Back to the Future recs.
4am, This Letter by ricebol (gen) - Whenever the first BTTF movie allows us those mysterious, tantalizing glimpses into Marty and Doc's 1985 relationship, what we see is an unstudied closeness and a remarkable sense of balance. ricebol's wrenching, insightful narrative fits perfectly into that universe, as the stuck-in-1955 Marty struggles with a strange, partially formed, but intense sense of grief over Doc's future murder at the hands of the Libyans. The depth of Marty's emotional attachment to Doc and the character of their friendship are palpable and finely tuned, a well deserved nose-thumbing at the second and third movies for the way they manage to miss the mark on the subject in some significant respects.
Untitled by usedusernames (Marty/Doc UST) - usedusernames has a great sense of rhythm, employing word repetition and punctuation to illuminate her characters' thought patterns and to just generally create a pleasant read. This little snapshot of an interaction between our heroes is in itself illuminating in all the most interesting places; I really like some of the insights into Marty, particularly the way he processes the physical closeness between himself and Doc. Well worth reading, and then re-reading to catch the nuance.
The Dangers of Reminiscing by Kristina (Marty/Doc) - How often do you get the chance say that a story completely and permanently transformed the way you thought about a pairing? Sure, I'd envisaged Marty/Doc before--these are my primordial characters, so yes, Virginia, I'd already taken them there and pretty much everywhere else. But beyond your general Man Without A Face scenario (the novel, people), it was always fuzzy, the concrete when's and how's consistently eluding me.
Less than inspiring were the Marty/Doc fanfics already out there. "One day, Marty and Doc were sitting together in the DeLorean. And then Marty said, 'I love you, Doc!' and then they kissed! With their tongues!" Uh. Ew. Progress has been made since then, but even if Marty/Doc suddenly went from "tentatively shuffling out of shame-induced obscurity" to "hottest pairing on the planet," I can't imagine a more genuine, affecting treatment than "The Dangers of Reminiscing." Yes, of course that's when it happened and of course that's how, and it's all so unbelievably clear and real that I'm an ignorant moron for not knowing this about my characters sooner.
Kristina's Marty sounds all the right notes as he recalls the night of his and Doc's encounter and its aftermath--and thanks to the story's deft construction, in precious few words we're privy to the authentic way his perspective evolves throughout all three movies and beyond to the bittersweet end. But it's the way Doc's perspective may have shifted along with the timeline that was the most revelatory aspect of the piece for me. The idea is so clean, so brilliantly simple, and so true--of course it would be that way the second time around, of course--that it instantly crystallized and cohered all of those heretofore fuzzy scenarios and character motivations drifting piecemeal around my brain: Oh. I get it now.
Seriously. How often do you get the chance to say that?
Untitled by usedusernames (Marty/Doc UST) - usedusernames has a great sense of rhythm, employing word repetition and punctuation to illuminate her characters' thought patterns and to just generally create a pleasant read. This little snapshot of an interaction between our heroes is in itself illuminating in all the most interesting places; I really like some of the insights into Marty, particularly the way he processes the physical closeness between himself and Doc. Well worth reading, and then re-reading to catch the nuance.
The Dangers of Reminiscing by Kristina (Marty/Doc) - How often do you get the chance say that a story completely and permanently transformed the way you thought about a pairing? Sure, I'd envisaged Marty/Doc before--these are my primordial characters, so yes, Virginia, I'd already taken them there and pretty much everywhere else. But beyond your general Man Without A Face scenario (the novel, people), it was always fuzzy, the concrete when's and how's consistently eluding me.
Less than inspiring were the Marty/Doc fanfics already out there. "One day, Marty and Doc were sitting together in the DeLorean. And then Marty said, 'I love you, Doc!' and then they kissed! With their tongues!" Uh. Ew. Progress has been made since then, but even if Marty/Doc suddenly went from "tentatively shuffling out of shame-induced obscurity" to "hottest pairing on the planet," I can't imagine a more genuine, affecting treatment than "The Dangers of Reminiscing." Yes, of course that's when it happened and of course that's how, and it's all so unbelievably clear and real that I'm an ignorant moron for not knowing this about my characters sooner.
Kristina's Marty sounds all the right notes as he recalls the night of his and Doc's encounter and its aftermath--and thanks to the story's deft construction, in precious few words we're privy to the authentic way his perspective evolves throughout all three movies and beyond to the bittersweet end. But it's the way Doc's perspective may have shifted along with the timeline that was the most revelatory aspect of the piece for me. The idea is so clean, so brilliantly simple, and so true--of course it would be that way the second time around, of course--that it instantly crystallized and cohered all of those heretofore fuzzy scenarios and character motivations drifting piecemeal around my brain: Oh. I get it now.
Seriously. How often do you get the chance to say that?