I would add Shalimar's "Five Years and One Night" to the angst list.
I also don't like to drown in angst, so usually after reading something that goes too far in that direction, I will go for a re-read of something on the other end of the spectrum to give myself mental balance :) But that would usually be something fun and/or hot like "Above Rubies" (Rachel Howard) or something sweet like "The Dreaming Sea" (Revely) - not generally picket fences / babyfic. Not to say I haven't read my share of the babyfic, but it almost always feels out of character and therefore does not succeed in my mental rebalancing efforts :)
I would add Shalimar's "Five Years and One Night" to the angst list.
That's fascinating. I loved "Five Years and One Night" and have recced it everywhere I can think of, but I'd never have picked it for my angst list. It's on my Mulder and Scully have hot sex and adventures list, just below "Above Rubies."
I just went back to the 2008 book club "FYaON" entry. Shalimar commented at the end that she'd googled her user name and the title and found our post. Does every XF author from back in the day do that, I wonder? (cackles)
XF Dryad said she doesn't like "Iolokus" because its just angst for the sake of angst (she's wrong-wrong-wrong, because it's a reaction to the bizarro aspects of the myth arc just like "Arizona Highways," which she loves.). I love "Iolokus" for the over-the-top humor, style and plot, and just because it's such a crazy-ass wild-ride of a fic.
I have a low threshold for tears, I realize, but I sobbed through FYaON the first time I read it. I avoided it for a while, and still cried the second time. It's one of those that makes me sad but I still like it. Probably because of the semi-happy ending. Give me a ray of hope and I will hang on to it! For me, it's definitely in an entirely different category from Above Rubies.
For Iolokus, I'm finding it hard to articulate exactly why, but it just pretty much revolted me from beginning to end. I read it because I heard how big a deal it was and how polarizing it was; otherwise, I may not have finished it. I found it over the top in a lot of different ways and not at all funny. I recognize the statement the authors were making, that it was good that they made it, and that it was done through good writing. But that's pretty much it for me. Oh well.
Yours and wendelah1’s recommendations and mine have a number in common: Arizona Highways (which absolutely merits its “fandom classic” designation), “The Mill,” “And If I Make My Bed in Sheol,” “Telephones,” Oyster, Justin Glasser’s stories in general, The Other Man.
“Much Madness Is Divinest Sense” by Naraht. S3 sometime after “Wetwired.” → warnings: disabling mental illness, suicidality, and suicidal act. → from my notes: “One of my all-time favorite works in the fandom, with perfectly depicted moments and realistic characterizations.”
“Loss of Yesterday” by Jintian. S2 between “Firewalker” and “Irresistible.” → xf_book_clubdiscussion, where I also posted my impressions. I love this work. → warnings: possibility of past rape/sexual assault indicated but not in any detail.
I love "Much Madness is Divinest Sense." Every couple of years, I ask Naraht when/if she's going to finish it. The last time I asked, she said probably never and told me I could write an ending for it if I wanted.
I'm still hoping she'll come back to it someday but she seems to have moved on.
Gosh, yes. I love anythingbutgrey's Five Things fic. That's certainly an it hurts so good type of fic.
Wow. I see two stories here I haven't read! (runs off to read them now)
This is classified as angst but in the rumination sense: “In Ed’s Bed” by Nancy V. S4, “Never Again” fill-in. → from my notes: “Thoughts that occur late at night in lieu of sleep. Nice.”
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Two others I neglected to include in my previous comment:
I've toyed with the idea of posting Anamorphosis for discussion. It has an out-there Scully backstory + characterization but I don't remember the violence being extreme. Yikes. Am I that jaded? I guess I'd have to look at it again.
After all of these years, Iolokus is still the most polarizing fic in the fandom. I reread it a couple of years ago with a pretty critical eye and I still think it's excellent. I wouldn't describe the violence in it as indulgently graphic. But everyone has hot-buttons. I find the violence in Hannibal so disturbing that I can't watch it at all. Even the commercials are too creepy. Ditto for Silence of the Lambs. I thought the bestselling novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was pornographically violent. I can't imagine what the movie was like.
