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How furry fandom is rejecting neo-nazis, “Altfurs” and Furry Raiders who target kids for hate.
Get ready for a big topic about toxic behavior, the cult-like groups doing it, how they’re targeting kids, and how the fandom is cutting ties with it for positive progress. This is a followup to last week’s article: “The Confederate fursuit incident shows how you can’t be a troll and a victim at the same time“. It focuses on the source of the problem:
- At Anthrocon 2017, a troll provoked drama with defenders who claimed he was being unfairly censored.
- The defense missed a basic point – he was an antagonistic outsider who was banned and didn’t register or support the con.
- It showed how trolls twist facts about consequences for bad behavior, so they can pretend to be the victims.
- Posing as victims requires a scapegoat (“SJW’s”). The misinformation is being spread like cult propaganda.
Anthrocon’s letter recognizes how the troll was pushing a “political message” on others. It’s an example of recent fandom activity by alt-right “altfurs” and their enablers. They do it with a twofaced pose that they want “freedom”, want “politics out of fandom,” and are just giving “their side”. But “their side” relies on false middle ground. (In other words, saying the earth is round doesn’t require Flat Earthers to give their side. Newspapers don’t interview vandals to get their side.) The real goal is to exploit and undermine the fandom behind a false front of “freedom”. That includes grooming and recruiting kids, trolling and harassing, dodging accountability, and worse things like welcoming literal neo-nazis (see below.)
Anthrocon’s response shows a reasonable solution not unlike my article’s: point out dishonesty, stop defending it, and demand better. That’s a far cry from claims that “SJW’s” are trying to control fandom ( a weak version of propaganda that “jews control the world”.) Blaming “SJW’s” is really an attack on reasonable standards of the fandom itself.
Of course “SJW’s” aren’t an organized group. Such a vague label can be conveniently given to anybody. On the other hand there are organized troll groups for altfurs and the Furry Raiders. Both use provocative symbols like a Confederate flag or Foxler’s nazi-styling to troll from behind a false front of “freedom”. Both share overlap of core members, and a mission of “battle” against “SJW’s”.
Here’s that mission in a recent video from Furry Raiders founder Foxler. He made it after “raiding” a meet in Colorado to spite them because Raiders and hate groups were banned. Then he complained of being the victim and invited altfurry to join his battle. (see 15:00). Preaching about battle is what cults do.
Advertised policy of the meet that Foxler “raided”
That gives some context about the bad behavior. The article about trolling at Anthrocon got a lot of response, including from one subject in it, Ricky. Then Ricky chose to leave the Furry Raiders, cueing the topic of cutting ties.
Leaving the group risks punishment for disloyalty.
If a group uses positive attention to groom or recruit members, the negative side might only be obvious to outsiders. Especially if it draws good people who don’t see what organizers do. But the downside can hit insiders too. It happened last week when several associates chose to leave the Furry Raiders and spoke up about the group’s problems, causing backlash.
Colt, Ricky, and DancerSwor are former associates between ages 14 and 18. (That means exposure to Foxler’s anti-SJW battle at barely voting age.) Colt, the youngest at age 14, was quickly disavowed by Foxler for not being a member of the Furry Raiders (yet). Altfurs joined in denying his connection, deflecting the issue of recruiting. Then they attacked Colt.
please support @ColtDaWolf, @ProcyonAves, and @DancerSwor. They all have recently left the Furry Raiders and are being harassed by fascists.
— Ameriphobic @MFF (@vuurren) July 13, 2017Recently left a group called The Furry Raiders. I don't know if someone within the group is talking shit about me or not, but if so then the
— Ricky Raccoon @ FM (@ProcyonAves) July 13, 2017Been feeling more love from the "opposition since I left then the people who said they cared about me, but instantly began making fun of me
— Ricky Raccoon @ FM (@ProcyonAves) July 13, 2017So if they try to spread rumours about me, please don't believe them. They're just mad I didn't want to stay in their stupid cult
— Ricky Raccoon @ FM (@ProcyonAves) July 13, 2017I am overwhelmed by the amount of support I've received. From the way everyone described...well everyone that wasn't a raider I thought I'd
— Ricky Raccoon @ FM (@ProcyonAves) July 13, 2017Forgiven for the shitty decision I made to join and advocate for that group many months ago.
— Ricky Raccoon @ FM (@ProcyonAves) July 13, 2017Why I left Furry Raiders pic.twitter.com/lCjpUSuuB9
— SworDanceR (@FurryIdiotSDR) July 14, 2017Foxler Nightfire has betrayed me. More details + a possible video to come. pic.twitter.com/XGrk9d3KhC
— Usain Colt (@ColtDaWolf) July 12, 2017As a cult, the furry raiders groom kids and punish people for leaving. Happened to @ColtDaWolf, plz back his vid. https://t.co/5bIZQEJIkX
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) July 13, 2017Altfurs, Neo-nazis and Stormfront members support Foxler by harassing a 14-year-old.
Don’t miss Colt’s video about being betrayed by Foxler. It was very disconcerting for Foxler and the altfurs. Fear of losing recruits is why Foxler spitefully “raided” the Colorado meet where he was banned, and declared battle. Meanwhile, altfurs bombed Colt’s video with dislikes and harassment. (Archive). The participants overlap: Foxler is in the Altfurrydiscord group that organizes trolling. Altfurry welcomes members of Stormfront (“a white nationalist, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi Internet forum that was the Web’s first major racial hate site.”)
