Story 199: "Dance Card" by Sab (Sabine)

[wendelah1]

After reading "Five Things That Never Happened to Dana Scully" last week, it seems appropriate that this week's offering is also about a "road not taken." Since three members separately expressed some interest in reading it, and because Sabine is an accomplished and entertaining writer, "Dance Card" is now on our dance card.

Comments

[hesychasm]

These stories! I will always love Dance Card because that's my college in the flashbacks -- I wish I still had the feedback I sent about it lo these many years ago. *waves at fellow alum iamsab, should she ever see this* (Also, funny now because I just used it in one of my stories, and people who recognized the setting professed to feeling...skeeved? disoriented? something...because it was too close and familiar. Which I think is a common reaction to reading fiction about a place you know very well

[estella_c]

I appreciate this comment. It's close to my feeling about DC--except of course for the familiarity of the college environment, but in some ways most colleges are alike--and I think you have a sense of why it succeeds despite the obvious way it fails.

I'm going to reread at least the second but will no doubt bloviate further.

[infinitlight]

If I was searching for fic to read on my own and saw that author's note, I'd almost certainly backbutton. Maybe I'd keep reading in hope of finding entertaining badfic

[badforthefish]

Yes, I feel the same. I have trouble deciding if I would classify this as a "good" story. The writing is very good, no doubt about that, but at the end of the day I found myself skipping pages somewhere around the middle, because I wasn't that interested in something that disguises itself under the label "X-Files fanfiction" but really isn't.

I'm searching so hard throughout the text for something resembling Scully.

This.

This is the story of a woman reminiscing her college years before going to the wedding of the guy she had a crush on. There is little in here that is "Scully specific". A few comments on quantum physics and the odd "I'm fine" can't really hide this fact.

I can't really understand the impulse for a good writer to write a reasonably interesting personal memoir, change the names, and post it on the internet as X-Files fanfiction, I have to admit.Well, this is what "Mary Sueing*" is all about isn't it? Disguising yourself and your autobiographical tales under the veil of the characters? And the only way an author

[infinitlight]

Ugh, livejournal, quit eating my comments.

Yeah, I think we can draw a distinction between using personal experience/some personal traits (1) in a story and essentially plopping yourself down in the middle of a story and calling yourself "Scully".

(1) And I even think using something of yourself is essential to make a good story--otherwise the characters would be feelingless cardboard cutouts.

I was thinking the ending was very reminiscent of "all things", but when I checked Gossamer, Dance Card was published the year before.

[mushfromnewsies]

I love this little trio of fic, even though it definitely seems to be self-insertion fic, and I don't see real-Scully at all. But there was a lot of fic (I feel) written similarly around this time, where the female author basically kind of inserts what she thinks Scully's interior life should be [usually, inevitably, her own internal life], into Scully. But then I never thought that Scully was much of a rebel or a deliberate non-conformist, soo... What does seem in-character for Scully at least in Dance Card is how much she follows people around, but in a way that makes her seem really distant. Hard to explain

[wendelah1]

But there was a lot of fic (I feel) written similarly around this time, where the female author basically kind of inserts what she thinks Scully's interior life should be [usually, inevitably, her own internal life], into Scully. But then I never thought that Scully was much of a rebel or a deliberate non-conformist, soo...

Only in so far as her choice of professions. Forensic Pathology was an uncommon choice for women back in the eighties when she would have done her residency. And of course, the FBI was not a common choice either. But I don't see Scully as a rebel without a cause and it is a little hard for me to see her running all over campus in the dead of night "chalking" when she could be studying.

