Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 18:44:29 -0400
From: fcasper <fcasper@yesic.com>
To: fanfic@fanfic.com
Subject: [FFML] SM Group MSTing  (VERY DARK)  (SM)

This is a group MSTing by Seth *Lefty* Triggs, Steve "Scooter" Kramer
and myself.  C&C is welcome.  :)

Sincerely,

Megane 6.7

P.S. Warning: Contains scenes of extreme violence and mature content. 
If such things disturb you, stop reading now.

     Hmmm.... As a fan of Megane's work, I'm actually not sure that this 
piece was as deserving of the MSTreatment as most of the other works 
he's (?) done.  Yes, the opening was about as harsh as it gets, but... 
it was meant to be.  One of the most objective standards of any work of 
(for want of a better term) art is, "Does the viewer react in the way 
the creator intended?"  Judging by the revulsion and disgust evident in 
your MSTing, I'd say the author was right on the money.

     Consider this:  SM is a series where portents, prophecies and 
dreams play a _huge_ role in the development of the story.  A horrific 
nightmare sequence is an acceptable, if somewhat cliched, way to 
foreshadow a grave danger--especially in a prologue (a point I think you 
undervalued in your treatment of this piece).

     Some authors, filmmakers, painters, etc. have a fascination with 
the grotesque and the dark.  Was this piece really that much more 
disturbing than, say, the works of H. R. Geiger (the artist whose works 
inspired the creatures of Alien and Species)?  The author played by the 
rules, giving plenty of advanced notice of what the reader was in store 
for.  Did he go over the top?  You could certainly make that argument, 
and probably do a good job of it.  But that doesn't mean that the work 
itself was _bad_, in the sense that an Oscarfic or a Thinkerfic is bad.  
True errors were actually on the low side of typical for fanfiction that 
hasn't seen true editing--mostly in the area of punctuation quotation.

     One other point I think needs to made:  Megane called this a 
rape/torture sequence.  I believe this was an unfair characterization.  
There was only one reference to a victim's genitalia, and in that one 
case, it was more like a parasitic infestation than rape.  Unpleasant? 
Yes.  Disgusting?  Most certainly.  Vile beyond comprehension?  
Arguably.  But rape?  I don't think so.

     Megane, I truly do enjoy your work--I just think you missed the 
ball on this one.

--Freemage, who for some reason keeps trying to spell the reviewer's 
name as "Magane"....


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