Here’s a few who supported Foxler by harassing Colt:
- Casey Hoerth / “Len Gilbert” is organizer of @altfurrydiscord.
- Author of erotic nazi fanfic “The Furred Reich” (sample)
- 34-year old financial writer for The Street, and Trump campaign staffer.
- He led the altfurry group attack that “swatted” Califur and cost them $24,000 for security, then lied about it.
- He told Colt: “you look like… a snot-nosed brat who is spreading slander.”
Nathan Gate / TheBigKK / KryptoKroenen is member of Stormfront and @altfurrydiscord.- College student from Arizona.
- Hitler fan on Stormfront and Daily Stormer: “Far-Right is 100% completely Facist. At least to me, it describes someone who is willing to go all the way, no matter how violent or cruel, to establish White Nationalism.”
- He told Colt: “what a cringy little fuck… you’ll end up living the rest of your life as a social reject that nobody cares about.”
- Before harassing a 14 year old, he helped Altfurrydiscord attack Califur with fake complaints regarding kids:
- Aethryx wants nazis to rise again:
- He told Colt: “EVERYONE WHO CRITICIZES MY VIDEO AND DOESN’T AGREE WITH ME IS A NAZI!!!!! Fucking children”
- His post about Nazis: “I feel disappointed that I couldn’t live in this society, but I feel courage knowing that the arms will one day rise again. Hail Victory.”
Wow, I didn't realise who this was. I'm genuinely disappointed. Thought he was a cool guy. Later, you could have been better than this. pic.twitter.com/QA0h29ZLq1
— Megaplexing Kaiju (@TwitchDaWoof) July 11, 2017RT [priv]: how do u become that type of person whos like "i wanna be a fuzzy wuzzy bappy husky also i love fascism, big fascism fan here"
— TOP CHOMP (@squeedgemonster) April 13, 2016Those are just a few of the brave trolls who came down on a 14-year-old for cutting ties with Foxler. Something is really messed up with a group that hassles kids for disloyalty. It’s interesting that out of four who recently left, the youngest was treated the worst. (Even more info is withheld by request to avoid negative backlash at others.)
So much for “freedom” and concern for kids.
Positive progress is coming because furries support each other.
That trolling has nothing to do with being members of a fandom. Their goal is to selfishly exploit it and spread hate. That’s not the goal of furs like Ricky, Colt and their friends. They’re here to be fans and artists with a community. Good people can be pulled in to groups with bad organizers, but they’re still furries.
Why are people suddenly evacuating #AltFurry?
— Elliot Cerulean (@ElliotCerulean) July 20, 2017Maybe they realized they were in a cult when Foxler started abusing a "defector" who went public
— Zarpaulus (@zarpaulus) July 20, 2017Actually, the amount of outside respect the fandom has got for actively taking out white supremacists has been impressive.
— Hugo Jackson / Arc (@phoenixtheblade) July 20, 2017They don't want friends, they want followers, obedience, and justification of their own spite. They'll take it out on anyone who objects.
— Hugo Jackson / Arc (@phoenixtheblade) July 20, 2017the salt is so real lmao. furry raiders are a curious bunch; they love freedom of speech until it reflects negatively on themselves.
— Li
ie (@Lucariwhoa) July 13, 2017
To people claiming we "can't" run right-wingers out of our fandom
We already did it with the Burned Furs
You are objectively wrong pic.twitter.com/XGWQmKPsQi
The reason people want altfurry members out of the community is mostly because they contribute nothing of value and ruin things for others.
— LOT'S WIFE (@LibrettoTaur) July 21, 2017a relatively guaranteed passive audience to fling them at in hopes of landing a few recruits who don't know any better.
— LOT'S WIFE (@LibrettoTaur) July 21, 2017Read the above thread by @LibrettoTaur for excellent insight.
Furries grew a thriving community by themselves. There’s drama, but also plenty of support. It comes naturally in a fandom for things made by each other.
Joining cult-like groups happens for a reason. Good people may not see what goes on behind a false front. Casual involvement can only have the positive side. Lonely people who may not have a place in other groups can be manipulated by smooth talk. Outcasts who have earned consequences for bad behavior can find enabling from organizers who recruit them. They can feel more important by dragging others down.
Ruining things and making battle is the opposite of creative fandom. It can be important to confront bad faith and dishonesty and demand better. It can also be important to listen and give space to people questioning involvement. Nobody needs friends picked for them – it’s just good to let them know that they don’t need a cult for that. The whole fandom has plenty of better friends everywhere.
Picking better friends isn’t “policing”.
Another ex-Raider comes back.
When the article was almost done, I got a nice contact from Stoplight. He talked about leaving the Raiders, so I asked if he wanted to say anything. Keep in mind I didn’t suggest anything, it’s purely his thoughts:
“Right now…as an ex Raider, I’d like to say that there is no excuse for my actions that I did when I associated with the Furry Raiders. They were the result of believing a manipulative and vindictive person who cares not for those he uses. It took a drastic turn of events in which he offered a way out that, in a time when I was suicidal and depressed, was appalling. That was when I realized he doesn’t care about anyone but himself and his image.
