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dragonomatopoeia · 2 years

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Working Bibliography

This is a (currently incomplete) inventory of the sources I'm pulling from when researching material for Counter/Feint. It will be divided into three sections: General References (for things like sewage treatment, state laws, tax codes, white collar crime, etc), Original Media (for comics, episodes, movies etc), and In-Line References/Allusions (for when a character's narration makes a literary allusion, uses jargon, or directly quotes a line from part of the source material)

some of them will be in MLA format and some won't because i am prone to arbitrary whims

General References

“A Fix for Combined Sewers — The Cost of Cleanliness.” PBS, 8 June 2022, https://www.pbs.org/show/a-fix-for-combined-sewers-the-cost-of-cleanliness/. Accessed 5 Sept. 2022.

Collins, Chuck. The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. Polity, 2021.

Delaware's Regulatory Provisions Concerning Public Health

Delaware Solid Waste Auth. v. News-Journal Co., 480 A.2d 628 (Del. 1984)

Hanley, Tim. Investigating Lois Lane: The Turbulent History of the Daily Planet's Ace Reporter. Chicago Review Press, 2016.

Houston, Brant, et al. The Investigative Reporter's Handbook: A Guide to Documents, Databases and Techniques. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.

Kurkjian, Stephen A. Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled off the World's Greatest Art Heist. Public Affairs, 2016.

Kent County, Delaware's Sewer Regulations

Michel, Casey. American Kleptocracy: How the U.S. Created the Greatest Money-Laundering Scheme in History. Scribe, 2021.

Murphy, Jarrett. “Through Illegal Pipes and Improper Dumping, Homes and Businesses Pollute NYC Waterways.” City Limits, 17 Jan. 2018, https://citylimits.org/2018/01/16/in-unknown-numbers-and-often-unwittingly-homes-and-businesses-pollute-city-waterways/.

Planet Princeton's award-winning series of investigative pieces on the Princeton Sewer Operating Plant bribery case, including this piece: https://planetprinceton.com/2020/03/08/state-fined-municipality-of-princeton-35000-for-operating-illegal-dump-at-sewer-facility/

Ritter, Roy H. “The Wilmington, Delaware Sewerage System.” Sewage and Industrial Wastes, vol. 28, no. 5, 1956, pp. 644–50. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25033068. Accessed 5 Aug. 2022.

Original Media

Superman: The Animated Series- "World's Finest" - This one started the whole exercise because I thought it was hysterical that Lois had dated Bruce/ found out he was Batman WAY before she learnt anything about Superman's identity. Hilarious.

Superman: TAS- "The Late Mr. Kent"- This one's important to me and my characterization of Clark for about one million separate reasons

Batman: TAS- All of it

Batman #177- notable for Bruce Wayne's love of cubist expressionism and also the character of Roy Rennie who shows up here and never again. He wants to be the Alfred Foundation's publicist so, so, so bad. I have realized his dream

chapter 2 edit: this is also where the Lathrop Gallery comes from! In the comics, the Lathrop Gallery received an endowment from the Alfred foundation

Fraction, Matt, et al. Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? DC Comics, 2020.- This is in MLA again because it's physically in front of me. It has a profound impact on my characterization, especially Lois's. Her disdain for conspiracy theories and insistence on using the term 'sociogram' over 'conspiracy board' comes from this. It's also the origin of Janie Olsen

Superboy (1949)- I think it's funny to pick and choose elements from this and incorporate it into Clark's backstory arbitrarily. I also think it's funny that I first wrote the line about Clark wanting to kiss Superman if he hadn't BEEN superman before i started reading Superboy because guess what. He forgets he's superboy constantly. and what does he immediately do. Start sighing over superboy. I am SO good at comics

Superboy #85- Especially notable for the appearance of Mightyboy! "Who is Mightyboy?" you might ask. As well you should, since he appeared once in 1960 and never again. However!!!! This is a surprise tool which will help us later because he lives in my brain and also Clark's backstory

World's Finest #285-288- There's just. A lot to unpack here. But I sure have incorporated it into characterization and quirks! Still undecided on if I want Clark to have super hypnosis or not because I think it would be characterful for him to have it and not use it. and also it's extremely stupid as a concept and i love stupid. but also i hate hypnosis

World's Finest #84- Spoiler for the fic, but this premise was so hilarious to me that I immediately decided to replicate it, but with a twist that is typical of my ethos: making bruce step directly onto a rake

Ironically enough, a similar story was presented in Adventure Comics #275, but again. It does not make Bruce step on enough rakes for my taste. Still works as inspiration though!

