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Zootopia’s Blu-ray/DVD release is June 7, 2016.

Dogpatch Press welcomes Furry fanfic writer Alex Reynard.  See also Inquisitr.com: “Is Zootopia a modern version of Animal Farm?”  

Join the party

ZOOTOPIA has been out for a while now.  In that time, I cannot count how many times I’ve seen it called “propaganda”.

Left-wing propaganda, right-wing propaganda, commie propaganda, gender propaganda, race propaganda.

It’s ridiculous. And it’s unfair to what the movie actually is.

I’m gonna assume that we, being furries, have all seen the film a kazillion times by now. If not, then this is me HONKING THE SPOILER HORN. TOOT TOOT. I want to start this with a synopsis, so I can talk about how the themes of this cute animated children’s film are really really important.

Themes in the movie.

A political parable.

Judy Hopps is a little bunny kid who wants to grow up and make the world a better place. A foxboy named Gideon bullies her, but this only makes her more determined. After many years of hard work, she achieves her goal and becomes a cop in Zootopia: a city where Predators and Prey live side by side. She encounters Nick Wilde, a con artist fox. She tries to treat him as a fellow furson and hold no prejudice towards his species. Eventually, after many adventures, the duo discover that several Predator citizens have gone missing and/or reverted to primitive violent behavior. The Mayor is implicated and jailed, and the Assistant Mayor, a meek sheep named Bellwether, becomes the new Mayor. But Judy eventually discovers that this was all masterminded by that meek little sheep, who in actuality, was drugging the kidnapped Predators specifically to create an atmosphere of distrust among the citizenry that she could use to rise to power. After enduring years of mistreatment by the thoughtless, self-obsessed former mayor, Bellwether felt justified, on behalf of all Prey, to get revenge on the whole world’s systematic discrimination.

For as much as people have been talking about Zootopia’s handling of racism and sexism, what’s damn-near-miraculous is how it has insight enough to call out both prejudice AND overreactions to prejudice. In the film, we see that Bellwether is treated like sheep dip by Mayor Lionhart. She certainly has a right to feel victimized. But the movie makes it clear that she becomes a bad guy too when she uses her sense of outrage as justification to ruin other people’s lives. Her ends do not justify her means.

That’s pretty morally-complex for a cartoon. This movie never falls into the binary of either/or. It condemns bullies on both sides. Being a victim of one is no excuse for becoming one.

Speaking of bullies, we need to contrast Judy with Bellwether to see where the movie’s message really lies. Like I said, in the beginning Judy is intimidated, insulted and beaten up by a fox kid. Later when she grows up, there’s a scene where she goes home and her bully pops up. Here’s the part where, in a less thoughtful movie, we would have had The Big Comeuppance. Judy would have slapped him, then he’d say in a cowed tone, “I deserved that.” Except that doesn’t happen. Gideon sees her and immediately apologizes. And Judy forgives him with just as little hesitation. Then everyone’s happy and they all get pie.

There’s another scene where a chubby cheetah cop called Clawhauser calls her ‘cute’. She winces and says, “Bunnies can call each other that word, but when someone else says it, it’s not okay.” Clever joke, and it lets the audience know what the movie’s really getting at. But the next line’s important too: Clawhauser apologizes, saying how embarrassed he is since he’s been stereotyped himself. And Judy doesn’t start throwing a tantrum and berating him. She doesn’t call him a bigot, or part of a system of oppression, or anything like that. He apologizes, and that’s that. They’re friends from then on.

There’s a dozen more scenes in the film using animals as metaphors to explore moments of racism and sexism, and it’s astonishing how balanced the film is, trying to see things from every side. The good guys have bad traits and the bad guys have good traits. No one’s perfectly wrong or right. No one’s a strawman.

Interpreting from outside of the movie. 

Something isn’t “propaganda” just for being against bigotry. Political groups may vigorously latch on to social issues for their own ends, but no one has a monopoly on fighting unfairness. Nowadays, it can be hard to speak out because the waters have been muddied and poisoned. We don’t want to get dragged into sides, as if having an opinion means you must think in lockstep with Political Figures A, B & C (plus now you’re automatically enemies of Figures D, E & F).

I’m talking in generalities precisely because speaking the very names of groups can fill the comments with people defending or attacking those groups.

Zootopia is not about groups. It is about ideas and behaviors that are universal to all of us, because we’re all people.

That’s why the film isn’t propaganda; because it takes such pains to not choose sides.  Choosing sides and being ‘US vs THEM’ is part of the problem. Everyone from Group A will view Group B as irredeemably evil and refuse to associate with them. Vice versa for B towards A. Both dehumanize the other because they’re so certain they’re in the moral right. And all this ever accomplishes is bitter gridlock. No progress can occur when both sides know they’re Right with a capital R, and the other side is Wrong.

