On Thu, 7 Mar 1996, Matthew Trotter wrote:

   Childhood's End: I didn't think it was too good.  <insert everyone 
elses rag here> But when it was over it still left me with the feel of 
the original [Clark(?)'s Childhood's End].  That says something for it.  
Warning: if you didn't like the fanfic, you probably won't like Clark's 
book, its not very Ranmaish either . . .[thhpt]

My take on Childhood's End: pretty much every criticism was dead on the 
mark, IMHO.  Only exception being about Ranma-chan not menstruating because 
female hormones hadn't kicked in: you have to suspend scientific review
with Ranma's transformations.  However, I think it was kind of a diamond 
in the rough...I'd love to see the author read every story by Kafka and 
make it an allegorical tale with huge amounts of metaphors.  Perhaps I 
read too much into the story (heck, I know I did), but usually I don't 
read *anything* into stories other than the plotline, so it should be 
excusable.

Ranma's staying as a girl can be interpeted as a refusal to be 
categorized (which makes his out of characterness less out of 
character, for Ranma in the story is tired of being categorized 
too...), Kasumi as maternal, thoughtless love, who goes along with the 
plan thinking it'll be best for Ranma and is shocked when she realizes 
she was wrong, Akane as conditional love unaccepting of faults, Nabiki 
as moral detachment from an issues, Soun and Genma representative 
of the need/desire for supression of inner instincts, and the baby as 
the hope and purity which grow out of independence.  Everybody going 
along with Kasumi's seppuku can be seen as realization that these 
philosophies are fatally flawed.  

In addition, some of the images in that story were fantastic: not only 
the menstruation scene (which I can understand if people don't really 
like), but the baby, crying, surrounded by dead bodies.  The scene were 
Akane approaches Ranma in disbelief *could* have been one of the best 
scenes in any fanfic.

I didn't see much similarity between that story and Clarke's _Childhood's 
End_, other than that both were depressing.  

Jeff

****jdrutsch@ucdavis.edu***********************Jeff Rutsch************* 
"Ranma's not a boy...he's a girl!"
"Akane is MY fiancee!  You TOUCH her, and I'll KILL you!"
"Ranma, change back into a boy while I buy you some time."
"But if I seem to act unkind/it's only me, it's not my mind."
"Ranma [sic],/give your heart to Akane [sic]. /Soon,/right away."
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