I wouldn't characterize "Kevin" as angst exactly, not from what I recall about it. Excellent, though, like all of Justin Glasser's work.
I don't have much to contribute since I've only read a fraction of the stories mentioned here. But I do enjoy the angst genre for what it's worth. I think, like Fish said, they're probably the most emotionally rewarding in a way that happy endings aren't, or just can't be, in the XF universe
( ... )
I'm interested in these theories about why people are so obsessed with babyfic. I'd love to read a bunnies and rainbows, babies and picket fences story that somehow feels RIGHT, but I just don't see that ever happening, no matter how excellent the writer, just by the very nature of the characters and their situation. The closest thing I've read that comes close to that is Amal's "Machines of Freedom", which I love, but of course there's also a great deal of angst in the Caseyverse to balance out the (mostly) happy ending.
I love it, too, but I had some trouble the first time through with the babyfic aspect. After what happened with William, how could they decide to have a baby so--casually? How could Mulder ask her to go through another pregnancy? I thought that was pretty cruel. I still don't like that part--but since Casey and her back story are integral to the plot, there's no way out of that one. You take the good with the bad, and MoF is mostly very good indeed.
Is it possible that people are obsessed with babyfic because it
( ... )
I guess we have ourselves a Book Club challenge: find a baby fic that feels right (The Mooselet does not count).
I guess I must be one of the rare person who did not care for Machine of Freedom. Amal is an excellent writer, but as I explained in the feedback I once sent her, I had major issues with the characterizations, the original character and the ending.
I guess there must be a force that pushes writers to give Mulder and Scully the happy ending they never got. A path of least resistance or something.
Fathoms Five is gorgeous, I like it so much better than Parabiosis, which I think I didn't even read until the end (yeah, yeah, burn me at the stake, here's the matches...)
I should make an icon that says: "My fandom has Iolokus", because we're so damn lucky to have something that manages to be both so beautifully heartbreaking and insanely unhinged.
Interesting fandom history insight from Sophia Jirafe (now Sophia Helix) in a reply left on AO3 to my feedback for Night Touch. Apparently there was a backlash against the romantic case files back in the days, like a literary movement within the fandom. People thought that darker, more serious stories were more worthy than happier, fluffier ones.
This could be when all the angstier tales we are so fond of were born. It would be interesting to have a fic publication timeline. We might be able to see a pattern emerging here (Scully).
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I also don't like to drown in angst, so usually after reading something that goes too far in that direction, I will go for a re-read of something on the other end of the spectrum to give myself mental balance :) But that would usually be something fun and/or hot like "Above Rubies" (Rachel Howard) or something sweet like "The Dreaming Sea" (Revely) - not generally picket fences / babyfic. Not to say I haven't read my share of the babyfic, but it almost always feels out of character and therefore does not succeed in my mental rebalancing efforts :)
PS I did not care for Iolokus either, fwiw.
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That's fascinating. I loved "Five Years and One Night" and have recced it everywhere I can think of, but I'd never have picked it for my angst list. It's on my Mulder and Scully have hot sex and adventures list, just below "Above Rubies."
I just went back to the 2008 book club "FYaON" entry. Shalimar commented at the end that she'd googled her user name and the title and found our post. Does every XF author from back in the day do that, I wonder? (cackles)
XF Dryad said she doesn't like "Iolokus" because its just angst for the sake of angst (she's wrong-wrong-wrong, because it's a reaction to the bizarro aspects of the myth arc just like "Arizona Highways," which she loves.). I love "Iolokus" for the over-the-top humor, style and plot, and just because it's such a crazy-ass wild-ride of a fic.
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I have a low threshold for tears, I realize, but I sobbed through FYaON the first time I read it. I avoided it for a while, and still cried the second time. It's one of those that makes me sad but I still like it. Probably because of the semi-happy ending. Give me a ray of hope and I will hang on to it! For me, it's definitely in an entirely different category from Above Rubies.
For Iolokus, I'm finding it hard to articulate exactly why, but it just pretty much revolted me from beginning to end. I read it because I heard how big a deal it was and how polarizing it was; otherwise, I may not have finished it. I found it over the top in a lot of different ways and not at all funny. I recognize the statement the authors were making, that it was good that they made it, and that it was done through good writing. But that's pretty much it for me. Oh well.
