Chapter 11: IN.DO.GU.TSU Interviews PitcairnMan
After I finished writing "Diet Club" and before I uploaded all the chapters to FanFiction.net, I asked my friend IN.DO.GU.TSU, the original creator of "The Rohan Weir Project," to interview me and ask me some questions about myself, the creative process involved in writing this fanfic, and the problems with characterization that I came across.
IN.DO.GU.TSU: What is your full name?
PitcairnMan: Wilhelm Christian Genner, although I'm more commonly known as "Vil."
I: How did you get the name "PitcairnMan?"
P: I remember I was in junior high, and I was reading an article in National Geographic magazine about the Pitcairn Islands. One part of the article focused on the native islanders, and began with the sentence "Every able-bodied Pitcairn man plays an active role in his tribe's society." I thought it sounded cool, so I started using it as my "code name" when I first signed on to the Internet.
I: How did you first find out about "The Rohan Weir Project?"
P: One of the first websites I became attached to was Fritz Fraundorf's RPG humor site, Cosmo Canyon. It's not around anymore, but it had all sorts of funny send-offs of early PlayStation games. For example, one particular crossover fanfic was about how Cait Sith from "Final Fantasy 7" formed a rock'n'roll band with Hanpan from "Wild Arms," Neko from "Secret of Mana," Mog from "Final Fantasy 6," and Spekkio from "Chrono Trigger." With hilarious results.
I: Ahh, "Blue And Green." One of the best humor fanfics in the history of the Net. Go on...
P: Anyway, Fritz had a lot of friends, who each had their own little groups as well. Two of Fritz's greatest supporters were Fred Delles and Serpent231, who submitted fanfiction, song parodies, and other things to Cosmo Canyon. Currently, Fred Delles runs one of the Net's most comprehensive fansites dedicated to the "Breath of Fire" series, and Serpent231's site, The Midgar Swamp, does a rather good job of filling Cosmo Canyon's shoes after it was taken off the Net. The link pages of both sites mentioned a fellow Fritz fan named Ragnarosen, who was particularly inspired by Fritz's original RPG story, "Beath of Flams." Ragnarosen, who changed his name to IN.DO.GU.TSU in 2002, wrote "The Rohan Weir Project" in a similar style to the venerable "Beath," except "Weir" focused more on character interaction than dungeon exploration, and produced a cast of characters with distinct personalities. In my opinion, "The Rohan Weir Project" is an Internet writing that's perfect for fanfiction.
I: Thank you, thank you.
P: Don't mention it.
I: So, tell me about how you got the ideas for some of the new characters in "Diet Club." One of the dynamic new personalities in this story is Lyn, who was well-written as a new opponent for Gene. I'd especially like to know how her character came about.
P: Lyn, as well as the entire idea for this story, came from my own experience as a member of [NAME DELETED] in the late 90's. Unlike Diet Club, which is a caricature of the entire weight management industry, my time there was largely positive, and I was successful in losing weight. (That comment about deodorant is based on a true story, however.) The Gene Rothman character, unlike myself, is set in his ways. As for the Lyn character, she's basically the composite of every personal trainer and consultant I've had at [NAME DELETED]. And there's a certain austere, minimalistic, "abandon everything you own" mentality that goes hand in hand with the concept of weight loss. When I saw the movie "Fight Club" on cable a few days before starting this fanfic, I knew I had my story.
I: "Fight Club," eh? Yeah, I did notice quite a few parallels in "Diet Club," besides the title.
P: Of course, there's the title. And that whole thing about the support groups, and the people who were dissatisfied with their lives, and the whole "finding your cave" thing, and the spirit animal.
I: The way you described Gene's spirit animal... it sounded somewhat familiar.
P: It should have. He's the big dog from "2 Stupid Dogs."
I: LOL
P: Also, a few lines in the fanfic were taken from the movie. Like when Lyn said that the things you eat end up eating you.
I: LOL, yeah, Gene found that out the hard way, didn't he?
P: Hehehe, didn't look at it that way before.
I: Let's talk about the song, "Innuendo" by Michael Franks. Is there really such a song, or did you make it up?
P: No, it's a real song. Usually, in "The Rohan Weir Project," non-parody songs are made up, but "Innuendo" is an exception.
I: How did you first hear of it? It really seemed to fit the scene in Chapter 7.
P: I first heard it on the radio shortly after writing Chapter 4. I was making an early-morning drive to the supermarket to buy a loaf of bread and the latest issue of "Nintendo Power," and although I'm not the biggest fan of smooth jazz, that song got stuck in my head. When I came home, I looked for it on WinMX, and upon my second hearing, I noticed there were references to salad dressing and poison in it. So I absolutely HAD to use it in "Diet Club."