What does seem in-character for Scully at least in Dance Card is how much she follows people around, but in a way that makes her seem really distant. Hard to explain.Yeah, I know what you mean. Scully is reserved, but I think there is an underlying warmth that shows through all of the time, especially toward Mulder. I don't get

[infinitlight]

I do think people had more latitude back in the day to create whatever versions of Mulder and Scully they wanted, as long they could write well. If the people who are participating here are representative of the remnant of the fandom (and I'm not meaning this as a criticism, just an observation), I don't think there is much tolerance for coloring outside the lines.Not sure. We had the Wicked X Witches, Godawful Trekfic (which expanded to XF and other fandoms) and the offshoot atxc discussion lists, which could get extremely volatile. Names were named and stories (and writers' personal characters and integrity, lol) were picked to pieces, sometimes in the interests of constructive criticism, sometimes not. It wasn't exclusively directed at "bad" fanfiction--very popular and objectively good writers were discussed widely too

[wendelah1]

I didn't mean to imply there wasn't criticism of fic back then. Did you ever read the X-Files fanfiction wank thread? If not, I'd try link you to it, but I think the owner deleted the community. The wank was epic. It ran for weeks. Months, even. I was rather taken aback by it. What was the motto on that icon of Khyber's? "My fandom invented this shit."

I'm not sure I'm current enough on XF fandom to be able to comment, but if anything I suspect the difference is just fandom output. For every Iolokus we had 400 less daring/less memorable fics.

It seems like there was more range and imagination back in the fandom's heyday than there is now, but you are right, that can probably be accounted for by output. There were so many more writers back in the day. We are down to just a handful now, and I suspect it will ever remain so.

Dance Card Casting Call

[wendelah1]

Instead of reading the stories, I spent all day deciding how I'd cast the episode/movie/fantasy, looking for actors in the right age range.

[estella_c]

I'm not sure about Clive Owen for Paul. He is several times described as having a thin face. Timothy Olyphant is a possibility--he's a good, transformative actor--but I have a hard time erasing his beautiful back-country accent. Also he's very laid-back. Okay, forget him.

[wendelah1]

I know. But he can act and he's not-from-around-here (Polish was impossible to find, but I did look) and he's around the right age to be graduating with Scully. There are no actors born in 1964 without chiseled, squared-off jawlines. It was a prerequisite. You like this picture better? He's a great actor, too.

[estella_c]

Okay, that's Paul. You have been hired as casting director. Now CO has to keep the weight off.

[estella_c]

This one will be tough, which probably means long. I may be arguing against myself

[badforthefish]

I've read What happened After That and I started Moonshine. I admit I kind of skimmed to the point where M&S arrive at Robin and Laura's home though

[mushfromnewsies]

Just a tag-a-long comment to say:

The Scully we see in the early seasons strikes me as terribly conservative and 'goody two shoes'.

Srsly. Plus, a very prim, young Scully rolling her eyes and saying her parents considered it an act of rebellion when she joined law enforcement does not make her a "rebel", although that idea has somehow become fanon. It was an unconventional career choice for her gender at that time, but becoming a doctor and a federal agent does not actually mean one used drugs freely in college or smoked endless cigarettes or lived the full Bohemian lifestyle in open rebellion against one's oh-so-repressive Catholic roots. You see this kind of thing all the time with Scully-fic, and it just makes me laugh. Did anyone notice how she treated Melissa in the few scenes we had of them together? It's still fun to try and piece the different parts of Scully's character together, don't get me wrong, but there's no real evidence in canon for Scully being some enfant terrible or even being particularly free-spirited or

[wendelah1]

I think EC replied to you but put the comment in the wrong place. Thank you LJ for your oh-so-messed up commenting system.

Her comment is here.

Srsly. Plus, a very prim, young Scully rolling her eyes and saying her parents considered it an act of rebellion when she joined law enforcement does not make her a "rebel", although that idea has somehow become fanon. It was an unconventional career choice for her gender at that time, but becoming a doctor and a federal agent does not actually mean one used drugs freely in college or smoked endless cigarettes or lived the full Bohemian lifestyle in open rebellion against one's oh-so-repressive Catholic roots. You see this kind of thing all the time with Scully-fic, and it just makes me laugh. Did anyone notice how she treated Melissa in the few scenes we had of them together? It's still fun to try and piece the different parts of Scully's character together, don't get me wrong, but there's no real evidence in canon for Scully being some enfant terrible or even being particularly free-