After that, I can say that leaving was the best choice for me. It freed me from the weight that was placed on my shoulders. I feel that if anyone is currently thinking of leaving that group I encourage you to do so. You may run into people who still hold a grudge against you, but the number of people who will support that decision will out number those who are holding your past against you.”
Found a piece of my past, and decided to rid myself of it. I never want to remind myself of my past actions. I'm moving on to better things. pic.twitter.com/uQ4Ibk5uNP
— Stop Light (@StopLightDraggo) July 22, 2017A cool thing about a fursona is how it represents changing yourself into something new. You can become your best self, or just grow and be different. A fursona isn’t just for “being yourself,” like Foxler says – “Always be yourself and never let anyone change you”. It’s not for being sociopathic, and expecting everyone else to adjust for you because it’s their problem. It’s not about selfishly making “battle” about Nazi armbands, “Raiding” or harassing because you hate change.
Everyone in furry fandom has power to be something new, but it doesn’t just involve yourself. Furry fandom has that “fandom” part. Make-believe isn’t so fun on your own. Sharing is one of those things you learn in kindergarten. But the small fringe of Altfurries and Foxlers didn’t get the message. They can go figure that out in the corner.
Demand better, and every time they try to drag someone down, let two of them leave and come back to the real fandom.
UPDATE 7/25/17:
Turn more furries into neo nazis. Called him out, and got this. Stereotypical far-right behavior, act like they care then shove you down.
— Feyd (@BluFawx) July 25, 2017
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Ep 170 - Take Me To Church - OH HEY, WE HAVE A WEBSITE NOW TOO www.thedragget…
OH HEY, WE HAVE A WEBSITE NOW TOO www.thedraggetshow.com Patreons will get episodes first right after recording. Just a buck gets you early access and a downloadable mp3 file! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Serathin's amazing Dragget Show story! - docs.google.com/document/d/1AYkJR…y8RCsCK0NjEw/edit ALSO, we're not just on SoundCloud, you can also subscribe to this on most podcast services like iTunes! Ep 170 - Take Me To Church - OH HEY, WE HAVE A WEBSITE NOW TOO www.thedragget…
S6 Episode 18 – P.A.T.T. - Con parties - they're probably one of the first things most hear of when talking about furry conventions. But why? What makes these so damn popular? Are they vital to a good con experience? What's the private party circuit?
NOW LISTEN!
Show Notes
Special Thanks
Joey the Chubby Fox, for the ident in Italian and also English!
Fido
Caudle
Hachi (kinda)
Dark Yuan
Anonyfur
Dee Otter
Music
Opening Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller– Cloud Fields (Radio Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Some music was provided by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. We used the following pieces:
Spy Glass
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Closing Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Headnodic Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Patreon Love
The following people have decided this month’s Fur What It’s Worth is worth actual cash! THANK YOU!
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Want to be on this list? Donate on our Patreon page! THANK YOU to our supporters once again! S6 Episode 18 – P.A.T.T. - Con parties - they're probably one of the first things most hear of when talking about furry conventions. But why? What makes these so damn popular? Are they vital to a good con experience? What's the private party circuit?
It’s Time to Night the Nights
Back from Comic Con, with lots to talk about. So why not start off with something delightfully odd? This fall, the Muppets return in a new illustrated book, Muppets Meet The Classics: The Phantom Of The Opera. Seriously. “This classic tale of love, intrigue, and jealousy at the Paris Opera House, which has thrilled readers, musical lovers, and movie goers for more than a century, has now been reimagined with the cast of the Muppets. Readers will gasp, cry, laugh, and laugh again as Kermit (as Raoul), Miss Piggy (as Christine), Uncle Deadly (as the phantom), and the chickens (as the ballet corps) give a whole new meaning to the word classic.” You read it here. Gaston LeRoux’s famous work has been adapted for the Muppets by Erik Forrest Jackson, and it’s illustrated by Owen Richardson. Look for it in paperback this October.
image c. 2017 Penguin Workshop
Yep... Furries made it to @Midnight :)
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/p1lhwc/-midnight-with-chris-hardwick-a-furry-alternative-to-comic-con
-Dia
Yep... Furries made it to @Midnight :)
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/p1lhwc/-midnight-with-chris-hardwick-a-furry-alternative-to-comic-con
-Dia
Tucker Grizzwell’s Worst Week Ever, by Bill Schorr and Ralph Smith – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Tucker Grizzwell’s Worst Week Ever, by Bill Schorr and Ralph Smith
Kansas City, MO, Andrews McMeel Publishing, January 2017, trade paperback $9.99 (242 pages), Kindle $8.49.
Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy, by Doug Savage
Kansas City, MO, Andrews McMeel Publishing, September 2016, hardcover $31.99, trade paperback $9.97 (144 pages), Kindle $9.47.
Phoebe and Her Unicorn, by Dana Simpson. Introduction by Peter S. Beagle.
Kansas City, MO, Andrews McMeel Publishing, September 2014, hardcover $13.99, trade paperback $9.99 (222 [+2] pages, Kindle $7.71.
