Let me first say that I find your post very interesting. I never really give much thoughts to Mary Sues before, let alone ever try to apply any litmus test (which I still don't know where to find one).
I'm not sure if the fans are just not interested, that we don't have as much a problem, or just, as before, the idea/popularity of the litmus test has faded.
If I have to guess, I think it's probably the combination of the first two. Or more accurately, the toku fandom doesn't seem all that large to me compared to other fandoms, so relatively speaking, there are simply less people to do things and/or potentially cause problem. And also maybe there is an unwritten rule somewhere that, since toku seems so much a very specific niche, people are more likely to go with the flow than to upset the status quo with some sort of regulation.
I'd love to have some kind of guide for people to avoid.
I think that kind of guide would depend much on a reader's expectation of what is or is not Mary Sue. Personally, I'm not quite sure if the terms OC and Mary Sue can be used interchangeably. Not all OCs are sues and not all sues are OCs in my book (I've seen a few canon sues, after all). Still, even working on the assumption that all sues are OCs, there is still a question of taste. One reader's tolerance of how "special" the sues are might be higher than that of another reader. Perhaps fic blurbs would be helpful, but still...they could sometimes be (unintentionally) misleading.
I've never tried this, and don't know of its practical usefulness, but maybe run a word search on the sue's name? If it comes up substantially more times than all instances of the names of the main cast combined, I might consider giving the story (that I'm otherwise not very certain of) a skip. Not an accurate test, of course (what if the author just likes to use pronouns?), but better than nothing, I suppose.
(Of course, telling people what canon not to abuse would be good too.)
Yes, a detailed write-up of a series would be ideal. But there's again a question of taste (and expectation). I'm not sure if everyone who has seen a specific series can really agree on what is or is not canon.
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Date: 2008-07-24 05:47 pm (UTC)I'm not sure if the fans are just not interested, that we don't have as much a problem, or just, as before, the idea/popularity of the litmus test has faded.
If I have to guess, I think it's probably the combination of the first two. Or more accurately, the toku fandom doesn't seem all that large to me compared to other fandoms, so relatively speaking, there are simply less people to do things and/or potentially cause problem. And also maybe there is an unwritten rule somewhere that, since toku seems so much a very specific niche, people are more likely to go with the flow than to upset the status quo with some sort of regulation.
I'd love to have some kind of guide for people to avoid.
I think that kind of guide would depend much on a reader's expectation of what is or is not Mary Sue. Personally, I'm not quite sure if the terms OC and Mary Sue can be used interchangeably. Not all OCs are sues and not all sues are OCs in my book (I've seen a few canon sues, after all). Still, even working on the assumption that all sues are OCs, there is still a question of taste. One reader's tolerance of how "special" the sues are might be higher than that of another reader. Perhaps fic blurbs would be helpful, but still...they could sometimes be (unintentionally) misleading.
I've never tried this, and don't know of its practical usefulness, but maybe run a word search on the sue's name? If it comes up substantially more times than all instances of the names of the main cast combined, I might consider giving the story (that I'm otherwise not very certain of) a skip. Not an accurate test, of course (what if the author just likes to use pronouns?), but better than nothing, I suppose.
(Of course, telling people what canon not to abuse would be good too.)
Yes, a detailed write-up of a series would be ideal. But there's again a question of taste (and expectation). I'm not sure if everyone who has seen a specific series can really agree on what is or is not canon.