Now, I don't pretend to be the smartest fish around - hell, according to the 
author of this rant (and I refuse to grace this with the title of essay), as 
a writer of SI works, I'm a somewhat greater waste of space than golf 
courses.

Would someone please explain to poor little me one thing:

Was this supposed to be serious?

I mean, besides the faulty logic, questionable reasoning, and downright 
offensive tone, the author turns around and makes a conclusion that confuses 
the hell out of me:

"Successful SI fics are written by severely unbalanced people."

I've met several SI authors other than myself, and they seem pretty stable, 
normal people to me.  Last I checked I was a pretty normal guy.  But then, 
if what CG says is to be believed, my opinions on the matter are suspect.

I appreciate where CG is coming from, in some respects.  There's a lot of 
BAD SI fics out there.  News flash, there's a lot of BAD non-SI fics.  
There's a lot of bad movies.  There's a lot of bad music.  There's a lot of 
bad books.  There's a lot of bad _anything_.

If you don't like the odds when you read a particular genre (sub-genre, 
whatever) avoid them.  I personally avoid SIs unless they happen to be by an 
author who has proven his/her/its skill.  Thankfully, there's quite a bit of 
good stuff to read, if you know where to look.

What I _will_ give you, CG, is that some of your criticisms - when you 
remove them from the blatant personal attacks they seem to be couched in - 
are very valid, when applied to all writing.

*sigh*

If people are interested, some SI works I encourage them to read: (I'm not 
going to give links, I'm too lazy to go dig them up.)

Made of Stone - Sean Gaffney
Bubblegum Zone - Bert van Vilet
Undocumented Features/Anything Else on their page - The Eyrie Crew
Oh My God?! - Brett Handy/Darkwind
Serendipity - Philip Moyer
Twisted Path - umm, Twister :)
Guard the Future - Andrew Huang
Pencils (if it still exists, I dunno) - Edited by Eternal Lost Lurker, many 
authors
El Hazard: The World of Too Many Authors - Matt Lewis (update your page, 
damnit)

I'd list myself there, but I'm not _quite_ enough of an egomaniac to list my 
unworthy works to that list.  There's probably one or five works I've missed 
that should be there.

Well, enough of this. One of the more frustrating things of being a SI 
author is the fact that when people attack the genre I feel personally 
attacked as well.

--
Christopher Angel
http://www.yggdrasil.org

_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'