Feed aggregator

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Domino, by Kia Heavey.
Greenwich, CT, Unfiltered Creative, January 2016, trade paperback $11.95 (267 pages), Kindle $3.49.

Domino is a large black-&-white barn cat on the Browns’ farm, encouraged to roam it for rodent control. He is unneutered to make him more aggressive. He is complacent as one of the socially dominant cats in the nearby residential neighborhood prowl, along with his best friend Flufferdoodle and others such as Tiger, Cricket, Mister, Lady, Rudy, and Izzy.

Then two new cats enter the neighborhood. Celine is a black field stray who likes a free life, living outside of being a housecat. She becomes Domino’s equal, supporter, and eventually mate. Socrates is a supercilious but charismatic Siamese intellectual who spellbinds most of the other cats with the philosophy that all animals are transcendent – they can transcend their feral instincts if they only try. They all have souls and similar emotions. The cats all have humans who feed them, so they don’t need to go hunting for prey. Domino is amused at first, then alarmed as he sees more and more of his friends listening to Socrates. He is gradually isolated and sidelined as a social boor and killer of helpless wildlife. Domino suspects that Socrates and his housemate, Max the dog, have an ulterior motive, but he can’t figure out what it is.

Then Socrates introduces the rats.

The cover by Damon Bowie shows that either Domino is a small cat, or those are large rats. Domino is a very large cat.

Heavey writes clever dialogue:

“The rat’s back end was invisible in the sharp shadow alongside the wall, but its front end was starkly lit in the harsh midday sunlight. It was still panting from its recent dash for its life, but with its would-be killer safely in sight, it soon regained its typical arrogance. ‘Well, well, not so fast today, are we, cat?’

Domino’s sensitive ears flicked at the squeaky tones of the rat’s voice. ‘I’m not the one who was so scared I pissed myself,’ he replied. While he spoke, his eyes scanned the scene, seeking a way to approach the creature.

The rat laughed. ‘Maybe so, but I’m not the one who ran through it. Even now, I can smell my piss on you. When you bathe later, enjoy the taste,’ it taunted. ‘That’s what you like anyway, isn’t it?’

‘And you little sociopaths wonder why we kill your species whenever we get the chance.’ As Domino bantered, his mind raced. If only he could gain the shadow, he could slither along the base of the tumbledown wall. He took a tentative step closer.” (p. 3)

—

“‘Come here, you’ve got to meet the new guy,’ said a tabby cat with the predictable name of Tiger.

‘Looking forward to it,’ said Domino. Since Socrates had not moved, he allowed himself to be led to the odd cat. ‘Welcome,’ he meowed when he reached him.

Socrates didn’t look at Domino so much as he evaluated the way the other cats treated the barn cat: with deference and respect. His eyes narrowed before he finally returned Domino’s look. ‘Nice of you to join us,’ he said finally. He did not come down from his strange sitting up position.

‘I know you’re new to the neighborhood,’ began Domino, ‘but around here, we greet by touching noses.’

‘How quaint.’” (p. 15)

—

“As Domino watched, a smaller creature emerged from the woods, ghostly pale and eerily calm. It was Socrates, trailing along behind Max to see that Rudy was properly dispatched. Domino’s fur bristled so hard it made his skin hurt. Socrates sat and watched with cold eyes as Max finished with the body and dropped it, eventually lost interest, and sniffed his way to a nearly tussock, lifting his leg to urinate on it.

Socrates was innocent, Domino remembered Rudy saying. But certainly not now, he thought. That cat is as evil and corrupt as the meanest rat ever born.” (p. 151)

Domino builds slowly, but once it reaches its climax, there does not seem to be any way for Domino to survive. The climax is a shocker. The novel’s ending, while pleasant, is a bit of an anticlimax. But don’t miss the book’s first 259 pages.

• Buy on Amazon.

– Fred Patten

Alkali has been crazy busy at work, so for now, a betweenasode! I'm pretty sure we are planning on doing a stream this weekend, so stay tuned!!! Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us a buck or two, we'd greatly appreciate it. www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow ALSO, we're not just on SoundCloud, you can also subscribe to this on most podcast services like iTunes! Don't forget to hang out in our telegram chat, now w/ over 100 members!telegram.me/draggetshow Mouse Talk - Addicted 2 Food & Vidya - Alkali has been crazy busy at work, so for now, a…

Here is the student film from directors of the upcoming short Shine: https://vimeo.com/198561383
View Video

Recently, I posted “The history of My Little Pony and thoughts about growing up with cartoons” to prepare for chat with Sherilyn Connelly.  Sherilyn is a journalist local to the San Francisco Bay Area Furries. (She has given them notice in publications like SF Weekly.) Her first book is out this April: Ponyville Confidential, a pop culture history of the My Little Pony media empire. (Please like the book’s Facebook page!)

Hi Sherilyn, thanks for talking about Ponyville Confidential!  Let me start by asking – who needs to read it? Will it be manely for fans?  Will there be parts to tempt furry readers?

