Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2002 14:19:34 -0400
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Who Is John L. Flynn
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Michael Walsh wrote:

> Wait, there's more!
> http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/2371/episodeIII.txt
> *snort*
> The oldest usenet reference, via Google, to it is 1989.

Here's some background to that (it's *legendary*):

 "Fall of the Republic mini-FAQ" version 1.2, March 1995.

             by David Hines, dzhines at midway.uchicago.edu

Questions answered in this FAQ:

1. "Hey, everybody! I've got this thing called "Fall of the
Republic -"
2. "Why are you guys screaming like that?"
3. "What's a FAQ, and why does FotR need one?"
4. "Okay, so what's the deal with FotR?"
5. "What do you mean, it's not real?"
6. "Yeah, what's this about the third episode? Wasn't that
Return of the Jedi?"
7. "Okay. FotR is a fake, but where did it come from?"
8. "Who is this John L. Flynn guy?"
9. "Where is FotR available on the Internet?"
10. "Okay, I've got FotR. How do I convert it into something
I can read?"
11. "I don't have ftp access. What do I do?"

1. "Hey, everybody! I've got this thing called "Fall of the
Republic -"

 AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

2. "Why are you guys screaming like that?"

 Well, you see, some topics get rehashed quite a bit on this
newsgroup.

                               [*snip*]

7. "Okay. FotR is a fake, but where did it come from?"

 Good question. "John L. Flynn" is listed as the author, but
no one really knows who wrote it, except perhaps the author
himself.
(More about John L. Flynn follows in question 8.)

 Before it was made available on the Internet, most people
picked it up at conventions. Dealers sold it at their tables;
as
far as we know, the story treatment (it's too brief to be a
script)
made its debut around 1983 or so. It may have been around
earlier.

8. "Who is this John L. Flynn guy anyway?"

 Beats the heck out of me. The only thing I've heard from him

other than FotR is a magazine article on the prequel Trilogy
in
March's Cinescape. Lots of stuff in the article is drawn from
FotR;
perhaps Flynn really did write the article. I suppose it's
possible
that someone at Cinescape used Flynn's name as an obscure
joke.
However, considering the amount of confusion perpetrated in
Flynn's
name over the years, I would find the joke in exceedingly
poor taste.

                                [*snip*]

11. "I don't have ftp access. What do I do?"

 Trust me: if you haven't read it, you're not missing much.
But if you *really* want to read it, email me and I'll send
you the
uncompressed text file.

=====

--Ted White