Richard, it seems that you been looking at what I have written lately and
then disregarding all the subject matter except the points which you wish
to address. Here are my thoughts on your response:

On Mon, 28 Oct 1996, Richard Lawson wrote:

I thought about how to respond to it for a long time.  Finally, I
realized that I *couldn't* respond to it, for one simple reason:  Ranma
is a fictional character, put into a hypothetical situation.  What

Yes. However, one of the most important parts of this story and of all
your stories is that you attempt to put the cast from Ranma into real life
situations, and to then disregard how a real person would act in this
situation would be a contradiction, ruining what you were initially trying
to present.

happened to you is real.  To try and draw comparisons would be to
cheapen your experience, and that I don't wont to do.  To try and argue

In what way? Part of the art of being a writer is to use your personal
experiences and the experiences of others to enhance the realities and
introspection in one's work. Although we may be talking about fictional
characters, their personalities and actions are affected by what we, the
writers, bring to them in our stories.

Gomen.  You may call me a coward if you wish;  I won't object *too*
vehemently.  :)

Object to what? If you read the essay carefully, you will find that after
a lengthy exploration of the story and possible parallels, I basically
AGREED with what you had done, and COMPLIMENTED your prose. What would you
object to? The fact that I praised you? That puzzles me a great deal.

Which brings me to the ONE point that I had in disagreement with your
story, and the only point that you addressed.

One point I do want to address:  It wasn't my intention to have Ranma
become "super-feminine" at the end.  She's merely coming to terms with
the fact that she's a woman now and forever.  In my mind, her
personality is not going to change, which is why she mentioned the
training. In a way, putting on a dress and letting Kentaro kiss her is
shock therapy; a way to force her hindbrain to realize this is
permanent.

And all I was saying was that this was unclear, and that you should
perhaps emphasize the reasoning behind Ranma's sudden transformation.
Other than that, my whole paper was about encouraging you to leave the
rest of the story alone.

All I can see with your response is that you either do not like your own
story the way it stands, or that you did not understand my point of view.
Whichever, this was not something that you SHOULD have felt the need to
object to, unless it was to state that you were dissatisfied with the
current and that you were going to rewrite "Thy Outward Love."

If necessary, I will sum up what I said in my essay:

"I liked this story. It was really good except that it seemed Ranma
switched over really quickly to dressing up in frilly clothes. I thought
that Ranma's reactions to everything else were good, and I especially
liked the way that the story did NOT have an ending, leaving it ambiguous
whether Ranma did or did NOT become a true girl/homosexual (per say.)"

If your objections were going to pertain to my commentary on sexual
reactions, that was simply my interpretation of your story, and I would
prefer not to be contradicted on those terms.

Marisa Pric