The Ivory Tower

sophonisbaworks

I mean, that is, that I like reading in all its infinite variety, using "like" as in "I like to breathe."

I have been an avid reader of fanfiction since before I had an internet connection (Conan! Star Trek!) -- I read fanfiction for series I loved, series I sort of didn't absolutely hate, and series I've never heard of before in my life.

But, seeing that some of the stories I'd have loved to read didn't get written (or the idea got treated very poorly) I finally came to the conclusion that I'd just have to do it myself.

Writing is addictive.

My Brainguests

Related to Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing

Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing

Understand that I tend to follow a "branching timeline" theory; several stories may assume the events of a story "A" to have taken place in their past, but contradict each other. I will try to note which stories assume the events of each other.

Chocolate Profiles, GW Style
-category- Fusion (with Sandra Boynton's Chocolate: The Consuming Passion, Workman Publishing, New York, 1982)
-timeline- N/A
-pairings- Vaguely implied 3+4
-warnings- Nose-cola.

Koi wa Fallacy Category: Parodic fusion of Max Shulman's "Love Is A Fallacy" Timeline: post-EW Pairings: D+2, implied traditional het couples Warnings: Nose-cola, high percentage of Shulman's own text Additional Disclaimers: None of the popular culture referenced herein is mine. Nor, obviously, is any of Shulman's text; a link is provided above should anyone wish to ascertain what of the work in question is entirely his genius. I have recently been falsely accused of plagiarism in this fusion by a person or persons unknown associated with the Plagiarism Police Patrol The PPP formed itself to address the problem of plagiarism, and has in its defence called attention to many injustices. However, in this case, the definition they are using of plagiarism is entirely incorrect. To plagiarize, according to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth Edition, is "to steal or purloin and pass off as one's own (the ideas, words, writings, etc. of another.)" I do not claim to have written Shulman's text. I state that one of my sources in question is the short story "Love is a Fallacy" by Max Shulman, which appeared in the collection The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and provide a link to it so that anyone in question may see what the original text is for purposes of comparison. Therefore, the message sent to me on 5 November 2002, reproduced here, is incorrect in concluding that my parody "is not a fusion, but rather a plagiarism." Many plagiarisms, it is true, are fusions, with names and a few details changed without benefit of reference to the original writer. This does not mean that many fusions are plagiarisms (especially when the source is cited). One must avoid the fallacy of undistributed middle. Yes, as sharp-eyed readers will note, the above is paraphrased from Julia Larwood's musings on Americans and terrorists in Sarah Caudwell's Thus Was Adonis Murdered. I thought it fitting. Which brings me to the PPP's definition of a fusion. Truth, a well-known fanfiction writer, states here that "Once your scene is set (Plot A) and your characters (Character B) are firmly set in place, any resemblance to the original story should only be found in the sequence of events... At the end, your effort should only VERY loosely resemble plot A, if it retains _any_ resemblance at all." I disagree with this. To me, the art of a fusion can be to see how a story would differ were characters B to replace characters A, or it can be and often is to fit a square peg in a round hole and make it look as if it is natural for the peg to be there. In the latter case, much of the text and denoument of the story will and should be close to or identical with that of the round hole, which is why it is so important to properly accredit fusions. When I raised this question on the Gundam Wing Addiction Bulletin Board Service, here, most of the respondents agreed with me rather than with Truth. All I claimed credit for in "Koi wa Fallacy" was the idea of turning the three characters involved into the GWing characters that I did, and the minor bits of rewriting necessary to make them those characters (Petey, indeed, needed no rewriting to turn him into Hilde). This is roughly analogous to the situation of someone who makes a collage of official pictures or turns one of them into a wallpaper. Since, however, I do not have the leisure at this time to argue with the unaccredited senders of this cease-and-desist letter, I have chosen to take the fusion down. Should you read Shulman's work and be curious as to what I did, feel free to mail me and ask.

Tsuushin
tsu/ushin, n. Correspondence; communication.
-category- Fusion (with Margery Allingham's "The Correspondants")
-timeline- post-EW
-pairings- 2+H, ?
-warnings- Nothing specific.
There are numerous bits of popular culture referenced herein. They are not mine; if you recognize one, you probably know where it comes from.

