A World to Save
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A World to Save |
| Author(s): | Geb |
| Date(s): | 1998 |
| Length: | 8000 words |
| Genre: | MSR |
| Fandom: | The X-Files |
| External Links: | A World to Save |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A World to Save is an X-Files MSR story by Geb.
Summary
"SUMMARY: Mulder told me that the Torah says if you kill one person, you kill a whole world because you have also killed that person’s children and his children’s children and so on. And, if you save one person, you save a whole world. I have only been trying to keep my child alive. I have only been trying to save a world.”
Reactions and Reviews
Since "Flightless" was already recced here [at Crack Van], I decided I should give Geb's "A World to Save" a try. I am so glad that I did. This is one of the best post-col stories I have ever read in this fandom. Her Scully is strong, brave and pragmatic, fighting to save her son, fighting to save her world. Geb's world-building makes sense of the wacky TXF canon, the brief glimpses of Mulder and Scully's relationship feel right and true, the ending is not without hope. The version posted at Gossamer has formatting issues so I've archived it at Fugues. If you must have Mulder and Scully's son carry the name of William, be warned--he doesn't. This story was written in 1998. It's amazing how much Geb anticipated canon. And improved on it. [1]
ok, I will say ... something. There are sure to be spoilers for the story below.I thought it was certainly well-written. In a relatively short space, the author painted a vivid picture of Scully and her post-col world by gradually revealing bits of information and few but telling details. There were a few lines that really hit me in the gut with what Scully's reality is like in this universe (although you really need the context around them too):
"I don't use my blood for Joyce. That's where I draw the line. She's not my daughter. I can't bleed for all of them."
"I'm having trouble today. Some days I have a bad time." (sounds very Scully)
"'This isn't heaven, is it?' 'No, no it isn't.'"
Along the way, the author (through Scully) layers in pieces of the past - what happened to get where things are. But it's unclear how much of that the reader can trust. The thing I got hung up on (but not in the negative sense) was the idea that Scully's memories, especially regarding Mulder and their relationship, were not reliable. About 2/3rds into the story, when Scully is greeting the new arrival, she says "They destroy our memories on purpose...memories will come back slowly, eventually, piecemeal and incomplete. Dreamlike. She may think that memories are just imagination and that dreams are real, but eventually she will learn to live with it." So, at that point, we realize that everything Scully has described as remembering is under suspicion. She even admits at this point that she remembers a few basic things and "The rest is pure conjecture."
Even before we are told outright that her memory has been tampered with, we get hints that something is amiss. At the beginning, after her dream, Scully says "Enough, Dana. Enough of that. That's not the way it was." And then, later on, she reveals that she is missing three years (i.e., she can't remember them), between when Gabe was two and when he was five and they were brought to their current location in West Virginia.
Her memories of how Mulder reacted to Gabe when he was born and the changes that came along with that were painful to read, even if we're not sure how accurate they are. "He watched with his usual look of bewildered fascination and terror, as if that happily grunting bit of flesh attached to my breast was a giant tick rather than his son." "He never once told me he loved me." And the way Scully describes Mulder's disappearance, deliberately distancing herself from it, rings true as a way she would cope with his loss and the not knowing whether he left or was taken/killed. And it's how she is coping with not being able to trust her own memories of him, good or bad, even though she obviously misses him.
And to confuse things even more, Scully relates her escape from DC and then immediately retracts it as a lie. A made up memory is better than not having one at all, perhaps. And if she isn't sure of the memories she does have, maybe to her it isn't really that much of a leap to just making one up for something she can't remember at all.
So, again, it's well-written, and I think what the author has done with having us question every memory Scully relates is interesting. I don't love the story, though, because, basically, it bummed me out. It's terrible that Scully knows she cannot trust her memories, especially her memories of Mulder. And, I'm grumpy when things are bad beyond repair between M&S (even if it's in un-trustworthy memories). The story is definitely dark, and I'm not sure where I see any relief from that. I'm not getting it from the obvious place (I at least won't spoil that at this point in the discussion), but maybe I'm not looking from the correct angle. (This is what I meant when I said I got hung up on the memory thing.) [2]
Stories about amnesia, stories where a character's memories are lost inevitably draw me in, especially if they result in calling into question the MSR status quo. I loved "Fugue", and "The 13th Sign." I loved dtg's "Dreamcatcher." Even "Sense Memory" has a little of that element. It's emotional catnip for me. [3]
I only managed to read half of it. What I read was really good. Great universe setting. Though I quite didn't buy the alien would go for the rich people rather than the useful ones. I mean surely wealth means nothing to them? [4]
References
- ^ "Crack Van". Archived from the original on 2021-10-31.
- ^ tri sbr at xf book club, January 2014
- ^ wendelah1 at xf book club, January 2014
- ^ badforthefish at xf book club, January 2014