On 3/17/98 7:05 PM, Richard Lawson & Joseph Palmer at sterman@sprynet.com 
wrote:

Joseph Palmer

 Those of you who've read my works you'll know that I choose my words
carefully, and in this case "guest" perfectly describes what I mean. It
allows for latitude, yet carries the cultural baggage of visits to your
great aunt's doily-filled house. The implied question is, would the host
invite that guest back?  The answer depends both upon the behavior of
the guest, and on the expectations of the host.  I've read fanfictions
that are pure Emily Post, and others that are the moral equivalent of
burning the record collection and chucking cherry bombs down the
plumbing.  I know who I'd invite back.

The simple answer is, Joseph, that I probably wouldn't invite *either 
one* back. When I invite a guest over, it's because it's someone I think 
I'd enjoy spending time with. I don't enjoy spending time with someone 
with so little ego/personality that all they can do is sit on the couch 
going 'Yes', 'No', 'Please', and 'May I?'. Nor do I enjoy spending time 
with someone so egotistical that they think they can trash someone's 
apartment and not care about it, because they're 'special'. I enjoy 
spending time with people who have their own personality and joie de 
vivre, without trying to beat others senseless with it. I'll tolerate a 
guest's loud obnoxiousness and belching if they're an interesting 
conversationalist, and fun to be with in other ways. I'll respect a 
guest's shy, quiet nature if they're the kind of person who makes a room 
feel better just by being there. But I find most of my friends somewhere 
in the middle. 

It's not a target, where you're trying to 'stay in the black'; it's a 
spectrum, where extremes on *both* ends are to be avoided, and the Happy 
Hunting Ground is somewhere in between. Heck, just look at some of the 
successful 'formal parties' in literature (or in video; bless you and 
keep you, Madame Engadine!) -- they not only tolerate a certain diversity 
and eccentricity, they thrive on it! Neither the bland nor the boor... 
just the *interesting*.

So it is with fanfics. A slavish imitation of the canon material is 
usually humdrum at best, plageristic at worst. A radical violation of 
continuity without reason can be annoying at best, infuriating at worst. 
The natural home of the fanfic writer is somewhere in between -- in the 
interesting.



Travis Butler
(The Professor, formerly of Myth and Magick!, Lawrence, KS;
 tbutler@tfs.net, now from the Wandering Powerbook;
 <http://www.tfs.net/personal/tbutler/>;
 Mac page <http://www.tfs.net/business/tbutler/>)

...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.