At 08:44 PM 12/17/98 -0600, Scott Pollert wrote:

Hmm... how to begin this? I haven't commented about this series up til now,
but I have enjoyed it. The writing's good and I've liked the idea of the
two old master's pushing their student to the next level. However, I have
more C&C on the basis of the fics, the foundation that you wrote them on,
than on the fics themselves.

I'm cool wit' dat, too.

At 04:02 AM 12/17/98 -0500, Matthew Lewis wrote:

<A rather pretentious Preface to his story. You wanna see it, you go read
 the story, okay?>

 You seem to be taking a very shallow view of things here. What about the

Well, didn't want to bore people _too_ much. Basically just enough to get
them to think along somewhat different lines, perhaps, and not to fully
explore the idea myself in the preface. That's not the job of a preface--
it isn't an essay, it is more of a guide, of sorts.

limits placed on different races and sexes? Should those not have been
removed as well? What about the limits life may place on someone through
physical injury, monetary troubles, or unfortunate circumstances? Should
they not strive to overcome them? You talked about purity being unjustly

Yes, but we already know that some limits are not right. That doesn't make
them _all_ wrong, however. I have never said that limits are always good,
just that they aren't necessarily bad, and sometimes they are needed. Not
often a position I've seen taken in fiction (especially fantasy) before
(that I can recall, off-hand).

praised in your last fic. But what about the purity of the food and water
you eat and drink, or the purity of the medicine you take? Aren't these
things too strive for? Life is far too complex for such generalities, even

But isn't food a combination of nutrients? Pure water, H2O is actually
rather bland-- trace elements make it refreshing (and even so, H2O is the
combination of hydrogen and oxygen atoms). Medicine? Let's take for
example the medicinal ingredient of aspirin: it needs to be coated with
something lest it burn the esophagus on the way down, and again, is not
medicine just a combination of chemicals? What about the newest fad in the
fight against AIDS? the medical 'cocktails?' There's purity and then there's
Purity, you see. By taking the definition to another level, then all these
things can be seen as impure: food as a combination of nutrients (and 
preservatives, most likely. Did you know it takes our corpses longer to
decompose now than it did 100 years ago because of the preservatives in
the food we eat?)

this one. Sometimes purity IS good, sometimes limits ARE bad. All you've
shown is that extremes are bad... most of the time. 

Never said they weren't. I'm just presenting another view-- that perhaps
purity isn't always good, or limits not always bad. Ideas of purity=good
and limits=bad crop up in fiction time and time again-- I offer an alternate
view. Of course, I also talk about extremism as well (among other things).

   Well, enough of my pretensions, you probably just want to see:


               Soul of Ice: Antithesis

<SNIP!>

   "Where will you go?" Happousai shouted just as Ranma was about
to disappear from sight. 

   Ranma turned around. For a brief moment, he was clear and
defined again. "To have some fun, of course!" was the shouted
reply. A shudder, a shimmer and Ranma was gone-- into the wilds,
into the world.

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

Encore! Encore!

More musings from the madman: 

   Hrm. The prefaces were actually written before the stories--
strange, but true. This one got away from me a bit, although the
ending conformed somewhat to my plan-- it was the stuff before it
that kind of went its own way and refused to be controlled by me.
Considering the story, it's probably symbolic or ironic or another
word that ends in -ic.
   You expected maybe something happy or endearing? Why? Just
because this should be opposite of SoI: Thesis? Whoever gave you
that idea? Sitting at either pole, wouldn't you think that they
would be somewhat similar in certain respects?

Yep, no surprises here. Which is really what bugs me about this fic and
Thesis as well. While they're well written, all you've shown is two of the
many possible ways things could go wrong. And there are always far more

Who said things are going wrong? In Thesis, Ranma is quite satisfied with
events. From his point of view, there is absolutely nothing wrong with
what he did, or with what he has become-- on the contrary, it is a good
thing, to him. In Antithesis, well, same again, really... if he was
capable of thinking in those terms anymore. Could it be that he has gone
outside of conventional morality and immorality? If no man is an island,
what does it make the Ranma's at the end of these two stories?

ways for things to go wrong than right. Rather than write about one of the
easy paths, challenge yourself to explore one of the much rarer paths. One
where Ranma finds the thin line to walk between chaos and control. 

