course,
is the ultimate fool's paradise: Vegas! Hell's Cocktail
Lounge, according to DBKate at dbk...@yahoo.com
and our old friend Te, at dadd...@aol.com, in their
latest literary equivalent to viagra, "Spin."
By now I won't even bore you with my standard
disclaimer for slash; I'll just quote:
"Before Mulder knew it, the coins were dropping
and the buttons were being slapped by two fingers;
then by his whole hand. He tried to play with timing,
then with intuition; then debated calling the Psychic
Hotline for outside help. The money, along with
everything else, disappeared, and his world became
a whirl of numbers and cartoon fruit, coming to precise,
shuddering
stops in all the wrong places."
Never mind that these authors make me feel vague envy
for a slot machine-- is this section a perfect description
of the relationship between Mulder and Scully or what?
I know, I know, it's Krycek who evokes such incredibly
sensual, lush imagery here, such raw, hungry passion.
It all climaxes...I mean, it all comes together....that is...
there's a scene in a limo that will curl your toes right
up to your ankles and fog your contact lenses, in the
middle of which suddenly, inexplicably, perfectly,
Mulder notices a tree...
Lovely story, dead on accuracy and insider knowledge
of the workings of the casinos and their trade. If you
like the story even half as much as I did, write 粗m and
extol the virtues of MSR...then again, maybe the "virtues"
of MSR are what brought them to M/K in the first place...
And speaking of insider knowledge, that old phrase
"write about what you know" has been applied handily
by nascent, in her masterpiece, "Theory and Practice."
It's a murder/mystery/x-file based on science, and
nascent, being in that academic field, writes so with such
confidence and conviction that the plot alone is
enough to make the story way above average.
But what gives this tale its absolute magic is the
interaction between Mulder and Scully, emotion
realized and expressed without exclamation marks
or capital letters. And yet I dare you to read the last
chapter without at least a small catch in your throat.
We hear again and again that these people have too
much emotional baggage to get together, but how often
do we peek inside those bags and really understand
where the problems lie? Superficial treatments too
often use exposition, an inner monologue or just plain
telling us the story: nascent uses interacting dialogue
to SHOW us the depth of maturity, love, and
strength in our heroes, how they enhance each other
through their partnership. BTW--all the main characters,
including M and S, have sex in this story, but not in the
combinations you might expect.
All this, and more. The heart of the story deals
with an uncanny similarity between the scholarly
rubric about the classic hostage situation and the
M and S dynamic, expressed through "Interludes."
Don't skip over these, or think they're just in there
as some sort of official sounding dogma. Each small
section, placed like an afterthought, has critical
bearing on what's going on in the story, to add layer
after layer of depth.
Absolutely amazing, nascent. Find her at
nasc...@hotmail.com, and pat yourself on the
back for discovering this author's finest work so far.
More fine work, with stunning consistency, is
coming from Adrian D Ives, a Brit with a droll sense
of humor and a writing style that could be described
as truly classical, with "Dr. Scully and the Invasion of
the Quantum Turtles," one of a continuing series in the
incredibly rich and detailed universe of Dr. Scully. Ives
has a style that uses words and cadence as
measured and thoughtful as Oliver Wendell Holmes,
but the brilliance lies in the way he plugs in our characters
so perfectly:
"As the two INS agents escorted a protesting
Krycek towards the waiting van, Skinner and
Marita Covarrubias stepped out from behind a
tree.
禅his has made me one very happy
Assistant Director,' said Skinner.
糎hat will they do to him?' she asked, with
concern.
前h, probably kick the shit out of him for a
few hours.'
He took hold of her arm and guided her across
the yard towards the front door of the main farm
building. On the way, they passed Krycek's abandoned
jeep, and Marita cast a sad glance at the prosthetic
arm, still leaning up against the tire where Krycek
had left it.
羨fterwards,' Skinner continued, 選 might head
over to where they're holding him, and then I'll
probably kick the shit out of him too."
前h,' she said. (Poor Krycek.) 舛ould I come
and watch?'"
(Adria...@email.msn.com)
Dry wit, self-restraint, everything wonderful
about the British is expressed in this long but
worth-the-time tale of the wandering doctor, whose
world is so easy to fall into you wonder if Ives' web
page hasn't got some kind of mysterious gravitational
center. And something I also prize is found here, too:
a genuine love for the character, expressed in a million
non-sloppy ways guaranteed to make you love
her--them--too.
Speaking of which...I'm sure I'm the last person to
tell you to read
Mulder & Scully Build A Web Page
by Imajiru and Alanna
ima...@mindspring.com
mel...@mindspring.com
After which, get yourself over to http://scully.mulder.com
and SEE the web page. Timing is everything in comedy,
and these writers achieve it through the unique spacing
on the page indicating dialogue between our two
lovebirds. But the genius of these authors lies in
different kind of timing. At the exact moment I
began to twist a bit in my chair, anxious that it would
disintegrate into something dark and ugly, they
reached in and snatched victory from the jaws of
nastiness:
Mulder: Perhaps you'd like to
commune with your batteries
tonight instead of enjoying
conjugal relations.