These three books are samples of Andrews McMeel Publishing’s “AMP! comics for kids” series for children 8 to 12 years old (grades 3 to 7). The AMP! books are a combination of original book-length cartoon-art works and collections of newspaper or Internet daily comic strips. Most of them are not animal oriented, but here are two that are, plus Dana Simpson’s Phoebe and Her Unicorn, mostly for her previously-acclaimed hit in furry fandom, Ozy and Millie (although Phoebe does contain Marigold the Unicorn, and sometimes goblins). Furry fans may want to take a look at some of these. Many are in public libraries.
Tucker Grizzwell’s Worst Week Ever, by Bill Schorr and Ralph Smith, is a standalone original 242-page spinoff from Schorr’s The Grizzwells newspaper comic strip (1987 to present), featuring a funny-animal family of grizzly bears and their community. The newspaper strip is gag-a-day without any continuity. Schorr and his assistant Smith have tried to create a coherent novel, but what they have here is really a collection of lame one-liners with a thin connecting plot line. Astronomy class: “Do you know anything about asteroid belts?” “Only that they’re what asteroids wear when they can’t find their suspenders.” The characters compound the groaners by often breaking the fourth wall and looking knowingly at the reader. You can almost hear a drum-roll’s bada-boom.
Tucker is the young teenage cub in sixth-grade of middle school, with his slightly older sister Fauna. Other family members are Pop Gunther and Mom Flora. Friends include Pop’s buddy Pierpoint Porcupine, and the cubs’ schoolmates Mandy Fox, Hector Lobo (wolf), Lisa DeLovely (bear; Tucker’s crush), Norville Paddlebutt (beaver), Max Turtle, Walter Blimpnik (bear; school bully); and their school teachers and staff Miss Furball, Ms. Belch, Ms. Swinetrough, Ms. Fishbreath, Mr. Wheelbase. The overly-civilized Tucker’s worst week ever is the week anticipating “the ancient father-son rite of passage known as ‘Jaws and Claws’ weekend”, when his Pop and Pierpont Porcupine will teach him how to terrorize hikers, scare off picnickers (leaving their food behind), raid garbage pails, and eat roadkill.
Looking at this funny-animal comic strip forces the reader to consider the ancient conundrum: Why are female funny-animals always fully clothed, while the pre-puberty boys wear shirts and are nude below the waist? Funny-animal adult males can be either fully dressed, shirted only, or completely nude, depending on the needs of the comic; usually whether the setting is in a town or in the forest.
Anyway, Tucker Grizzwell’s Worst Week Ever is 242 pages of furry nudge-nudge-wink-wink and bada-boom. Buy according to your tastes.
Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy is an original 144-page graphic novel in three chapters by Doug Savage, the Canadian cartoonist who draws the webcomic Savage Chickens. Its sequel, Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy: Disco Fever, will be published in October.
The moose and squirrel rabbit are a couple of animals in the unspoiled Canadian North Woods, right by the factory of Toxicorp, “makers of fine toxic waste since 1892”. I expected that Laser Moose would get his light-saber vision from the flying saucers in the first story, but no, he already has it when the book starts. As you may imagine, it is hard to swing a laser beam around wildly in a thick forest without lopping down trees right and left. The wildlife like Frank the deer isn’t crazy about it, either. Rabbit Boy is a wide-eyed innocent who marvels at the stars and the beauties of nature. Laser Moose is a paranoid who suspects that every tree has a monster hiding behind it.
Rabbit Boy: “Isn’t it amazing? I love the night sky!”
Laser Moose: “Well, I don’t. The night sky is fraught with danger… Night is when evil can hide, under cover of darkness, waiting to strike! At night, evil can creep out from the seedy underbelly of the forest, where it –“
Rabbit Boy: “What’s a ‘seedy underbelly’?”
Laser Moose: “Um…a seedy underbelly is…well, it’s not good.”
Since Laser Moose has laser-beam vision, watch out! He definitely believes in shooting to kill first; asking questions afterward.
The stories are mild parodies of super-hero comic books. Some of the villains, who are real and not just in Laser Moose’s imagination, are Cyborgupine, Aquabear, and Mechasquirrel.
Phoebe and Her Unicorn is the first of five (so far) books; the others are Unicorn on a Roll (May 2015), Unicorn vs. Goblins (February 2016), Razzle Dazzle Unicorn (September 2016), and Unicorn Crossing (March 2017). The next will be The Magic Storm in October 2017. This first book collects her daily strips (six weekly days and a Sunday page) from April 22, 2012 to November 18, 2012 – approximately seven months per volume. The strips are rearranged from newspaper-strip format to book format, typically four panels per page (the Sunday pages are reduced), and colored when the newspaper strips were black-&-white.
Phoebe Howell is a 9-year-old fourth grader at Tipton Elementary who meets a unicorn. The unicorn grants her one wish. She wishes for the unicorn to become her best friend. The unicorn, whose name is Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, moves in with her. Her parents and classmates can see and hear Marigold, but thanks to her magic Shield of Boringness, nobody considers her worth calling to anyone’s attention.
Much of the Phoebe and Her Unicorn comic strip consists of Phoebe riding Marigold as the two converse. Marigold drops words of unicorn wisdom, but since she is also incredibly vain and self-centered (“Bask in my wonderfulness.” “The stars themselves are jealous of my loveliness.”), it’s hard to tell how seriously to take her. Continuing supporting characters include Phoebe’s parents, and her two classmates Dakota, her fabulously rich and beautiful “frenemy” who claims to be vastly superior and constantly calls her insulting names like “Princess Stupidbutt”, and the brainy but nerdy Max. The book concludes with seven pages of children’s activities: how to draw Marigold and Phoebe, “Make a Marigold Heavenly Nostrils Stick Puppet”, and similar others.
