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cimoreneThis entry was supposed to be a comment that it would be interesting to write an analysis of this Life on Mars gen story as symbolic or allegorical slash. The entry ran away with me, though, and I actually ended up writing said analysis, so.
The story, "Every Little Counts", by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lozenger8, is gen (or rather, friendship fic) and about 17,000 words. It concerns Sam and Gene getting fired and setting up as PIs together. (I don't suggest that the slash association is unconscious on the author's part; she's also written a number of slash stories, and it's likely that the features I remark were carefully planned.) Not only does the story bear many of the hallmarks of what I like to think of as classic "nesting" fic, it's also concerned with the development of a closer and quite domestic-looking partnership between the two, and an emotional development in their understanding with each other. Other passages hint at the physicality of their relationship, and a brief explicitly gay case even provides for a bit of suggestive dialogue.
When I say "nesting" stories, I mean those classic stories - one might even say cliché stories - which are concerned mainly with the slash pairing setting up house together. They can be AU or not, and the establishment of the relationship can come before or after the nesting period, but they're characterised by a strong theme of cosiness and domesticity and a concentration on home related details: the pairing might be setting up to live in an abandoned barn or warehouse, and those details might mean sweeping and creating makeshift bedrolls and cleaning the chimney; or it might be set in the woods and the details involve cooking over a fire, ground-clearing and pitching the tent; or the pair might be permanently or temporarily moving in together for one reason or another. The main purpose of nesting fic is usually to link the pairing together with the daily routines of cohabiting partnered life, and to evoke the feeling of satisfaction we derive from those arrangements.
The first half of this story goes into loving detail in the picking out, renovating and decorating of the site for Gene & Sam's new office together, complete with banter and shared meals, division of labour, shopping for furniture together, and a description of the finished product which dwells on floorplan and colour choices. There's even a housewarming party with all the rest of the regular cast. Later when customers start arriving, we're treated to Sam's lament that playing hostess and offering them coffee or tea and a seat on the couch is up to him. He's resigned, however, to Gene's lack of finesse.
The first case they're sent on involves a man visiting his gay lover, too, who comes to the door to greet him in a towel. Sam and Gene's conversation at the time goes like this:
A reader might well be excused for taking Sam's question to be addressed to Gene on first scan.
There's also an at times overwhelming physicality to the fight scenes, combined with suggestive lines like “Get your shirt on, then,” Gene said. “We don’t want a bunch of swooning girls following us everywhere we go.” Of course, a graphic description of violence can't avoid physicality, and the scene doesn't go out of its way to suggest sensuality, but the sexual connotations of adrenaline are well-known and obvious; it hardly needs to be more explicit than He was forced to the floor and struggled against Gene’s overweight frame or Sam grabbed at Gene’s collar and rolled him over, pinning him down or Gene rested against the back of the chair, bending over and inhaling deeply. To make matters more interesting, this scene - the peak of the story's physicality - is also the climax of the emotional conflict between Gene and Sam, and it has to do with trust, Gene's desire to shelter Sam and Sam's insistence that He had thought him a partner and a friend. Sam thought he was Gene's equal; he feels betrayed to discover that Gene has been protecting him, because he regards that as a lack of trust.
Although the external case-related plot is resolved elsewhere, the real resolution of the story is arguably the emotional reconciliation following this fight. There's regret on both sides, and Sam acknowledges in internal monologue that he understands Gene's impulse to protect. Trust is reestablished and reinforced through a few joint actions before the resolution of the case. There's even a shift from Sam's internal monologue calling the office his dominion in the housewarming party scene to Gene's line, "Let’s go have another look at our domain, Sam" (emphasis mine), in the final scene. Just like the most classic of nesting fic, the final note in the story is one of reaffirmation of the increased solidity, the successful building, of a meaningful and flexible partnership over the course of the story which will stand up to the challenges of the future. The mundane physical details of building a home bear the symbolic weight of the more intangible project of building a relationship, a metaphorical home. [Just this final sentence is spoilery!] Highlight down to see:
And as in most "temporary" nesting stories (such as undercover gigs, vacations, shipwrecks, and other temporary cohabiting arrangements), the message at the end is that the relationship which, perhaps, could only have been built away from the ordinary constraints and settings of canon, can nonetheless survive the journey back into the canon setting and continue to thrive there.
