Saturday question of the day

[yendi]

So why, exactly, do they call it "Mary Sue," instead of, say "Lazarus Long?"

Comments

[jerel.livejournal.com]

The best known occurence of the character type was in a Star Trek 'zine, and the character's name was Ensign Mary Sue.

[yendi]

Oh, I know the actual origin of the name, but I consider Long to be a much more egregious (and more widely-read) example of the concept.

[tablesaw]

Well, Mary Sue is specific to fan-fiction. Lazarus Long is more of an author surrogate.

[yendi]

Good point. Although I think Mary Sue is starting to leak out of fanfic and into mainstream fiction (I know I'm not the only person who's compared Anita Blake to one, and I've seen the term used for any number of mystery authors at times). But yeah, the origin is definitely fanfic-centric.