Phoebe and Her Unicorn, the book, does not present many anthropomorphic animals besides Marigold, but she is on practically every page doing unicorn things, often involving magic such as making the annoying Dakota’s flowing wavy hair disappear, leaving her as bald as Lex Luthor. (In Unicorn vs. Goblins, Dakota is given sentient hair.) One other magical animal does very briefly appear; Todd the Candy Dragon, who spews trick-or-treat candy on Halloween. Rar. Future volumes may feature other anthropomorphic fantasy animals, such as the small green goblins who say only “BLART!” The Phoebe and Her Unicorn books work as well as collections of gag-a-day comic strip collections usually do.
So: the Andrews McMeel Publishing’s “AMP! comics for kids” series that feature anthro animals are a mixed bag; mostly silly and juvenile, but worth checking out. You may find something to your taste.
- Buy Tucker Grizzwells Worst Week Ever on Amazon
- Buy Laser Moose on Amazon
- Buy Laser Moose Book 2 on Amazon
- Buy Phoebe and Her Unicorn on Amazon
- Buy Unicorn on a Roll on Amazon
- Buy Unicorn vs. Goblins on Amazon
- Buy Razzle Dazzle Unicorn on Amazon
- Buy Unicorn Crossing on Amazon
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Rocko’s Modern Life: Sneek Peek
Early entry for Friday! Since SDCC is going on I expect more things may show up that are worth posting tomorrow as well. New Rocco? This looks like a hoot!
View Video
Trailer: Animal Crackers
Balance in Chaos by Lilith K. Duat – book review by Alecta Andromeda.
Thanks to Alecta Andromeda for contributing a first guest post.
This is a mature content book. Please ensure that you are of legal age to purchase this material in your state or region.
I keep hoping that a new renaissance in furry erotica is upon us, bringing hot, sexy anthro copulation in increasing quality, but the search for real stars in the genre is tough one as the field still needs to find it’s legs.
On that note, I am excited to highlight an exciting name to watch. Lilith K. Duat and Maria Delynn collaborated on the E-book Balance in Chaos. It’s an oddball title with an overload of exposition in places, but overall the furry and erotic elements are well balanced and hot.
The concept itself is also quite the page turner. Anup is a corollary to Egypt’s Anubis, ruling the realm of the dead as an obsessive (and dominant!) master. Some may say that the furry aspect of this novel is light, and it is, but I have a huge thing for Jackals and always wanted to get laid by Anubis. Egypt and Greek gods are colliding in a conflict of souls and waging war over followers. Turns out as one nation invades another, the Gods of the defeated faith suffer a loss of power. The give and take of this conflict laid a great backdrop for the characters, and it was nice to go into the book with a sense of familiarity.
The plot also gives us a perfect backdrop for the sex! Anup is disciplined and moral. Discordia is a God of Chaos. While first embroiled in combat and disdain, Anup takes a sensual control of Discordia and dominates her with the sheer might of his Jackal manhood. The hesitation, the temptation, the wrongness and star crossed lover plot is a little cliche, but works every way it should.
Me personally, I like my erotica with a hint of violence and sadism (check out my own work to see me go to all sorts of nasty extremes) and Chaos and Balance gives a good dose of that. Discordia’s relationship with her brother Ares is tumultuous, leading to a few torture scenes that honestly got my rocks right off. It’s not so bad as to be out of place or a turn off for more casual readers. The violence works for the plot increasing the desire and love between the protagonists.
Overall, it’s a great read. It’s not the nonstop sex obsessed rave most people consider with a “furry” erotica, but it is nonetheless a sexy book and sure to leave you satisfied and ready for a shower!
Hotness rating 4 out of 5 knots.
- Read Lillith’s book here!
- For Alecta’s blog with NSFW images and story samples, check out her Tumblr page.
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Another Shaggy Dog Story
Now there’s a new full-color graphic novel for young readers with the interesting title of Dog Night at the Story Zoo. It’s written by Dan Bar-El and illustrated by Vicki Nerino. Here’s how the publisher says it: “It’s Open Mic Night at the Story Zoo and the dogs are up to tell their tales in this hilarious graphic novel for young readers. At the Story Zoo, you get to tell any story you want in front of the live audience, as long as it’s about you. And tonight is dog night. So sit back, relax, and let these dogs tell their tales. We’ve got some hilarious but quite touching stories from dogs of all kinds, including a bulldog who doesn’t wanted to be judged by his looks; a bloodhound who loses her power of scent and turns to a dog called Surelick Holmes for help; an energetic poodle who saves the day with her yapping; and a stray who takes fetching to a whole new level.” Got all that? It’s available now in hardcover. [And we’ll see YOU all after a quick trip to San Diego Comic Con!]
image c. 2017 Tundra Books
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How furries became a fandom - SyFy.com
How furries became a fandom - SyFy.com
FA 079 Murrsuits - SAVAGE LOVE! MURRSUITS! MUSKY HUSKIES! All this and more on this week's Feral Attraction!
Hello everyone!
