Comments | xf_book_club: Story 159: "Pandora's Box" by Rachel Anton

amyhit in xf_book_club

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

Apr 21, 2011 21:00

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 ( Read more... )

season 5, pwp, humor

Comments 15

heartequals April 22 2011, 06:36:31 UTC

I don't think I've ever giggled so much with a PWP in my entire fic-reading experience. I'm not sure if I've ever giggled with a PWP at all. This takes itself so delightfully un-seriously.

Oh and can I offer a congratulations to everyone who even attempted LDW? Choosing between it and my GPA was the hardest thing I've ever done.

memories_child April 24 2011, 21:02:59 UTC

I think your theory may be right. And I think this might be the second time you've recced this to me *g*

I actually felt very uncomfortable reading this story. While some parts were fun and there with some laugh out loud moments, the comments Mulder makes about does Scully want him to rape her made me want to stop reading. Partly because I think that's totally out of character for Mulder and partly because I hated, hated, hated it (honestly, I had such a visceral reaction to it I can't articulate it well at all). I also disliked the comment Scully made about Mulder wouldn't hurt her but if he did that would be ok. No. It wouldn't be ok. And I think Scully would recognise that it wouldn't be ok and wouldn't just act passively about it because it's Mulder and she's secretly in love with him. I don't know. I wanted to like this but I really couldn't.

wendelah1 April 27 2011, 03:34:17 UTC

I didn't even want to like it. I agree, Mulder's thoughts about rape and Scully's about pain seemed out of character. I think it is possible to write a good fic in this fandom that deals with consent issues. Amal's "First, Second," comes to mind, although that fic had some serious flaws, too.

This just didn't work for me.

ext_533754 April 30 2011, 04:59:36 UTC

I totally agree. I was kind of into it - then the rape comments were made and it was like I was hit with a truck. Totally inappropriate and out of character.

amyhit May 2 2011, 04:33:14 UTC

I felt like talking about this a bit more, just for the hell of it. I hope Rachel Anton isn't still around to see her fic getting egged, but on the chance she is: Sorry about this. I didn't realize I was going to be this negative about PB when I posted it, and for the record, I really do think some of your fics were smoking hot.

I've always been fascinated by how often inappropriate use of sexual force occurs in fanfic, without any acknowledgment. The point in PB we're all talking about is a very striking example of that, and it's the part I remembered very clearly from years ago when I first read PB. I find it memorable in that, for me, it is a combination of both the hottest and the most troubling parts of the fic. More than that, it's an example of what, for me, is the hottest and the most trouble parts of most smut.

I find it hot in that it's the moment when UST reaches critical mass - and boy does it.

Suddenly he grabs my wrists and pulls them away from him. His fingers dig into the skin of my arms as he holds them up over ( ... )

Thread 5

wendelah1 April 26 2011, 01:05:21 UTC

I am not generally a big fan of changing episodes around but I just couldn't stop wondering what would have happened if Scully's autopsy had revealed nothing and the pizza man hadn't been a vampire.

This? This is the best Rachel Anton could come up with for that premise?

Bad Blood is one of my favorite episodes. It's still funny, after all of these years, and many many viewings, and I flat out adore it. Changing one of its key plot elements would not therefore be my first choice as a writer. Substituting this? The scenes that are now missing were hilarious. This is not, at least not to me. I don't enjoy humor that has at its core the intent to humiliate and embarrass one or more of the characters ( ... )

In which I liken the fic to a Pumpkin amyhit April 26 2011, 03:26:01 UTC

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'tI'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' ( ... )

Re: In which I liken the fic to a Pumpkin wendelah1 April 27 2011, 00:33:28 UTC

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 ( ... )

write_out April 26 2011, 15:10:49 UTC

wendelah1 April 27 2011, 03:45:38 UTC

I took Scully's comment in the end that it was all Mulder to mean more than just the physical aspect- that it was their emotional connection in combination with some really good sex that finally worked for her and not just that Mulder is some sort of sex god

But if that's the case, isn't Pandora's Box" playing into and perpetuating the myth about women and orgasm--that it's dependent on meeting the right guy. Um, no. It's not. More women never reach orgasm through intercourse alone than do. Most women need direct stimulation--love has nothing to do with it.

I prefer reading stories that deal with sex more realistically.

write_out April 27 2011, 22:23:23 UTC

No, actually I agree with you. Like I said, I think I justify it in my own way to make it more palatable.

amyhit April 27 2011, 23:11:26 UTC

Honestly, I think I've just skimmed over the questionable bits in the past and not given them more thought.

Word. I was trying to figure out how I'd read this the first time without noticing at least half the things that bothered me this time. I'm not a skim reader, but maybe I was skimming that day.

Another possible explanation: I think when I first read this I didn't notice how problematic it was because I was too busy wanting to cover my head with something out of mortification. The embarrassment factor of this fic is SO HIGH that when I first read it I distinctly recall not being able to think much of anything beyond, "OH. MY. GOD." In the past, I'm pretty sure I've said that I don't like embarrassment fic, but I think I might have been wrong. The thing about embarrassment fic - Pandora's Box being case in point - is that if it's embarrassing enough, the mortification basically shorts out my analytical brain - the part that is usually so active that it prevents me from really getting into a smutty fic.

I took Scully's ( ... )