Hopefully Megane will answer this, but I just wanna butt in on a couple
of points. Warning, boring soapbox speeches ahead. :)
"Asayogure ... �HTP�" <Asayogure@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
Tom: Yeah. And part of the central concept of the series is that
things
AREN'T black vs. white the way this author is portraying. Nobody in
the
manga is a saint, and nobody is without some sort of redeeming virtue
at
least once in a while.
Rape does not have to be thought about. It cannot be justified and it
is never okay. Now if the female (or male) participant is willing (as
so many people have tried to point out to me) then it is not really
rape is it? Then it is role playing and that is your own business.
But save your breath if you intend to convince me that rape is not
a black and white issue, for me it is. As far as I am concerned there
would be no second chances and I really wouldn't care about reasons
or "whatifs." This is exactly the way I would react (in part) to this
situation if I was Ranma, which is exactly how and why I was writing
this in the first place.
The issue isn't (or at least wasn't for me, when I read this fic)
whether or not the act of rape is wrong; I think pretty much all of us
would agree that it's a despicible act. But it being a despicable act
doesn't mean that the people who commit it aren't human beings.
Everything in this story -- from the way Ranma judges the gang members
on their appearance and is proven correct, to the narrator referring to
them as animal/men, and so on -- pounds home the message that we're not
supposed to try to understand these people. They're not human, only
monsters. They're not us.
This is unfortunate, IMO. Some of the most powerful stories are ones
where the readers can see parts of themselves in not only the heroes,
but the villains. It doesn't mean that we agree with what the baddies
do, but that we can kinda sorta understand the way they think and what
drove them to what they do. They are, if not us, what we could be if we
don't keep a careful eye on ourselves, and that for me is one of the
most frightening things to read in a story.
Think about this in Ranma 1/2 -- for example, Ryoga. From the beginning,
he makes trouble for Ranma. Yet most of us can sympathize with him and,
while we may or may not approve of his playing P-chan, we can understand
what drove him to it. Think how much, much less interesting he would've
been throughout the manga if his relationship with Ranma and the Tendos
were nothing but hostile.
Tom: <a black aura forms around his bubblehead, it's edges rippling
with a crimson, blood-like substance that flickers wildly about like
flames from a fire.> AND THE WAY THE AUTHOR KEPT FEELING
THE NEED TO EXPLAIN *EVERY* SINGLE LITTLE DEVELOPMENT,
FROM THE POSSIBLE IMPACT OF A MISSED PUNCH TO HOW WE
SHOULD FEEL ABOUT THE BLACK LEATHER GANG!!! GOD, IT
JUST MAKES ME *SO* MAD!!! I'M FILLED WITH ANGER!!! I'M
ENRAGED!!! I'M FURIOUS!!! I'M....I'M GOING TO....TO....TO....
It is called descriptive detail. Try picking up almost any Sci-fi
novel in any book store in America and reading the first chapter,
I expect you will find a LOT of descriptive detail. If you don't like
that, then try reading script format pal.
Descriptive detail is good, but it shouldn't mean stating the obvious.
If I were to have a line in a story:
"DAMN IT, RANMA, I'M GONNA RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!" Ryoga said angrily.
The 'angrily' is a completely wasted word; anyone reading the line of
dialog is going to pick up on the fact that Ryoga isn't a happy camper
in this scene. There are other things you could include, like a
description of the volume of his voice, the reddening of his face, etc.
But just saying that he was angry would be belaboring the obvious, and I
think that's the sort of thing Megane was referring to.
Have a nice day all you FFML people out there.
Likewise,
Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics.html