Why why *WHY*???

From: Kris Kelley <gt6005a_at_prism.gatech.edu>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 15:10:33 -0500 (EST)

Sigh... that's it. I've had enough.

We had a good thing going on here, but in my eyes, we blew it. Several
times over.

When I first got into Sonic stuff, just over a year ago, we had a great
cartoon show, a decent comic book, some great fan-fic stories written by
a handful of authors, and a developing RP saga on FurToonia.

What do we have now? The show is gone, the RPing is in, what, it's third
attempt now, and still coming apart at the seams? And the fan-fic? *sigh*
The fan-fic has a reputation that, in case you don't realize, extends pretty
far out into the net.world. Several RL friends around me, who are not
into Sonic and don't know much about it, have had plenty of stories and
rumors to circulate. I asked one of them what all he'd heard. He knew
I had written some of these stories myself, so his answer was, "You don't want
to know, but it would be a good idea to quit now." So many people have
jumped on the bandwagon intent on throwing their own characters (if
not *themselves*) into the bunch, that there are all these stories out there
that serve as little more than a cry of "Hey, look at me, I'm here too now!"
or maybe a cry of, "I'm better than Sonic! I can save Mobius by myself!"
 
I had a talk with a friend of mine once about what makes good fan-fic.
It's the same thing that make the original material good: decent
storywriting and a decent plot that involves the characters we all know and
love, not all these add-ons. Maybe that's why many people here site
"Bloodlines" (Dan Drazen) and "The Temporal Syndrome" (Shawn Wolski) as their
favorite stories: they are some of the best examples of writing that I have
seen, and they revolve around Sonic, Robotnik, and the other central
characters. Any additional characters (such as Sandy) are there for the
story, not the other way around. But is this what most of the recent fan-fic
has been like? No. Even my first stories don't fit this mold. I was
caught up in it with the rest of us.

And now, it seems there are authors who want to explore what the
Sonic characters might be doing (or will be doing) in their bedrooms.
WHY?? Good grief, is it *that* titillating? That's not what these
characters were created for, and, whether it's legal or not, if I was the
person or one of the people that created Sonic, Sally, Tails, and the other
characters, I would be insulted by this to no end. It would really baffle
me that these people can't create their own characters and their own
universes to write these fantasies about, that they have to go and use my
characters, whom I had created for the purpose of telling G-rated stories,
to get their kicks.

Well, like I said, I've had enough, and if nothing else, you won't have to
hear me rant and rave about this any more.

Ratman, please unsubscribe me from this list.

Bookshire, please remove my stories from your web-site.

Goodbye.

--
*******Kris Kelley gt6005a_at_prism.gatech.edu toledo_at_cc.gatech.edu*******
* "And if that's what you have in mind... yeah, if that's what you're *
* all about... good luck moving up, 'cause I'm... MOVING OUT!" *
* ---Billy Joel *
**************************************************************************
    

Received on Tue Jan 30 1996 - 16:03:59 PST