ok i've seen everything now

[nrenka]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Kathryn" <kcawte at n...> wrote:

> K
>
> The problem is that good writers are often vastly outnumbered by 
> teenagers (at least I assume they're teenagers I'd hate to think 
> there were adults that not only write like this but were under the 
> impression it was wonderful and want other people to read it)

Boy, do I hate to be the one to disillusion you, but you can't blame 
all the ills of the fic world on the teenagers--I've seen just as 
much dreck out of adults.

> who have no grasp of plot or continuity, can't spell - and don't 
> possess a spell checker - and who think grammar is someone you go 
> and visit on her birthday and who have a desperate desire to either 
> twist the characters until they're unrecognizable or introduce an 
> American exchange student who has violet eyes, long blond hair, a 
> stunning figure, makes Hermione look dumb in comparison and who can 
> single handedly vanquish Voldemort, thus saving the love
> interest of choice, while gaining high grades in all her NEWTS, and 
> winning the house and quidditch cups for her house. (You probably 
> think I'm kidding don't you? Go and bury yourself in ff.n for a 
> while, especially look for romances about Harry, and we'll discuss 
> it again later, provided your brain hasn't dribbled out your ears 
> by then)

Mary Sue, we call her.  I actually find Mary Sues far less offensive, 
ultimately, than most of what passes as 'fic written by adults' in 
the fandom.  There's something about the ultimate harmlessness of the 
teenage wish fulfillment as compared to the sheer vileness and kinky 
oneupmanship typical of the field.

I've read a lot of fic.  A *lot*.  What can I say, I was stuck at 
work and cataloging OCLC numbers is enough to drive you insane.  That 
said, I think I've read maybe one or two in all Severus/Hermione fics 
that kept them in anything resembling character, and pretty much 
nothing with Draco and Hermione.  That's not even venturing into the 
pit of Draco/Harry.

> Part of the fun of writing (and reading) fanfic is exploring 
> situations and relationships that would never happen in canon while 
> keeping the characters in character.

The skeptic in me is wary of how things that would never, could never 
happen in canon can still be kept 'in character': if Hermione would 
never do that in canon, how is it in-character for her to do it in 
fic?  My personal theory is that Snape is so popular in fic because 
we know so little for sure about him, and the author can then make 
him over into whatever she (and it is usually she) wants him to be.  
We have EvilBastard!Snape, Aristocratic!Snape (who usually lives in 
Snape Manor and speaks five languages), Saintly!Snape, BDSM!Snape, 
NobleSpy!Snape (usually cared for tenderly by Hermione after a bout 
of the Cruciatus Curse under the hands of Voldemort), SexGod!Snape, 
etc., etc., ad nauseam...

Eh, no harm done, really.  It'll be fun to watch people scream when 
things happen, though.  There was a lot of that post-OotP.

-Nora gets back to troping for fun and profit