Hehehehehe. That's going to be Synthesis-- Broken. I think the title might
give a little clue here. One of the things about this series is that it
talks about extremism.
	I've done the hunky-dory endings in the past, and I'll undoubtedly do
them again in the future. Why does everything have to be tied up and done to
our satisfaction? Didn't Mike Loader say life isn't like that in comments
about IMBS, and the Hibikis (I fully recognised that, all the while
stipulating
that I did not believe they received justice. Easy to reconcile for me,
because
as all readers of Larry Niven know, There Ain't No Justice! I just had to
point
it out that I didn't think they got their just desserts-- never said that they
should)?
	In a way, writing one where he finds a balance and succeeds in maintaining
it would be easier-- it's what we want, isn't it? Don't we really want it
to all
work out in the end? Besides, it's kinda interesting to see just how far I can
make him go, to boldly make Ranma go where no one has gone before, or perhaps 
where no one should go, at least.... ^_^

Anyway, Yay! Now I can get on with something else! Maybe even
something (heavens forfend) not Ranma! Back to my El Hazard roots,
even! Gosh, wouldn't that be swell?

While I don't want to be a bore about the subject, would it be possible to
see you find a satisfying ending to this series first? I would really hate
to see it end here.

Well, I didn't mean in a permanent fashion. I've another SoI scheduled for
personal attention, and there's another being done by another author, for
instance....
	And you never know... maybe I'll do a spamfic where the Ranma's of
Thesis and Antithesis hook up... just because I can.... :)

Besides that, if I follow a pattern I just noticed, I've got to do something
kinda more upbeat and/or humourous. Now that I've got this monkey off of my
back, I can concentrate on other things better, which is what I meant to
say.



And now a little extra for all you who've followed me along this far:

	People come up to me on the streets all the time and say, "Matt,"
(because that's my name, don't ya know), "Matt, where did you get the
Ranmas for Thesis and Antithesis?"
	I tell them, "Sod off, you, before I beat you with a large stick
mercilessly!" Okay, so that's not true.... People tend not to approach
me in the streets for idle chit-chat.... ^_^
	Anyway, where did I get them? Quite simple, really: myself.
In Thesis, Ranma was a being of pure reason and logic. No emotions, no
desires, no animal instinct left: the final triumph of the mind over the
flesh. His reactions? His speech? Myself. I do things for a reason or a
purpose. I act a certain way because of a conscious decision. I have
motives, ulterior at times, explicit at others. I don't do things 'just
because.' I argue and debate with logic and reason, and cannot, in a very
fundamental fashion, comprehend those who do not. I tend not to take
things personally. I do not understand in a debate how people can use
"I feel x," or "I feel y." Where does that come in? How do feelings
suddenly get involved, and how can I argue against that? How does that
become a way to rebuff or counter any reasoning I may have put forth?
And if it for some reason _does_, then why cannot I just use it
myself to counter that? It makes no sense to me. How does feeling
something have anything to do with proving a point? Why should I
care if you feel this way? Ranma's apathy and indifference also come
from me, if you haven't guessed by now.
    The Ranma from Antithesis is rather different now, isn't he?
He's wild, he's unpredictable, he's without constraints anymore.
He's chaotic and random. I got this Ranma from myself as well. I'm
flippant, irreverent, and yes, I've got some extremely rough speech
patterns in casual situations. I've also been mistaken for being
drunk, stoned or on acid (strangely enough, I become more 'normal' 
when I drink, on the infrequent occasions when I do, or the even more
infrequent occasions in which I have more than one). I've pulled some
wacky stuff before, and there's people who will attest to this.
So I am this Ranma, too, then.
 

Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis is:
InDefinitelyso on IRC
Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck
	maybeso@ican.net
prone to exaggeration, 150% of the time
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Z embla, Zenda, Xanadu:
A ll our dream worlds may come true.
F airy lands are fearsome too.
A s I fade far from view
R ead and bring me home to you.
	-dedication from Haroun and the Sea of Stories
	 by Salman Rushdie
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