Captain Jack "Mary Sue" Sparrow?

[dwgm]

The Mary Sue question is an interesting one. jenthegypsy, new to fanfic (what an adventure lies ahead!!), was asking me what a Mary Sue is, and, coincidentally, a member of little_details asked about the origin of the term. The term apparently dates back to a fanfic story in the Star Trek: The Original Series fandom, which actually had an OFC named Mary Sue. However, this site referenced in a comment in the little_details post has this to say...

She (or he) is created to serve one purpose: wish fulfilment. When a writer invents someone through whom he/she can have fantastic adventures and meet famous people (fictional or real), this character is a Mary Sue. (We don't have a name for the male version -- suggestions?

and that...

storytellers have been rehashing Mary Sue since the dawn of time....

By this definition, most any major canon character would be a Mary Sue, not just original characters. Think about it. Harry Potter? Frodo or Aragorn? And, most especially Jack Sparrow, and all the main characters of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Another referenced article in the little_details post has this to say about Mary Sue's characteristics...

She has better hair, better clothes, better weapons, better brains, better sex, and better karma than anyone else. Even next to the strong and interesting heroines of twentieth-century media and fiction, she stands out. She is singular; she is impossible to ignore.

Now replace "she" with "he", and you've got Jack Sparrow all over.

You could make a case that any main character in any story is a Mary Sue, unless he or she is a true antihero, with characteristics and adventures that serve as dire warnings rather than desirable examples. And who wants to read that, at least most of the time?

It doesn't seem to me that it's possible to write any character and fail to project one's experiences and philosophies through that character, canon or otherwise. And I don't think I am alone in wanting to read stories that are uplifting, and about people who are extraordinary, in one way or another. So it seems to me we're destined to be inundated with Mary Sues, as we have been since people started telling stories.

Comments

[leblacklabel.livejournal.com]

For long years have I said that Harry Potter is a Mary Sue by definition. Take that as you like it, I love Rowling's work and am fascinated by the mystery she manages to keep on so many levels.

I think most main characters in original works are Mary Sues by definition.

Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White. They're stupendous Mary Sues but their stories are greater than they are even if they are the 'center of it all' or 'the star of the show'.

Satine in Moulin Rouge has to be a Mary Sue. Despite that she's a harlot and well into using her body to attract financiers to the theater... women want to be her, and men wish they had her. Yes she is tragically ill. But by what's been said about Mary Suedom in the ficworld, that just adds to her 'charm' and makes loving her all the more wonderful.

I think it's terribly limiting to worry about writing Mary Sues. I think the story told is more important than one's fixation on whether or not the author is using a character to "live through". I think the quality of the written work is more important than any sword-wielding, emerald-eyed vixen could ever be. If the writing is bad, it's bad. It's noticeable. I stop reading and go my merry way if it doesn't hold my attention.