“Manely!” I see what you did there. Obviously everypony needs to read it, and it’s by no means intended just for My Little Pony fans; I hope that people who are interested in pop-culture history in general will give it a look as well. And there are many references to the Furry fandom, including shout-outs to Frolic, Further Confusion, and Anthrocon.

I know you as a committed, active fan who comes to Furry events and writes journalism about them (and movies, and more.) Can you give a brief intro about your background and writing?

I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since I was old enough to want to be anything at all. I started writing professionally for SF Weekly in 2011 — within a few months when I started grad school and began watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, so it was a momentous year in retrospect — and wrote quite a lot about the the local Furry scene at the time. I began contributing film reviews to the Village Voice in 2012, and became the Weekly‘s permanent film critic in January 2013.

I hear this is your first book, congrats – how excited are you? Would anything surprise you about how it might be received?

Very excited, and yet strangely numb; I don’t think it’s really hit me yet, mostly because as I write this I haven’t yet held the published book in my hands. I’m sure it’ll seem very real when that fateful package arrives. Indeed, it’s all so abstract right now that the only thing that would truly surprise me at this point would be for Joan Didion to come out of retirement and write about it for the New York Review of Books. And since that ain’t gonna happen…

Will it get fandom promotion, have a place in the regular publishing world, or will you do hoofwork to promote it yourself like with readings?

It’s being published by McFarland & Company, a well-established purveyor of scholarly nonfiction books — though, for the record, Ponyville Confidential‘s specific genre is scholarly sparkliness — and McFarland’s titles are found in both public and academic libraries around the world. (For sure, I’ll be checking WorldCat on a regular basis in the coming months to see what far-flung shelves it’s landed on, which is possibly the nerdiest version of ego-surfing this side of Google-Scholaring yourself.) That said, I will indeed be doing a lot of hoofwork to promote it on my own, including readings at local libraries and bookstores. As for whether any segment of the fanbase chooses to promote it, I can’t begin to predict — though I do hope the fans of My Little Pony Generations 1-3 enjoy the book, since it’s for them in a lot of ways.

You do library events with a screening and discussion of MLP:FiM. That’s a good way to connect with people for real. What part did it play for your book?

Truth be told, none at all. My monthly TV Club is for fillies and colts 4-8 years old (who are too young to read Ponyville Confidential) and is part of my other day job as a librarian. Between that and writing for the Voice and the Weekly, I’m fortunate that my paying gigs also allow me to engage on a professional level with the pop culture I already enjoy. Can’t ask for more than that, really.

The book comes out at the same time as BABSCON 2017, sharing some organizers with SF Bay furry groups.

You called Ponyville Confidential well-researched with a bit of a political view (but fun silly parts too.) What might be provocative about it?

The research was one of the most fun parts of writing the book; the last 40-50 pages are entirely taken up by the double-column Bibilography, and are preceded by about two dozen pages of double-column chapter notes, so I make a point of showing my work whenever I’m stating facts and figures. If you think the 1986 Transformers: The Movie is awesome and are offended that I would describe it as “a financial failure,” please direct your flames to the August 30, 1987 Los Angeles Times.

Some readers will no doubt be irritated that just like on Friendship Is Magic, indefinite personal pronouns in Ponyville Confidential take the form of “anypony,” “somepony,” and so forth — scholarly sparkliness, yo! — but what I suspect may prove most provocative is that the book is very much from my point of view and nopony else’s. Which seems like it should go without saying, and it’s of course the case with pretty much every single-author book ever written, particularly history books; that’s why even though there are already dozens of biographies of LBJ, the four books Robert Caro has written so far in his The Years of Lyndon Johnson series total over 3,000 pages, and yet he’s only now getting to Johnson’s actual presidency. But many more people have much stronger feelings about My Little Pony than LBJ at the moment, and my superhellaleftyqueerfeminist politics often shine through (in Ponyville Confidential, not The Years of Lyndon Johnson). The people who share my general worldview will like that aspect, and those who don’t will not — and I am not unaware of the irony that the publisher of this queer-positive, smash-the-gender-binary book is based in North Carolina.

Also, I don’t wave the flag of any organized fandom. The only My Little Pony fans I interact with on a regular basis are the kids at the library, so I didn’t realize until researching Ponyville Confidential just how different my feelings about the franchise are compared to many of the Bronies — particularly regarding the Equestria Girls films, the backlash against which by Bronies and civilians alike I examine in great detail. But I realized early on than I could either write the book I wanted to write, or I could choose to not fully express myself for fear of getting Tweeted at by strangers who are angry that my opinions about My Little Pony are contrary to their own, so I decided to take a cue from Lin-Manuel Miranda and not throw away my shot. (Again, that’s why I decided to use ponyfied pronouns for Ponyville Confidential, since they wouldn’t be appropriate for the new, non-Pony film history book I’m currently writing.) Other people will no doubt write their own books about the history of My Little Pony working from the same set of facts, and come to different conclusions — and I look forward to reading those books! — but Ponyville Confidential is my take on the subject.

