Wombat on TBOTSS and fanfic

Kevin J. Maroney · 21 Jun 2001, 18:44 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Wombat on TBOTSS and fanfic
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 18:44:37
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At 03:13 PM 6/21/01 -0700, Mantis wrote:
>Sorry, you are wrong! <g>

Oops. You're right.

 >>>People
 >>>who have never met Silk in the flesh are huge "admirers of" him...
 >>
 >>Yes. But they're not "fans" of Silk any more than the author of "Acts of
 >>the Apostles" was a "fan" of Jesus, Paul, and Peter. They're historians
 >>writing historical narrative for a didactic purpose.

 >Why do you seem to be arguing with me when I'm using the terms you want
 >me to use?  I didn't write "fans," I wrote "admirers of."

Because you seem to be veering towards using "admirers of" as a=20
five-syllable perfect synonym of "fan", which it isn't. That's why I said=20
"yes"--they are admirers --but went on to restate that they are not "fans".

 >I should take you to task for saying they are "historians."  Good grief!

They're historians but not in a modern sense; they're historians in the=20
sense that the author of the Book of Kings was a historian, or, as I said,=20
"Luke", the author  of Acts of the Apostles was a historian. I've just=20
spent too long reading _Surpassing Wonder_ and the term stuck in my mind.

Skimming the archives, I think the comparison between the third-person=20
portions of Hoof & Hide's book (*) and _The Killer Angels_ is spot-on.

*Do we know what _The Book of the Short Sun_ is called among its readers?
--=20
Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at ungames.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://www.nyrsf.com

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