"Defending Militarists"

The first time I saw the term "militarist," I was still writing
original short stories and reading Star Trek fanfiction.
Military realists, army auditors, whatever you want to call
them (well, I should say us, since I probably fall in this
category) have, in my opinion, gotten a raw deal from some of
our fellow writers who feel put off by the attention to military
detail.

The commentary that struck my last nerve was Richard
Pugh's rather lengthy diatribe about how military realists were
"ruining"  the Star Trek fanfiction selection.  

        (1) http://patriot.net/~rjpugh/writer/militarist.html

His narrow classification of militarists stemmed from his 
perception that those seeking to rationalize the haphazard, 
barely thought out military backdrops presented in that series 
invariably degraded the quality of character, thematic and 
plot development. In short, he viewed working within the 
constraints of an accurate military perspective as a natural 
pitfall for writers. The less-than-stellar rationalization 
that followed centered around a single personal experience as 
evidence and a whole lot of circular, emotional logic.  In 
closing, Pugh categorizes the audiences for militarist and 
slash fics as falling short of his standards for a proper 
readership.

>From personal experience, 'military fanfiction' that
adheres to settings or general themes prevelant in anime
generally draws for source material already heavily
influenced by military themes.  Robotech fanfiction
apparantly delves into this perspective with greater
frequency than most other fanfictions.  The military
perspective--albeit significantly simplified--is an 
essential part of source material.  That dependency
on military themes has produced some of the finest
military fanfiction that I have had the privilege of
reading.

Possibly the most popular of these Robotech fanfiction sagas is 
Jason W. Smith's _Attention On Deck._  

(2) http://www.rdfn.org/

Continuing in the purist tradition of Objective: Reflex Point 
and the Protoculture Wars, sister works by Peter Walker and 
Aubry Thonon, Mr. Smith takes his Marine Corps experience 
and pens a first-person account of the First Robotech War.

The military perspective is thick throughout the story
so far.  The reader is introduced to a slew of technical
terms, aviation jargon, and military rituals that
are both enriching in themselves and important towards
bringing Jeff Framton, the main character, from his
earliest stage of development--a young teenager with
dreams of flying--to the believable, seasoned veteran
we see by Chapter 48.

The first prologue and first chapter clearly set this
story apart from your typical fanfic.  It does not
rely on the drive of the source material, but stands
by itself.  We're introduced to a young Jeff Framton
who dreams of becoming a pilot.  All to often, fanfics
written by "non-militarist" writers make somewhat
justified use of the Lance Logan fighter 
pilots--naturally talented and special in that
respect.  Not Jeff Framton.  He's a licensed civilian
pilot, but Smitty takes care to bring his audience
along with his main character through the rigors of
flight school.  No boy wonders here folks, but a
believable character--sharing our faults and dreams.

Mr. Smith does not simply dwell on his character's
combat flying career, but also draws the readers
attention to Framton's love life.  Throughout
the romance of Rebakah Casey and Jeff Framton,
Mr. Smith intertwines the dangers and complexities
of Framton's profession into the couple's personal
relationship.  I have yet to see this element of
storytelling reproduced in another work of 
fanfiction.  Why?  Because Smitty draws on real
military experience and a vast bank of military
knowledge to flesh out his characters.  He knows
there's more to militarist writing than throwing
in a few jargonish terms.  

The anti-militarist lacks either the experience, the 
knowledge, or both; he attempts to mitigate the ignorance 
he arrogantly flaunts with rambling, nonsensical attacks
on writers who take the time and effort to understand
the statics and dynamics of armed service.  With that,
I open the thread to the rest of the FFML.  Good luck.

-The Reverend Prez

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+-----------------+-<The Badass Reverend of Funk Prez>---+
|    Presley H.   | Political Science / Computer Science |
|    Cannady II   | and Electrical Engineering Undergrad |
|<revprez@mit.edu>| at the Mass. Institute of Technology |
+-----------------+-<Anime Manga Development Group>------+
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|_|"The art of war is of vital importance to the state"|_|