On Sat, 15 May 1999, Presley H. Cannady wrote:

Nevertheless, I should take this time to restate the key questions
debated over in this argument.

1) Is it necessary for a fanfic author to adhere to source 
characterization?

2) Does out-of-characterization issues affect the quality of a fanfic?

Quality, in the reader's mind, is based on enjoyment, whether that
enjoyment is gained through the words themselves, or by the familiarity of
the characters.  If the reader does not gain enjoyment, the fic is not of
high quality to that reader.

3) Do a majority of readers use series consistency as a litmus test
when judging the quality of a fanfic?

To the first two question, I have to say that both deal with entirely
subjective matters, dependent on the views of the audience and the 
author.  There is some disagreement on the answer to the last question
(well, actually it's more a matter of "I'm right" and the other side
ignoring the statistical facts on this issue).  I have shown quite
clearly that series consistency has either a very small place in the
sense of a general audience or none at all.  I've pointed out that

The FFML's general audience *are* anime fans.  This is a fanfiction list,
not a "fiction in general" list.

a general audience does not include the fandom, and therefore the
general audience may be for the most part ignorant about source 
characterization and other consistency issues.  

That is not relevent to a dicussion in and of the FFML audience.  Drop the
argument or go home.  Or both.

The other side has...
well, thrown analogies that are far more humorous than they are
relevant.

No less relevent than talking about a general audience when the general
audience on an anime fanfiction mailing list is many times more likely to
know what Ranma is supposed to be (especially given the high Ranma
traffic on the list).

-The Reverend Prez

--Matt


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