Jingle Balls or Hard Times

Fanfiction
Title:	Jingle Balls or Hard Times
Author(s):	M. Fae Glasgow
Date(s):	1992
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Professionals
Relationship(s):	Bodie/Doyle
External Links:	online here
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Jingle Balls or Hard Times is a Bodie/Doyle story by M. Fae Glasgow.

It was published in Bene Dictum #1 and is online.

Reactions and Reviews

This was one of the stories in BENE DICTUM (the first one) where you find out that Bodie and Doyle have had sex at practically every available opportunity (read every time they could be/pretend to be drunk enough), but then act like nothing happened the next day.

This is also the story where we learn what a Liverpudlian wears under his kilt. ("Nothing comes between and my tartan greens.")

I debated rec'ing a story by M.Fae Glasgow, since a number have been recommended here already. But she's written so much, and it's so varied, and so much of it is so good, that I figured it couldn't hurt to give fans another taste. Plus it can be helpful when confronted with so many stories of so many different types to have some idea where to begin and which ones might appeal - this one is somewhat different in tone from some of the others that have appeared here.

M. Fae Glasgow is a prolific and somewhat controversial figure in the Pros world. Her name is often synonymous with dark or depressing fic, and it's true that many of her stories are bleak. She has a penchant for exploring various of the darker and more disturbing or depraved aspects of human nature, particularly dominance and the desire to be dominated, and she often paints highly unsettling pictures of either (or both) Bodie or Doyle as violent, cruel, deviant, emotionally warped, unfeeling, selfish, masochistic, or any number of other similarly unappealing adjectives. And she not infrequently sets up almost unbearably hopeless situations that can only end in despair and loss. All these things can be extremely difficult to read - and the fact that she does them so skillfully and so compellingly only makes them more disturbing.

But what many Pros fans, particularly newbies, might not realize is that her scope is in fact much broader than these stories for which she's most well known might suggest. I think it's the fact that she wrote so many darker stories (relatively unusual in fandom) - and more, that they're so well-written, so powerful, and so difficult to forget - that has given her the reputation as a "dark" writer. The truth is that she wrote many, many Pros fics, and they range across the entire spectrum from suicidally depressing to joyfully uplifting - though it's undeniable that even her uplifting fic generally has a hint of bittersweet, or perhaps more accurately, a complexity that distinguishes it from the happily-ever-after romance-novel type of slash story, and so may not be appealing to all readers. She's not one for simplistic or one-dimensional resolutions; she seems to glory in delving into the mysteries and complexities of human nature, the murky, labyrinthine, and often twisted workings of the human mind.

Not surprisingly, then, her stories generally are characterized by a heavy focus on the internal - there's often not a lot of "action," but there's almost always a lot of introspection, exploration of the inner world, both the conscious thought processes and the lizard brain - the most deeply hidden fears and hopes and emotions that drive human behavior, often without our knowledge - along with plenty of internal conflict. And she does this exceptionally well. Her writing is extraordinary - complex, layered, seductive, powerful, seemingly effortless; she conveys the most complex or convoluted of emotions and thoughts so smoothly and skillfully. She also uses omniscient point of view about as well as I've seen in fanfic; she has a distinct narrative voice and she's often "present" in her stories in a noticeable way; there's often a clear "dear readers" sense that she is the storyteller. Though I don't love all her stories, I admire her willingness to experiment with different narrative and literary devices, with unusual or controversial themes, and she does it all so proficiently.

Okay, enough with the intro. I think I've made it clear in earlier recs that I'm generally all about the happy ending. So M. Fae's truly bleak stories, like A Call of Nature (recommended here last December) or All You Need Is Love (also recommended here, back in February) aren't my favorites, though I find them almost unbearably compelling and impossible to forget (which perhaps is why it's so painful for me to read them - they're Too effective!). But I'm a big fan of her internally-focused style and the complexity of her happy endings, so there are many of her stories that I do enjoy greatly - and a few that I love.

Jingle Balls, or Hard Times - another of the author's proclivities is word play in the titles of her stories; this one I find a bit silly but endearing - is one of these. It's a relatively (by M.Fae's standards!) light, unassuming little story; like the title, it's a bit silly but quite endearing. It begins (and ends, really) with the utterly debauched debauchery (thoroughly credible to me, in a group who live on the edge of death and/or madness much of the time) of Susan's annual CI5 Christmas party. The author does a fantastic drunk!Doyle - she portrays the uniquely strange logic of the thoroughly drunk just about as well as I've ever seen. And it's evidence of her skill that without exposition or saying anything explicitly, she manages to convey through Ray's drunken internal ramblings all sorts of insights into his feelings toward Bodie - confirmed by his drunken external ramblings to Bodie himself later in the evening. But then in the pale cold light of morning Doyle is confronted with - in addition to a killing hangover - something from Bodie that he never expected, and he and Bodie have to face a moment of truth.

There's not much to this story - but like all M.Fae's stories, even when there's "not much," there's more than you might expect (and more than you often get in fanfic) - more complexity, more layers, more depth; there's a real conflict here, for all the lightness of the story, which makes the happy ending all the more satisfying. And it's so very well done; the misunderstanding between the two of them is so believable, Bodie's stoic determination so appealingly heart-string-pulling, the resolution so uplifting. And I find the characterizations very believable and appealing. M. Fae is never really sappy, and so Bodie and Doyle are appropriately guy-like as they attempt to work through the miscommunication - yet the love and affection are there and easy to see (my favorite "guys only better" model), so the story is satisfying not just on a "literary" level, but also on a purely fannish, slashy level. Plus (and this is always a plus for me) there's a nice bit of well-written, in-character smut, and a dose of humor (part of which comes from the view of Doyle that the author-as-narrator gives us; the slight sense of detachment is very effective here, as we watch Doyle's drunken capers), which acts as a nice foil to the more serious bits.

This isn't the deepest or most profound or moving story you'll ever read - but it's one of the more pleasurable ones, and it always leaves me feeling happy and smiley in the way that only a good slash story (involving my OTP, of course :-) can.