Gift for szgrey: The Next Level

[xf_santa_mod]

Title: The Next Level
Author: estella_c
Rating: Gen
Warnings: none
Gift for: szgrey

Summary: The Lonegunmen have one final mission.

Comments

[szgrey]

Thank you so much, estella_c! This is a delightful story- funny and touching and beautiful in the details. And surprising- as idella said, completely unexpected- wonderfully so. Something like this never would have occurred to me, despite the clearly established TXF canon tradition of Christmastime ghost stories, and I've always found the most exciting gifts to be those I didn't even know I wanted. I love it. :)

I have to ask, did you see that I was skeptical about first-person narration and take it as a challenge? If so, you succeeded marvelously- Frohike has such a distinctive voice and you nailed it. I'm convinced, and thoroughly charmed. I love his view of Mulder (He kept fish as a defense against getting a cat, which would take actual nurturing, or at least an occasional ear-fondle- of course) and the wistful way he looks at Scully, and his perspective on his partners in crime journalism. All three of the Gunmen's characters come through clearly, their semi-combative repartee rings true, and the end... the end is perfection.

Also, I'm both a cat person and a giant nerd, so everything about Jasper is a delight to me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Jasper Fforde write novels in which the line between fiction and reality is very fine and none too stable? Seems to me a very appropriate namesake- though I appreciate Byers' perspective too, and can easily see him (as the idealist of the three) admiring Sartre's activism as well as his philosophy. +100 bonus points for subtly alluding to existential phenomenology in a ghost story told in the first person- that's pretty damn magnificent. :D

[estella_c]

Wow, what a beautifully written appreciation. I am humbled. I've always felt that fiction was not my forte, but it really did come rather easily. And I indulged myself by putting in "some of my favorite things:" cats, Jasper Fforde, Beetlejuice. I was forced into a semester of Existentialism aeons ago, so the Sartre was kind of showing off. They apparently thought it was okay to skip Plato.

I found it easy to write in Frohikes's voice, but I doubt a novel would be such a cinch.

This is proof that a writer often doesn't know what s/he's done until a good critic points it out. Sincere thanks.