Superman Annual #11- For the man who has everything. I love this one so so so so much. It greatly informs my understanding and portrayal of Superman, but also it's just a really tight narrative. Also!!! Jason Robin is there!!! Every day I regret placing this fic on a timeline that doesn't align with Jason making an appearance. Lad of all time.

Also important from Superman Annual #11 is the imagery of Batman pathetically presenting a designer rose he had commissioned special for his boy bestie, only for it to be crushed underfoot in the wake of a battle. now there's some symbolism. there's some pathos. there's some grade a pathetic bruce-isms.

Yang, Gene Luen, and Janice Chiang. Superman Smashes the Klan: The Graphic Novel. DC Comics, 2020. - Absolutely phenomenal work that digs into the diaspora elements of Superman's narrative and grapples with The American Ideal, racism, and what it means to stand for your community against violent bigotry. Also the art is soooo charming. I reference this one a bunch because I love it. It's got everything I love about Superman

There's way more to add but I'm tired and this is a working bibliography. I promise more will come

In-Line References/Allusions

Because comics are the way they are, I wanted to make this fic feel like it existed in a bunch of overlapping time periods all at once.

This means that instead of refraining from making references to broader pop culture like I do with other fics, I'm leaning into them instead. Therefore, some of these are going to be deliberate references that I thought would be characterful. Especially since Lois and Clark are reporters, and Jimmy and Bruce went to fancy schools for fancy little lads

"You're killing me, Smalls"- A famous line from The Sandlot (1993). I am unable to resist the pull of low-hanging fruit

"he could always depend on the kindness of strangers"- semi-ironic deployment of a line from A Streetcar Named Desire. on one hand, Clark genuinely trusts in and relies on mankind's desire to do right by each other. on the other, he thinks bruce wayne is a complete and utter tool here. he's being a bit tongue in cheek about how he's relying on a jackass to help him out

"the pale blue light of a sympathetic moon" is from The Drowsy Chaperone. It's such an evocative phrase. I think Clark would enjoy musicals

"Saint Laurent"- Listen. I read fashion blogs for this. I asked my friends who lose their minds over fashion on the regular. I looked through ready to wear collections and slide shows. And while I want to have faith in the Bruce Wayne that lives in my head and nowhere else, I understand that the search for an ethical designer label is a fruitless one. All I can do is say "in this universe, YSL was never acquired by Gucci, and yet it still, inexpicably, has the insufferable ready to wear collection that includes the ugly fucking gentrified rodeo wear."

also a lot of the outfits look like they're designed for haunted little victorian boys. which. [gestures at him]

"Dorothy [...] you're not in Kansas anymore"- I think this one's obvious, but it's a Wizard of Oz reference

“Is there a ‘c’ in ‘absence’?”- Lois's habit of frequently misspelling words comes up in a lot of adaptations and runs, and I think it's incredibly charming

"There better be a thirty on your buyback piece!"- Traditionally, -30- marks the end of copy that's been submitted for editing

Backfielding- Another term for conducting line edits

Ron Troupe- Political analyst for the daily planet. In comics, he was introduced RIGHT before Superman died but I'm playing calvinball here and I like him :) so

Adam Grant- Cat's son! I'm not killing him off, unlike the comics. There's a lot re: The Toyman where i'm just. y'know. i'm just not gonna. look. at whatever's going on there. So it goes with comics

"the gentle way the strongman had spoken to him, telling him about the disarming power of a silly costume, the way performance became its own kind of strength"- referencing a sequence from Superman Smashes the Klan. This will not be the last time

Lan-Shin Lee- For instance, Lan-Shin is from Superman Smashes the Klan! At the end of the original work, she becomes a cub reporter

Carmine Falcone- I still have never read a frank miller comic and you can't make me. but i will steal the occasional character. for flavor. anyway he's either one of the biggest or the biggest ringleader of organized crime in Gotham, depending on the run and adaptation

“While discontinuous in action, perceived surveillance—”- Bruce is paraphrasing a bit of Discipline & Punish here, specifically the part about panopticism

“Have you tried committing a felony?”- This line comes directly from the World's Finest episodes of Superman: the animated series that first inspired this fic

Superman Signal Watch- this one's a classic. As seen in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, the watch works just as the fic describes

#there was a sewer man #air's dabbles

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delusionland · 3 years

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THE GODDESS OF INTEGRITY, Lois lane write-up.