“This live production of My Little Pony y Equestria Girls: El Show en Vivo is discussed on pp. 179-180 of Ponyville Confidential, and the show is still going strong in Mexico City!”

Do you have any feeling about coming as a non-household name to a property that is one?

Heh. Let’s put it this way: outside of my friends and family, I’m under no illusion that the anypony who buys the book is doing so because it’s written by the film critic for a disreputable alt-weekly. I’m also well aware that being the only critic whose reviews of all four Equestria Girls films are listed on Rotten Tomatoes also doesn’t count for a hill of beans, but I’m a little proud of it, which is clear based on the fact that I just went out of my way to mention it.

You told me about being inspired by David Gerrold’s writing about Star Trek. How does that relate to ponies?

Star Trek comes up a few times in Ponyville Confidential, and David Gerrold’s books The Trouble With Tribbles (about that making of that episode, which he wrote) and The World of Star Trek (about the original series overall) were my introduction to nonfiction about pop culture. I read The Trouble with Tribbles dozens of times growing up, and quote from it in my book regarding the Friendship Is Magic episode “Swarm of the Century.” Nothing would make me happier than for somepony growing up with My Little Pony to read Ponyville Confidential and be inspired to write their own book someday about a beloved pop-culture franchise — though, to be clear, I am not suggesting any kind of equivalency between me and Mr. Gerrold. In addition to him being a faaaaaaaaaaaar more accomplished writer, he has been intimately involved with Star Trek since the original series and is an authority on the subject, whereas I am merely a My Little Pony fan with no official connection to the franchise.

Think about how MLP is regarded among kid-type media… in the past and now. I have a feeling there have been a few surprising changes. What’s changed, and what hasn’t?

What has changed is that there isn’t nearly as much of a cultural distinction between media intended for children and that intended for adults, hence seven of the ten highest-grossing films of 2016 being franchise pictures based on properties originally intended for children — even the single R-rated film is based on a comic book character, albeit a quote-edgy-unquote one — and the three of them not based on an existing intellectual properties are PG-rated cartoons. What hasn’t changed is that the majority of them are geared toward boys (read: lots of shit blowing up and punches being thrown, albeit at a PG-13 level) and/or have primarily male casts. Though My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is popular across demographic boundaries to an extent that lead to widespread head-scratching in the media, it should be interesting to see how the My Little Pony feature film slated to come out this October will fare. I have a hunch that it won’t do very well, but I’m also a terrible futurist.

I know you used Transformers to compare and contrast – are there other shows or types of media that make good comparison too?

The Transformers toy range is the salient point of comparison with My Little Pony because they’re Hasbro stablemates that appeared both appeared in the early 1980s, and their fortunes have always been rather intertwined. Transformers: The Movie premiered a few months after My Little Pony: The Movie in 1986, though it’s worth noting that while the Transformers movie came after the third season of the original Transformers cartoon, there had only been two half-hour Pony television specials before the Pony movie was released to theaters, and the single-season My Little Pony ‘n Friends series had not yet debuted. That said, I also make references in Ponyville Confidential to Star Wars, the aforementioned Star Trek, and the current run of Marvel films, mostly in terms of controversies over commercialism. (Spoiler: there’s a huge double standard between My Little Pony and the others.)

Did you learn anything notable about the history of MLP, like that dormant period between 1992-2003?

Lots, and in some ways it’s the most important section of the book. (By the way, I’d like to officially apologize to the non-English-speaking countries in which the toys continued to be produced throughout that 1990s; it was necessary for clarity’s sake to treat the franchise as moribund.) What struck me the most about the period I call the Long Dark Saturday Morning of the Soul is how even though My Little Pony was no longer being produced in North America or the UK, it was evoked whenever somepony needed an example of what they considered to be the worst aspects of children’s entertainment, or by a producer who wanted to provide an example of what their awesome new cartoons would not be like. It was also frequently referred to as a Saturday morning cartoon, when My Little Pony ‘n Friends was a syndicated show broadcast on weekdays, and it’s lesser-known 1992 followup My Little Pony Tales was an afternoon show on the Disney Channel. It’s a minor but telling detail, because it demonstrates that criticizing My Little Pony for its misdeeds never requires knowing what its deeds actually are. One of my favorites was in 1999 when Billboard described My Little Pony as having “made the leap from retail to Saturday morning cartoons and then video” in the early 1980s, and that it “paved the way for numerous others,” none of which is accurate.

Did you learn anything about the fandom for it, like how how older generation fans compare to new ones?

Short answer: Oh my yes. Slightly longer answer, at least in terms of letters: Read the book.

Let’s look beyond the show. MLP is upbeat and positive and not so focused on competitive values… something we could use in difficult times. The book blurb mentions “cultural significance” of the show.  What bigger trends do you see?

