Necessary Lies
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Necessary Lies |
| Author(s): | C.W.W. Walker |
| Date(s): | |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Man from U.N.C.L.E. |
| External Links: | online here, Archived version; reference link with comments |
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Necessary Liesis a Man from U.N.C.L.E. story by C.W.W. Walker.
Reactions and Reviews
Cindy Walker is someone who, as the saying goes, needs no introduction. She's one of the most influential writers in the fandom and a quick glance down the crack_van memories page for UNCLE will reveal that approximately every tenth story recced is by her (my own two favourites, in case anyone reading this has just returned from three decades on the moon and hasn't already read them, are A is for Andy and The St Christopher Affair).A striking difference between early MfU fanfic and the stories that are being written today is the treatment of Napoleon. Once upon a time, the fandom was full of Illya Chicks and Napoleon was presented as a superfluous character at best, and, at worst, a thoroughly repellent individual, whose sleazy selfishness extended to downright cruelty towards poor Illya. That the modern view of Napoleon sees him as an equal partner in the relationship, and as an interesting and complex character in his own right (in spite of being rather more resistant to woobification than his partner) is in no small measure down to Cindy. Her series of stories set in the St Crispin's Day universe has contributed directly to the rehabilitation of Napoleon in the fannish imagination, and for this alone no survey of influential UNCLE writers would be complete without her.
This particular fic was written in response to the “Necessary Lies” challenge on muncle and it's a very nice example of Cindy's talent for finding an original and intriguing take on a topic. It's a story in which nothing much happens, and yet it sums up so much of what it means to be a spy. On their way from somewhere to somewhere, Napoleon and Illya while away time at an airport, and Napoleon seizes the opportunity to flirt with an Innocent. The way the two worlds of agent and civilian can only ever touch tangentially is very cleverly rendered in the dialogue between them, without the topic ever being raised explicitly, and at the end the woman is left with a vague sense that there was more to this encounter than met the eye.[1]