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selenakThis one was tough, because I love two special writers equally. But only one of them is my secret good twin, and she won out. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
artaxastra, who recently posted several chapters of a beguiling historical novel set in the world of the Aeneid, is one of these writers who can create a firm sense of place and time in her stories. Much fanfic that renders characters beautifully still surrounds them with a kind of empty space; no matter how sharp the dialogue, the location is optional.
Not soartaxastra. In all her stories, X-Men and historical alike, she treats the characters as the products of their time and background, and never takes knowledge of said time and background as granted. Take one of my favourites, "The Last of the Jedi", a story taking place in the late 70s when young Jean Grey becomes the first student Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr teach. Jean at 12, with her Star Wars fascination, is a child of the 70s if there ever was one. Charles and Erik, whom fanfic most often depicts either in their present-day age or as young men just finding each other, are a credible long-term couple living in a time that might have started to accept same-sex relationships but certainly not for school teachers. The differences that will eventually drive them apart are there, but we don't get foreshadowing hammered on us with every other sentence. Jean relates to each of them differently, and she, too, is a bright but not impossibly perfect child dealing with a very strange new situation. If you remember the late 70s, it's a wonderful exercise in nostalgia without rosy glasses; if you don't remember them, never mind, artaxastra recreates them for you.
A very different sense of time and place is given in "Personal and Political", covering Mystique's activities as Senator Kelly between X1 and X2.artaxastra is well-versed in the daily works of politics, and it shows. Writing the story mostly from the perspective of one staff member who watches "Kelly" transform from anti-mutant bigot to pro-mutant crusader, she makes it plausible that this conversion is accepted and bought. The story is also a great example of the "show, not tell" rule; at no point do we have an omniscient narrator tell us Mystique is incredibly smart and meticulous in her planning (oh, and that her plans, as opposed to Magneto's, actually work), we just observe the woman in action, and my, what an impressive sight it is.
Using the comicverse canon that Mystique and Nightcrawler are actually mother and son, the story "His Mother's Eyes" makes this possible for the movieverse as well and explains the details. It's an epic tale set in two time periods, the one immediately post-X2, when Kurt Wagner tries to adjust to life with the X-Men and comes across the mystery that will lead him to his mother, and one set in the early 80s in Berlin, shortly after Erik and the future Mystique, Katrina/Raven, have met. Among many other things, it's a love story with two participants who do not intend to fall in love and wouldn't admit that they were; a story of a casual companionship transforming into something stronger; and an explanation of how Mystique's unconditional loyalty to Magneto first started. (When he helped her looking for the son who was taken from her directly after birth.) Again, Berlin, divided Berlin with the past haunting it, isn't just a name given; it's not a location that could be exchanged with any other. Equally, the X-Mansion when everyone is still traumatized by the fallout of the X2 events comes to live in the descriptions, and the location of the final resolution tells you as much about the characters, and where they are now, emotionally, in the present, as anything else. I just love it.
***
Nothing to do with the above, but this rant about the Remus-Sirius-James situation in canon and fanon cracked me up, both because it's well-written and because I happen to agree with it.
artaxastra, who recently posted several chapters of a beguiling historical novel set in the world of the Aeneid, is one of these writers who can create a firm sense of place and time in her stories. Much fanfic that renders characters beautifully still surrounds them with a kind of empty space; no matter how sharp the dialogue, the location is optional. Not so
artaxastra. In all her stories, X-Men and historical alike, she treats the characters as the products of their time and background, and never takes knowledge of said time and background as granted. Take one of my favourites, "The Last of the Jedi", a story taking place in the late 70s when young Jean Grey becomes the first student Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr teach. Jean at 12, with her Star Wars fascination, is a child of the 70s if there ever was one. Charles and Erik, whom fanfic most often depicts either in their present-day age or as young men just finding each other, are a credible long-term couple living in a time that might have started to accept same-sex relationships but certainly not for school teachers. The differences that will eventually drive them apart are there, but we don't get foreshadowing hammered on us with every other sentence. Jean relates to each of them differently, and she, too, is a bright but not impossibly perfect child dealing with a very strange new situation. If you remember the late 70s, it's a wonderful exercise in nostalgia without rosy glasses; if you don't remember them, never mind, artaxastra recreates them for you. A very different sense of time and place is given in "Personal and Political", covering Mystique's activities as Senator Kelly between X1 and X2.
artaxastra is well-versed in the daily works of politics, and it shows. Writing the story mostly from the perspective of one staff member who watches "Kelly" transform from anti-mutant bigot to pro-mutant crusader, she makes it plausible that this conversion is accepted and bought. The story is also a great example of the "show, not tell" rule; at no point do we have an omniscient narrator tell us Mystique is incredibly smart and meticulous in her planning (oh, and that her plans, as opposed to Magneto's, actually work), we just observe the woman in action, and my, what an impressive sight it is. Using the comicverse canon that Mystique and Nightcrawler are actually mother and son, the story "His Mother's Eyes" makes this possible for the movieverse as well and explains the details. It's an epic tale set in two time periods, the one immediately post-X2, when Kurt Wagner tries to adjust to life with the X-Men and comes across the mystery that will lead him to his mother, and one set in the early 80s in Berlin, shortly after Erik and the future Mystique, Katrina/Raven, have met. Among many other things, it's a love story with two participants who do not intend to fall in love and wouldn't admit that they were; a story of a casual companionship transforming into something stronger; and an explanation of how Mystique's unconditional loyalty to Magneto first started. (When he helped her looking for the son who was taken from her directly after birth.) Again, Berlin, divided Berlin with the past haunting it, isn't just a name given; it's not a location that could be exchanged with any other. Equally, the X-Mansion when everyone is still traumatized by the fallout of the X2 events comes to live in the descriptions, and the location of the final resolution tells you as much about the characters, and where they are now, emotionally, in the present, as anything else. I just love it.
***
Nothing to do with the above, but this rant about the Remus-Sirius-James situation in canon and fanon cracked me up, both because it's well-written and because I happen to agree with it.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-08 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 09:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 09:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 02:38 pm (UTC)I am on my way downtown now to look at 20th dynasty Egyptian glassware and domestic artifacts. It's so nice to have a really great museum close at hand! (Though the Near Eastern section is not as extensive as I would like, but then I can't just bop over to the British Museum....)
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Date: 2005-03-09 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 10:41 pm (UTC)I had hoped to this spring or summer.
*still lusting after Berlin museums*
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Date: 2005-03-10 06:15 am (UTC)The Berlin museums are great, but so are the Munich ones. We have some great antiques and one of the best Dürer and Rubens collections around. *g*
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Date: 2005-03-09 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 10:46 pm (UTC)Have you read
I truly love this story. This is just perfect Mystique, in my humble opinion. And did I mention that it's hot? *fans self*
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Date: 2005-03-10 06:45 am (UTC)I'm full of love today for this pairing.
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Date: 2005-03-09 11:34 am (UTC)And it has also gotten you an additional reader. One, who isn't even that much into X-Men, but enjoyed "The Last of the Jedi" for the sheer quality of writing, the depiction of characters and the story's general mood, atmosphere and flair.
I watched both movies when they came out, but figured they weren't really my cup of tea. Reading your story, however, made me realize the reasons *why* people care so much about the X-Men universe. And opening up new horizons for the skeptics is quite an achievement :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 02:37 pm (UTC)