Re: FIC: A Twist in the Tale

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Kirayoshi, 

Thanks for providing the info on "Who Are You". And yes, this story
could fit there quite easily.

GW,

"The Procrustean Petard", by Sondra Marshak & Myrna Culbreath, was a
short story that appeared in "Star Trek: The New Voyages, Volume 2", one
of the first collections of fanfic (published by Bantam Books, in the
1970s or so). It's probably silly of me to think that a story published
in an out of print book is more familiar to the audience than something
on a still-accessible webpage, but that's just the Giles in me (or the
frustrated author, coveting those royalty payments).

And I certainly don't mean to imply that your story is any less creative
because it follows in the footsteps of others that have explored
gender-switching. After all, "my old friend comes to town, and now he's
evil" probably goes back to Sophocles, and Joss still found a fresh
twist on it with "Lie To Me". Here, the male slash implications raised
by Buffy's transgendering (and whatever effect they may have on her
eventual femslash pairing with Willow) place your story firmly in new
territory, and I gladly look forward to what comes next.

Likewise, HD Genscher's Fic from December, "Forever", follows in a vein
first tapped by Ruth Berman's "Visit to a Weird Planet, Revisited", from
"New Voyages, Volume 1" (actors on a show change places with their
characters), but plows new ground in that HD's Sarah and Aly discover
that the Buffyverse has a key difference from their production of
"BtVS", and that changes their own relationship. (And Berman's piece
owes a good deal to the classic Twilight Zone ep, "A World of
Difference", itself.) So please don't feel there was any criticism
implicit--I'm just recalling other treatments of this theme I've
enjoyed.

(A lot of people claimed "Normal Again" was derivative--you can trace
that back at least as far as the Twilight Zone's "Person or Persons
Unknown"--but the difference is that "Normal Again" offered up the
questioning of reality in the context of a season-long disconnect that
the main character had suffered.)

Anyway, pardon the history. That'll teach me to make obscure
references, right? (probably not).

Shutting up, and looking forward to more,

Dan