Comments on: Mary-Sue http://www.ghostwoods.com/2009/09/mary-sue-576/ Something beautiful and strange is hiding in the dark. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:35:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Ghostwoods http://www.ghostwoods.com/2009/09/mary-sue-576/comment-page-1/#comment-286 Ghostwoods Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:24:24 +0000 http://www.ghostwoods.com/?p=576#comment-286 The Dark is Rising has several major narrative flaws, I agree. The story is essentially passive; Will, in particular, feels like he's on train tracks. Partly this is due to the hugely mythic atmosphere that Cooper conjures -- something has to give to allow it, and that something is plot -- and partly it's due to the nature of the battle between the Light and the Dark being rooted in time. Unusually for an author dealing with chronological journeying, Cooper takes the stance that time itself is a tapestry, already woven. The characters seem on tracks because they are. To stay true to the concept and purpose, the characters have to be tied down. Almost no writer dares try it, and whether it succeeds here or not is down to taste, but it's a brave thing to try. But Will and Barney aren't Mary-Sue characters. Will, in particular, fucks up a lot, particularly in emotional interaction. He has to keep brain-wiping his family, he alienates Bran, he misunderstands Jane... He's highly comptent, and dragged around by the nose, but neither of those things necessarily make a Mary-Sue. Also he tends not to muscle in and solve problems that should rightly be the province of other characters. Barney is certainly cuter and more generally popular, but again, he doesn't really have Mary-Sue chops. Again, he's not at the heart of all the action, solving all the problems by out-experting the experts. That is probably the most telling sign that Mary-Sue is in the room. The Dark is Rising has several major narrative flaws, I agree. The story is essentially passive; Will, in particular, feels like he’s on train tracks. Partly this is due to the hugely mythic atmosphere that Cooper conjures — something has to give to allow it, and that something is plot — and partly it’s due to the nature of the battle between the Light and the Dark being rooted in time. Unusually for an author dealing with chronological journeying, Cooper takes the stance that time itself is a tapestry, already woven. The characters seem on tracks because they are. To stay true to the concept and purpose, the characters have to be tied down. Almost no writer dares try it, and whether it succeeds here or not is down to taste, but it’s a brave thing to try.

But Will and Barney aren’t Mary-Sue characters. Will, in particular, fucks up a lot, particularly in emotional interaction. He has to keep brain-wiping his family, he alienates Bran, he misunderstands Jane… He’s highly comptent, and dragged around by the nose, but neither of those things necessarily make a Mary-Sue. Also he tends not to muscle in and solve problems that should rightly be the province of other characters.

Barney is certainly cuter and more generally popular, but again, he doesn’t really have Mary-Sue chops. Again, he’s not at the heart of all the action, solving all the problems by out-experting the experts. That is probably the most telling sign that Mary-Sue is in the room.

]]> By: JBishop http://www.ghostwoods.com/2009/09/mary-sue-576/comment-page-1/#comment-280 JBishop Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:28:45 +0000 http://www.ghostwoods.com/?p=576#comment-280 As much as I enjoyed The Dark Is Rising (and recommend it and have bought for my nieces), the Mary-Sue-ish nature of both Will and Barney was something of a distraction. In the same category/genre of Mr. Crusher, there's also Noah Hathaway's Boxey from the first iteration of Battlestar Galactica. As much as I enjoyed The Dark Is Rising (and recommend it and have bought for my nieces), the Mary-Sue-ish nature of both Will and Barney was something of a distraction.

In the same category/genre of Mr. Crusher, there’s also Noah Hathaway’s Boxey from the first iteration of Battlestar Galactica.

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