On Fri, 21 Aug 1998, Nicholas Leifker wrote:
Gary, your reasoning is noble, but horribly flawed.
The flaw in your reasoning is very simple. You are using your own, HIGHLY
BIASED opinions of Ranma 1/2 (your description of them, not mine) to color
your arguments, and as a result you're stifling the creativity of the
writers of theis ML.
So does Gary have no right to his opinions? That seems to be the essence
of what you're saying; that Gary has no right to give his opinion if it
differs from that of some other author. Given that Gary cannot stop
anyone else from writing, I don't see how he is stifling their creativity.
Regardless of what he thinks, they are free to write whatever they like.
People will interpret the characters and their motives in different ways.
I see a man who would rather give up his eldest daughter's childhood than
help her out one iota with the housework. You see someone who would take
up cooking. This difference of opinion is natural; this is normal. And
yet, you have attacked the characterization of others on the basis that it
is different from your own. Moreover, you react to my own pointing of this
out is by saying that this is your own interpretation of Ranma, and that as
such it is worthy of respect.
Examples, please.
Sir, it is a noble gesture to say that you would like the characters to
remain true to Takahashi. However, there is only one person who is capable
of staying true to the characterizations of Ranma 1/2, and she's writing
Inu-Yasha now. (And no, it's not Krista! ^_^ ) Truth to tell, I know
I'm afraid I don't agree that this means people cannot express the opinion
that someone else's stories violate the characterization of the characters
in the source material. Given that none of us have any coercive power
over anyone else here, I honestly can't see the harm in it except for
maybe filling people's mailboxes with long threads of character debates.
Indeed, if we take the position that no one is to be allowed to disagree
with our characterizations, themes, etc, what is the point of this mailing
list? IF we have no standard to go by, how can we meaningfully critique
each other's work (with regard to characterization)?
Now, given that we have no comprehensive guide to every aspect of the
characteriztion of the characters, and no magical way to read Takahashi's
mind, we will never be able to achieve any perfect certainty of the IC or
OOCness of characterization, but I think that it's still a valid issue to
bring up in critiqueing a fanfic; given that ultimately, no one commenting
on an author's fanfic here has any coercive power to FORCE them to make
changes, I don't see the harm in it. It's not like they can call for a
vote to force authors to go live in a shoebox :)
Fanfiction thrives on the fact that we take the roads that Takahashi
DIDN'T. It lives on diversity and fresh, innovative ideas on the
characters. These are the roads you walk, and the roads that you seek to
close to others with your slander.
Except that he can't, since he has no power to make anyone do anything.
You're acting as if he had some kind of power other than what other people
give him, Nick. He's as entitled to his opinion as anyone else is.And
they're entitled to ignore him if they don't agree.
Mind you, it isn't that we do not appreciate your critiquing; we do.
However, your critiquing, due to several facts (not the least of which
being you post it on a public forum), is causing more harm to fanfiction
Isn't that the point of bothering to have a mailing list? To be able to
openly debate isssues? Now if the author ASKS for no public C&C and you
do it anyway, then you're being rude, but if the FFML isn't for open
critique of stories, then what is it for? Besides Best Babe debates,
anyway :)
John Walter Biles : MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu
rhea@tass.org http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/
"DOS Computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq, Tandy,
and millions of others are by far the most popular, with about 70
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numbers alone do not denote a higher life form."
( New York Times, November 26, 1991)