On this week's show we open with the segment that Viro had on the Savage Lovecast with Dan Savage. We discuss why Metriko was not involved (it's okay) and what our intended points were. Thanks again to Dan Savage and his team for allowing us to air this content for you to enjoy.
Our main topic is on murrsuits. We discuss the practicality and the acceptability of the murrsuit. We discuss the difference between modified fursuits and murrsuits, whether they should be worn in public, and how to take care of your suit. It's another dive into the deep end as we go into one of the more popular (and scandalous) fetishes in the furry fandom.
We close out the show with two questions: one on dating if you are neurologically atypical, the other on how to date someone who comes from a traditional family that does not approve of your relationship-- at what point should you dump your bride to be when their family is abusive?
For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
FA 079 Murrsuits - SAVAGE LOVE! MURRSUITS! MUSKY HUSKIES! All this and more on this week's Feral Attraction!Trailer: The Shape of Water
This one goes out to all aquatics out there. This really looks like a sneaky Hellboy prequel as the "Creatre" looks like Abe Sapien it's also played by the same actor. "From master story teller, Guillermo del Toro, comes THE SHAPE OF WATER - an other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. Rounding out the cast are Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg and Doug Jones."
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Engagement
*tap tap* This thing on?
Oh, yes, hi! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
A long while.
The last post of substance was by Howl back in January. My last post was…oh gosh. September 7th, last year. Ten months was an awful long time ago.
In that time, I’ve received several emails about the state of [a][s]. One of them dubbed this period “The Quiet”, which I feel is pretty accurate, even if it makes me feel a little sad.
Those emails have sat in my inbox. I’ve read them all. Each has three or four drafts prepared for it, none of which I’ve had the wherewithal to send. They’re just there, staring me right in the eye every day – I have four active email accounts, which are tiled neatly in a pinned browser tab, and [a][s] was bottom-left. It was there. Just a big, accusatory Draft.
There are even a few emails stuck in there with more in-depth questions: queries, of sorts, for the publication of articles. Each of those has been ticked with a star, GMail’s nifty way of saying, “this is important, you should probably get to it, soon.”
Sigh.
Oh, and then there’s the furry poll.
Ah jeez.
So, I owe everyone a serious, serious apology. I’ve let a lot of folks down, not least of which myself. [adjective][species] is a labor of love for me, as it is and was for so many others, and letting it fall apart like this does everyone a disservice.
Let’s sit down and see what happened, and figure out ways to fix it. Makyo’s good at a lot of things, and talking something to death is definitely one of them.
A not-so-short digression on depression and furryDepression is a strange thing.
I’ve tried at several points to capture some sense of it in words, but nothing’s ever quite fit. Whenever I do, I find myself using a lot of ellipses, just to fill in, textually, my fumbling for words with enough meaning. I’ll come up with, “I dunno. My brain just isn’t all me. Like… It’s something else. It’s there and exerts influence on me life, but it spends an inordinate about of time trying to destroy me.”
Or poetry. I’ve tried to throw that at depression, too, but it just comes out sounding stilted and weird. I wind up talking about fire a lot. Fire and, for some reason, geese.
Which is nonsense, really, but each in such a way that seems to cover at least one small corner of depression.
Depression is big. It’s vast and terrible and empty. Completely empty, and there you are, in the middle of it, feeling bad.
There’s just no sense to it. No sense in trying to describe nothing. A “nothing” which is also nonsensical.
And yet I keep trying. We keep trying.
Much of early [a][s] was borne out of depression. The site was just a blog, the name just a play on a trend in character naming, but the writing was a piece of myself. Each post was a tiny rock to throw at this vasty nothingness. Justifying the things I like, delineating the craziness of our subculture, gushing about gender (I know, I’m sorry, I did that a lot), these were all ways for me to pound my fists against nothing at all.
A scant five months after I started the site, I crashed hard, and after that, I just buried myself in it – in the site and in furry. I found ways to get even furrier, if that was possible, just to try and fill that big ol’ nothingness.
I splashed around in great heaps of data, scrabbling at every pebble of knowledge I could find beneath the surface.
I prowled through the tangled thicket of FA and Weasyl, hunting for artists to highlight.
And I took way too many metaphors way, way too far.
And you know what? It worked.
At least, after a fashion. I started to feel fulfillment. I started filling my weekends with writing. I got in trouble with JM for writing an article on a tablet in a plane just so that I could get it up on a Wednesday. I started to gain energy just from the act of spending energy on something I loved wholeheartedly.
I was also tackling depression in more tangible ways, of course. I started on meds and dug into the task of finding something to help make that nothingness more livable. Meds, after all, don’t just sweep it away, and they certainly don’t make me any less myself, but they do help me perceive where I am. They’re a fine set of glasses for helping me see which things I’m burning myself up over are real, and which are just phantoms in that empty space – Makyo, after all, means ‘ghost cave’.
I started transition, too, which helped improve my life in so many ways that I could did write a several posts about it. I won’t gush about it too much more, here.
Not all of this flailing was healthy, natch. I started drinking heavily, because that’d soften the edges of nothing. I started withdrawing from friends because they weren’t there in the nothing with me.
And it all got to be too much. A few weeks after my last substantial post here, I collapsed in the kitchen, and there was a whole lot more nothing than I was used to. At Mountain Crest, the mental health clinic in Fort Collins, I was taken into an office for a few hours to talk about meds, alcohol, interactions, and so on.
With my new-found sobriety (or at least moderation) under my belt, I started getting back into the furry thing, the healthier way of filling a tiny corner that infinitely empty space with meaning.
And [a][s] sat here.
I ran or helped run six panels at FC, was art track lead, and got to spend time with five other members of the polycule being huge furry nerds.
I started editing a furry fiction anthology, Arcana, based around the major arcana of the RWS tarot deck.
I ran for – and was elected – president of the Furry Writers’ Guild.
And [a][s] still sat here.
Those few months when I was burning too bright in an attempt to light up vast, crenellated spaces of nothing caught up with me. I borrowed a little too much time from the future and that nothing started winning out. Again.
Anyway.
All of the stuff that I loved felt poisoned to me, tainted by the fact that I burned so hard in an attempt to light up all this nothing a little better. I started feeling forced to like these things because I was trammeled by this indescribably empty space with them.
But I had I forgot that I do love them. Earnestly and with all my heart.
I love [a][s]. I love the FWG. I love Arcana and that I can work on it. I love writing a thousand unapologetic words about my relationship with furry and depression. I love furry.
I just need to engage in a healthy manner.
I have my own lessons to take from this, but those are mine. Let’s talk about us, and our lessons. Well, lesson: [adjective][species] must change.
This is pretty obvious, if only from a personal point of view. I need to be able to engage with it in a more healthy manner. No more article-a-week, and definitely no more no-articles-for-ten-months.
This could also mean that my role as editor needs to shift. I would more than happily share that role. I could even step down, if a convincing argument was made.
But above even that, [a][s] itself needs to change. We need to have a conversation about what needs this resource fills.
- What roles does the project play within the fandom, now that it’s been around for for five and a half years?
- Are articles and data still the best way to engage with an audience, or should we branch out?
- Is the voice of the project too broad, or not broad enough?
- Should the project try to expand, or reduce its scope? Should it spin off new projects, or should it – and we need to admit this as a possibility – decide that 5 years was a good run and draw a line at the end of the page?
[a][s] is a good thing. I’ll always stand by that. It became a resource for talking about the fandom from several different angles. Writers picked up their own voices and added them into this weird and weirdly wonderful stream of posts that ran on for years.
So. With the idea that [a][s] should remain a good thing, what are our next steps?
The comments are open, of course, but please do feel free to email me directly, hit me up on twitter, or on mastodon if you would like!
Trailer: Lino
reWritten, by Jako Malan – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
reWritten, by Jako Malan
Plainfield, CT, Goal Publications, April 2017, trade paperback $15.00 (200 [+2] pages).
The setting of reWritten is a world from which humans have disappeared and been replaced with anthropomorphized Mammalœ.
It’s best not to dwell on the confusing background. The Mammalœ are aware of man’s past existence:
“We are, indeed, not the first to call this world our home. Bright-eyed and naive, our earliest ancestors wandered forth as the sun set on the age of man and rose for Mammalœ. The ruins of their magnificent civilization would be both the foundation and inspiration for our own.” (p. 1)
What happened to man? It doesn’t sound like man became extinct through war, unless it was a war that didn’t include blast damage – the Mammalœ consider man’s ruins to be “magnificent”. Have the Mammalœ (the narrator is an anthro jackal; others are aardvarks, meerkats, springboks, rats, rabbits, mongooses, servals, cheetahs, etc.) evolved to replace man? That would take millions of years. Surely there wouldn’t be anything of man’s left to seem “magnificent”. The Mammalœ civilization seems like a rundown funny-animal imitation of man’s; a smoky city that includes coal power, rickety electric trams, hand-cranked automobiles for the rich; most Mammalœ riding bicycles… The Mammalœ such as the rat and zebra are all the same size, presumably human. It’s easier to just accept that man was here but is gone now, and anthro mammals (Malan is South African; so is the setting – the Mammalœ currency is even rands, not dollars) have replaced him in early-20th-century-style cities.
Professor M. (for Makwassie) van Elsburg (a jackal), head of the Department of Anthropology and History at Mammalaœ University in Bridgend (apparently a major Mammalœ city), is approached at a reception by rich Mr. Oberholzer (a hyrax), the patriarch of the Bridgend Energy Cartel. Prof. van Elsburg recognizes him as one of the most influential and notorious mobsters in Bridgend. (He flaunts it; what’s the point of being influential and notorious if everyone doesn’t know it?) Oberholzer is also interested in the history and disappearance of man, and he has a private museum in his mansion. Five months earlier he and an associate had organized an expedition to the ruins of a human city that they hoped would provide more information. The expedition disappeared; simultaneously Oberholzer’s private collection was burglarized, and his servants began being followed. Oberholzer wants Prof. van Elsburg to lead a second expedition to the ruins, to find the hoped-for information and any clues to the vanished first expedition. Elsburg objects that he’s late-middle-aged and sedentary, without any experience in exploring, but Oberholzer’s request is similar to Don Vito Corleone’s offer that can’t be refused.