I: Also, from reading "Diet Club," I also made the conclusion that you're a "Saturday Night Live" fan.
P: Yes, it's probably my second favorite show of all time, after "The Simpsons." What gave it away, the John Belushi bit, or the fact that the three girls from the support group share first names with three women in the current (2001-2002) SNL cast?
I: Both, really.
P: And if you haven't figured it out already, Lynelle Flansberg is named after the two guys from They Might Be Giants, albeit with minor alterations in spelling.
I: Yes, I'd imagine there'd be a lot of TMBG fans in your audience. Heh.
P: Yes. TMBG's one of my favorite bands, and I suggest you check them out. In my opinion, their best albums are "Factory Showroom," "Flood," and "Apollo 18." And look for Michael Franks' "Innuendo" as well, if you really want to appreciate its usage in this fanfic.
I: OK, getting back to the fanfic itself, I noticed that you decided to focus more on the day-to-day Manhasset life and less on the strategy RPG elements of the original "Rohan Weir Project."
P: That is correct. You yourself once said that RWP's RPG-like features make it lose its credibility as a valid story. So I got rid of all the weapons, magic, Field battles, and world travel. There's some espionage in the fic, although it's handled without any confrontation. As for the story's setting, I decided to have it completely take place in the city of Manhasset. Obviously based on New York City's borough of Manhattan, Manhasset is the center of a great deal of activity, and I wanted to show it in "Diet Club." There are some references to the floating city of Novartis scattered throughout the fic, but I wanted Manhasset to take center stage. The city itself is as much a character in "The Rohan Weir Project" as its human protagonist, Gene Rothman.
I: Botanical question. Is there really such a thing as Branchseed?
P: No. That whole thing was made up.
I: Any final words?
P: Yes, I hope this fanfic teaches a valuable lesson. If you're constantly finding things that are wrong with yourself, and building unrealistic expectations of what you could and should be, then you'll eventually lose the will to live. Which is a bit like death itself.
I: All right, it's been a pleasure interviewing you, PitcairnMan. I hope this fanfic gets a lot of good reviews, because I've read through it, and it appears you have my writing style down. Are there currently any plans for another "Rohan Weir Project" fanfic in the future?
P: We'll see about that.
THE END
After I finished writing "Diet Club" and before I uploaded all the chapters to FanFiction.net, I asked my friend IN.DO.GU.TSU, the original creator of "The Rohan Weir Project," to interview me and ask me some questions about myself, the creative process involved in writing this fanfic, and the problems with characterization that I came across.
IN.DO.GU.TSU: What is your full name?
PitcairnMan: Wilhelm Christian Genner, although I'm more commonly known as "Vil."
I: How did you get the name "PitcairnMan?"
P: I remember I was in junior high, and I was reading an article in National Geographic magazine about the Pitcairn Islands. One part of the article focused on the native islanders, and began with the sentence "Every able-bodied Pitcairn man plays an active role in his tribe's society." I thought it sounded cool, so I started using it as my "code name" when I first signed on to the Internet.
I: How did you first find out about "The Rohan Weir Project?"
P: One of the first websites I became attached to was Fritz Fraundorf's RPG humor site, Cosmo Canyon. It's not around anymore, but it had all sorts of funny send-offs of early PlayStation games. For example, one particular crossover fanfic was about how Cait Sith from "Final Fantasy 7" formed a rock'n'roll band with Hanpan from "Wild Arms," Neko from "Secret of Mana," Mog from "Final Fantasy 6," and Spekkio from "Chrono Trigger." With hilarious results.
I: Ahh, "Blue And Green." One of the best humor fanfics in the history of the Net. Go on...
P: Anyway, Fritz had a lot of friends, who each had their own little groups as well. Two of Fritz's greatest supporters were Fred Delles and Serpent231, who submitted fanfiction, song parodies, and other things to Cosmo Canyon. Currently, Fred Delles runs one of the Net's most comprehensive fansites dedicated to the "Breath of Fire" series, and Serpent231's site, The Midgar Swamp, does a rather good job of filling Cosmo Canyon's shoes after it was taken off the Net. The link pages of both sites mentioned a fellow Fritz fan named Ragnarosen, who was particularly inspired by Fritz's original RPG story, "Beath of Flams." Ragnarosen, who changed his name to IN.DO.GU.TSU in 2002, wrote "The Rohan Weir Project" in a similar style to the venerable "Beath," except "Weir" focused more on character interaction than dungeon exploration, and produced a cast of characters with distinct personalities. In my opinion, "The Rohan Weir Project" is an Internet writing that's perfect for fanfiction.