Nor In Heaven Above
The Unbelievably Wrong Christmas Fic that I carried around in my head for a year...
-category- Vignette, humor
-timeline- Post-EW
-pairings- N/A
-warnings- May not be suitable for those unable to endure humor concerning the first third of the second chapter of the good news according to Luke.

Tainted Sample
A Mother's Day fic that randomly came into my head while I was eating takeout Chinese. Relena is demonstrably familiar with the work in question; cf. Episode 2, "Shinigami to iu Gundam."
-category- Vignette, dialogue
-timeline- post-EW
-pairings- N/A
-warnings- Will make little sense in retrospect should you not have read a certain work, the name of which I do not wish to mention here lest it spoil the vignette.

Reach Out In The Darkness
All those who know which verse of which song I was thinking of, please raise your hands.
-category- Vignette (not really sure how to classify it)
-timeline- post-EW
-pairings- Ummm, implied CA+LS (but that's canon...)
-warnings- Nose-cola here and there.

Une Fois

-category- Vignette, Folktale Parody, Occasional Crossover
-timeline- post-EW
-references- "Reach Out In The Darkness"
-pairings- Implied 3+4; otherwise, it depends on the folktale. So far, one 6+9, one 1+R+2 and implied Ryou+Kaori.
-warnings: Nose-cola. Bored youth. Extremely bored child. Gratuitous references.
Prologue
Prince Dorothy and the Dear Little Valkyrie
Who First Speaks...
Interlude: At the Snark (1)
Story, by Marimeia
Stuff, by Marimeia

�

Mirandae

-category- A series of vignettes; slice-of-life
-timeline- Post-EW by some months
-references- "Reach Out In The Darkness" and "Une Fois"
-pairings- Some reference to 13+Anne, 5+Meilan, and 6+9
-warnings- The occasional eight-year-old view of bodily functions; gratuitous reference to many, many children's books
Selection Process
Literature Search

Bears: a Col. Lady Anne maerchen
-category- Vignette, Folktale Parody, Crossover, Dialogue
-timeline- Sometime early in the TV series
-pairings-
-warnings- Nose-cola. Implied m/m pairings, hinted attempted orgies, gratuitous reference to Magic: the Gathering.

In the beginning, there was a book and its sequel, lavishly illustrated. And in the fullness of time, the book and its sequel were bound into one volume, and there was a maiden who loved that volume well, sleeping in a chamber adorned with posters of its colored illustrations, and adding color to its line art with her own colored pencils, even unto the image stamped upon its cover.
And as time went by, the maiden grew, and let her mother give away the posters, and fell in love with the art form known as anime; and, inspired by a truly awful collection of words masquerading as a story, began to write fanfiction under a nom de plume.
She discovered a show called Gundam Wing; she bought posters of it and regretted that she had given up those large posters of her first or second great love; finding herself in a rut, she created a new persona, that she might write a truly evil crossover/fusion of Gundam Wing and perhaps even someday aspire to lemon; and, moved by a week of illness to defend her title, she wove the show which she had no claim to together with another such which she had admired for longer and the book -- to which, indeed, she had no more claim than eighteen years of love may offer -- and produced the following.

Hyakuchoubayashi
-category- Fusion
-timeline- Not really applicable, but think of a kindergarten-age Relena
-warnings- Ummm... I think any warnings would spoil it. Nothing bad happens, if that's what you're worried about.
Suitable for general audiences

Those Obnoxious Pirots

a fusion of Urusei Yatsura and Shin Kidou Senki Gundam W, crossed over with Maison Ikkoku

Volume One liner notes for Volume One
Containing the Pirot Episode; Twine Balls and Gentle Monsters -- Not To Mention an Oil Crisis; Fish and Visitors; The Swallow and the Penguin; and the sidestory "The Interesting Tanabata Experience."

With deepest respect for Takahashi Rumiko-sama.

Gundam and its various incarnations belong to Tomino Yoshiyuki, Sunrise, and so forth. (I think the only thing of GWing that belongs to Tomino is the general concept, which bears a startling resemblance to Zeta in large spots...)