On Mon, 22 Jul 1996, Richard Lawson wrote:
Sebastian Weinberg writes:
The view fades in on a large room...
Ooh! Ooh! It's been my life-long dream to have someone do
one of these to my fics! Thank you!
You mean you were born hoping for someone writing this about a fic of
yours? Sorry to have kept you waiting so long. :)
Angus: That's a fighting style? What does she do when someone
hits her?
Sebastian: She'd say "ow" and the opponent's heart breaks. Of
course, nobody would hit Kasumi in the first place.
And again hehe. We should do a 'fic together. You do the comedy
bits, I'll do the melodramatic bits, and we'll see what springs
up.
If I may quote my dictionary:
Collaboration, n.:
A literary partnership based on the false assumption that the other
fellow can spell.
Sounds interesting, but I think you're too fast for me to keep up with. :)
(Trying to think of a funny line to add here, but my mind
is blank. Did I mention I have a weakness as a writer in this
area?)
I wouldn't call it a weakness, what with your talent for the
"melodramatic bits" - You're just "differently abled". I am in awe of
both the quality and speed in which you throw these fics at us.
Angus: But she still calls him "Kunou-baby".
Sebastian: Well, nobody is perfect. Allow Richard some slips,
will you?
This scene affected me in one other way: in my mind, Tatewaki
is "Kuno-baby" to Nabiki. Yes, it's disrespectful, and if I'm
going to be consistent, I should really have it be "Kuno-chan".
I can't help it. I do have her go back and forth between
calling him "Tatewaki-kun" and "Kuno-baby", the first when
she means to be endearing, the second when she's annoyed or
in a playful mood. I have been told this isn't entirely
correct usage of "-kun" and "-chan"; again, I can't help it.
It's the way *I* like to use them. :)
As I said, it's not a crime to me. Angus can be a little pedantic about
such things, but who am *I* to judge? After all, I've been using
Japanese and English words mixed without rules or reason in my fics.
: Kodachi's voice was on the ragged edge; she was practically
: screaming. "If she believed in such things, why did she kill
: herself? Only to prove them for the lies that they were!"
Sebastian: Here's something that I noticed in another of
Richard's fanfics, namely the treatment of suicide. Japan
has a long tradition incorporating ritual suicide, and the
entire cultural connotations of the act are different from
ours.
Angus: I don't think it's easier to commit suicide, even in a
different cultural background.
Sebastian: That's not what I meant.=A0 It's always hard to overcome
one's self preservation instinct, and it's always hard on
the loved ones, but the entire cultural baggage attached to
it is different. Over here, suicide is the ultimate no-no,
a damning offense, a rebellion against the orders of heaven
and nature, in short: something dishonourable. In Japan
it's not. Kodachi would certainly be traumatized by the
death of her mother, but her reasoning in this scene is more
western than Japanese.
Other people have commented on this as well. It's again something I
can't help; I just can't imagine someone going "Oh, she killed
herself, how honorable. Are we doing lunch?" I'm exaggerating for
effect, I know, but I can't help that feel that suicide is a bad
thing, no matter where you're born. I acknowledge that this may
be a cultural bias on my part. I sometimes wonder if the reverse
isn't true, however: we *perceive* suicide in Japan to be less
onerous than it is here; I wonder if that's really the case. I'd
sure like to find someone who was raised in Japan who could speak to
this.
That's why I said that it *hurts* the same - just the *reasons* are
different, and therefor Kodachi's argumentation seemed off, to me.
One of the ideas that's been percolating in my brain is seeing
how Kodachi is doing in that hospital. What's been stopping me
from pursuing it is: a) I don't know much about mental hospitals;
I'd have to do a lot of research. b) I don't much like Kodachi.
:) It also explains why Happosai never makes an appearance in
any of my fanfics; I simply can't stand him, and wish that
Takahashi-sensei had never introduced him. Although my reaction
to Kodachi isn't that strong, she still annoys the heck out of
me. Another personal bias. :)
As I've said elsewhere, how about a piece about her finding back into
normal life *after* she's out of the hospital? (or rather, what *passes*
for normal life in Nerima)
: Ranma entered the dojo, his heart hammering. He had done some very
: scary things this afternoon with Nabiki, an experience he would as
: soon forget.
Angus: Will we ever learn what they were? We saw him go to
Nabiki after his argument with Akane, and now there's this
comment. What's behind this?
Uh, it was supposed to be that he and Nabiki went out to get an
engagement ring. Obviously he couldn't afford it himself, so
he needed her financial backing, as well as her ability to find
him a good deal, and to find a ring in good taste. I left it
very vague, of course, so as not to spoil the surprise. Should
I have explained this a little more afterwards? Maybe a scene
where Ranma thanks Nabiki for her help?
Yes, I think so. It would certainly clear this up.
: With a start, Genma realized it was up to him to bring some order
: to this bunch. Part of him wished for a bucket of cold water:
: pandas couldn't talk, and wouldn't be expected to take charge of
: the situation. He beat that part of his mind down; pandas also
: don't have wives.