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“Much Madness Is Divinest Sense” by Naraht. S3 sometime after “Wetwired.” → warnings: disabling mental illness, suicidality, and suicidal act. → from my notes: “One of my all-time favorite works in the fandom, with perfectly depicted moments and realistic characterizations.”
Resurgam by Ophelia. S7; “Emily” central to story. → xf_book_club discussion.
“Loss of Yesterday” by Jintian. S2 between “Firewalker” and “Irresistible.” → xf_book_club discussion, where I also posted my impressions. I love this work. → warnings: possibility of past rape/sexual assault indicated but not in any detail.
“Butterfly” by Oracle. S2, “Excelsis Dei” post-ep. → xf_book_club discussion and amyhit’s meta: “Femininity and Fanfiction: A Meagre Foray into the Fandom Wilds of Gender Disparity, Gender Equity, and the Epic Hoax of the Emotionally ( ... )
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I'm still hoping she'll come back to it someday but she seems to have moved on.
Gosh, yes. I love anythingbutgrey's Five Things fic. That's certainly an it hurts so good type of fic.
Wow. I see two stories here I haven't read! (runs off to read them now)
SECOND LINK WAS BROKEN, here's a new NEW link to Of Ladies Most Deject and Wretched.
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“Crowning Glory” by CiCi Lean. → via Malinda Lo’s Dana Scully Uncovered: X-Files Fan Fiction and the Posthuman Body: “Disease / Dis-Ease.” → warnings: cancerarc and potentially triggering in eating disorders.
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Subtler (i.e., less-than-extreme) angst
“triptych: but for the urge of this unrest” by baroquechemistry (Raye). S4, “Never Again” fill-in.
This is classified as angst but in the rumination sense: “In Ed’s Bed” by Nancy V. S4, “Never Again” fill-in. → from my notes: “Thoughts that occur late at night in lieu of sleep. Nice.”
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Two others I neglected to include in my previous comment:
“Keeping Melissa” by Oracle.
“Careful” by Oracle. S4, sometime ( ... )
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After all of these years, Iolokus is still the most polarizing fic in the fandom. I reread it a couple of years ago with a pretty critical eye and I still think it's excellent. I wouldn't describe the violence in it as indulgently graphic. But everyone has hot-buttons. I find the violence in Hannibal so disturbing that I can't watch it at all. Even the commercials are too creepy. Ditto for Silence of the Lambs. I thought the bestselling novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was pornographically violent. I can't imagine what the movie was like.
I wouldn't characterize "Kevin" as angst exactly, not from what I recall about it. Excellent, though, like all of Justin Glasser's work.
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I utterly worship The Silence of The Lambsthough, book *and* movie. If I had to do a crossover one day...
Hated The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movie, therefore didn't bother to read the books.
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I love it, too, but I had some trouble the first time through with the babyfic aspect. After what happened with William, how could they decide to have a baby so--casually? How could Mulder ask her to go through another pregnancy? I thought that was pretty cruel. I still don't like that part--but since Casey and her back story are integral to the plot, there's no way out of that one. You take the good with the bad, and MoF is mostly very good indeed.
Is it possible that people are obsessed with babyfic because it ( ... )
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I guess I must be one of the rare person who did not care for Machine of Freedom. Amal is an excellent writer, but as I explained in the feedback I once sent her, I had major issues with the characterizations, the original character and the ending.
I guess there must be a force that pushes writers to give Mulder and Scully the happy ending they never got. A path of least resistance or something.
Fathoms Five is gorgeous, I like it so much better than Parabiosis, which I think I didn't even read until the end (yeah, yeah, burn me at the stake, here's the matches...)
I should make an icon that says: "My fandom has Iolokus", because we're so damn lucky to have something that manages to be both so beautifully heartbreaking and insanely unhinged.
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Mommy has to get Daddy out of jail. No drama.
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This could be when all the angstier tales we are so fond of were born. It would be interesting to have a fic publication timeline. We might be able to see a pattern emerging here (Scully).
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