[FFML] Continue dead or abandon fics by other authors

[Taper Wickel]

On 19 Aug 2015, at 22:58, Shadow Wolf <shadowolf3400 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ...

> The Bible is probably a longer example - the New Testament obviously builds
> on the Old Testament, and even within the New Testament, Mark appears to be
> based on ("fanfic of") some older Greek sources, Matthew and Luke are based
> on Mark and the Q document, and John is primarily based on Luke. Dante's
> Inferno is clearly Biblical fanfiction, Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise
> Regained build on that, and some more modern Christian authors build
> further (e.g. LeHaye and Jenkins' "Left Behind" series, base primarily on
> Darby's interpretation of Revelation, but with definite traces of Milton).
> And on ff.net, you will find Left Behind fanfiction...

Even in the Old Testament, as far back as Genesis there’s some clear signs
of fan-ficcery going on, the same stories being told and re-told.  Just as
one example, at one point in the wanderings of the patriarch Abraham, he and
his wife Sarah are guests of the current Pharaoh. Abraham, afraid that
someone will get the hots for Sarah and kill him in order to take her, claims
that Sarah is his sister. Pharaoh himself is indeed smitten with Sarah and
snags her, but God sends a plague and Abraham admits Sarah is his wife.
Pharaoh gives her back, gives Abraham some lovely parting gifts, and kicks
him out of the kingdom. 

A couple chapters later in Genesis (scholars say these two segments are
from different source documents), Abraham is in the realm of King Abimelech,
and the whole thing happens again.  God gives Abimelech a dream, informing him
that Sarah is Abraham’s; Abimelech cusses Abraham out, loads him up with
presents, and sends them both off.

Still later, when Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac has grown up and gotten 
married to his wife Rebekah, Genesis has them wander around a bit, and they go
right straight back to King Abimelech. Introducing themselves, of course, as 
brother and sister, they obtain hospitality, but there isn’t time for anybody 
to kidnap Rebekah before one of the guards reports seeing the two of them canoodling.
Abimelech kicks them out, along with the by-now customary parting gifts. It is not
recorded whether Abimelech notices the similarities of the two events (which
happened to him!), nor whether he figures out that this is a multigenerational
scam.

So, if we consider the visit to Pharaoh as the “original” story, the first visit
to King Abimelech is clearly an alt-universe fic, setting the same characters in
a a similar story in new settings.  And then the Isaac/Rebekah story is a
next-generation fanfic of that.  And all that is just three (nonconsecutive) 
chapters! 

We also must reach the conclusion that Sarah was one smoking’ hot octogenarian. 

Taper.

(Though I’m referring to these bible stories rather flippantly, I do not mean to 
offend or to to attack anyone’s faith.)

--
Taper Wickel.