Zootopia shows that it doesn’t take hate to cause this mindset.  Many other stories about bigotry paint blunt, black and white metaphors.  One side is clearly angry, evil and wrong, while the other is a blameless victim.  In real life, we only wish things were so simple and morally-unambiguous.  Real life, as Judy explains, is messy. We’re often cruel without realizing it.  Not because of hate, but because of thoughtlessness and fear. People focus on their own pain to the point where it becomes someone else’s.

Bellwether exemplifies this. It’s not enough to get revenge on her bully; she wants revenge on everybody who looks like him. She blames his species instead of him as an individual. She thinks only of how much she’d been downtrodden, and that’s justification for doing the same to Preds. She creates a culture of fearmongering to get other Prey to believe they’re unsafe, and that’s when the city begins to fracture.

There’s a scene where Judy is on the subway and sees a handsome tiger sit down across from her. In the same seat, a rabbit mom looks horrified and pulls her child away. Judy reacts with revulsion. I wonder how many of us have been in Judy’s position, or the mother’s, or the tiger’s. I know I’ve been him sometimes.

Judy’s parents are consumed with fear for her. Some of it is justified, as being a police officer is a dangerous job. But some of it is fear of Preds as a whole, which turns out to be unfounded. When they realize it, and begin to trust Gideon, the result is a mutually profitable and friendly new business.

That has been my own experience. Most of the time when I have taken a risk to trust others, my trust has been rewarded in ways I never expected.

Fear is easy. Trust is hard. Zootopia shows what our choice ought to be, but shows the consequences of each.

The movie’s meaning for real life.

The movie makes clear metaphors for white and black, or male and female, but it is not on any one group’s side over the others. If it takes any side, it is pro-forgiveness and anti-fear.

That’s the real dividing line for a conflict. People on the opposite side can still be worthy of respect. It’s the distinction between opponent and enemy. An opponent is someone whose hand you can shake, thanking them for a good game.

Most of us just want our particular group to be treated better.  That’s fine… until someone within your group becomes less interested in seeing your team win than seeing everyone else lose. That’s how things escalate and everyone forgets about peace. Treating others as enemies just gains more enemies.

On the other hand… We don’t want enemies, but we don’t have to be doormats either. You don’t have to forgive anyone who has done nothing to earn it. At the end of the film, Judy doesn’t just forgive Bellwether and they all hug and have a happy ending. She sends Bellwether to the freakin’ slammer. She showed no repentance, and Judy likely just walks away and forgets her, and that’s healthy. Unlike Bellwether, Gideon apologizes and earns his happy ending.

Zootopia avoids binary thinking. Many of the characters display gray morality. Judy and Nick’s relationships with others don’t always slot into a tidy box of ‘friend’ or ‘foe’.  Manchas attacks them, but they know it’s not him in control of his actions. Bogo obstructs them, but in time they gain a degree of respect for each other. Judy’s neighbors are obnoxious, but she shrugs and lives with it.  And when Nick and Judy lose trust in one another, it’s easy to see in the scene beneath the bridge that they’re eager to apologize and rejoin. Because they know the other is worth it.

Zootopia’s moral is that we can never truly know one another at a glance. Some animals act like their species’ stereotypes, others are the opposite, and others are a mix of both. The only way to get to know someone is to get to know them. Wherever it is you stand, don’t look at the other side and see only monsters. Give others the benefit of the doubt that they have the same heart and mind you do. Let them show you who they are. Not just for their sake, but for your own.  Be willing to compromise, agree, and forgive. Let hope balance outrage, and only fight battles that need to be fought.

All this from a cute Disney film. Who knew?

And if you think I’m over-analyzing, remember the movie’s very first word of spoken dialogue. The filmmakers were foxy enough to reveal the true villain in the opening line:

“Fear.”

– Alex Reynard

 

In one of our most timely episodes, Roo and Tugs are joined by Haku, Panda, and Syn, as they discuss FurAffinity. They start with the origins of the site, how it became popular, and discuss the recent security incidents on the site. We also have Space News, Get Psyched with Dr. Nuka, and an old timey ad for you to enjoy. So, without further adieu, we'll get out of the way and let you listen!



NOW LISTEN!

Show Notes

Special Thanks

Haku Panther, one of our guests.
Panda, one of our guests.
Syn, one of our guests.
Timid Grizzly, for the ident.
Dronon.
Kira the Kitsune.
Smokescale Aquatos.
Mfalme Lion.
Commander Wolfe.
Leo the Artist.

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!)
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Get Psyched Music: Fredrik Miller – Universe, 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!)

Next episode: It's the Season 5 Recap! Tell us your favorite moments of the 100th episode season by June 15, 2016! S5 Episode 16 – Fur Infinity? - In one of our most timely episodes, Roo and Tugs are joined by Haku, Panda, and Syn, as they discuss FurAffinity. They start with the origins of the site, how it became popular, and discuss the recent security incidents on

June’s Book of the Month is Forest Gods, the sequel to God of Clay by FWG member Ryan Campbell, and the second in his Fire Bearers trilogy.

