Mary Sues

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alter_Ego on September 10, 2009 at 3:37pm

Mary Sues are the main reason I stayed away from a lot of the YA fantasy books when I was a kid. I started reading Stephen King and Michael Crichton when I was eight (I was a reeeeal interesting kid, growing up), and they always seemed to write about ordinary people (although Crichton's characters often had extensive backgrounds in scientific studies) in fantastic situations, so I related to their characters better than I did Harry Potter (though Harry isn't a Mary Sue).

Sadly, a lot of books aimed at adults are now starting to feature Mary Sues, as well, which is why a lot of the books I read are twenty or thirty years old. I think movies and comic books have a part in this modern phenomenon, because now a lot of our movies feature one-dimensional, over-the-top characters that emphasize their fantastic fighting/romancing abilities over character depth. People then invent their own fantasy with their own fantastic character that lacks character depth and often serves as a proxy for the author's wish-fulfillment, but since they can't make a hundred million-dollar movie or draw a comic, they attempt to write a novel. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with escapism, but I think that when one tries to tell a story through a medium that requires its audience to take an active roll in imagining the story and the characters, one needs to go beyond just trying to make their characters look cool with overblown action scenes that the reader cannot actually see. Movies and comic books can often get away with Mary Sue characters, because they utilize a visual medium that titillates the eyes. You can’t get that same sensation with just words on a page.

Then, other times writers will try to demonstrate their own philosophical ideas through a story, but do a lousy job of it because they can’t seem to apply the Show Don’t Tell rule to their ideas. You see a lot of this in the fantasy and SF genres. These wannabe philosophers just insert one of their proxies who will occasionally deliver an author filibuster outlining the central philosophy of the story, which really seems more like a trait exclusive to that specific character than an actual thematic element. Granted, Crichton tended to do this sometimes, but he also showed his ideas through the action in his books. Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowling were more literate in teaching their messages through the use of a lot of symbolism. Most of these wannabes, however, end up coming across more like Ayn Rand.

Speaking of Ayn Rand, let’s talk about her characters. She takes Mary Sues to a level that Stephanie Meyer could only dream of. Atlas Shrugged, for example, contains both types of Mary Sues that I mentioned above. Dagny Taggart is Rand’s wish-fulfillment proxy, while John Galt is the personification of her philosophy. What happens between these two individuals? They fall in love. By examining this relationship, one may assume that the only person Ayn Rand loved was Ayn Rand, maybe even on a sexual level.

Now, before I finish, I will state that there is one Mary Sue that I thought was well-developed and is in fact one of my favorite characters—Dirk Pitt. I think perhaps the reason I give him a pass is that he isn’t the kind of Mary Sue that will rush into battle guns blazing and kill fifty enemies without suffering a flesh wound. Dirk is clever enough that he mostly tries to outsmart his enemies, which to me is more believable (happens all the time in real life), and he doesn’t kill people unless it is absolutely necessary.

▶ Reply to This