On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, The Eternal Lost Lurker wrote:

       "A Fan Fiction Rant From A Reader's Point Of View"
                               or
       "A Small List Of Things Best Left Out Of Your Story"

                       By Michael McAvoy

The first thing I'd like to say, before getting into this, is that Mr.
McAvoy does make a lot of valid points. Despite the rather pretentious tone
of this essay (probably the way I read it, not the way it was written, I
tend to frown on 'expert' dissertations given by complete unknowns), there
are many things herein which I agree with, and which tend to bother me
about various stories which pop up. There's a few things I disagree with,
but it's more a matter of personal opinion, so I won't bother the list with
that.

After a little searching, I found that Michael (or Mr. McAvoy, as you
contemptuously refer to him) isn't really a complete unknown.  Here's his
fanfic page:
http://www.acm.vt.edu/~mmcavoy/fanfic/fanfic.html
He wrote No Need For Sasami, which seems to have been going on for a while
now.

Now, my big question is: if someone like Gary Kleppe had written the same
essay, would you have seen it in a different light?  Maybe even agreed
with more parts?

I think frowning on complete unknowns is why the FFML is as much a "good
ole' boys" circle as it is.

But, as someone more famous than me once said, "That's just my opinion.  I
could be wrong."

--Matt

PS:  How can one have a descrepency in opinions?  It's not like opinions
are logical -- if they were, they'd be called facts.

------------------------------
"we will invent new lullabies, new songs, new acts of love,
 we will cry over things we used to laugh and
 our new wisdom will bring tears to eyes of gentile
 creatures from other planets who were afraid of us till then and
 in the end a summer with wild winds and
 new friends will be."
          --Author Unknown
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