Story 93: "Moment of Inertia" by Pteropod
It's been a long time since my last entry here, for which I apologize. I've been very preoccupied with the impending closure of Geocities fan sites. In any case, this week's story was nominated by amyhit. For those readers who are utterly uninterested in season 8 fic and wish we would just get on with it already, that's okay. Just nominate something else
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Comments 19
I feel a little embarrassed about that description now, as Yellow Balloon upstaged this fic quite a bit, in my books, and they both occupy the same niche in my mental filing cabinet. It's a shame no one came to talk about that one. Maybe this will work out better. I promise (no, I actually promise) that I'll come back and talk about this one, no matter what.
*sigh* the only thing more neglected than S8 fic is S9 fic. not that i'm not a major neglecter myself.
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I think there is a lot more of season 8 fic to cover but it might just be you and me doing the reading. People like the AUs better, which is understandable, but I don't feel they quite get to the heart of the problem, although they do make me feel better. I was thinking about posting one of Prufrocks' season 8 AUs, maybe "The Thirteenth Sign," or "Inventing the Mulders," both of which I already have posted somewhere in case she lets her site go down. (shhh...don't tell)
I just finished a season 8 story by Marguerite, "How Glory Goes" that I ended up disliking intensely by the end. It was positively painful to read because it felt so voyeuristic and intrusive in its handling of Scully's grief after Mulder's death. I felt like the author was just wallowing in it. Ugh. Plus the whole Skinner is in love with Scully theme is nearly always an annoyance ( ... )
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Well, for my money you can keep on ranting, because IMO there's not nearly enough recognition of this point. The fact that fic nearly always veers to sex/romance is the reason I read so little of it. Human lives--including those of well--rounded fictitious characters--contain many beautiful facets, not all of which are centered around the aforesaid focuses. What a pity to put on blinders and neglect all those other gems.
As for Pteropod, she writes beautifully. And like Zuffy and Littljoe, she was another denizen of the Cave. Seeing this rec has made me all nostalgic.
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It is a pity. There just is never enough gen fic in fandom. But people write what they like to read. I'm just burned out on it myself. I'm like the movie reviewer who's seen too many movies. Sometimes I worry that I can't give romance, whether it's het or slash, a fair reading anymore.
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This is so John Doggett:
He catches her drooling on the desk blotter at 6:40 one
morning, still in the outfit she was wearing the day before.
If he was her friend he'd suggest therapy. As it is, he
offers to get her coffee. She refuses, of course. She
doesn't drink coffee.
I love this bit because I'm one of those who holds on to voice mail and phone numbers of people who are long gone. It's as though you hope that this time, somehow, dialing that same number will produce a response. And it never does:
She paid for Mulder's cellphone service for three months, and
called his number every day. His voicemail message never
changed, and he never called back.I love the way it incorporates the episodes. It feels like watching the eps on fast forward, but with all the behind the scenes and thoughts that we ( ... )
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The best fan fiction does enrich our experience of problematic episodes, doesn't it?
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i would even call it a theme, whether it was consciously or unconsciously done. there is also a fairly steady progression in how the characters cope with each other and with the world. they move from hermetic compartmentalization towards a kind of synthesis -- an acceptance of both order and chaos, between themselves, and between themselves and the greater environment.
From near the end of the fic: They've reached a sort of equilibrium, a certain comfort in the places where they sit and stand and the paths they take as they walk around in the office. In the beginning they stayed in their assigned seats but things have gotten looser, more at ease.in the beginning, however, almost every word of the story comes back to the hard-line struggle for order and control ( ... )
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was appalled at the order she'd imposed. He'd come back to folded underwear where he was used to disarray and suddenly the idea was horrific, untenable, so she tossed it all on the bed again and filled the drawers haphazardly, shaking creases out of t-shirts and releasing the socks from their pairwise bonds.
she began with the intention of order, but she saw her behavior in light of who mulder is and reversed the process. her behavior at this point is irrational, but not compulsive the way it has been. she is thinking, rather than simply acting. She is not just 'an object in motion, staying in motion'. This trend continues:
Orion tips incessantly, poised for an interstellar cartwheel, and she wants to spend her days puzzling out the cosmos: can a spaceship travel faster than light, and if it could, where would it go?the language here is almost oxymoronic. to 'tip' being precarious, chaotic, but 'incessant' being ( ... )
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that strikes me as highly oxymoronic in itself (and seriously awesome). time is inherent to inertia, yet the very definition of the word 'moment' excludes time! i could be wrong, but i don't think the title is referring to a specific point within the fic. i think it's referring to every point within the fic. inertia is the constant, and each scene is under its influence, and/or under the influence of an event that will change the specifics of inertia.
and then there are the things that inertia is irrelevant to. the things the characters are harboring within themselves: doggett's son. scully and mulder on a case, in a field - their hands about to touch.
ETA:
okay, so i didn't realize that Moment of Inertia is actually a a principal in physics that dictates the measure of an object's resistance to changes in its rotation rate. (It can ( ... )
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Yes, yes, and yes.
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I liked that you pointed out that the theme may be unconscious on the part of the writer. People are always saying "the writer didn't mean it" as if that's the important thing. Writers work with both the conscious and the subconscious. Then the ball is in the reader's court to untwine.
You know who could appreciate this? David Duchovny. If, that is, he could be persuaded to take an interest in fanfic. Which, probably not.
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