Comments | xf_book_club: Story 223: "Local Boy" by Dryad

wendelah1 in xf_book_club

Story 223: "Local Boy" by Dryad

Mar 13, 2013 15:58

Yes, the mod is bypassing the queue again. "Manitou" by the same author was recced by mogster495. While it may be excellent, my mood is such that I can't read a gruesome case file fic. My favorite fic by Dryad is "Quiet, He'll Hear You," but I can't handle it right now either ( Read more... )

season 3, gen

Comments 10

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wendelah1 March 19 2013, 19:08:55 UTC

We hope to hear back from you soon.

It can't take place during season three. As zinnia03 pointed out, there is a reference to Diana Fowley, who doesn't show up until the middle of season five. So I'm not sure what Dryad's comment to me signified except that sometimes the Author doesn't remember precisely what was going through their mind? Or she was writing a season six story with a season three Scully?

mementox March 19 2013, 19:34:02 UTC

I was kind of confused as well, because Scully tells someone they've been partners for 6 years, and there's mention of when she had cancer.

wendelah1 March 19 2013, 19:47:11 UTC

I think Dryad wrote this story ten years ago at least, so I'm not surprised the details are a little unclear in her mind. It has to be set in season six or at least five, given the muddled message of when M&S were partnered that we get from the pilot. I should probably put a cross-out through that in the original post. It is confusing.

zinnia03 March 15 2013, 01:35:59 UTC

I have a weakness for XF stories set on Martha's Vineyard. I like this one very much.

Dryad said she pictured this as taking place during season three, which makes sense in context, but I thought it had more of a season six vibe myself

It seems S6 to me as well, perhaps partly because there is a reference to Diana Fowley and she doesn't show up until the middle of S5. And a reference to "Triangle" as well, I believe. Still, the tentativeness between Mulder and Scully are a bit like they might have been in S3 - still not knowing a lot about each other

Regardless of the season, I like the story. Mulder's interactions with his former acquaintances (none of them really seem to be friends), and the casual way they all ignore Scully. The original characters are well-drawn.

wendelah1 March 31 2013, 20:17:55 UTC

Yeah, I think it has to be at least season six, for all of the reasons you mentioned.

Mulder's interactions with his former acquaintances (none of them really seem to be friends), and the casual way they all ignore Scully. The original characters are well-drawn.

Yes, they are. I would have liked to have seen the young woman, who had been thrown overboard and kind of rescued by Mulder,make an actual appearance instead of just being gossiped about.

I have a weakness for XF stories set on Martha's Vineyard.

Me, too.

Edited for grammar...

mogster495 March 19 2013, 13:46:07 UTC

I have always thought that there are two kinds of authors: The Faulkner's and the Hemingway's. The Faulkner troop is uses flowery, flowing language and heavy on metaphors. The Hemingway troop tells a story through plain speech and simple descriptions. Dyrad is definitely a Hemingway and she does it better than most fan fic authors. Her writing doesn't try to explain itself, she simply tells a story and lets the reader make the connections (if any).

If you like her short stuff you'll love the longer stuff.

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mogster495 March 21 2013, 03:03:19 UTC

Exactly. I love reading Penumbra and JET, but sometimes I just want to read something that doesn't try to impress me.

estella_c March 23 2013, 14:49:42 UTC

This is a very good, thought-provoking story, and I loved the lean, graceful style which is really its own kind of poetry. But while I liked it, I found it confusing in ways which might be resolved were I to read the entire series. Which I haven't.

The M & S relationship is tentative, all right, but I also found it--what?--passive aggressive, maybe? There must be a psychological term for it; there is for everything else. One of my personal irritants in fic is when the agents, without much explanation, get into bed together and don't have sex! It's not that I'm a smut hound, not really, but it just seems terribly awkward and adolescent. The only writer I can think of who got away with it was Tesla in This House Is burning, but the comfort snuggle doesn't work for me here. I think the only time such a situation might seem appropriate is after the two agents have had sex repeatedly and maybe the world is coming to an end the next day.

Come to think of it, they DID have sex in This House Is Burning. And the resultant confusion ( ... )

wendelah1 March 31 2013, 20:10:48 UTC

This is a very good, thought-provoking story, and I loved the lean, graceful style which is really its own kind of poetry.

I think this story is delightful: the setting, the style, the characterizations, the original characters. I like it all.

I don't see any passive-aggression here. Or maybe I just have no idea what you mean by that?

One of my personal irritants in fic is when the agents, without much explanation, get into bed together and don't have sex! It's not that I'm a smut hound, not really, but it just seems terribly awkward and adolescent. The only writer I can think of who got away with it was Tesla in This House Is burning, but the comfort snuggle doesn't work for me here. I think the only time such a situation might seem appropriate is after the two agents have had sex repeatedly and maybe the world is coming to an end the next day.I would ask if you were joking but I know you are not ( ... )

estella_c April 5 2013, 22:19:57 UTC

Oh, you wanna thunderdome? Okay then. Wait, I need a nap first ( ... )