I think the cultural significance of My Little Pony can best be summed by the fact that we’re still talking about it after thirty-some years. The bigger, more unfortunate trend that I found — and which has been played out on the national stage in a truly horrifying manner after I finished writing Ponyville Confidential last May — is that sexism, misogyny, and the fear of feminism are still alive and well in our culture. But I also find a glimmer of hope in the young boys who are growing up with Friendship Is Magic — such as the ones who attend TV Club, and participate just as enthusiastically as the girls — and I believe that some of them may become adults who make the world a slightly more compassionate place. And every bit will help.

Can you share a few words for writers who may be reading, especially from the semi-pro-fan level, like from the Furry Writers Guild?

Write! If you’re a writer, do it. Make many words about the things that interest you. Most of those words will be terrible at first, and nopony may want to put them on paper, but keep at it.

Boy, IDW Comics are jumping in with both feet (or is it all four?) with a new full-color comic called Animal Noir. “Anthropomorphic animals like you’ve never seen them before. It’s Chinatown meets Animal Farm, and just like the George Orwell classic, Lunacek and Juren’s animals are an allegory for today’s world. Private Investigator (and giraffe), Immanuel Diamond – Manny to his friends – has been asked by his uncle – an influential judge — to track down a prey fantasy movie. Adult films in this world are staged hunts where one animal eats another, and the judge’s wife starred in one that has been hidden (until now). Giraffe detectives, hippo mob members, prey-obsessed lions, street fighting elephants, and oppressed zebras are just part of this wild animal kingdom.” Should we mention that several critics noticed that Zootopia reminded them of Chinatown too? Nah, probably not. Created by Nejc Juren and Izar Lunacek, Animal Noir #1 is due on the comic book shelves this coming March.

image c. 2017 IDW Comics

I still find it amazing the quality of fan productions these days.
View Video

​Hello,

I have a strange issue: I have fallen in love with a fursona/fursuit. I really like the person that is the creator of this character. When I see them, or are close to them, I feel like a teenager again. I feel my cheeks flush, and feel something stirring inside of me I thought was dead. When they are with me, I feel proud, like that guy who has the most beautiful girl in the room. I feel like I am in a bad SoFurry story. I know this isn't right. I have told them about my feelings.
 
Sadly, I love the person on the inside, but not romantically. I feel my feelings for the character may cause the person to feel I am romantically attracted to them. It makes me feel horrible, and I am afraid I will hurt their feelings, and that will just kill me. I do not know how to reconcile this in my head, since I know it is all fantasy, even though I wish it was real.

Thanks.
Xela (age 55)

* * *
​
Hi, Xela,
 
Thanks for your letter. Question: what is it about the fursona that you really love? Is it just the appearance, or something more?
 
Papabear
 
* * *
 
I will be honest. There are several things. Lookswise, I am immediately attracted in several ways. Someone I would love to be seen with, I find the attraction in my heart, I feel so up to be with her. And as much as I hate to admit it, she turns me on, as well. If anthros were real, I would do anything in my power to be her mate. Also, the hugs are magnificent, and she treats people so good, and has a great outlook. I realize the person inside has this component, but my mind makes all of this one package. When we are apart, I can rationally think this. When I am with her, my heart beats faster, my temperature goes up, and I just want to hold her. Like a teenager in love.
 
I hope this helps show my thinking. Thank You!
 
Xela
 
* * *
 
Hi, Xela,
 
Sounds like you are attracted mostly to the appearance of the fursona. This is not at all an unusual phenomenon, and it happens not just in the furry fandom but across the board with fictional characters (cf. http://www.themarysue.com/the-psychology-of-fandom/). People often become enamored by characters and then associate that character with the actor who plays them, and it can be difficult to disassociate the two. An extreme example might be someone falling in love with Captain Kirk and then having feelings for William Shatner, even after discovering that Shatner, in real life, is, well, kind of a big jerk.
 
You say you really love the fursona, and even though you like the person who created it, you don’t actually love them. You’re worried you might somehow be leading them on, but has she ever expressed any emotions toward you? My guess is no and that you are worrying about nothing. Now, if she behaved as if she was falling in love with you, you might have a problem and have to have a sit-down with her, but unless she does that, I would just say continue as you are and have fun with it.
 
Since you aren’t deluding yourself that the fursona is real and you could somehow have a genuine romantic relationship with it, you must have a solid grasp of reality, and that’s great.
 
You should be less hard on yourself and less fretful that this is all so so serious. It isn’t. This is all fantasy, and you acknowledge that. So have fun with it! There is actually nothing wrong with indulging in a little fantasy, allowing yourself to get twitterpated over the sexy, huggable, friendly furry and just be happy with that. Who knows, you might also gain some experience in having a healthy relationship in the real world, such as getting lots of practice with hugs and displays of affection and kindness.
 
My advice, in conclusion, is to just enjoy the moment; don’t worry about the girl inside falling in love with you unless she actually does; and just be happy and furry.
 
Hugs,
Papabear

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Culdesac; A Novella from the War With No Name, by Robert Repino.
NYC, Soho Press, November 2016, trade paperback $9.99 (110 pages + an 11-page preview of D’Arc), Kindle $7.99.

