Comments | xf_book_club: Story 10: "Oyster" by Jordan

wendelah1 in xf_book_club

Story 10: "Oyster" by Jordan

Feb 16, 2008 23:15

I read this story last week after it was recced over at halfamoon by rivkat, as having a strong Scully characterization. I liked it. I did. But I don't think I really understood it. Maybe someone can give me a hand with that ( Read more... )

nc-17, scully/skinner, casefile, msr

Comments 12

emily_shore February 18 2008, 08:51:54 UTC

So many things to say about this story, so little time. I don't have time to write a full essay now, so for now I'll offer a placeholder comment that I can come back to later. Here are my three thoughts...

1) Yay Skinner! There are so few stories where Skinner gets to do any investigating that his role in this story meant I was pulling for it from the start.

2) What lovely style. The vividness and the quasi-hallucinatory detail in the story makes me think of Penumbra's writing. Yes, that's a very big compliment.

3) In The X-Files we usually are given a binary choice between the natural and the supernatural. Science or ghosts and aliens, take your pick. Scully or Mulder. What I liked about this story in the end was the way that it offers what I view as a third option, the surreal and the mystical. It would never have done to replace "Requiem" in the series, but it was frankly refreshing to see the story arc taken in a completely different direction. It reminded me very much of the conclusion of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, only ( ... )

Even more spoilery thinky thoughts emily_shore February 18 2008, 20:38:13 UTC

Confessions time: I do really wish that there was a Cliff's Notes version of this story. Still, we can but try. Onwards!

To start with, my feeling is that this story is functionally intended to replace Requiem. It explains how Scully comes to be pregnant and how Mulder disappears. Unlike Requiem, it links those two explanations. It picks up the idea of Mulder and Scully's child as The One, and runs with it, making the concept a lot more transcendent and mysterious than the simple one of his genetic material being somehow valuable for alien-colonization-fighting purposes.

The whole story is about something too big and deep to be expressed in human language and concepts. It suggests that symbols and metaphors are the only way to approach whatever is happening. The two phrases that are used over and over again are "oyster" and "a woman is a vessel." The author explains a little bit about oysters here. The key passage in the story (in my opinion) is this one, right at the end:

Never dreaming that Scully is only a vessel, or that in ( ... )

Re: Even more spoilery thinky thoughts wendelah1 February 18 2008, 23:41:41 UTC

Wow, this is great. I feel really amazed because you just expressed this so perfectly. Wow.

"Sure, I slept with your partner while you were missing. But it was some mystical miraculous type of deal, and anyway we both thought that I was you at the time...."

Are you like channeling Skinner, or what? You need to write more Skinner fic. Why don't you write that season eight Skinner looks for Mulder story that I keep thinking someone must have written, but haven't run into yet?

Okay. I will try hard to write a more coherent response than this. I'll get back to you.

Re: Even more spoilery thinky thoughts emily_shore February 19 2008, 08:06:52 UTC

I would much rather read other people's Skinnerfic, but (*sniff*) there isn't nearly enough of it. So you never know, I might step into the breach. What I really would want to read is a Skinner and Scully look for Mulder in season eight. Not sure that I could do justice to the concept as a writer, though.

there is a saviour wendelah1 February 25 2008, 23:37:17 UTC

Mulder, who has lived before in the mouth of madness, seems to have established some kind of sanctuary there. A calm inner place I haven't found in anyone else. Far from being made claustrophobic by the confinement of his own awareness, he has claimed this space for his own, hung paintings on the walls, arranged the furniture. And there he is now, putting together his own little puppet show, and all I can do, really, is watch, and wonder, and consider that he was well named Fox.In her author's notes, Jordan states emphatically that "THIS FIC IS REQUIEM FREE." This is rather misleading. Oyster is a re-envisioning of the end of season seven and to some extent, season eight as well. The parallels are multiple and striking. In both stories there are deaths, and multiple abductions. There is an investigation in which Skinner, Scully and, of course, Mulder are all major players. Like all great western religious stories, Oyster takes place in the desert, in the modern day stand-in of Sodom and Gomorrah: Los Vegas. It is a land of waking ( ... )

rarer than radium, crueller than truth... emily_shore February 26 2008, 12:50:35 UTC

What a wonderful review! Working together, the two of us have summed this one up, I think.

Like all great western religious stories, Oyster takes place in the desert, in the modern day stand-in of Sodom and Gomorrah: Los Vegas. It is a land of waking dreams, endless heat and unquenchable thirsts.

Great point here. That's something I had missed.

And am I seeing things, or do you actually have an "Oyster" themed icon? Where did that come from, if I may ask?

Re: rarer than radium, crueller than truth... wendelah1 February 26 2008, 15:48:53 UTC

Yes, it does seem appropriate doesn't it? I remembered seeing it back when I was going through the backlogs in the XF icon communities. Or maybe I was just snooping around her journal. It was made by frey_at_last. I was hoping she might jump into the fray here (sorry) but I guess she is busy with school. She made a whole set that has "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock," line by line on XF icons. This was mixed into that set, which I had book-marked. There is a lot of religious symbolism in this, much of which we already talked about. There are also other parallel scenes from Requiem, which I had to re-watch, by the way, in order to understand this story. It made me cry. Again. This discussion seemed like one to which she could have added an extra dimension, as a religious studies major ( ... )

Re: rarer than radium, crueller than truth... emily_shore February 27 2008, 18:12:31 UTC

There is a lot of religious symbolism in this, much of which we already talked about. There are also other parallel scenes from Requiem, which I had to re-watch, by the way, in order to understand this story. It made me cry. Again. This discussion seemed like one to which she could have added an extra dimension, as a religious studies major.

You've worked harder at this than I did. I haven't seen Requiem in a while and so I think I missed most of the parallel scenes. As for the religious themes, I'm thinking that I should try to get hadjie to read this and see if she can spot the themes that we missed. She's been talking about maybe trying some fanfic but hasn't done so yet. This might be a good starter story for her, even though it's a far from easy read! She's good at analysis.

I wouldn't have tried as hard if you hadn't written something so astoundingly, blindingly brilliant to start us out. I am surprised you didn't consider literature as a field. But maybe you were more drawn to the sciences initially?Well, I don't know about ( ... )

Thread 5

memento1 April 24 2008, 17:42:27 UTC

Another one bites the dust! Finally got around to this.

I'm terrified this makes me sound shallow, but it was too much for me. I felt confused through most of it, and missing Mulder (besides the point). I didn't get who the narrator was, or where people were most of the time, and why they kept slipping in and out of consciousness. And this is probably the point, so you can draw your own conclusions, but I guess I like more firm and solid understanding laid out for me. I never did like poetry analysis in school, even if sometimes the insights were deep.

wendelah1 April 24 2008, 17:58:56 UTC

I don't know why, but reading emily_shore's comment really set my brain free to puzzle my way though this. I really loved it my third time through. I had a terrible time with "Parabiosis," as well, which is everyone's all time fav. It took me three tries and re-watching all of season seven to get that one. So, shallow, no, not unless I am too.

emily_shore April 24 2008, 18:56:54 UTC

I'm really impressed at how you've been reading your way through all of our back issues. :)

And I have to say that as much as I loved Oyster, I do think it's a pretty specialized taste. I found it hard going at times, and I *do* like poetry and ambiguity in fiction. The beauty of XF fic is that there's something there to please everyone, so there's no need to worry about things that you don't like.