Comments | xf_book_club: Story 201: "Sandcastles for Pele" by JL

amyhit in xf_book_club

Story 201: "Sandcastles for Pele" by JL

Mar 20, 2012 09:51

Of all the XF fanfic authors I can call to mind, I tend to think of JL (the artist previously known as Jamie Lyn) as the one whose writing has undergone the greatest transformation over the years. Even accounting for the fact that her fics were posted over an almost ten year period, there’s still a remarkable transformation in her work, from the ( Read more... )

post series, pg-13, msr

Comments 20

estella_c March 27 2012, 21:10:44 UTC

I am, I believe, almost in agreement with amyhit, which will probably be a relief to both of us. My feelings toward Jamie Lynn as a writer have always been conflicted in an unusual way. Which I'll get to later ( ... )

amyhit March 27 2012, 22:32:33 UTC

Generally speaking, I like magic.

I generally do too, and what’s strange is that I think JL has put the mystical and mysterious to good use in some of her other fics - particularly in her darker fics. Before reading SFP, I would have said she had an excellent ability to interweave existential crisis and otherworldly experiences. SFP doesn’t detract from her other fics, of course, but I do find it a disappointment, and a confusing one at that.

I'll resurrect an old notion of mine: there's a difference between talent and taste.I agree with this distinction, but I don’t actually think that JL lacks taste. Not consistently, anyway. As I have said and will continue to say, JL has written fics which I feel are subtle and tasteful. “Choose” is one of her most down-to-earth fics, and also one of my favorite of hers. “How to Do Like This” is suffused with grief, but is also genuine and grounded and not lacking in taste. “Ghosts” is more odd and less grounded than HTDLT, but the writing still pulls together so that the ideas and emotions ( ... )

wendelah1 March 28 2012, 00:29:17 UTC

Amyhit, I'm not comfortable presuming she chose her language carelessly either. I can't read her mind. It's enough for me to say it doesn't work. As for the language being okay for some other reader, that's fine too. Of course, I think they're wrong, but I'm as entitled to think that as they are to love this story. I do think if a writer is to use language imaginatively, she had better use it well. JL's sentences are cluttered and her phrases don't sound right. The words she chooses in each instance listed by EC are at best a distraction from the story she's trying to tell, and her use of the word "reel" is just wrong. I don't care if she has all the talent in the world. Her taste is not on trial here. I'm willing to give her all the freedom you want a writer to have. But this story doesn't work, and one of the reasons is her use of language.

I never made it all the way through "Choose" because I found the idea of Mulder lecturing Scully on physics to be a sticking point.

wendelah1 March 28 2012, 01:32:32 UTC

Babies. Right. Those who found the inclusion of William here are correct in being disturbed. His ghostly visitation and death are presumably symbolic, but they aren't, they're just kind of teasing. What is the point of William dying, and the point of his adoptive mother's agony? Why does Scully not recognize the name "Van der Camp?" Why should William's mother's pain lead in any way to Scully's joy at being healed and freshly procreative? What moral symbolic scheme is being played out here? Not a coherent one. And I don't understand what Mulder's reluctant "forgiving" of his father has to do with anything.As a writer, I am aware of making choices when I create a universe. The choices JL made here are, well, disturbing in their implications. Having William die, while his mother lives? Having his parents suffer and grieve while Mulder and Scully get to pop out the babies, blissfully unaware of the death of their son? Is this supposed to be a resolution to the William arc? I'd prefer we left it unresolved ( ... )

Thread 6

estella_c March 28 2012, 01:43:16 UTC

It's probably only fair for me to admit that I haven't read JL's latest work. I do have a strong impression-memory of some of her early stuff, if not of the specifics. And I remember it being full of banter that I wanted very much to like--I'm a documented fan of banter--but found repetitively overcute. I shouldn't make assumptions about JL's mind-set or work habits, but it's painful for me to recognize a talent that seems so obviously misused. There almost seems to be a working policy that prose is not bettered by smoothing, pruning and reconsidering, but by adding more and more of what there was too much of already.

wendelah1 April 2 2012, 23:23:52 UTC

My main issue with this story, besides the "resolution" of the William plotline, are the conflicts with canon. The passage where he recalls their meetings, I simply don't see when or how it could have happened. The only time they were separated was during season two. Scully was at Quantico, the Marine base in Virginia, teaching. Mulder was working at FBI headquarters in downtown Washington DC. I think it's fine to write little fill-in scenes; in fact, I like them. But this one doesn't work, because it doesn't fit with existing canon.

There is another canon error, a more serious one.

Mulder had a harsh, quick flash to a time when Scully had
gone missing; he had felt like a man left behind, the
remaining half of a love unrequited. He'd gone to purchase
a headstone for her, filled out all the forms, entered her
name in the tiny blank boxes. Name of deceased: D-a-n-a S-
c-u-l-l-y. No. Not again. Not ever again.

That never happened. This is what happened instead.

(We see Mrs. Scully and Mulder are sitting at a table ( ... )

infinitlight April 4 2012, 11:17:54 UTC

I originally thought the author had rewritten that piece of history for a specific purpose--i.e. that SfP was going to turn out to be an AU, for some reason that was important to the story. I guess she just forgot how the gravestone thing went, although I'd argue that that piece of canon is pretty important in understanding who Mulder is.

I just started reading "Laws of Motion" and in Mulder's POV, syntax6 reflects on the people that have tried to make Mulder say goodbye to Scully and how he feels incapable of doing so. This really resonated with me (syntax6 noted the fact that they never say goodbye to each other on the phone), I thought "yeah, that's Mulder" in a way that didn't come through in the scene in SfP.

wendelah1 April 4 2012, 16:33:31 UTC

I just started reading "Laws of Motion" and in Mulder's POV, syntax6 reflects on the people that have tried to make Mulder say goodbye to Scully and how he feels incapable of doing so. This really resonated with me (syntax6 noted the fact that they never say goodbye to each other on the phone), I thought "yeah, that's Mulder" in a way that didn't come through in the scene in SfP.Clearly I think that piece of canon is important, too, since I included in a fic of my own. I think it's a crucial element of Mulder's character that he won't give up, and a crucial factor in their partnership for Scully! He is the only one who won't pull the plug during "One Breath," he makes "a deal with the devil" for a cure for her cancer, he goes to Antarctica to save her. Plus, why on earth would he be the one purchasing the headstone? They aren't married or even together as a couple. Her mother is her next of kin. That just doesn't make sense. To make an au, you can't just change one element. You have to change everything that relates to what you are ( ... )