New dS Fic! A Searching and Fearless Inventory (Fraser, gen)
Title: A Searching and Fearless Inventory
Characters: Fraser (Fraser/Victoria, Fraser/Kowalski implied)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1961 words
Author's Notes: Many, many thanks to my fantastic betas, aethel, lamentables and ignazwisdom. This was a tough story that started out as a piece of meta and, through their help and diligence, magically evolved into a narrative. What's good in this story is in place only because of them.
Story Notes: If you don't mind being spoiled for the content of a fic, you might want to read the story notes. Some of you have been reading truepenny's wonderful analysis of the four seasons of due South, and so I probably don't need to tell you how insightful and interesting her observations are. I've actually made a little file of all of the plotbunnies her reviews have generated, and this was the biggest one. In her analysis of "Victoria's Secret" (pt. 2) truepenny said:
...I love the fact that there are thirteen years of Fraser's adult life, of his service with the RCMP, that we know almost NOTHING about. We have no idea what it took to build the Mountie, what it cost him. I have a personal theory--for which I have no evidence I can point to, just a sense of the way the show works and the way Fraser works--that the reason Fraser doesn't drink isn't that he's pure and innocent, it's that for some of those thirteen years, he was an alcoholic. And he is now a recovering alcoholic, which is another choice you have to make. Every. Single. Day.
That really struck home for me. I've been writing about this character constantly for more than two years, and I think that's one of the most insightful things I've read about him. It hews very closely to meta discussions I've had with folks like dessert_first - any attempt to figure out Fraser's complicated moral and ethical code, and how it relates to his "performance" as Benton Fraser, RCMP, usually concludes with the observation that the guy is making some kind of choice to be The Mountie. He's well aware of the corruption of the RCMP, and that not all people are worth saving, but he never expresses that belief. It's always felt to me that he's made a deliberate choice to do right and believe in people, and I found the connection truepenny makes in regards to alcoholism fascinating. The title of this story is taken from the fourth step of the Alcoholics Anonymous pledge.
A Searching and Fearless Inventory
Characters: Fraser (Fraser/Victoria, Fraser/Kowalski implied)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1961 words
Author's Notes: Many, many thanks to my fantastic betas, aethel, lamentables and ignazwisdom. This was a tough story that started out as a piece of meta and, through their help and diligence, magically evolved into a narrative. What's good in this story is in place only because of them.
Story Notes: If you don't mind being spoiled for the content of a fic, you might want to read the story notes. Some of you have been reading truepenny's wonderful analysis of the four seasons of due South, and so I probably don't need to tell you how insightful and interesting her observations are. I've actually made a little file of all of the plotbunnies her reviews have generated, and this was the biggest one. In her analysis of "Victoria's Secret" (pt. 2) truepenny said:
...I love the fact that there are thirteen years of Fraser's adult life, of his service with the RCMP, that we know almost NOTHING about. We have no idea what it took to build the Mountie, what it cost him. I have a personal theory--for which I have no evidence I can point to, just a sense of the way the show works and the way Fraser works--that the reason Fraser doesn't drink isn't that he's pure and innocent, it's that for some of those thirteen years, he was an alcoholic. And he is now a recovering alcoholic, which is another choice you have to make. Every. Single. Day.
That really struck home for me. I've been writing about this character constantly for more than two years, and I think that's one of the most insightful things I've read about him. It hews very closely to meta discussions I've had with folks like dessert_first - any attempt to figure out Fraser's complicated moral and ethical code, and how it relates to his "performance" as Benton Fraser, RCMP, usually concludes with the observation that the guy is making some kind of choice to be The Mountie. He's well aware of the corruption of the RCMP, and that not all people are worth saving, but he never expresses that belief. It's always felt to me that he's made a deliberate choice to do right and believe in people, and I found the connection truepenny makes in regards to alcoholism fascinating. The title of this story is taken from the fourth step of the Alcoholics Anonymous pledge.
A Searching and Fearless Inventory