Pimping Mary Sue
Just before the relatives arrived, I sat down with David Weber’s Honor Among Enemies, the 6th book in the Honor Harrington series. The prologue was kick-ass. With the kids asleep, I was looking forward to curling up under a blanket in my favorite chair for hours of vicarious danger and action.
Crisp dialog, top notch crafting of the prose with a sweet, dangerous situation calling for a daring–even impossible–rescue. Count me hooked.
It was difficult to put the book down and double-time it to the kitchen to put on the kettle for tea.
80 pages later, at the beginning of chapter 6, I was _still_ being told what a cool chick Honor Harrington was and we seemed no closer to actually seeing said deadly person in action.
I felt like I was being pandered to, that I was supposed to somehow feel special because Honor was. Sorry, that’s not why I read. I read for the brain kick that you get from the best books. I don’t look for a book to give me an ego boost.
I put the book away for a couple of days, even picked it up twice more, but couldn’t bring myself finish the rest of the chapter. I felt like I was being sold life insurance by a used car sales rep who distributes Amway in his spare time. (Your mileage might vary. Mr. Weber’s prose was clean, tight and eminently readable. Maybe the experience is different if you’ve been keeping company with Honor through the first five books.)
It wouldn’t bother me, except this is the third book I ran into that week that left me with approximately the same feeling. And I don’t like it. It’s bad story telling. Then I ran across the phenomena of Mary Sue. Long recognized in the fanfic field, Mary Sue might explain those characters who are too good to be true. [genreneep]
From MakingLight:
MARY SUE (n.):1. A variety of story, first identified in the fan fiction community, but quickly recognized as occurring elsewhere, in which normal story values are grossly subordinated to inadequately transformed personal wish-fulfillment fantasies, often involving heroic or romantic interactions with the cast of characters of some popular entertainment.
2. A distinctive type of character appearing in these stories who represents an idealized version of the author.
3. A cluster of tendencies and characteristics commonly found in Mary Sue-type stories.
4. A body of literary theory, originally generated by the fanfic community, which has since spread to other fields (f.i., professional SF publishing) because it’s so darn useful. The act of committing Mary Sue-ism is sometimes referred to as “self-insertion.”
Also check out The Official Mary Sue Society Avatar Appreciation Site. If you’re worried that Mary Sueism might have invaded your work, take the litmus test.
“Wish fulfillment” is not always bad, however. It’s a staple of Japanse manga. When properly used, it produces work that is easy for a reader to relate to powerfully. Steve Gould says Jumper was written out of his own desire to never again waste time in an airport, but the taint of “self insertion” is totally absent.