adventures of Mary Sue

Learned a new term today: the Mary Sue story.

Mary Sue literary theory has changed my professional life. Before, when discussing manuscripts with my colleagues, I had to say things “You know, one of those books that keeps telling you how wonderful and talented and perfect the main character is and how much everyone loves her, but aside from that there’s nothing at stake and nothing really happens? No logic, no causality, no narrative development, just that character being wonderful every barfy step of the way?”

Generally they knew what I meant; we see a lot of books like that. But those conversations have gotten much easier now that I can say things like ... “I sent it back. The agent was all excited about how the author’s ‘expanding into a new genre’, but it’s just a Mary Sue with jousting scenes pasted in.”

Teh funny. Also includes link to cartoon showing the inevitable effects on Hogwarts when all these Marys show up at the same time.

Hat tip Slavkivist, whose post in his AWESOME Left Behind series brought here here.

Harry Potter and narrative

Article from Michael Berube on how Harry Potter has helped his kid (who has Down's Syndrome) to understand narrative. (pdf) Some interesting reflections on the orphan/dead father factor, as well as on why we as people tell stories.

Could also assign this early on with Gilgamesh - some of the themes are similar: "we tell stories partially because we know we are going to die." (Reference here to Frank Kermode's The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction, 1967)

Another reference to check out: EM Forster's Aspects of the Novel (1927), which states something along the lines of: "'The King died and then the queen died.' is a story. 'The King died and then the Queen died of grief.' is a plot."