Comments | xf_book_club: Story 34: "The Unfinished Universe" by Revely

wendelah1 in xf_book_club

Story 34: "The Unfinished Universe" by Revely

May 30, 2008 10:37

This week's selection is The Unfinished Universe by Revely.

Classification: S/MSR/ This story wasn't AU when I started it,but now it is. Spoilers: Through Badlaa ( Read more... )

babyfic, season 8, au, msr

Comments 15

emily_shore May 30 2008, 18:35:48 UTC

While I might claim not to be fond of babyfic, I *am* really fond of this story. I read it for the first time before I saw season eight, so I was quite willing to believe that it was the authorized, "real" version of what happened. I still am, come to that.

It's well-observed and not sentimental. This Scully is neither a perfect mother nor a bad mother, but quite simply Scully with a baby and a fierce maternal love. It is fascinating to watch Mulder getting to know her all over again, and the baby as well. It's a small scale voyage of discovery, but a voyage nonetheless, with the cross-country trip providing the perfect parallel.

Mulder waits until the door of the bathroom sucks shut before nudging the baby-carrier on her seat with his toe. The motion jerks the baby out of his daze, and he blinks solemnly.

"So what's your story?" Mulder asks. "Or can't you remember either?" The recapitulation of Scully's season eight cases is also very nicely done. It solves the problem of season eight--the lack of Mulder making for boring ( ... )

dictatorcari May 30 2008, 22:54:47 UTC

I find myself wondering where they stashed the baby in the final scene.

I thought of that, too. :)

emily_shore May 31 2008, 07:14:59 UTC

Because the baby was so nicely handled throughout all of the story, it annoyed me that he disappeared conveniently just in time for the oh-so-romantic sex scene...

wendelah1 May 31 2008, 19:14:54 UTC

But she has been staying there on and off with the baby- there is a baby tub in Mulder's bathroom and baby stuff all over the place. She obviously has to have somewhere set up for the baby to sleep. Scully does not seem like the family bed sort of person. (Not that there is anything wrong with the family bed.) I didn't give this a second thought. I don't think that Will(iam) was born when this story was conceived so I don't think that she knew whether or not Scully was breastfeeding. Often people do both breast and bottle, especially if they know they are going to go back to work and have daycare. It can be hard to get a breast-only baby to take a bottle. Anyone with a medical education should know the benefit to the baby to breastfeed. That doesn't mean that 1013 does, of course. . .this is a very odd discussion to be having here.

Thread 5

memento1 June 2 2008, 05:48:02 UTC

*L* No WAY. I swear I read this on my own just a week or two ago. Small world. It was pretty good. I loved Mulder-as-father, an archetype that wasn't explored enough in the series, and for some reason I loved the poetry walk, with Scully's explanation for his name, but...I feel like I kind of missed the point. An excellent character study, but I found myself wanting some story to flesh it out. Then again, that probably is the point - that life is a journey.

counterphobe June 5 2008, 12:59:48 UTC

Chiming in even though I don't have anything significant to add:

I read this story a while ago and adored it. It went as far as anything could to redeem the last seasons. As far as I remember, I liked everything about it.

I was planning to reread it so I could participate here, but I don't think I'll actually get around to it. Nevertheless, great story. Great title, too.

wendelah1 June 5 2008, 15:47:00 UTC

I read it and enjoyed it, too, much more than I thought I would. Now I just have to think of something interesting to say.

wendelah1 June 5 2008, 21:56:44 UTC

I should be upfront about this from the get-go: I have a very hard time reading any story having to do with William. It just brings up all my bad feelings about the end of series and the pregnancy arc and the adoption and so on. I need to work on all that but not here.

I did enjoy reading this story. It is very well-crafted, effortlessly weaving in events from seasons one through eight into the story's framework. It moves back and forth in time and changes in point of view seamlessly. I am quite impressed. Revely makes this look so easy.

She wanted so much to set the clocks back that she was half-convinced it was possible. People claimed they found rifts in space and time, didn't they? Why couldn't she? She'd take them back to that morning and she'd grab his hand and head toward Ohio. Or she'd hold herself over him on his bed for much longer, drown him in their tidal coupling, make him forget the plane he had to catch with Skinner.This road trip feels like a rift in space and time. It is a deliberate attempt on Scully's part to ( ... )

emily_shore June 6 2008, 10:58:33 UTC

This road trip feels like a rift in space and time. It is a deliberate attempt on Scully's part to ease Mulder back into life, to give him time to read through the year's cases, and to read her of course, like the good profiler that he is.

In a sense I think it also reconciles us as viewers with the trauma of season eight. It places it all in the appropriate context--namely, firmly in a flashback--and begins with the work of reconciling both us and the characters to what happened. If you see what I mean.

Sex seems even more unlikely than sharing a bed which is funny, considering the evidence of their sexual history is sitting in the carseat or sleeping in the portacrib, right in front of them.

Good point. Very amusing.

wendelah1 June 6 2008, 14:47:01 UTC

If you see what I mean. I do, I do. Now, do you think we could kidnap revely and get her to write something that can reconcile us, or at least me, to season nine, if possible between now and July 25th? Just the thought of that is giving me a headache the size of Montana.

emily_shore June 7 2008, 08:47:36 UTC

I have to admit, the closer this movie gets, the less enthusiastic I get about it. But that's probably a topic for another time...

Thread 6

hooves August 21 2016, 23:39:35 UTC

It took me a while to get around to reading this, mostly because I'm not a fan of babyfic (so many people write it poorly, after all), but also because I haven't gotten far enough in the series for all of this to make sense to me.

I still haven't gotten far enough in the series, but I just finished reading this one, and I have to say that it's not bad. I wouldn't classify it as a good babyfic: it's more like a character study kind of 'fic that just happens to have a baby in it. Will wasn't a big part of the story, not as much a part of it as I hoped he would be, but emotions wereIt had a lot of nice little bits in it, like Mulder talking to Will when Scully wasn't in the room; Scully naming him Will, not William (and her reasoning for it); Scully's fear that even now he can't see her as a mother. One thing I did like about this 'fic that might seem weird is: I liked this version of Scully-as-a-mother. She's still Scully: she just happens to also be a mother ( ... )