The story, "Every Little Counts", by
lozenger8, is gen (or rather, friendship fic) and about 17,000 words. It concerns Sam and Gene getting fired and setting up as PIs together. (I don't suggest that the slash association is unconscious on the author's part; she's also written a number of slash stories, and it's likely that the features I remark were carefully planned.) Not only does the story bear many of the hallmarks of what I like to think of as classic "nesting" fic, it's also concerned with the development of a closer and quite domestic-looking partnership between the two, and an emotional development in their understanding with each other. Other passages hint at the physicality of their relationship, and a brief explicitly gay case even provides for a bit of suggestive dialogue. When I say "nesting" stories, I mean those classic stories - one might even say cliché stories - which are concerned mainly with the slash pairing setting up house together. They can be AU or not, and the establishment of the relationship can come before or after the nesting period, but they're characterised by a strong theme of cosiness and domesticity and a concentration on home related details: the pairing might be setting up to live in an abandoned barn or warehouse, and those details might mean sweeping and creating makeshift bedrolls and cleaning the chimney; or it might be set in the woods and the details involve cooking over a fire, ground-clearing and pitching the tent; or the pair might be permanently or temporarily moving in together for one reason or another. The main purpose of nesting fic is usually to link the pairing together with the daily routines of cohabiting partnered life, and to evoke the feeling of satisfaction we derive from those arrangements.
The first half of this story goes into loving detail in the picking out, renovating and decorating of the site for Gene & Sam's new office together, complete with banter and shared meals, division of labour, shopping for furniture together, and a description of the finished product which dwells on floorplan and colour choices. There's even a housewarming party with all the rest of the regular cast. Later when customers start arriving, we're treated to Sam's lament that playing hostess and offering them coffee or tea and a seat on the couch is up to him. He's resigned, however, to Gene's lack of finesse.
The first case they're sent on involves a man visiting his gay lover, too, who comes to the door to greet him in a towel. Sam and Gene's conversation at the time goes like this:
Sam sighed. “How am I going to explain this?”
“Hello darling, sorry to say but your husband likes it up the bum – need a cig?” Gene remarked, gesturing with vaguely non-descript movements.
Amused, Sam continued the imagined conversation. “Have you ever thought about acquiring a strap-on?”
Gene frowned. “A what?”
A reader might well be excused for taking Sam's question to be addressed to Gene on first scan.
There's also an at times overwhelming physicality to the fight scenes, combined with suggestive lines like “Get your shirt on, then,” Gene said. “We don’t want a bunch of swooning girls following us everywhere we go.” Of course, a graphic description of violence can't avoid physicality, and the scene doesn't go out of its way to suggest sensuality, but the sexual connotations of adrenaline are well-known and obvious; it hardly needs to be more explicit than He was forced to the floor and struggled against Gene’s overweight frame or Sam grabbed at Gene’s collar and rolled him over, pinning him down or Gene rested against the back of the chair, bending over and inhaling deeply. To make matters more interesting, this scene - the peak of the story's physicality - is also the climax of the emotional conflict between Gene and Sam, and it has to do with trust, Gene's desire to shelter Sam and Sam's insistence that He had thought him a partner and a friend. Sam thought he was Gene's equal; he feels betrayed to discover that Gene has been protecting him, because he regards that as a lack of trust.
Although the external case-related plot is resolved elsewhere, the real resolution of the story is arguably the emotional reconciliation following this fight. There's regret on both sides, and Sam acknowledges in internal monologue that he understands Gene's impulse to protect. Trust is reestablished and reinforced through a few joint actions before the resolution of the case. There's even a shift from Sam's internal monologue calling the office his dominion in the housewarming party scene to Gene's line, "Let’s go have another look at our domain, Sam" (emphasis mine), in the final scene. Just like the most classic of nesting fic, the final note in the story is one of reaffirmation of the increased solidity, the successful building, of a meaningful and flexible partnership over the course of the story which will stand up to the challenges of the future. The mundane physical details of building a home bear the symbolic weight of the more intangible project of building a relationship, a metaphorical home. [Just this final sentence is spoilery!] Highlight down to see:
And as in most "temporary" nesting stories (such as undercover gigs, vacations, shipwrecks, and other temporary cohabiting arrangements), the message at the end is that the relationship which, perhaps, could only have been built away from the ordinary constraints and settings of canon, can nonetheless survive the journey back into the canon setting and continue to thrive there.