Lois lane is the oldest of two trans daughters. While her rich military father would spoil them both silly, his politics were garbage, he resented the "loss" of his children as their assigned genders, and often took that out on them in crazy ass military training. Lois knew how to break out of handcuffs, zipties, and all manner of car trunk, glass case, and locked room before she turned eleven. Her combat skills, quick wit, incredible feats of perserverance, and unflappable sense of confidence and composure bordering on a total lack of self awareness, would've primed her for a life in the military, and her Father's Republican friends were enchanted by her, thought she could do excellent in politics---but Lois's firm sense of justice and love of truth and desire to say her truth, THE truth, not what her Dad wanted her to say, when she wanted, how she wanted, elegantly, expertly, and to the largest audience possible---primed her for journalim.

At 19, in 1989, she got her job at the Daily Planet by lying about her age. She got her first Pulitzer by 23. She met Superman by literally getting into a car accident on purpose by driving her car off a bridge with a tank of oxygen---just to get an interview! She wasn't suicidal. She was smart, she was brave, she had faith in herself. Superman gave her that interview---but Clark turned in his article first and he got the accolades, which would start a professional rivalry that would continue, and only reignite when they got engaged and Clark would tell her he WAS Superman. Which was CHEATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHEATER!!!!!

Lois, despite all her business bad bitch ways, her love of tight pencil skirts and blazers and her deep understading of her own sexual appeal----and her predisposition towards being annoyingly earnest, oversharing, boundaryless, crude, and dominating every conversation shes in by being loud, proud, and unequivocally no less than everything and anything she is, is actually a hardcore romantic... and loves children, especially misbehaving children.

Shes kind with them, goofy and fun. She stands up to bat for the little guy, ALWAYS. She gets both sides of a story. She's opinionated, and she always get to the heart of the issue---but she's FAIR, and she's the mom who's willing to cuss out your teacher for trying to impress negative self-esteem issues or boundaries on you. Lois loves to fuss over people, Lois loves to be the loud-mouthed protector of the innocent, and she loves to be bossy.

And she believed in Superman first. Before everyone. She IS Superman, just as much as Clark. She is the hope of humanity in Clark, for Clark. She is the heart of Superman, the love of wonder and enchantment and the belief in magic and miracles and mythos, true love, the American Way. Does Lois get gritty, in a way Clark does not? Absolutely. Is Lois rude, in a way Clark is not? Absolutely. But it comes from a love of symbols, a belief that somewhere out there in the Universe, despite how complicated thr world and society and every single issue is---there is a Divine Right and Wrong and Truth to everything in the universe, and she knows it in her heart, and we can all live Right and Truthful to ourselves in a way that makes us worthy of a Superman, in a way that makes him real.

Superman is the Peter Pan of Men. The Tinker Bell. He is able to exist and be so good, and so kind, because hard working sjws writers like Lois are able to put the good word out and make people believe that someone so powerful and strong could possibly be real and trying to help you. That there is good in this universe, and it's as good as you allow it to be, as good as you trust it, as good as you trust yourself to be worthy of a Super Man's love and a Super Man's goodness. Lois believes she deserves to be saved when she drives off that bridge. And he saves her. She tells him everything about who she is in that moment. And she knows he will still save her, bc shes WORTH it.

Lois Lane is integrity. Lois Lane is honesty, authenticity, kindness, hope, bravery and confidence given womanform.

And Lois lane is autistic and has adhd thanks for coming to my ted talk.

Nowadays lois lane is most known for being "the correspondent that yells at Republicans on fox news." She has long since adopted Kara, Conner, chris, and had her miracle baby jon. Shes approaching her fifties, and is a proud milf. She will tell anyone she is a milf, very loudly, and it embarrasses her children and makes Clark just smile and fawn over her like the big bi idiot he is hes so in love with his wife.

#ch: lois lane #hc: lois lane #ooc: hc #ooc: write ups #transphobia tw #lois's dad is a real piece of work

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