Scully: Perhaps I will. You like
sleeping in handcuffs?
M: Sometimes when you're at
it, I feel like I'm sleeping.
Wait! Babe, I'm
sorry. You know I love
you.... don't you?
(silence)
M: How would you like me to show it?
and then Scully comes back with a bit of dialogue
to show that she will grudgingly forgive him. The
tone from this point becomes sexier, funnier.
This is excellent use of dramatic tension, because
there are things in relationships that once said,
can never be taken back, and to walk that fine
line is an acrobatic feat very few authors can
pull off. In this case, the relief is wonderful and
we don't have that uneasiness at laughing at
someone in pain. This is just plain funny. A
wonderful, creative job that makes us realize
that we are only limited on this group by our
imaginations--pretty boundless territory yet to
explore, eh?
As a bit of a side note, right after I went to this site
I went to:
http://www.geocities.com/~bjruef/Action/icepicktures.htm
because once your sides hurt from laughing anyway,
what the hell?
To sober up a bit, I finally got the thoughtful and
absorbing end of Lynn Gregg's aptly named, "Ender's
Switch." (pyt...@aye.net)
It was worth the wait. Gregg addresses
the issues of the characters from The End with
deft skill, presenting us with strong and likeable
images of them, as in (from Scully's POV):
"Poor Frohike. Although I'd never say it, I *am*
fond of him; I've grown fond of all the Gunmen. They
may be kooks, but they're loyal kooks, and trustworthy--
and God knows, in our position, people like that are
few indeed. Frohike may be--Hell, he *is*--a
lecherous, perverse little troll; but deep down he
is a good man, and a genuine friend. There is very
little, I believe, that he wouldn't do for Mulder, or
for me. (snip by jordan)...There's
a depth of feeling there, well-camouflaged, that
can't be dismissed so easily. He is, himself, a
redwood among mere sprouts."
It's the complexity of people on the show, their
refusal to be single-dimensional, that Gregg
realizes so well, as illustrated in the above.
This is one of those stories that draws you in,
makes you forget that you have to get up in
the morning, or feed the cat, or whatever it
is you do when you aren't reading.
And the coolest thing of all: Gregg is the only
person I've seen so far who's written a story
connecting The End PERFECTLY with the movie,
so seamlessly that you feel like some kind of
time warp is going on, and you want to shout
at them DON'T GO TO DALLAS! or something
equally silly; they're characters, remember?
It's just a show, isn't it? (jordan cups hand
around ear, straining to hear readers muttering
and shuffling their feet.)
IT'S JUST A SHOW. yeah, that's what they
WANT you to think... you and TRUMAN...
Here's the point where I start to get depressed:
running out of space, and I see excellent new
works by Dasha, and J Stoy, and Susan Proto.
And "The Spender Defense" by my favorite Flywoman!
(presented by nascent, who is also, apparently, fly's
attorney...)
But I don't have space to deal with them all, though
they're all such good reading. Kipler wrote an
extremely clever and funny little piece called
"Help Wanted: Consortium of Evil" --another
fine example of the kind of breakthrough creativity
that I'm seeing more and more of on this group.
Leyla Harrison has a story I read but haven't even
given feedback on yet; excellent as always and
deserving of so much more than a brief mention here.
And for the very best movie review, especially for
shippers to glory in, there's the tremendously
insightful and skillfully written review of FTF
on Paula Graves' site, "The ABC's of the X-File Movie"
at http://members.aol.com/gravespa2/movie2.htm.
She has a thesis I hadn't thought of, but which makes
absolutely perfect sense once she points it out, and
it completely changed my ideas about the "success"
of the movie and its real intent.
Someone named Dianora reposted a story
called "Hopeless," which described the aftermath
of a Mulder kiss as:
"The way her body tensed beneath his hand,
in what? Shock? Revulsion? He didn't stick
around to find out. He'd had a total wig-out
as soon as he'd realized what he was doing and
ran out of there. She didn't even call after
him. She'd probably been too busy wiping the
drool off her mouth." (dian...@aol.com)
Sometimes a few lines are all it takes to draw
us into a story and keep us there, and these
did it for me. Descriptions of Mulder's passion
for self-flagellation always borders between the
pathetic and the amusing; if we laugh we are
cruel, if we feel sorry for him he loses our respect.
Lines are hard things to walk down, even when
you're sober, but all of the authors I've mentioned
here have managed that marvelous balancing act.
So my job is done and yours is just beginning. If
you're sad and someone makes you laugh, if you
get swept up for a few minutes from the mundane
into the lushly envisioned fantasy of a sexual encounter,
if someone writes something that gives you new insight
and appreciation for a character's actions, wouldn't it
be a nice thing to do to write them and let them know?
How many other pleasures in the world can you pay for
so quickly and easily, with such certainty that you've
made someone happy? just say,
thanks for writing,
jordan