At 05:14 PM 5/14/99 -0500, you wrote:

If it is not possible for people to make this sort of judgement, then the
comments and commentary aspect of this list is useless.  If the opinion of
everyone on this list on such issues as characterization is innately
'shallow' and arbitrary, then we are simply 1000+ people whistling in the
dark at each other and there is no point in conducting any discussion of
anything.  

Once again, to the point of exhaustion, this is a fundamentally flawed
statement.  To say that the only thing worth commenting on about a fanfic
is how well it stays consistent with the source material is pure bull.
I'll tell you this much, of 1300 people on this list, I see fifty people
providing dangerously similar commentary.  If that's all the commentary
that I can get from this list, then maybe I'm in the wrong place.  
Fortunately, that's not the case.

If I were to post an entirely original work here, then tell me how
would you critique it.  From your perspective, an original work has
nothing worth criticizing, as it is in itself source material.

There is a body of canonical material.  (Or several bodies, if one 
takes the manga and anime as seperate sources)  Opinions as to the
conclusions to be drawn from it will vary.  This doesn't mean that one
cannot discuss whether or not a character is in character or not.  It does
mean that we lack something as objective as describing light by its
wavelength.  It means that ultimately we can't resolve the argument in a
way that will 100% convince everyone without room for doubt.  But it does
give us something common to at least argue from.  

For one, character debates are banned topics on this list, so I fail
to see how a lot of criticism regarding an out-of-character gripe
doesn't fall into that category.  Ultimately, it simply doesn't
follow that the quality of a piece of work is proportional to the
degree of justifiable consistency.

Any variation is acceptable, because you cannot quantifiably prove that
audiences will NOT accept Dagwood renamed as Ranma.  What about parody,

And you can't quantifiably prove they would.  Would you really accept a
picture of Dagwood when you paid for one of Ranma?  If you went to buy a
potato, would you accept an orange as a potato?  They're both vegetables,
after all.  Human cognitive acceptance only stretches so far when dealing
with sane people.  There comes a point, however hard it is to define,
where one crosses the boundary from one representation to another.

The burden of proof isn't mine.  However, I will point out that the
entertainment industry, particularly the book industry, does not
consider consistency a major consideration when trying to determine
what will and what will not sell.  Instead, they use market research
techniques that try and key in on the interests of a general audience.
This fact weighs more heavily in my mind than a million analogies that
really have no connection with the subject at hand.  I'd also point
out that the 380 messages between May 3 and today were generated by
less than 50 people.  That's on a list of 1300.  From the criticism
I receive for my stories, which deviate without justification from
the source material on numerous occasions (and on several fundamental
issues), I have yet to receive an actual C&C that cites this as a
problem.  Also, the vast majority of C&C I have received comes from
those outside of the specific fandom who just liked (or disliked)
the whole or part of the work.

the obvious example of where such incredible variations have been
successfully received by their audiences?  No, what you're talking about

Not all fanfics are parody, and parody is typically labelled as such.  

No, but it is an example of a fanfic.  I fail to see the distinction that
you're trying to make here.

is an outmoded, baseless and entirely subjective code of honor that
has absolutely no legal, historical or moral basis beyond one's own
personal feelings.

No, it's rooted in the fact that human beings can tell the difference
between different things, and that they typically expect that if something
is labelled X, it will BE X.  They may argue about what X is, so that
multiple companies can all produce cornflakes, and yet be producing
different products, but if you try to sell bat guano as cornflakes, you
will get in trouble.

Unless someone doesn't know the difference.  This extreme doesn't wash.
Are you seriously suggesting that a majority of the people out there
know what Ranma 1/2 is?

Seriously, it also doesn't follow that people will CARE about these
differences.  The fact folks can be indifferent to even internal 
inconsistency is established by the continuing popularity of 
situation comedies, long-running science fiction series, and--closer
to home--Robotech.

-The Reverend Prez

*  *  *

+-----------------+-<The Badass Reverend of Funk Prez>---+
|    Presley H.   | Political Science / Computer Science |
|    Cannady II   | and Electrical Engineering Undergrad |
|<revprez@mit.edu>| at the Mass. Institute of Technology |
+-----------------+-<Anime Manga Development Group>------+
+     Author of Liars and Dreamers, a Robotech fanfic    +
+-------<http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/1731/index.html>-+
| MIDN 4/c A-2-2 SQD, MIT-Harvard-Tufts NROTC Battalion  |
|_|"The art of war is of vital importance to the state"|_|