"How Long 'Til My Soul Gets It Right? Karma, Reincarnation, And All This Uber-Fiction
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| Title: | "How Long 'Til My Soul Gets It Right? Karma, Reincarnation, And All This Uber-Fiction" |
| Creator: | Rhet Belraven |
| Date(s): | October 1998 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Xena: Warrior Princess |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | "How Long 'Til My Soul Gets It Right?" Karma, Reincarnation, And All This Uber-Fiction, Archived version; part two; part three |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
"How Long 'Til My Soul Gets It Right? Karma, Reincarnation, And All This Uber-Fiction" is an essay by Rhet Belraven.
The essay was posted in Whoosh! #25 in October 1998.
The title of the essay is from a song: "And then you had to bring up reincarnation Over a couple of beers the other night, And now I'm serving time for mistakes Made by another in another lifetime! How long 'til my soul gets it right?" - --Indigo Girls, "Galileo"
The essay is very long, detailed, and cites MANY fanfics (listed at the end, with links).
Topics
- Some Disclaimers
- Deja Vu All Over Again
- Been Her, Gone Through That...
- System Defaults
- System Options
- The One Thing That Doesn't Vary
- What Gets Gotten Right...
- Experiencing Technical Difficulties
- Technical Support
- Unconditional Lifetime(s) Guarantee
- Works Cited, with Links
- Biography
Excerpts
In most works of literary or cultural criticism entire plotlines are discussed and key points are often revealed. If you do not want to know some of the details of the following Uber-fiction stories, go read them now and then come back and read this!
I am neither Buddhist nor Hindu. My apologies, in advance, for any mangling of philosophy or theology which occurs in the following article. Similarly, I mean no disrespect to the many bards whose work I discuss. Yes, I know that some quotes are taken out of context. That's just cultural criticism for you.
I will not focus very much on Mel and Janice fan fiction because it seems clear in the show and in the fanfic that they are descendants of Xena and Gabrielle, not reincarnations. But I will mention them occasionally.
In most Uber-fiction, a romantic subtext or downright passionate maintext is a standard feature, and so, with only a few exceptions, are happy endings. Although this article contains nothing graphic, if you do not wish to see references to consenting sexual relationships between women, you should probably skip this article and the Uber-fiction stories it analyzes.
Part of the fun of Uber-fiction is seeing what happens when a fanfic bard takes an intriguing setting, adds characters reminiscent of Xena and Gabrielle, and puts the story into motion. There are some mighty talented bards out there ringing the changes on our favorite televised mythology. But what happens if we take a look at Uber-fiction as a whole, and not as individual stories? What if we decide for a few minutes to look for patterns that appear in the set of all Uber-fiction?
The question explored in this article is "How come so many of these Uber characters are trying to solve the same problems over and over again?" Uber characters always seem to be playing out the same problems as their ancestors or prior lives. It's as if no one really seems to make much progress with their initial karmic issues. In Uber-fiction, Xena and Gabrielle replay the themes of their 'original' lives: Fall and Redemption, Betrayal, Guilt and Forgiveness, Innocence and Experience, Words versus Action, and... well, we'll get to that later. Something must not be working if they have to keep reliving their mistakes. Or is it that something is working very well indeed?
It would be one thing if the great Mix-Master of genetics periodically resulted in women who physically resembled Xena and Gabrielle, but the fact that these characters never show up in fanfiction solo, and always have links in attitude or actual awareness similar to that of Xena and Gabrielle, make reincarnation a plausible explanation. Most of the 'descendants' in Uber-fiction have a powerful sense of deja vu as they meet the other characters, in a way that strongly hints that there is more than just a physical resemblance between themselves and their Warrior or Bard counterparts.
So karma does come back. Love recognized and freely given in one lifetime echoes back across the Styx to enrich future lives. The traumas the Uber-Xenas and Gabrielles endure seem minor in comparison to what they regain, over and over again. These two souls may not be headed towards the Nirvana where all desires are extinguished (and would we want to read about it if they did?), but they always head towards each other, where all their desires are fulfilled.