War Stories & Maple Hair

Fanfiction
Title:	War Stories & Maple Hair
Author(s):	prufrock's love
Date(s):
Length:
Genre(s):	het
Fandom(s):	The X-Files
Relationship(s):
External Links:	online here
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War Stories & Maple Hair is an X-Files story by prufrock's love.

Reactions and Reviews

I read this a long time ago, and don't remember what I thought at the time. I was not nearly as critical of fic as I am now.

What I liked: Good concept. Pru obviously has a way with language and she stays on task pretty well here. I think she tends to wander and lose the cohesion of the story in her longer works.

What didn't work: Mulder's voice was just wrong. It wasn't just the purple prose and the highly dramatic language--I just don't think guys talk like that, especially to each other. I don't know if ANYONE talks like that. Mulder was known to spin a yarn on the show, but his delivery leaned toward the humorous. About the only line I could hear him saying was "She'd kick your ass, Private."

Would I recommend? Probably not. I think some of Pru's stories were marvelous and some were brilliant but wildly flawed. this is neither of those.

Not good, not awful. No wonder nobody talks about it.

Post-col, Commander Mulder is cajoled into telling his men about Scully.

Was it Joann who mentioned her impatience with first-person narratives? I guess I share it. The Mulder-voice didn't grab me, and the whole thing seemed familiar.

What I liked: Good spelling and grammar--although I did catch a typo. It was short.

What I disliked: The tone, the style.

Would I rec: Nope.

"War Stories & Maple Hair": a nicely written misfire, marred by the sentimentality of Mulder's pov. "Small hands that heal and caress with the same passion, and eyes like that placid blue lake--until she laughs." A pang of ick there. The title is very romance novel. Unfortunately, it makes us think of syrup. ... Prufrock's Love seems, as a writer, as discussion-provoking as "Iolokus." She's without question a high-quality talent. She does have a proclivity for suicidal angst that puts me off personally. Plus--and Conundrum may have nailed this with her comment about feminine sensibility--her Mulder is often off-putting to me as well: full of fully examined inner torment, self-denigrating, approaching Scully with an I-am-not-worthy neediness. His voice can wear badly, which I was reminded of at the beginning of PW.

Not wanting to get into gender wars, but this Mulder strikes me as, to a fault, the "sensitive male" post-feminists seem to yearn for in rl. It doesn't make for energetic fiction. And maybe someone can inform me--does this make Pru a Mulderist or a Scullyist?

I would rec *anything* by Prufrock's Love (though with a warning in some cases). Her ability to write beautiful passages is rare and worth some tedium. Plus, she's fun to talk about.