Since I'm mentioned by name here, I suppose I should respond.... :-)

Matt Johnston <matt2518@gladstone.uoregon.edu> wrote:

After a little searching, I found that Michael (or Mr. McAvoy, as you
contemptuously refer to him) isn't really a complete unknown.  Here's his

That's contemptuous? Seems to me like a perfectly natural way of
addressing someone you don't know all that well.

Now, my big question is: if someone like Gary Kleppe had written the same
essay, would you have seen it in a different light?  Maybe even agreed
with more parts?

Well, for one thing, not being a NXE fan in the least, I *wouldn't* have
written the same essay.... Moreover, I prefer to comment on specific
fics, rather than make general points....

But suppose I'd written an essay on authors who love a certain character
so much that they write that character as annoyingly angelic, showing
none of that character's faults or limitations. This is something that I
dislike seeing in fanfics. Now suppose in the same essay I listed
Shampoo 1/2 as an example of how to do a fic right. This would be
inconsistent bordering on weird, and I should hope Lurker would call me
on it.

I don't mean to pick on Shamps 1/2 -- it's a very good series; but it
would be better if it didn't exemplify the problem I mentioned.

So I guess what I'm saying is that *I* understood Lurker's point, even
if no one else did....


Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics