Writing is an inherently individual activity. Presumably, even two collaborators do not sit at a desk together. However, literature is a collective enterprise. Everything is written in a context and has influences. A single author cannot address every possibility but a community and a tradition can. Poul Anderson gives us the Old Phoenix Inn where many fictional and fabulous characters from different universes meet.
Bill Willingham gives us Fabletown in New York inhabited by:
King Cole
Snow White
Rose Red
Prince Charming
the Big Bad Wolf in human form
Briar Rose, the Sleeping Beauty
Boy Blue
Bluebeard
Goldilocks
The Frog Prince
Jack Horner aka the Giant Killer etc -
- all exiled from their Homelands. We recognize many potential patrons of the Old Phoenix and are confident that some of them would have showed up there if that series had continued for longer.
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