Of This and Other Worlds

naomichana just wrote a really wonderful essay about the abuse of the term "Mary Sue", which as most of you know is a subject near and dear to my heart. So go read it.

And hee! to hedda62's related comment about the Giant Squid being her personal Mary Sue...

The review of the The Potions Master's Apprentice is back up at lawful_fic. My comments on the revised version are here.

With all this talk about Mary Sues, I've been struck by a new thought.

Some people have mentioned seeing MS characters in published fiction -- Anita Blake is frequently mentioned, and of course there are other plausible candidates like Amelia Peabody, Mary Russell, and Anne of Green Gables (come on -- she's a spunky orphan with a tragic past, an unusual hair colour, and she wins the heart of everybody she meets! How can she not be a Mary Sue?*).

However, I haven't heard anybody mention an even more serious and irritating problem -- Mary Sues in real life!

Think about it. Alexander the Great? So a Gary Stu. Elizabeth Taylor? I mean, she has violet eyes**! And let's not even get started on Gwyneth Paltrow...

But that's just a tiny sample. So step right up, folks! Nominate your favorite RL Mary Sues and Gary Stus. We might even start a new genre -- RPMS fic!

--
*This is, by the way, mostly facetious. I like Anne just fine.
**Yes, I do know they aren't really violet. Tell that to the press, though.

[really ugly graphic deleted out of mercy to my readers' delicate sensibilities, or my innate graphical snobbery, or something like that]

You're a die-hard warrior. Dark and bitter, your
mind is on one thing- revenge! Whether it be
the Borg who assimilated your Aunty Maude, or a
bunch of Orcs who stole your hamster and won't
give it back, you're out to get them. Still,
you do have a soft, pathetic side that rears
its ugly head every now and again- mostly when
there's a Rather Hot Canon Character about...

What type of Mary Sue are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

And now that I've written that subject line, I have the oddest urge to sing it to the tune of "Centerfold"... now there's a filk whose time has not come.

Anyway, thanks to lizbee for giving me the heads-up on this clever little quiz:

Which Potterverse OC Are You?

And to my great amusement, not only did I not get Maud as my result, looking back at the quiz I actually have no idea what answers I'd have to change in order to get her. So much for the people who accused Maud of being my Mary Sue...

...which reminds me of something I would just like to get off my chest. I don't mind there being an unfavorable marysues review of The Potions Master's Apprentice. It doesn't even upset me that mauralabingi, the writer of the review, thinks Maud is a Mary Sue -- that's her opinion, and she's got a right to voice it. And as I wrote in my blog when I first discovered that review, many of the comments made were actually quite clever and amusing.

What I do find irritating is that in order to make Maud sound more obviously Mary-Sueish, the review actually made a number of false claims. For instance, that the word "tousled" puts in a frequent appearance in reference to Maud's hair (which it doesn't -- in fact it doesn't appear at all); or that her eyes are described as "lambent" (which they never are). The reviewer also claims that Maud is "loved by all except homely Slytherin girls and Draco Malfoy", although Maud's isolation and friendlessness at Hogwarts is frequently emphasized in both this story and its sequel. The review goes on to say that "Maud answers more questions in class than Hermione" (when in fact she answers only one, and that only because Snape asks her directly) and "has natural abilities at magic to rival Harry's" (although she gets beaten in every single magical duel, and only her skill at Potions is considered exceptional).

All of which is to say, people, go ahead and rip on the stories if you want to, and find any legitimate flaws you like; in fact, I'd be glad to hear any criticisms you have to offer that might improve my writing in future. But don't make up things just so you can complain about them.

There, now I feel much better.