Subject: Re: [FFML] [FanFic] Hello Again
From: databank@nash.mindspring.com (Zen)
Date: 1/5/1997, 10:16 PM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com

At 18:49 1/5/97, Benjamin Franz wrote:
On Sun, 5 Jan 1997, Richard Lawson wrote:

Benjamin Franz wrote:
If it's your
intention that Ranma is only acting sexist because that's they way she
believes a woman should act, you need to play this out more.  As it
comes across, Ranma doing housework and giving up her martial arts seems
to stem from her acceptance of herself as a woman in mind and body, and
I kinda don't like that.

Fair enough, and something I would probably go into in a longer story.

Which Zen will be very much looking forward to!


The head blow brought it into effect sooner. I have a slight tendancy to
leave things unstated, but implied in my stories.

Then how come Ryoga's affected and not Genma?  Remember, they were
cursed at the same time.

Because Ryouga has spent more time than *either* Ranma or Genma in his
cursed form. All those months in China as a lost pig. It is harder for
potential 'cold pork lunch' to find/make hot water than a girl and her
panda. "China is a big place - and its even bigger when you're a pig!"

Flawlessly logical...


What about Nabiki?  She certainly is the very antithesis of the
steretypical Japanese woman.

Watch her closer. She engages in more than a little stereotypical
behavior. Yes - she *is* aggressive, mercenary to a fault, and not to be
taken lightly (all typically portrayed as male characteristics). However -
she has the 'kawaii'est taste in clothing (love those cutoffs), thinks the
most important characteristic of a prospective fiance is how cute he is,
and is convinced that a man's (but not a woman's - other than Akane) role
in life is to shield her from danger and shower her with money. Her
extreme mercencary nature could even be taken has an exaggeration of the
'grasping woman' stereotype.

A hit!  A hit!  Ouch!


And Akane is feminist by her very nature;
she behaves however she darned well pleases, and doesn't much care if
it's considered 'feminine' at all.  That's why I like her so much.  :)

You aren't looking below the first layer persona. Repeatedly through the
series Takahashi plays that as the 'tough guy act with the delicate
feminine flower hidden beneath'. She is a powerhouse who *wants* to be a
cute adorable 'ideal Japanese woman'. It is Ranma's attacks on her
traditional femininity that really set her off: "Kawiikunai! <wham>"
"Tomboy!  <wham>" "I'm better built! <wham>" "I don't have to taste it to
know its lethal. <wham>". "The one thing you've got is brute strength!
<wham>" "Aren't you supposed to be graceful? <wham>." "You'll never get a
husband unless you start looking at least half as sexy as me. <wham>."

It is because she *does* care that Ranma's gibes hurt her so much.

Damn!  He's gotcha there, Lawson-san!  Zen can see those interpretations as
fitting the facts as presented!  Mind you, Zen is not saying that they
*are* right, either.  Zen *knows* better than to join into this sort of
debate.



Normally, Zen would just send these comments to Franz-san directly, but
Franz-san's ISP is bouncing anything routed from the Mindspring Domain.
*sigh*  Anyway,  Zen will leave the issue of the relative political
correctness of the stereotypes in question to the experts, and focus on
other aspects of the story.

Zen enjoyed it very much.  It was certainly an interesting premise.  Zen liked
the way that you handled Ryouga and Ranma particularly.  The dialogue
between them was very well done.

One technical quibble, is in reference to your use of the Dragon Hair material.

When Ranma actually consumed the food that had been prepared with the
Dragon Hair, he was in FEmale form.  The Dragon Hair only affects men, so
it is not that it doesn't carry over to the female form, it would have no
effect on the femal form anyway.  As a result, the dragon Hair binding is
NOT necessary when Ranma is a girl.  Lastly, At the end of the story where
the Dragon Hair is mentioned, the effect of the food that Ranma ate wears
off, and Ranma's hair no longer grows at an accelerated rate in either
form.

A wooden katana is more properly referred to as a "bokken", or, if it is
made of bamboo, a "shinnai"

Zen very much liked your descriptive prose - well written and evocative-
good handling of highly charged emotional matters.  Zen will be looking
forward to future fics from you, to be sure.

Keep up the good work!

Zen the Heretic-