“‘Take the train to the Ashton precinct.’ Mr. Oberholzer’s last instructions interrupted my train of thought. ‘That is as far as the railways will take you. In town, I will arrange for my associate to meet you. He will brief you from there onwards. I have already contacted him with the particulars of the assignment. Be vigilant, Professor. Don’t discuss your task with anyone. And don’t disappoint me.’” (pgs. 31-32)
The reader will have already seen the book’s blurbs that describe it as “an existential horror story”:
“In a world only superficially similar to our own, it asks questions that have no easy answers, and answers questions that may have been better left unasked.”
Or in other words: There are things that Mammalœ were never meant to know!
reWritten is curiously like an Indiana Jones-type adventure with attempted assassination, creepy ruins, ominous visions, betrayal, cannibalism. mental programming, body possession, flying death machines, ferocious wild carnivores, etc., as narrated by an old-fashioned slightly stuffy college professor. Little touches in his narrative reinforce this:
“Opening the tent carefully, I peeked outside. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, but could smell the burnt residue from low-grade propellant above that of trauma,” (p. 53)
He’s talking about smelling gunpowder and blood. That’s a wordy way of describing the odor of burnt gunpowder and blood.
“Having dressed myself and finished my morning prayers, I stepped out of the tent again to embrace the fourth day away from home for a second time. My nose tingled with the characteristic aroma of burning coal, above that of chicory brewing in a pot.” (p. 55)
How many explorers start their days with morning prayers? Chicory is usually considered a poor substitute for coffee when coffee is unavailable.
Prof. van Elsburg heads into the Wastelands leading a squad of five mercenaries: Dunswart, a one-eyed honey badger; Marlboro, a stringy meerkat; Xanadu, a burly Cape Buffalo; Magalies, a crazy painted dog; and Isando, an adolescent kudu. Guess what will happen to them?
“The bartender [a bulldog] nodded again; clearly, they [he and Dunswart] had some form of mutual understanding. He appeared to be cut out for his job. An ancient scar stretched across his forehead and muzzle, his arms were muscular, and his dirty apron hid the outlines of a large revolver at his hip.
‘What can I get ye?’ he asked.
‘Something strong, please,’ I replied.” (p. 39)
Here is a description of starting the expedition’s truck on a freezing day:
“Pumping the accelerator, Marlboro opened a valve under the dashboard. The engine bulged with compressed air stored from the last time it ran. One or two bitter cycles later, it spat a tongue of flame before dying. Saturated black smoke poured from the exhaust pipe just beside and above the driver’s door. I was vindicated. It was not just I who did not like the cold!” (p. 48)
The writing is wordy and florid by modern standards. I do not know if this is Malan’s natural style, or he is trying to emulate a 1910s-era slightly pedantic academic. Some of the word choices seem peculiar. “The [railway] conductor, a brown hare, leered impatiently at his pocket watch.” Leered? “An oncoming train stormed past, its obnoxious horn clefting the night.” Not “cleaving”? “Smelt” instead of “smelled”. “‘Amazing,’ lamented Isandro.” “Three rifles and a revolver bayed for her blood, […]”
Here is one of the human ruins, of a railway station:
“The glass door had shattered. We stepped right through the naked steel frame into a dark lobby with a layer of sand and debris covering the floor. The ceilings were tall and adorned with dead light fixtures.” (p. 56)
It doesn’t seem like man has been gone for more than a few centuries at most; a very short time for Mammalœ to repopulate the world.
This review is saying nothing further about the plot, or about what the expedition finds. That’s for the reader to discover. There are some real surprises and, lest I appear to not have read the ending, much of what I say earlier is contradicted. What I have described is the old-fashioned writing style and the attempt to develop a horror-tale mood:
“‘Many strange and terrible things lay in wait on these plains,’ Anzac [a hyena] said. ‘Mother told me stories that would make your skin crawl. Who knows what terrible event ended her life.’” (p. 66)
“It was a buffet of misery, and there was only one guest at this feast.” (p. 96)
reWritten (cover by Tim Jardim) is a different furry novel; supposedly “an existential horror story”, but more mysterious and portentous (and science-fictional) than frightening and horrific (and supernatural), and with an elderly, non-heroic hero who dithers more than he reacts. It’s certainly a change from the in-your-face horror novels that scream and gibber at you. I liked it; I hope you will, too.
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Elf-topia?
Among the big announcements to come out of this year’s D23 Expo (Disney’s bi-annual convention for their biggest and geekiest fans — hey, your ed-otter is one!) is news of an as-yet-untitled new CGI film from Pixar… a “suburban fantasy”. According to a preview at Entertainment Weekly, “During the fan convention’s animation panel on Friday, John Lasseter introduced director Dan Scanlon to unveil details about a new original film on Pixar’s upcoming slate, filling in one of the cryptic untitled slots on the studio’s release schedule. Lasseter described the film as ‘an adventure set in a suburban fantasy world,’ and Scanlon, who helmed Monsters University, debuted concept art showing a large winged creature flying over a small town at sunset. Set in a human-less world of elves, trolls, sprites, and ‘pretty much anything that would be on the side of a van in the ‘70s,’ the movie follows two teenage brothers whose father died when they were young; now, they’re on a quest through this mundane, modern fantasy world to somehow find a way to spend one last magical day with their father.” Oh and by the way, there are unicorns everywhere. and a dragon or two thrown into the mix as well. No word on a release date yet (or a title!), but speculation is leaning toward the summer of 2020 or 2021.
image c. 2017 The Disney Company
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