1. On 24 Feb 2000 someone called 'Ariel' wrote me to ask:
Are there other places that
you
know of which have SMJ fanfics? I've got to say that I would have
expected 1000 times more on the series, but I haven't been able to
come
up with any yet besides your page. Before I go off and write my own
(it
would have to be on the "feud" between the three marionettes over
Otaru)
I was wondering what was already out there. Can you be of any help?
When I replied, however, the email got bounced back with a 'no such
server' tag. I'm assuming Ariel picked up my email address on the FFML
daily list, so to (hopefully) respond to her here: sorry, Ariel. As far
as Saber Marionette J fanfics go, The SMJ Fanfiction Page at
www.davidpascal.com/smj is all there is, alas. There might be one or two
stories not on it that are floating around out there but they must be
*really* well hidden, because my use of search engines and dejanews
haven't found 'em. A shame too -- SMJ fans abound, and I know the page
is getting a good readership and requests for more. So if you do a feud
story about Otaru and his mari's, I'm virtually certain it won't have
been done before, and I'm absolutely certain people out there will want
to read it. (Me too.) Please, give it a shot.
(Incidentally, this plaintive request holds for all you authorial Top
Guns out there too. I know challenges are not encouraged, but come on:
any anime series that's got four entire series licensed has clearly got
fans galore, and the dramatic possibilities inherent in SMJ's world are
extraordinary. What, does the FFML really need your 2,000,004th Ranma
fic by midnight tonight? Take a break. Try something new. Do an SMJ
fic -- if you dare. Usagi and Rei will still be waiting.)
2. Regarding my choice of metaphor in the story Everything Was Beautiful
(ie 'The breeze was as soft as a mother's kiss'), a Mr. Ken Arromdee
<arromdee@rahul.net> observed:
I would be very surprised if Otaru had any idea what a mother's kiss was
like,
considering that there are no mothers on the planet.
On the contrary. That's one of the (many) interesting things about SMJ.
It recapituates history. The societies on screen are these curious
otherwordly xeroxes of Meiji Japan and Prussia. Clearly, it's
inhabitants know what mothers were, even if there are none. They would
probably speculate about it for precisely that reason. You know, what I
find most striking about anime generally is it's faultless sense of
character. Bush and Gore may be cartoons, but Ikari Shinji or Koishikawa
Miki seem more real I do half the time. Anime writers have a grasp of
psychology that is positively Dostoyevskian. And with SMJ, you've got
the added aperitif that all these very real personalities are stuck on a
world that is incredibly socially crippled. I mean, really -- try to
feel yourself into it: what sort of world would it be, how would people
react, in a society where women simply did not exist? Where computerized
mannequins were their replacements? Where there were no fathers,
mothers, families, but where a sort of cultural nationalism insisted that
everyone act as though they were in the nineteenth century? How would
real people cope?It's the sort of topic that must set anthropologists and
feminist sociology classes drooling.
But-I-digress -- if a clone (or a marionette, for that matter) were lying
on a roof thinking, I think a mother's kiss would be exactly the sort of
thing they'd be wondering about; in fact, I expect they'd romanticize it
revoltingly.
(And speaking of revolting -- the generally icky nature of the metaphor
itself, I grant. But, I get all this email telling me my stuff is long,
intricate, and dark. So, I figured, hey, give the public something
short, simple, and sweet. -- It'll be all the easier to pull the rug out
from under them next time, ne? *Sinister Cackle*.)
David Pascal
________________________________________
"The best way to criticize a story is to write a better one."
-- DP