I: Thank you, thank you.
P: Don't mention it.
I: So, tell me about how you got the ideas for some of the new characters in "Diet Club." One of the dynamic new personalities in this story is Lyn, who was well-written as a new opponent for Gene. I'd especially like to know how her character came about.
P: Lyn, as well as the entire idea for this story, came from my own experience as a member of [NAME DELETED] in the late 90's. Unlike Diet Club, which is a caricature of the entire weight management industry, my time there was largely positive, and I was successful in losing weight. (That comment about deodorant is based on a true story, however.) The Gene Rothman character, unlike myself, is set in his ways. As for the Lyn character, she's basically the composite of every personal trainer and consultant I've had at [NAME DELETED]. And there's a certain austere, minimalistic, "abandon everything you own" mentality that goes hand in hand with the concept of weight loss. When I saw the movie "Fight Club" on cable a few days before starting this fanfic, I knew I had my story.
I: "Fight Club," eh? Yeah, I did notice quite a few parallels in "Diet Club," besides the title.
P: Of course, there's the title. And that whole thing about the support groups, and the people who were dissatisfied with their lives, and the whole "finding your cave" thing, and the spirit animal.
I: The way you described Gene's spirit animal... it sounded somewhat familiar.
P: It should have. He's the big dog from "2 Stupid Dogs."
I: LOL
P: Also, a few lines in the fanfic were taken from the movie. Like when Lyn said that the things you eat end up eating you.
I: LOL, yeah, Gene found that out the hard way, didn't he?
P: Hehehe, didn't look at it that way before.
I: Let's talk about the song, "Innuendo" by Michael Franks. Is there really such a song, or did you make it up?
P: No, it's a real song. Usually, in "The Rohan Weir Project," non-parody songs are made up, but "Innuendo" is an exception.
I: How did you first hear of it? It really seemed to fit the scene in Chapter 7.
P: I first heard it on the radio shortly after writing Chapter 4. I was making an early-morning drive to the supermarket to buy a loaf of bread and the latest issue of "Nintendo Power," and although I'm not the biggest fan of smooth jazz, that song got stuck in my head. When I came home, I looked for it on WinMX, and upon my second hearing, I noticed there were references to salad dressing and poison in it. So I absolutely HAD to use it in "Diet Club."
I: Also, from reading "Diet Club," I also made the conclusion that you're a "Saturday Night Live" fan.
P: Yes, it's probably my second favorite show of all time, after "The Simpsons." What gave it away, the John Belushi bit, or the fact that the three girls from the support group share first names with three women in the current (2001-2002) SNL cast?
I: Both, really.
P: And if you haven't figured it out already, Lynelle Flansberg is named after the two guys from They Might Be Giants, albeit with minor alterations in spelling.
I: Yes, I'd imagine there'd be a lot of TMBG fans in your audience. Heh.
P: Yes. TMBG's one of my favorite bands, and I suggest you check them out. In my opinion, their best albums are "Factory Showroom," "Flood," and "Apollo 18." And look for Michael Franks' "Innuendo" as well, if you really want to appreciate its usage in this fanfic.
I: OK, getting back to the fanfic itself, I noticed that you decided to focus more on the day-to-day Manhasset life and less on the strategy RPG elements of the original "Rohan Weir Project."
P: That is correct. You yourself once said that RWP's RPG-like features make it lose its credibility as a valid story. So I got rid of all the weapons, magic, Field battles, and world travel. There's some espionage in the fic, although it's handled without any confrontation. As for the story's setting, I decided to have it completely take place in the city of Manhasset. Obviously based on New York City's borough of Manhattan, Manhasset is the center of a great deal of activity, and I wanted to show it in "Diet Club." There are some references to the floating city of Novartis scattered throughout the fic, but I wanted Manhasset to take center stage. The city itself is as much a character in "The Rohan Weir Project" as its human protagonist, Gene Rothman.
I: Botanical question. Is there really such a thing as Branchseed?
P: No. That whole thing was made up.
I: Any final words?
P: Yes, I hope this fanfic teaches a valuable lesson. If you're constantly finding things that are wrong with yourself, and building unrealistic expectations of what you could and should be, then you'll eventually lose the will to live. Which is a bit like death itself.
I: All right, it's been a pleasure interviewing you, PitcairnMan. I hope this fanfic gets a lot of good reviews, because I've read through it, and it appears you have my writing style down. Are there currently any plans for another "Rohan Weir Project" fanfic in the future?
P: We'll see about that.
THE END