Sebastian: I'm not sure what he means by that last part. Does he
decide so out of *fear* of his wife, or does he do so to
prove himself worthy of her.
Angus: I think it's the second.
Er, you're right, it was the second. And you're right, this isn't
entirely clear. I'll have to think of a way to spell this out a
little.
I was sure that was how it was meant, but it sounded so much like the
first, that I wanted to comment on it.
I actually noticed this when I was writing "The Ways of the Amazons."
I went back and looked at my other fanfics, and saw it there as well.
The problem is that I want Shampoo to say some very important things,
and I don't want the meaning to be lost too much in trying to keep
her speech in character. Writing serious Shampoo is hard work! :)
She wasn't designed for it. (I just noticed that - at least in the
english translations - she even *thinks* like this! Scary!)
Sebastian: I don't think that Ukyou and Ryouga like - or even
know - each other that well.
Remember that they teamed up to try to get Ryoga and Akane
together. They spent at least one planning session at Ucchan's.
I kinda extrapolated at least a bit of a friendship between
the two, even if their plans went awry.
I dunno. Even if they befriended each other then, their friendship
would have been pretty much destroyed in the "cave of un-love" storyline.
Sebastian: This is the point where I think Richard is most out of
phase with the manga. Even if you accept that Kasumi is not
really oblivious, I strongly doubt that she would have
talked about this with Toufuu-sensei.
The above was based on my very first fanfic, "Heart of the Home."
Ooops, missed that! And that to me, who has been called an autist for
remembering books and films *too* well. :)
Angus: I smell another retcon coming.
Sebastian: Yes, but a pretty ingenious one. By declaring Ranma's
inability to acquire a cure *part* of his curse, a lot of
logical holes are closed. Now it all makes sense.
I just had to add this. (The idea was drawn from Piers Anthony's
Bink character in the "Xanth" novels. Bink has a magical power:
he can't be harmed by magic. So when some magic tries to hurt
him, inexplicable things happen.)
In fact, I think his talent was even broader, as king Whatsisname
suspected at the end of the first book. I decided that his talent was
simply "fate". Nothing bad could happen to him, except in order to bring
about something even better (as seen in the later book, when they go
looking for that cosmic demon that sits under the land).
Anyway, I stopped reading The books, because Piers Anthony is too sexist
for my tastes, and there are only so many puns a man can bear. :)
The biggest, unanswerable
question is: why didn't Ranma, Genma and Ryoga just jump in the
Nannichuan while they were still in China? Or Mousse, for
that matter? Why didn't Shampoo find the Nyaanichuan? The real
reason, of course, is that you wouldn't have a story if they
did. But there was no logical reason behind it, and it's the
one thing that's bothered me the most about Ranma 1/2. So I
added the second part to the curse. Takahashi-sensei
unwittingly supports this theory very well by having strange
things happen to Ranma when he gets close to a cure. Obviously,
the magic isn't ready to let go of him. :)
As I said: Ingenious.
Sebastian: Ah, but then this fanfic is much more rooted in
reality than the manga. This one I could almost imagine as
a movie with real actors. And for real life that kind of
punch is truly impressive.
I'm *very* glad someone noticed that. There are several times
that I toned down stuff from the manga (and some times that I
didn't). The first time was, in Akane's room, she was going
to mention how Ranma saved the bird-people of Jusendo. I
looked at it, and it struck me as very silly to mention
"bird-people" in a scene as serious as the one I was writing.
So I changed it to "people". But it did begin a trend where
I de-emphasize some of the extremes of the manga, trying to
make a more "realistic" setting.
That's why I avoid reading your fics before writing something whacky.
The realism is so very well done while keeping everything in character.
: Ranma wanted to get married.
: And oh God she wanted to also.
Another story about that last line; I spent a lot of time
trying to find another way to phrase it, since it had
never been shown in the manga that the Tendo's were of
a religion that believed in God. I finally left it as
it was, because, for a Western audience such as mine,
it got the meaning and the feelings across, even if it
might have been, stictly speaking, OOC for Akane. A lot
of fanfics are like that, of course, since we're using
Western perspectives to write about characters who are
Japanese.
Ah, but in reality she *did* use a terribly appropriate japanese term
that had nothing about god in it. You just translated it into the most
equivalent english phrase. :) Furthermore, for the smallest part of people
who use these words it is not an expression of religious feelings, but
just a phrase.
Sebastian: Th-This marks the end of my longest C&C to date.
And I super-appreciate it. You made some good points, and
some wonderful analysis that perfectly reflected a lot of
what I was writing about. Thanks ever so much for taking
the time to do this; it really means a lot to me.
I'm totally glad you liked it. I'm completely in awe of your writing and
wish I could create such emotionally wrenching scenes without drifting
into pathos.
Thanks for giving me some answers, too.
Sebastian