C6D Tag - Wilby Wonderful Recs
arrow00 tagged me in slidellra's C6D tag game, and I wasn't sure what to offer. Fic? Maybe. Recs? Yes! So I decided to do both. I'll start with the recs and post the story separately.
Because I am experiencing a bit of a mini-Wilbyssiance (Duck/Dan! Buddy! Emily! Nova Scotia!) and belmanoir asked for some Wilby recs, I thought I'd oblige.
I've got a thing for good backstory fics in this slice of the C6D fandom, and so the first few recs are for tales that take us into the complicated histories of Dan, Duck and Wilby Island. sageness's Vinculum is one of my favourite explorations of Dan Jarvis. He's a rather mysterious character in the film. Like Duck, we're given only a few brief glimpses of who Dan Jarvis really is, and he does spend most of his precious screentime trying to kill himself. Sage builds up a believable backstory for him and answers some of the questions about Dan that the film couldn't quite answer. She also supplies Dan with an aimless, almost hapless yearning that feels completely authentic:
It occurred to Dan that he was getting blown by someone who was really, entirely, without a doubt not the woman he was married to. It occurred to him that this wasn't something he'd planned on, and he vaguely wondered how often people committed adultery by accident.
It's a wonderful story, rich and dense and humane, and I don't really have to pimp a Sage fic to you people, do I?
Despite my recent decision to whomp Duck MacDonald, I really do love the guy. He is, as many have pointed out, the most attractive stalker imaginable. And he's a wonderful blank slate for a writer. Filling in Duck's backstory and making all the pieces fit is a tough job, and I think exeterlinden did a fine job of building Duck from the ground up in her Duck/Dan story I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe). This is Duck: his history, his hopes and dreams and disappointments, his sense of openness and bravery and his willingness to take huge emotional risks. I loved the secondary cast of characters here, particularly Samir, who serves to underscore Duck's desire for romantic and sexual connection and the way he never manages to get it quite right. exeterlinden's gentle and understated writing style really well here, and this is the kind of story that reminds me why I love the Duck/Dan pairing. Duck's life before Dan isn't tragic, just lonely, and the sense of union and peace at the end is especially poignant given the backstory for Duck Exeter establishes so carefully.
slidellra has written a number of fabulous stories for different parts of the Canada 6degrees fandom, and she's got a gift for perfectly nailing down a narrative voice or image that not only honours but often surpasses the original, no matter how different or challenging the original universe is to work with. (Seriously, you people have read her For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down stories, right? Amazing doesn't even begin to describe her work there). Sli's Wilby story Possible is no exception. She takes the notion of "Duck as a stalker" and expands on it: this is a short piece but it offers amazing insight into who and what Duck is. I think I finally started to understand how, exactly, Duck's love for Dan transformed Duck's life, and the end left me breathless. I said much more in my comments to the original fic post, but suffice to say: this story will knock your socks off.
I'll wrap this up with two Yuletide fics that deserve a bit of the ol' squee: ignazwisdom's sweet Duck/Dan romance Living the Honest Life from 2006, and isiscolo's great Ten Things About Duck MacDonald from 2007. Both stories highlight the best of Wilby Wonderful: they're brave, compassionate and sweetly nuanced examinations of small-town life. Iggy tackles the issue of homophobia and the way it gave rise to Dan's depression and closeted sexuality: her story is a recognition that love is a risk and that the stakes can seem impossibly high, but sometimes a leap is necessary.
Isis uses the familiar 10 things format to give us some insight into Duck McDonald, and she does a terrific job of blending past, present and future so that the story echoes the form of human memory in all its fractured and looping-back glory. Some of the "Ten Things" we learn are sad, some are happy, and all feel simply, beautifully real.
So, those are some of my favourite Wilby fics. I hope you'll rec a few of your favourites below. So much terrific art, writing, meta and vidding has come out of this simple, quiet little flick about small-town life, and I hope there will be more to come.
Okay, next up for the tag challenge: F/K schmoopiness!
Because I am experiencing a bit of a mini-Wilbyssiance (Duck/Dan! Buddy! Emily! Nova Scotia!) and belmanoir asked for some Wilby recs, I thought I'd oblige.
I've got a thing for good backstory fics in this slice of the C6D fandom, and so the first few recs are for tales that take us into the complicated histories of Dan, Duck and Wilby Island. sageness's Vinculum is one of my favourite explorations of Dan Jarvis. He's a rather mysterious character in the film. Like Duck, we're given only a few brief glimpses of who Dan Jarvis really is, and he does spend most of his precious screentime trying to kill himself. Sage builds up a believable backstory for him and answers some of the questions about Dan that the film couldn't quite answer. She also supplies Dan with an aimless, almost hapless yearning that feels completely authentic:
It occurred to Dan that he was getting blown by someone who was really, entirely, without a doubt not the woman he was married to. It occurred to him that this wasn't something he'd planned on, and he vaguely wondered how often people committed adultery by accident.
It's a wonderful story, rich and dense and humane, and I don't really have to pimp a Sage fic to you people, do I?
Despite my recent decision to whomp Duck MacDonald, I really do love the guy. He is, as many have pointed out, the most attractive stalker imaginable. And he's a wonderful blank slate for a writer. Filling in Duck's backstory and making all the pieces fit is a tough job, and I think exeterlinden did a fine job of building Duck from the ground up in her Duck/Dan story I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe). This is Duck: his history, his hopes and dreams and disappointments, his sense of openness and bravery and his willingness to take huge emotional risks. I loved the secondary cast of characters here, particularly Samir, who serves to underscore Duck's desire for romantic and sexual connection and the way he never manages to get it quite right. exeterlinden's gentle and understated writing style really well here, and this is the kind of story that reminds me why I love the Duck/Dan pairing. Duck's life before Dan isn't tragic, just lonely, and the sense of union and peace at the end is especially poignant given the backstory for Duck Exeter establishes so carefully.
slidellra has written a number of fabulous stories for different parts of the Canada 6degrees fandom, and she's got a gift for perfectly nailing down a narrative voice or image that not only honours but often surpasses the original, no matter how different or challenging the original universe is to work with. (Seriously, you people have read her For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down stories, right? Amazing doesn't even begin to describe her work there). Sli's Wilby story Possible is no exception. She takes the notion of "Duck as a stalker" and expands on it: this is a short piece but it offers amazing insight into who and what Duck is. I think I finally started to understand how, exactly, Duck's love for Dan transformed Duck's life, and the end left me breathless. I said much more in my comments to the original fic post, but suffice to say: this story will knock your socks off.
I'll wrap this up with two Yuletide fics that deserve a bit of the ol' squee: ignazwisdom's sweet Duck/Dan romance Living the Honest Life from 2006, and isiscolo's great Ten Things About Duck MacDonald from 2007. Both stories highlight the best of Wilby Wonderful: they're brave, compassionate and sweetly nuanced examinations of small-town life. Iggy tackles the issue of homophobia and the way it gave rise to Dan's depression and closeted sexuality: her story is a recognition that love is a risk and that the stakes can seem impossibly high, but sometimes a leap is necessary.
Isis uses the familiar 10 things format to give us some insight into Duck McDonald, and she does a terrific job of blending past, present and future so that the story echoes the form of human memory in all its fractured and looping-back glory. Some of the "Ten Things" we learn are sad, some are happy, and all feel simply, beautifully real.
So, those are some of my favourite Wilby fics. I hope you'll rec a few of your favourites below. So much terrific art, writing, meta and vidding has come out of this simple, quiet little flick about small-town life, and I hope there will be more to come.
Okay, next up for the tag challenge: F/K schmoopiness!