Story 159: "Pandora's Box" by Rachel Anton

[amyhit]

I'd like to offer a salute of solidarity to all you LDW survivors who showed up, read your hearts out, and hopefully had your say. It's fics like Life During Wartime that make our fandom exceptional, and it's participation that makes the book club fun. We manage to have both, and that's pretty awesome.

For our next rec, wendelah1 and I though a change was

Comments

In which I liken the fic to a Pumpkin

[amyhit]

Pandora's Box is one crazy concoction of elements. Mulder and Scully playing voyeuristic chicken, phallic fetishizing, exhibitionism, informal D/s. It's about equal measures hot and mess, with almost nothing else for connective tissue. It can turn me on and disgust me at the same time, which is rare. The first time I read it, I admit it was more of a turn on. This time it was way more of a squick.

It's juvenile and crude, it's the height of embarrassment fic, it reinforces some unpleasant gender stereotypes, and the only theory I have is that somehow it's the sheer amount of all these things combined that draw some people in. Pandora's Box is basically the explosive opposite of Mulder and Scully (who are mature, refined, dignified), and I wonder if maybe that's its hook. For me what makes it a compulsive read has something to do with the ways in which Anton writes Mulder and Scully as they aren't.

I'm not sure why I find Anton's OOC fanfic entertaining. Probably it's to do with her fics being based so strongly on control dynamics. Who's facade of indifference is stronger? Who is more lustful? In PWP I find tunnel vision to be a necessity, with SEX at the end of the tunnel: "God, what am I doing? What are we doing? I can't even think straight anymore. All that I want is to see him break. The way that I'm breaking." Melodramatic, yes, but hot, because there's no peripheral logic to distract.

I find control to be the thread that usually ties Anton's Mulder and Scully to mine. Not even the specific way that she writes the control dynamics of their relationship, but the fact that she addresses them so...vigorously. Because control dynamics are, I think, a pivotal part of Mulder and Scully's relationship. They challenge each other, they're obdurate, passionate, yet self-controlled and stoic. But sex has always been the area they ignore entirely. So in a very problematic way Pandora's Box, which is basically all sex, feels like a natural product of The X-Files' insistence on swearing off the 'unseemly' sexual aspects of Mulder and Scully's relationship.

And Pandora's Box rides Bad Blood's coattails, using the unusually volatile characterizations in the episode to give the fic's characterizations some semblance of recognizability, not to mention using the sexual tension of that episode to prime people for an all out smut fest.

BUT.

Holy heternormativity Batman! This fic has some seriously squicky elements. And that's another part of why I'd love to see it discussed more.

The fic is peppered with quotations that illustrate the problems I have with it, but the one part that has stuck in my head for years is the one memories_child already mentioned, which is that not once but twice Mulder uses the word and the concept of rape, not just in conjunction with what's going on, but as something he himself could potentially do. NOT COOL. That's just the one really glaring example.

At least as problematic for me is that Anton repeatedly puts Scully in a position of self-assertion, but betrays the entirely perfunctory nature of that assertiveness with every other sentence she's written. The fic is arousing only insofar as I continue to believe in Scully's assertiveness (no matter how strange a form it takes), and to believe that her susceptibility to Mulder is at least equally reciprocated. Pandora's Box is aggravating - and ultimately I find it increasingly repulsive - because neither she nor Mulder seem to have any real, enduring sense that Scully may emerge from their game of chicken as the dominant party.

Instead Pandora's Box ends how it starts - with Scully reactive and Mulder active. It starts when Mulder says "Vampires," and Scully begrudgingly goes along with him. In the end Mulder says "Sex," and Scully eagerly says, "I love your cock." Then she attributes how good the sex was to Mulder - just Mulder. Spare me.

So I do enjoy the way this fic can make me want to read through my fingers, but mainly Pandora's Box is, to me, a chance to dig into fnafic's sexual stereotypes, like shoving your hands into a pumpkin. It's juicy and fun, but also yucky and hard to get a grip on.

Re: In which I liken the fic to a Pumpkin

[wendelah1]

Your ability to see past your visceral reactions and analyze a story is one I admire and wish I had. I think your insights are excellent. I have a tough time getting past my "oooh this is soooo icky" reaction, which is too bad, since there are some issues that deserve discussion.

I agree with you and memories_child, Mulder even bringing up rape in the context of sex with Scully seems utterly OOC. The scene is pretty nasty, too, with its (unconscious?) implication that any aroused man is capable of rape, and that somehow this contact between them implies consent? But the thoughts Anton has put in their heads don't sound like them to me, at all.

The fellatio scene itself is the least sexy description of a blow-job I can imagine. Really, Mulder is acting creepy throughout the story. Why would Scully be turned on by his behavior?

I don't want to insult anyone's kinks. This is not meant to be a judgment about rape fic. It's fantasy, it's about control and loss of control, I get that, but this version of that fantasy just doesn't cut it.

The candy-eating was a real turn-off, too. The Twinkie=Erect Penis metaphor annoyed me to no end. Again, clearly not my kink.

Then she attributes how good the sex was to Mulder - just Mulder. Spare me.

That's such a romance-novel fanfic cliché. The Magic Penis always produces orgasms. Yikes. Plus the implication is those are the only kind that matter. Please.