Story 69: "Roman a Clef" and "A Midnight Clear" by Syntax6
These two short stories by Syntax6 were written last year as a gift for MaybeAmanda, and were supposed to be the beginning of a series. I am still hoping they will be.
These are not holiday fluff, so if you would rather read that instead, go to The Xmas Files and try Blue Christmas by Plausible Deniability, or Black Cherry Velvet by Michelle ( Read more... )
These are not holiday fluff, so if you would rather read that instead, go to The Xmas Files and try Blue Christmas by Plausible Deniability, or Black Cherry Velvet by Michelle ( Read more... )
Yet syntax manages to write some of the 'straightest' prose I can think of, and rarely loses the immediacy and the complication of emotion underlying the words.
Her words aren't a distraction; instead, they are nearly all carefully chosen to create an effect, evoke an emotion, or advance the story. I wanted to rec these because while this type of fic is not what she is known for, she does it so very well. I admire her enormously.
As you say, I think she writes Scully well from Mulder's point of view. Scully is a tough character to write, much harder than Mulder IMHO, and gets it gets harder in the later seasons. It is hard to capture her peculiar mixture of toughness and vulnerability.
I think I just figured out something important in the stories.
"Your mother had this filed but I intercepted it. It
wouldn't have gone through anyway."
Scully unfolded the paper and tilted it toward the light. It
was an application to have her legally deceased. Under cause
of death, it read "homicide," and Duane Barry was the stated
killer. Suspected manner of death was blank.
"It was a bunch of lies," Mulder said, his hands shoved deep
in his pockets.
"It's irrelevant now." She folded it back up and tried to
hand it back to him, but he wouldn't accept it. She shrugged
and ripped it in half.
"You see?" He turned to her. "That's your answer to
everything."
"And your answer is to keep carrying it around forever.
That's somehow more productive? There's nothing useful here,
Mulder." She stood up, casting a shadow over him. "I want
to come back. I want to find out what happened to me. But I
can't spend the rest of my life caught in that one moment."
I think that creates a good contrast between the way these two characters face their defining moments. It is a big difference, and a huge underlying source of conflict.
For Mulder, that jar of keys that his father has been hording is the symbol, of the truths he has been seeking ever since his sister was taken. For Scully, it's the tree, that she gets Mulder (!!) to help her bring into her living room to cover up and mask the remaining evidence of her abduction.
This might be why these stories still work for me, and don't feel as incomplete as they might. The themes of the first are carried through to the second and used to illuminate both characters.
"The tree is a symbol of life," she says to Mulder. You can see in this little exchange why they are such good FBI partners, the way their minds complement each other. Mulder is a little slow to recognize how much he needs her, but he comes around by the end. I must think on this further. Plus I need to reread "Blue Christmas."(:
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Syntax6 is an extremely unusual fic-writer. We have other great ones and certainly ones that are flashier, more eccentric. Nobody, so far as I know, has ever said anything bad about Syn. Not even in private, I'm guessing. Her work is so solid and careful, so pefectly balanced between the angst and the wit, so kind and insightful in its characterization. I almost wish that, in some alternate universe, the PTB at 1013 could review and appreciate the richness she brings to that crazy-quilt of a television series.
I have one bad thing to say about Syntax6. She hasn't been heard from in months. Bad, bad Syntax6.
If no one minds a side-rec, there's a really nice story at MaybeAmanda's Christmas site in which Skinner has an excellent time picking a Christmas tree: CathGerm's "Away in a Tree Lot." Many of us do not mind the bald thing.
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Syntax6 is so good, and yes, I can't imagine anyone saying anything bad of any consequence about her work. Perfect balance is a very good description of why I love her writing. The best fan fiction writers make me see the characters and the episodes in a new light. This is true of her too, but more than that, I love and appreciate the characters and the series even more after finishing one of her stories.
She hasn't been heard from in months.
I miss her, too. She did assure me in November that she was planning to finish "Original Sin," and I do believe she intends to do that. However, I have long ago stopped checking her website daily, or even weekly, for an update. If it happens, I will be a very happy fangirl. In the meantime, I am going to find my Elvis Christmas CD and reread "Blue Christmas."
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wow. i actually tried, just now, really tried to think of something, persnicket that i am. no luck. 'solid and careful' about sums it up, i agree. it's like the issues of 'style' and 'prose' and 'words' almost wink out of mind - when you read syntax6's fic it's like mainlining the story's content. her style strikes me as the fine vodka of prose - it suits the story and the characters - even flatters them - but doesn't have a flavor of it's own to draw the readers attention to (which i'm saying, in this one case, is a very good thing).
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