FF: Question: Mary Sue

[Michela Ecks]

No: HPFGUIDX 20552

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Margaret Dean <margdean at e...> wrote:
> Simon wrote:
> > 
> > --- In HPforGrownups at y..., dfrankis at d... wrote:
> > This term comes from fanfic. I believe it originally comes from 
Star Wars,
> > where the character in question was named Mary-Sue.
> 
> Oh no, not Star Wars.  Mary Sue was alive and well before Star
> Wars was drawn or thought of.  To the best of my knowledge the
> term (and the name) come originally from Star Trek fan fiction,
> though the phenomenon itself is probably even older.

It originally came from the Star Trek fandom... :o)   Paula Smith 
wrote a short story (I think it's no more than half a page long) 
where she summarized (mocked?) fan fiction that had a plot line where 
there is beautiful female who saves Kirk, Spock and Bones, does there 
job for them and had them all fall in love with her...  (You can read 
the original story in Boldy Writing, A Trekker's Zine and Fan 
History: 1967-1987.  I'm almost certain it's nearly impossible to get 
a hold of the original.)

The actual phenomen of Mary Sues (sans identification) has been 
around for over 150 years.  Pat Pflieger did an essay titled "Too 
Good to be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue" that can be found at 
http://www.merrycoz.org/papers/MARYSUE.HTM for any one really 
interested in the early incarnations.
  
> That seems to be true of fan fiction in general:  the majority of
> the writers of it are female.

Going really OT, Henry Jenkins I think hypothesized why this is true 
in "Textual Poachers."  It had to deal with how people recounted 
stories...

Michela Ecks - Spastic Hale Girl - :o)
http://writersu.s5.com/ micecks on aim