This is a side-story to Repino’s Mort(e), reviewed here in June 2015. In Mort(e), the ants declare a war of extinction against mankind. In addition to fighting humanity by themselves, including producing human-sized ant warriors, they use their “mysterious technology” to transform all animals into anthropomorphic intelligent beings. “Suddenly, farm animals, ferals, and pets could think and speak. Their bodies changed, allowing them to walk on their hind legs and use their hands like a human.” (p. 1)

The protagonist of Mort(e) is Sebastian, a pet housecat. When he is transformed, he takes the name Mort(e) and becomes a warrior in the elite Red Sphinx guerilla company under Captain Culdesac, a bobcat. When the ants and animals win, he is given ownership of the home he used to live in as a pet. But he remains a loner, skeptical about the animals’ alliance with the Colony, the underground ant super-nest; and about the animals’ ability to build a new society more successful than the humans’ had been. When the last human survivors resume the war with a new weapon, Mort(e) rejoins the Red Sphinx. The conclusion of the novel reveals whether the animals’ new world is stable, what the Colony’s true goal is, and what happens to Mort(e).

Culdesac takes place during Mort(e). It focuses upon the bobcat commander of the Red Sphinx, who is only a minor supporting character in Mort(e). Unlike Mort(e), who had known humans as a pampered pet and had doubts about turning upon them, Culdesac was a wild predator who grew up knowing only the law of kill-or-be-killed. He brings that attitude to the Red Sphinx.   “Relentless, bloody, and unforgiving, Culdesac is the story of an antihero with no soul to lose, carving a path of destruction that consumes the innocent and the guilty alike.” (blurb)

“Culdesac was no mere conscript in the war with no name. He fought it his entire life, long before the Queen uplifted him, changing him from an animal to something more.

[…]

“He and his brother did not have names. Culdesac knew his brother by scent, and by the growling noise his mother made when she called him. When something dangerous approached, his mother let out two quick grunts: mer-mer. At night, when they ate from a carcass, Culdesac’s brother would sometimes lick the blood from his mother’s face and paws. In these moments, she would say his name more gently, both a salutation and a thank-you. Years later, after the Change gave Culdesac the ability to speak, he thought of his brother as Murmur. A fitting name for a powerful bobcat who rarely needed to speak.” (pgs. 6-7)

Culdesac is set when Mort(e) is a new member of the Red Sphinx. He has just become Culdesac’s second-in-command. Other feline warriors, Culdesac’s and Mort(e)’s mates, include Tiberius, Uzi, Dutch, Anansi, Dread, Gai Den, Seljuk, and others. The Red Sphinx has been advancing toward an abandoned East Coast town:

“The town itself did not make things any easier. Once called Milton, the little hamlet resembled so many other deserted places Culdesac encountered, with a lonely highway ramp leading onto a main street consisting of gas stations, bars, a church, a school, a strip mall. Several rows of houses cut into the forest beyond. An old factory, abandoned long before the war, sat rotting near the train tracks, its boarded windows covered with graffiti, a black hole of decay that sucked in the surrounding buildings. A decades-old housing project quarantined the poor from the rest of the community. Several monuments to the town’s history stood rusting in the more prosperous neighborhood, including a war memorial and a few plaques commemorating houses that were used for both the Underground Railroad and for bootlegging.” (pgs. 16-17)

Book poster

The ants and their uplifted animal allies have been winning their war against the humans, advancing on all fronts. The animals have been reclaiming the humans’ towns. But the ant Colony’s Queen is still directing the war, and she has ordered the Red Sphinx to go into Milton and evacuate the town.   Neither the warriors nor the civilian animals in Milton understand the need to evacuate:

“A few of the townsfolk gathered around the square, most likely attracted by the smell, but also curious about this band of feline warriors. Culdesac counted a family of squirrels, a few dogs and cats, a raccoon, a rabbit. As the only all-feline unit in the army, answering directly to the Queen, the Red Sphinx earned a reputation among the animals. But here, the fearsome soldiers played games with the children. Bailarina kicked a soccer ball along the cobblestone street with two kittens. One of them pointed to her gun, and she told him that it was not a toy. When a kitten slipped and fell on the wet stones, Bailarina helped him to his feet and brushed the dirt from his fur. Nearby, Folsom let a puppy wear his helmet. A few sizes too big, the helmet covered the dog’s eyes, making her giggle and wag her tail. Soon the other children wanted to try it on.” (p. 42)

As far as Culdesac, Mort(e), and the Red Sphinx soldiers are concerned, orders are orders. But the animals of Milton do not want to give up their homes. Their spokeswoman/cat is Nox:

“The cat shuffled out from her hiding spot. She rose on her hind legs to a height taller than the others, almost as tall as Culdesac. Her irises had a golden tinge. Brown, gray, and black stripes cut across her thick coat. Shaggy hair hung from her cheekbones, and a tuft of fur formed a little patch under her chin. Her bushy tail slid out from behind the crate like a python. Culdesac recognized the breed: a Maine coon cat, no doubt raised by wealthy humans to appear feral while at the same time being affectionate, loyal, docile. Like a goddamn dog, almost.” (pgs. 27-28)

