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diff --git a/src/mary-sue/document.en.rest.txt b/src/mary-sue/document.en.rest.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..99e68b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/mary-sue/document.en.rest.txt @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +============================== + On the concept of "Mary Sue" +============================== +:CreationDate: 2014-03-19 12:05:08 +:Id: mary-sue +:tags: - rant + +There's about as many different definitions of "Mary Sue" as there are +people who talk about it, so I'm going to write my own: + + A Mary Sue is a wish-fulfilment character, who is absurdly competent + at anything they do, and/or loved by everyone else, and/or + repeatedly saves the day, and/or steals the show from what should + theoretically be the protagonist, all with no good (or none at all) + in-story explanation. + +The name comes from a parody story published in 1973 in a Star Trek +fanzine (see page 25 of `this history of ST fanzines +<http://www.ftlpublications.com/bwebook.pdf>`_ for the full text), but +soon spread to many other fandoms. One of the most problematic aspects +of the term is that it's a woman's name, and many people can't seem to +conceive of a badly-written, over-powerful wish-fulfilment character +that also happens to be a man: consider that, after all, `Batman has +most of the traits of a Mary Sue +<http://adventuresofcomicbookgirl.tumblr.com/post/13913540194/mary-sue-what-are-you-or-why-the-concept-of-sue-is>`_, +but very few people seem to notice. + +For a very in-depth, but not exactly balanced, analysis of the idea, +`TVTropes is always a good starting point +<http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue>`_, and `the +Wikipedia article has useful references +<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue>`_. |