Fic Rec: Without Borders

[hajimebassaidai.livejournal.com]

Title: Without Borders
Author: scuttlesworth
Pairing: John Watson/Mary Morstan
Length: 4,310 words approx.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Character death, Reccer would add death of someone who is pregnant (not graphic)
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: Medicine Sans Frontiers always needs doctors willing to travel to difficult places. Without Sherlock, John needs a place to get away from London to and someone to need him. So he goes to the Sudan, and he minute he gets there he gets his ass chewed out by Nurse Morstan.
Author's Notes: This idea, of John joining Medicine Sans Frontiers because he can't bear London anymore - of John seeing Nurse Morstan for the first time and she's this vibrant and amazing woman, and she completely chews him out in front of everyone and they're all nervous because she's only a nurse and he's the Doctor from England - and he falls for her, completely - this has been in my head for ages.
I hope you like it. :) This might be the last time we can do a fix like this, where Mary Morstan isn't canon yet.

Reccer's comments: First of all I'm making sure I rec this now before this magnificent possibility for Mary Morstan finds herself well and truly jossed!

Second: don't judge! Just stay right there! I've read a few John Watson/Mary Morstan fics where Mary felt like a wet blanket. That is far from the case here. I can truly believe that John would love this Mary, and want to spend the rest of his life with her.

This is a story where John has gone to find himself that purpose he needs so badly. What the author gives the reader is an incredibly vivid world (you can practically feel the heat when you're reading it) complete with a brilliantly vibrant and alive Mary Morstan who John is attracted to from the off. As she yells rude things at him!
John builds himself a new purpose, a new place, a new life in the sands of the Sudan with Mary working alongside him. I can't say anymore without spoilers but this is a story that totally swept me away and on re-reads, even though I know where it's going, it never fails to move me.

I always think a mark of really great fanfic writing is that, when it comes down to it, that apart from a bit of assumed background, it could be detached from its fandom and still be an incredible story. This is one of those.

Comments

[shezan.livejournal.com]

John spoke Arabic in Afghanistan? He's working for "Remedies Without Borders"? And now he's using Islamic greetings when the Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde teams in the Sudan are actually working with the Christians in the South and the animists in Darfur? Sorry, the fic lost me just there.

[hajimebassaidai.livejournal.com]

I'm taking it suffered from handwaving then? :-)

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Handwaving Olympic gold!

ouch

[literatewench (from livejournal.com)]

Wow. That feels pretty harsh, but I'll try and take it as constructive. My caveats - excuses - are that I had no beta (probably quite obvious) and I've never been to Afghanistan or the Sudan. As much as I tried to do some research, obviously quite a few details were inaccurate.

I'd assumed that Arabic would be a fairly common trade language, but a little more digging shows you're right - while it might be what the Quran is taught throughout the region, it's not used as a common language outside one rather endangered dialect.

Re: ouch

[shezan.livejournal.com]

As it happens, I am a member of the Save Darfur committee here in Paris with one of the founders of Médecins Sans Frontières (who spends half his time out there; I myself have spent time at our Embassy in Khartoum), and the idea that the people MSF are helping, who are basically being massacred by the Islamists, would be using Islamic greetings, sort of grates.

They speak a number of languages in Afghanistan according to tribe; but most common are Dari and Pashtu. Afghanistan, while Moslem, is not an Arab country (just like Iran, Turkey, etc.)

All of this is available on Wikipedia if you don't care to traipse through the miles of news reporting available on those places. Orientalism, even with the new touchy-feely-oh-if-it's-Moslem-it-must-be-nice touch, remains Orientalism, as described by Edward Said.

(Incidentally, a Sudanese called Jean-Paul? What did Lord Kitchener win at Fashoda FOR?)

Re: ouch

[hajimebassaidai.livejournal.com]

I only know about Dari and Pashtu being spoken in Afghanistan because a few, and I mean a very few, stories in both Sherlock and Stargate:Atlantis fandom mention it. I don't think it is something that most people know anything about.

Clearly the ongoing situation in the Darfur is something you are passionate about and are devoting your life to. Your passion, when written on a screen, appears a little more like criticism than constructive. An opportunity to learn something new is a welcome side effect of fandom but tone can go a long way to dicating how a person feels about a subject: interested enough to learn more or attacked for any gaps in their knowledge.

Re: ouch

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I am informed about the situation in Darfur. I am passionate about accuracy, especially when it is extremely easy to check facts beforehand. Anyone who knows me knows perfectly well I have not "devoted" my life to anything, except possibly halfway decent writing.

...did you expect to find out about languages spoken in a country both our nations have been at war with for a decade from fanfiction only? Google is your friend.

Re: ouch

[hajimebassaidai.livejournal.com]

Actually, no, I was trying to be polite and not condescending.

Google it.

Re: ouch

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I've just realised you're the reccer and not the author. In which case of course you are quite founded to look for snippets of information as they come in fics.

Re: ouch

[literatewench (from livejournal.com)]

You sound remarkably condescending here. I'm trying not to take it personally.

I have never been to these places. I did rather a lot of research, but there's a reason they say write what you know; there are always things you don't think to do research on. To me, it was important to get the characters out there, to represent the ideas. To present the concept of a non-white, non-British, non-American, powerful, interesting Mary. To present John not as paralyzed, but as actively trying to make the world better.

I would like very much to have made it all accurate. If I had the experience you have, it would have been more so. Accuracy is indeed important. And I'm sorry the inaccuracy threw off your suspension of disbelief.

All of that is true. What's also true is that while you have excellent points about the accuracy of my data, you present them in a fairly nasty fashion. This is guaranteed to make most people receiving your criticism stop listening. If you want to make people around you more accurate, I suggest you learn that being nice costs you nothing and gains you respect.

As it is, you're coming across like someone who wants to be the Sherlock in a Sherlock fandom.

If you'd mentioned your concerns about the accuracy in a less antagonistic fashion, I would have come back with edits to fix it. You would have made my writing better and I would have learned. As it is, I don't really want to touch the story right now, because I'm associating something I really enjoyed working on with your disgust and condemnation.

Cheers for that.

Re: ouch

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I might be wrong but I'd rather complain that this made me feel bad than consider it. Yes, I can see this attitude will serve you well in life.

Re: ouch

[hajimebassaidai.livejournal.com]

The attempt was worth making but I think you're wasting your time here! Been there and done that!

*Don't* take it personally and please don't let it stop you writing or make you hesitate in future.

[bowl-of-glow.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, okay. Actually I wanted to say that I love the idea of a non-Brit, non-white Mary for a change. Just a bit disappointed by the fact that she always have to die. :-P

[hajimebassaidai.livejournal.com]

Yes, on a more cheerful note, this Mary was very different and benefited from it. The "issues" with the story are nothing an edit can't fix and the story still wrenches at me evry time I read it!

[sussexdowns.livejournal.com]

I mean, it's canon that she dies, so I tend not to get too disappointed when it happens in fic. I definitely tend to side-eye "Mary dies so John and Sherlock can finally be together!" stories but that's something else entirely.

On the other hand, I also ship John/Mary pretty hard, so I'm sort of with you in wanting her to live/wanting them to get a happily ever after. Dammit!