Needless to say, Culdesac and Nox do not hit it off. Or do they? Nox was the pet of the owners of Milton’s Royal Inn, its biggest hotel. Since the animals’ uplift, she has become the new mistress of the hotel, which she has turned into a brothel for Milton’s cats and dogs. But her arguments to Culdesac against the evacuation are more intellectual than sensual. Why should they evacuate if the animals are winning? The animals and ants are supposed to rule the world together, in partnership and equality; why are the ants still giving orders? Culdesac, who is unused to logic and debating, falls back on “orders are orders”, at the same time getting the feeling that Nox and the other town animals have another, secret reason for not wanting to leave Milton.

Culdesac (cover by Sam Chung) is a worthy followup to Mort(e). The novella ends with a ten-page preview of D’Arc, the next full novel in the War With No Name series, due in May 2017.

• Buy on Amazon
• Interview with author

– Fred Patten

The cast settles in to some alternate podcasting this evening. Join Tal, Vox Roland and Adoom for some good laughs. Episode -12 - Alternative Sharks

From time to time we all take a breather and just get the little things off of our chest, and in this episode it's your turn to tell us what little things about the fandom drive you crazy! Ranji takes a break from his world tour to stop in and read your emails (and audio letters) about what really grinds your tail about the fandom. We also have Space News, Fifty Sheds of Grey, Get Psyched, the Mailbag (with real mail and cookies), and more! So get to it and push that play button!





NOW LISTEN!

Show Notes

Special Thanks

Ranji, our guest
Anonymous Anteater
Dronon
Phoenix
Anonymouse
Lyrick
Kira the Kitsune
Dee Otter
EpicRive
Timid Grizzly

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!)

Show Bonus!
Tugs and Nuka talk about his research and findings about what grinds the fandom's tail at large! It's incredibly surprising!

Patreon Love

The following people have decided this month’s Fur What It’s Worth is worth actual cash! THANK YOU!

Premium Supporters

Oaken Bowler Hat Supporters

Rifka 

Plus Tier Supporters

Skylos
Guardian Lion

McRib Tier Supporters

Snares
Bassblitzed
Ilya / EpicRive
Fido

Want to be on this list? Donate on our Patreon page! THANK YOU to our supporters once again!

Next episode: We'll let you know by Wednesday, February 8. S6 Episode 10 – What Grinds Your Tail? - From time to time we all take a breather and just get the little things off of our chest, and in this episode it's your turn to tell us what little things about the fandom drive you crazy! Ranji takes a break from

Yes, Savrin typo'd the filename. We ran with it. This week Savrin and Fuzz talk some politics (boo), anime (yay), talk about RMFC's little issue last week (yikes), the convention game in general (scary!), and round out with some actual good news (yay!). We have a Patreon! If you'd like to help support the show, check it out on patreon.com/knotcast Episode 338 - Lesbian Moms The Anime

Your humble ed-otter journeyed to UCLA for the 44th annual Annie Awards — the Oscars of animation, presented by ASIFA-Hollywood. As expected (or hoped by many furry fans!), Zootopia dominated the evening in the feature categories, taking home Annies for Storyboarding, Character Design, Writing, Directing, and Best Feature. It was not a sweep, however, and Kubo and the Two Strings was not far behind: It won awards in the feature categories for Editing, Character Animation, and Production Design. Voting for the Best Voice Acting in the feature category resulted in a tie, shared by Auli’i Cravalho for Moana and Jason Bateman for Zootopia. A new category, Best Independent Feature, was won by the subtly anthropomorphic film The Red Turtle. Disney’s film The Jungle Book won an Annie for Character Animation In A Live Action Production (though it’s still controversial if the film counts as that). Best Short was won by Pixar’s popular birdie film Piper, while Best Student Film went to a European short about dinosaurs called Citipati. Over in the TV broadcast categories the most popular winner of furry interest seemed to be Dreamworks’ Trollhunters, which won for Storyboarding, Character Design, and Character Animation. The Best Television Production for Preschool Children went to Tumble Leaf, while the Best TV Production for Children went to to Adventure Time. Visit the Annie Awards web site for a complete list of the nominees and winners. Congratulations to all!

image c. 2017 Walt Disney Animation

Our human sysadmin friend joins us this week for an extended news segment. Lots of shenanigans.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Scientists Discover Prehistoric Giant Otter Species in China Six Million Years Ago
  • NPR Link
• Openly Poly Candidate Runs For Minneapolis City Council
• Paradox tweets vote between Sergals and Lombaxes

News:

• ESO Release Incredible View Of The Cat’s Paw Nebula
• Dark Humor Is Indicative Of A High IQ, According To Study
• Carl Sagan’s Scarily Accurate Prediction From 1995
• ‘Suicide Squad’ Parody Dominated The 2017 Porn Oscar
• Wonder Material Lets Electricity Flow But Not Heat
• Being Naked Is Great For Your Body Image And Satisfaction With Life

FC-257 Together We Ken - Our human sysadmin friend joins us this week for an extended news segment. Lots of shenanigans.

