In a message dated 12/29/01 8:08:34 PM Eastern Standard Time, feste@brandywine.net writes:

<< >I've also come across Peggy-Sue Servalan in the Bizarro zines. Is this a

variation on the theme? Mind you, the Bizarro stories seem to have a lot of fans and writers lurking lightly-disguised in them. >>

No, actually the first name "Peggy Sue" was picked for Servalan's first name because we thought it would be an unlikely surprise....sheerly for contrast against her image. Whatever else a fan might guess about Servalan, they probably wouldn't expect the sort of wholesome, corn-fed, middle-america type name a gal in the 50's was likely to be given.

In all the 30-(very)-odd Bizarro 7 stories that I and Annie wrote, we mocked a great variety of things, all the way from the alleged charges against Blake to fanon to fanzine bootleggers...but we never parodied Mary Sue.

I've come to the conclusion that a Mary Sue is the entre' most fans invent for the first story, the inspiration to attempt their first fanfiction being a compulsion to inject themselves into the universe they've fallen in love with, via a story. In the guise of an infallible, souped-up version of themselves, they become admirable and worthy of interacting with their hero(s). They are seldom aware that it's uncommon for any other fan reader to enjoy the result except themselves.

Once the Mary-Sue is exorcized from their keyboard, things generally improve from that point forward.

Leah