Author's notes:
This has been a long time coming, but I got sidetracked. Very, very
sidetracked.
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Gratuitous Self: Meta-Meta-What?
- 15 -
The more obscure my references were, it seemed, the happier I was.
At first I made simple, yet slightly esoteric references to some
mid-level anime; you know the type, the type you've heard of because
everyone's otaku friend seems to have watched it. Then I began making
allusions to anime known to probably only three or so people on the list
(inevitably, Scott Jamison would always be one of them). It made me feel
proud. Arrogant, you might say. Maybe even elitist. I dreamed of being
the Otaking then; there was no anime that I had no knowledge about, I
felt.
Then, around the time I wrote GS 10, something happened.
I became selective.
Suddenly, plain anime no longer interested me. I became what you
might call a Level One Otaku -- seen it, won't watch anything that isn't
innovative or particularly clever or amusing. If it wasn't on par with,
oh, Lain or Evangelion or Golden Boy, I wasn't particularly interested.
I lost my inclination to debate on sub vs. dub; as long as the dub
was well done and fitting, who cared? The Kacho Oji dub on AXN was
funny, even though a few characters slipped with their Australian
accents every now and then. It fit. The voices fit the characters, and
the script fit the original flavor. That was enough. An Utena dub, now
that was another matter entirely -- I knew very few US female dubbers
who were both talented enough and had the right voices to play the Utena
cast. And KareKano? I'll believe it when I see it.
Suddenly, people who insisted on subtitling began to sound petty
to me. If I enjoyed watching it, why did it really matter? Hell, the
Japanese did it with their South Park dub (their voices sound almost
exactly like the US voices, only in Japanese!), and they took liberties,
why couldn't we?
But I digress.
The obscure references I know now number in the hundreds -- ever
watch Goldfish Alert? Hare Toki Doki Buta? I thought not.
But why does it even matter? What does that prove? If anything,
I'm afraid it might make me seem petty and pompous. I'll still be
placing allusions in future parts of GS, but they won't be pointedly
know-it-all ones. They'll point out stuff you may have overlooked and
may want to look at again.
So, as I sat in my Japanese class, listening to my fat, pimply,
unwashed female classmate say, 'Ne, ne, kimi... Robotech is actually
three shows that Carl Macek forced together blah blah blah', I just had
to respond in the way Kubo did in Otaku no Video:
Yada ne, otaku wa...
(5 points for that one.)
- 16 -
The revenge fics are back. Ah, nostalgia time.
Even now I feel an aching to write and post the next part of GS in
response.
Revenge fics are simply self-deprecating self-insertion stories,
in my opinion. The character in your story suddenly pops out and gets
back at you for placing her (it's usually a 'her', though if it's ever a
'he' it's usually Ranma) in whatever situation you placed her (or Ranma)
in.
You still get interact with her, though, which is what you wanted
in the first place. Lucky, lucky you.
Oh, but no... you get hurt. You get beat up, usually (or get
outdone sexually, but that's out of line in my view). This brings me to
my witty, eloquent response.
Ahem.
SO?
There. At any rate, I have written revenge fics, myself (all in my
head, though -- I've never written one down on paper, let alone posted
it on the list), so I know what I'm talking about.
But as I've said before, what the hey. It makes you feel good,
then do it. If it's well written and well done, then excellent. After
all, the legendary Lemon Sherbet itself IS part revenge fic.
And we all know how that turned out.
Go for it!
- 17 -
On my hard disk, at this very moment, sits an Evangelion-themed
Gratuitous Self installment. It has been there for nearly two months
now, and has not been posted because I'm afraid to get flamed.
What's wrong with me?
When I wrote Gratuitous Self and posted in on the list for the
very first time, I was fearless! In fact, I invited the flames! Come on!
I can take you all!
Now I'm afraid that an oblique reference to a well-known fic (that
oddly proclaims itself NOT to be an SI) will earn me the enmity of a
portion of the list, and I don't want that?
What's wrong with me?
Perhaps it's because, unlike 'Turning Road', the fic within that
fic isn't quite as oblique when it comes to its allusion to its real
life counterpart.
So what?
What's wrong with me?
What is really that different now compared to back then? The list
is friendlier, that could be it; I don't want to stir up trouble in a
list that is more congenial that it was before -- that rabid,
unmoderated piranha tank that knew not even a shadow of The Tybalt.
It could be that the target of the satire is a more entrenched
entity -- more people like the fic and the author in question than the
previous target. But... But the SI character is so ridiculous! It's such
an easy target!
No, wait, I've got it. The single, most important difference
between then and now -- the source of all my courage, all my audacity:
I was drunk at the time.
I need to start drinking again...
to be continued...
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w.o.m
TimeRunner's Web Page:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7482.
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All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental.
- Kurt Vonnegut