Our human sysadmin friend joins us this week for an extended news segment. Lots of shenanigans.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Scientists Discover Prehistoric Giant Otter Species in China Six Million Years Ago
  • NPR Link
• Openly Poly Candidate Runs For Minneapolis City Council
• Paradox tweets vote between Sergals and Lombaxes

News:

• ESO Release Incredible View Of The Cat’s Paw Nebula
• Dark Humor Is Indicative Of A High IQ, According To Study
• Carl Sagan’s Scarily Accurate Prediction From 1995
• ‘Suicide Squad’ Parody Dominated The 2017 Porn Oscar
• Wonder Material Lets Electricity Flow But Not Heat
• Being Naked Is Great For Your Body Image And Satisfaction With Life

FC-257 Together We Ken - Our human sysadmin friend joins us this week for an extended news segment. Lots of shenanigans.

Our human sysadmin friend joins us this week for an extended news segment. Lots of shenanigans.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Scientists Discover Prehistoric Giant Otter Species in China Six Million Years Ago
  • NPR Link
• Openly Poly Candidate Runs For Minneapolis City Council
• Paradox tweets vote between Sergals and Lombaxes

News:

• ESO Release Incredible View Of The Cat’s Paw Nebula
• Dark Humor Is Indicative Of A High IQ, According To Study
• Carl Sagan’s Scarily Accurate Prediction From 1995
• ‘Suicide Squad’ Parody Dominated The 2017 Porn Oscar
• Wonder Material Lets Electricity Flow But Not Heat
• Being Naked Is Great For Your Body Image And Satisfaction With Life

[Live] Together We Ken

That bunny is a force to be reckoned with. " "Petals" is our animated thesis film about 2 girls: an idealistic bunny (Pan), a cynical cat (Robin), and a flower that ties their lives together. It was designed as a tool to promote moral and environmental values in children."
View Video

It’s been hard to keep this a secret.  Here’s a flash notice about a one-of-a-kind show I’ve been excited about for weeks. I had to hold back from telling you until shortly before it opens, because they want it to materialize like one of those shops in stories that sell magic genie bottles and cursed monkey paws.

RSVP on Facebook: Anthropomorphic Enchantment – at Red Victorian, 1665 Haight St, San Francisco, 6PM to midnight.

“Enter a world of mysterious creatures and unfamiliar erotic magiks. The lines betweens species, gender, and forms blur. Carnal natures emerge. Give into your primal state.

Meander through the realms of the fantastic nymphs and beasts dreamt up by our resident artists. Gaze upon their wicked flesh and unearthly rituals!

Fursuiters, pet players, casual cats, rabbit fantasists, fetishists, gawkers, and all humanoids welcome. Send instagrams home to your pets. Art will be on display for several weeks with much of it remaining through February.”

Art by Arboreal

Artists:

• Arboreal
• Doppelganger
• Quokka
• Ghostblanketboy
• Richie Rhombus
• Salena Angel.
• Music by Papa Bear

It’s the kind of furry thing I want to see much more often. It’s daring, cute, friendly and inviting, and meant to cross the line of the inner world of fandom.  The organizer told me more:

“My magical deer friend Arboreal is featuring, as well as several other bay area artists. See his work (NSFW:) Playfuldeer on Tumblr.

“Ghostblanketboy will have some art – check him out on FurAffinity (NSFW.)  We’ll have music by local DJs – not only Papa Bear but also Phoxwit who plays Frolic sometimes.

This was my idea; I am totally in love with Arboreal and his art. We go to a lot of fetish as well as furry events and a lot of his art is inspired by people he knows and personas we emulate.

The Red Victorian is a commune on Haight St, with 15 residents and 10 guest spaces, where anyone can book hostel-style lodging. We host dozens of events per month, including rotating art exhibits, where we feature local artists and host opening night parties. We try to find art that is provoking and experimental; this is no exception – much of the art is explicit and weaves together ideas of challenging sexuality and gender by also playing with species.  At the Red Vic, in addition to exciting monthly art, we love to host all sorts of community events, so there may be more furry stuff in our future!

I expect a mish-mash of interests and communities, since our artists and residents are all from different primary interests and may have excitement for the art but not knowledge about the furry fandom.

If anyone is interested in hosting events at the Red Vic, including furry-centric events, pup moshes, etc (the sky’s the limit!) send an email to events@redvic.com.”

Hope to see you there for an unforgettable show.

