On Thu, 18 Feb 1999, Gary Kleppe wrote:

Since I'm mentioned by name here, I suppose I should respond.... :-)

Matt Johnston <matt2518@gladstone.uoregon.edu> wrote:

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

That's contemptuous? Seems to me like a perfectly natural way of
addressing someone you don't know all that well.

Are you threatening me?!  Who Do You Think You Are?  DAMMIT!  Where's my
self-respect!! ^_^

Okay.... (huff huff)  I apologize (publically, no less0 for the use of the
word contemptuous.

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?

Well, for one thing, not being a NXE fan in the least, I *wouldn't* have
written the same essay.... Moreover, I prefer to comment on specific
fics, rather than make general points....

You know what I meant, Gary.  My point was that if somebody well-known had
written it, perhaps he (ELL) would have seen the essay in a different
light.

Shampoo 1/2 as an example of how to do a fic right. This would be
inconsistent bordering on weird, and I should hope Lurker would call me
on it.

There are exceptions that make the rule.  Michael (sounds so much nicer
than Mr. McAvoy) seemed to be plugging a fic he liked.  I'd like to think
that Michael knows what he did.  Or maybe he wrote that last bit on a
different day.  ^_^

Or, maybe I'm jsut wrong, like I mentioned I might have been.  Nobody
seems to notice qualifying statements anymore...

I don't mean to pick on Shamps 1/2 -- it's a very good series; but it
would be better if it didn't exemplify the problem I mentioned.

So I guess what I'm saying is that *I* understood Lurker's point, even
if no one else did....

I fully understood Lurker's point.  I just think it came off less a
plesent, polite note, and more a pseudo-witty jab at credibility.  (Which,
I suppose, it would have been no matter how much he made it sound nice).
It was just that he set it up as a "Let's laugh at this" rather than
something more... subtle.

Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics

--Matt

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"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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