Mr. Scalzi has a go at reviewers. I think he has a point. Then again, I made a start on Cyteen today and the first thing I noticed about it was that both it and Downbelow Station feature dominant older women who sexually exploit pretty young men. That seemed something of a coincidence.
4 thoughts on “A Boy Named Mary Sue”
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Well – older men can’t keep it up…even with Viagra and cock rings – soft just isn’t that much fun, even with clothespins and wax…
I read that post of Scalzi’s and I couldn’t quite make out what he was on about. I’ve never heard anyone ID a character as a Mary Sue just because they’re Competent. I ID John Perry as a Mary Sue because he: lived in Scalzi’s house, talks with the same tone Scalzi uses when he writes the Whatever, saves the day every time with quick thinking and talking, is married to a woman who often sounds much like Scalzi describes his wife Krissy, and has a daughter that sounds like an older version of how Scalzi describes Athena. Oh–and he’s a writer and an unexpected tactical genius.
Basically, if it were just the tactical genius + saves the day with quick talking/thinking Competent Man aspect I’d be less inclined to cry Mary Sue… it’s all the other stuff that makes one wonder.
BTW, in contrast I never thought that Robin from Charlie Stross’ “Glasshouse” was a Mary Sue, no matter how ridiculously Competent he was as both a man and a woman.
I doubt that Scalzi was mad at you, Karen, and even if he was he was very circumspect about it, which is more than I can say for some other writers who get mad at reviewers.
I think the point is that calling “Mary Sue” on a writer is something that is a soft option for a reviewer who wants to have a go at the writer but doesn’t have anything interesting to say about the book.
It occurred to me afterward that one of the big problems of this is the assumption that the writer has created the Mary Sue character for his/her own enjoyment. My guess is that most of them do it because they know that many readers love to have an ulta-competent, ultra-successful character with whom they can identify. That’s why books with such characters sell so well.
And you know, I suspect that one of the reasons that reviewers are so keen to yell “Mary Sue” is to say, “I am not the sort of reader who reads only to identify with that sort of character.”