Patch O’Furr

Art by Aberguine

Is it me or are Furries popping up in news stories more? It feels strange to bring it up, but I swear the fandom has been getting more media attention and a good amount of it has been positive. Yes, I know, it weirds me out too. The reason I’m writing this opinion piece is, in part, because of my own history in the fandom. I got involved with the Furry Fandom around 2009. If you were a Furry around that time you were under the shadow of, what I prefer to call, the “Vanity Fair Era”. Named that cause of the infamous article published by Vanity Fair titled, “Pleasures of the Fur”, in 2001. Which presented the Furry Fandom as a sexual fetish and only as a sexual fetish. Along with MTV’s Sex2K episode, “Plushies and Furries,” and the famous CSI episode, “Fur and Loathing,” in 2003 that painted a clear picture of the fandom to mainstream audiences. Supposedly we are about sex and only sex.

Of course that isn’t true. It’s a part of the fandom but it’s not what defines the fandom. Furries are people who love walking talking animals and how they show that love depends on the person. It is as silly for people as it is serious. You can have a fursuit or not. You can create artwork in the fandom or be an observer. It can be sexual for you and it cannot. We all have different levels based around that same love and as long as we are respectful and understand people’s different viewpoints we bring forward a beauty of community the Furry Fandom provides. Anyone who has been in or actually explores the fandom understands that, but with stories like CSI that wasn’t what people were seeing. It’s why for the longest time, and still to a degree, Furries don’t talk to the media because the media has done a poor job with representing us.

Which has lead to moments like the Inside Edition undercover story at FC in 2015 or several smaller press organizations trying to sneak in to get the right sound bite that fits into the ‘Furries as only a sexual fetish’ narrative. I remember when getting involved with the fandom watching those Uncle Kage videos about how to interact/ avoid the media or how he responded when the media went to him. There was no question about it. If you were a Furry under the Vanity Fair Era you were one of the lowest of the low. Someone to be openly mocked and ridiculed. Something you had to hide.

Now we are clearly out of the Vanity Fair Era. I can’t say when it ended, with history there’s rarely any cut off date, eras come in waves and in the last few years the previous wave has died down. As it was dying, around the start of the 2010’s, I began to come across several small articles now and again actually tackling the topic of Furries and what the fandom is about. Though the main word here is “small”, with coverage from local press outlets of a local convention or a furmeet with an even smaller audience. For a point of reference, the biggest outlet I can remember covering Furries outside of a sexual fetish was Buzzfeed. If you listen closely you can here several people clutching their pearls right now.

While the biggest story I can remember coming from mainstream presses at the time was the Gas Attack on Midwest Fur Fest in 2014 where one news anchor, who had no idea what Furries were, couldn’t stop herself from laughing. But it was after that, for some strange reason that this new wave of Furry stories really started to take off. There were still the standard small press stuff, along with coverage about the Fursonas doc, but then around 2016 we got hit with one of the biggest positive articles for the fandom. The Syrian Refugees at VancouFur. To say that story put the fandom under a new light would be an understatement. It was a watershed moment that spread like wildfire over social media.

Then we come to this year where the stories continue. Notably, popular writer Kyell Gold’s new book, “The Time He Desires,” getting featured on Slate’s LGBT Blog Outward, about tackling a gay immigrant Muslim romance involving furries in front of current events took social media by storm. Offering more exposure to Furry writers then anyone could ask for. Along with the obvious hate that came with it. Have you ever witnessed someone being triggered on Tumblr? Think of that, but with Nazis – which is funny to watch. Shortly after that, YouTube puts a Furry YouTuber, Rainy Chaos, on their Creators on the Rise bringing forward a lot of attention both good and bad. Rainy Chaos discusses her experience following the event.

So why are Furries being featured more? Hard to say. My best hypothesis would be that since the novelty of making fun of Furries has died down it has open us up more to be who we are and able to feature the full spectrum of the community. That’s not to say it’s all peaches and sunshine. As big as having these stories break out, it has also brought out a lot of the same hate that has haunt the fandom. Not to mention stories like the ridiculous Tonygate to the sad like the recent murders in Orange County to the disturbing from Philadelphia about the men arrested for pedophilia who were part of the fandom.

If there is a silver lining with the last two stories, it would be one – these monsters have been caught, and two – when the topic of the fandom came up they never tried to connect the fandom as the cause. These are tragic stories that just so happened in the Furry Fandom. No different than if the same stories came from a Trekkie, Anime, or Comic fandom. The only draw back I’ve seen is how several articles are using pictures of unrelated fursuiters, which can leave the impression that that person was a part of it. These stories do bring up the question of reasonability in the fandom, but that’s a discussion for another day.

The main thing I want to bring up with this moment in the fandom, is that things are changing. The fandom is not seen as it was over a decade ago. However, it still has a lot to prove. There will always be someone who will openly hate us, make fun of us, or make us out as the worse. But if we are given the chance, we can show who we are, all the good we can do, and occasionally step up if something bad happens close to us.

We now have a chance to bring a spotlight where we want it, rather than ducking if it catches us unaware.  How far do we go to get it? That’s an easy question with no easy answer. Till next time you crazy Fluffer Nutters. Stay amazing. Stay awesome. Stay you.

-Matthias