Cover by Zhivago

Kwaee, god of the forest, has turned all his power toward the destruction of the human tribe that he accuses of serving the treacherous fire god Ogya. Seeking reasons for the ancient conflict, Clay and Doto embark on a dangerous journey far outside the forest in search of savanna god Sarmu.

Meanwhile, in the human village, the healer Cloud fights new and terrifying threats from the forest and tries to help her people survive, but at every turn, she must battle prince Laughing Dog, who seeks to turn their king down a path that could lead to the end of humanity.

Along both their journeys lie dangers they never expected—and secrets that may have been better left buried.

Forest Gods is available in print from the publisher, Sofawolf Press, and in print and Kindle ebook from Amazon.

Back after a several week hiatus we dive deep into the information security behind several popular furry art websites and read a ton of news. That and we drank some unicorn tears. Delicious.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Seven Years of Fluff In The City
• The Secret Life Of Human Pups Trailer
• “We met the human puppies of manchester…”
• Furry Network Launch Trailer
• Crow Steals Knife From Crime Scene

News:

• Scientist Wears Polar Bear Costume, Muskoxen Charge
• Red Wolves Need Emergency Protection
• Someone Really Methed Up This Burrito
• Crow Steals Knife From Crime Scene
• 2,000 bees chase car for TWO DAYS after queen bee gets trapped in boot
• Scientists create human-animal embryos
• Test Can Calculate A Person’s Chances Of Waking From A Coma

Email:

• Neth Rusiki Azhti – “possibly some discussion questions… maybe… hopefully… possibly?”
• Jaxson – “CJ and Fayroe”
• Mystical Blue – “FAN EMAILS”

FC-235 Curl Panic - Back after a several week hiatus we dive deep into the information security behind several popular furry art websites and read a ton of news. That and we drank some unicorn tears. Delicious.

Back after a several week hiatus we dive deep into the information security behind several popular furry art websites and read a ton of news. That and we drank some unicorn tears. Delicious.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Seven Years of Fluff In The City
• The Secret Life Of Human Pups Trailer
• “We met the human puppies of manchester…”
• Furry Network Launch Trailer
• Crow Steals Knife From Crime Scene

News:

• Scientist Wears Polar Bear Costume, Muskoxen Charge
• Red Wolves Need Emergency Protection
• Someone Really Methed Up This Burrito
• Crow Steals Knife From Crime Scene
• 2,000 bees chase car for TWO DAYS after queen bee gets trapped in boot
• Scientists create human-animal embryos
• Test Can Calculate A Person’s Chances Of Waking From A Coma

Email:

• Neth Rusiki Azhti – “possibly some discussion questions… maybe… hopefully… possibly?”
• Jaxson – “CJ and Fayroe”
• Mystical Blue – “FAN EMAILS”

FC-235 Curl Panic - Back after a several week hiatus we dive deep into the information security behind several popular furry art websites and read a ton of news. That and we drank some unicorn tears. Delicious.

Back after a several week hiatus we dive deep into the information security behind several popular furry art websites and read a ton of news. That and we drank some unicorn tears. Delicious.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Seven Years of Fluff In The City
• The Secret Life Of Human Pups Trailer
• “We met the human puppies of manchester…”
• Furry Network Launch Trailer
• Crow Steals Knife From Crime Scene

News:

• Scientist Wears Polar Bear Costume, Muskoxen Charge
• Red Wolves Need Emergency Protection
• Someone Really Methed Up This Burrito
• Crow Steals Knife From Crime Scene
• 2,000 bees chase car for TWO DAYS after queen bee gets trapped in boot
• Scientists create human-animal embryos
• Test Can Calculate A Person’s Chances Of Waking From A Coma

Email:

• Neth Rusiki Azhti – “possibly some discussion questions… maybe… hopefully… possibly?”
• Jaxson – “CJ and Fayroe”
• Mystical Blue – “FAN EMAILS”

[Live] Curl Panic

This week it's a fuller house than normal, with guest Halfwit joining the three of us for the show. We talk cons, conspire against Savrin, and get a handful of convention reports. Want to help support the show? We have a patreon! Patreon.com/knotcast Episode 317 - Defennecstration

new episode! Xander got a job! Xander and Alkali talk about a bunch of stuff and answer your questions. ep 118 - Tag Team - new episode! Xander got a job! Xander and Alkal…

Wear YOUR best carpet!

• FURSONAS – Sunday, June 19, 9:15 PM (86 min.)  Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th St, San Francisco.  “Through a furry fray of intimate dramas and dilemmas, the fascinating individuals and universal longings of furries—or folks who don anthropomorphic body suits for role-play—come into snuggly view.” Tickets here.

• FURRIES – Monday, June 20, 9:15 PM (33 min.) Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th St, San Francisco. Info here: “Furries looks beyond the fur to discover the importance of identity, creativity, and the community’s people.”  Tickets here for the ONLY IN SAN FRANCISCO shorts program: “From dancing leather daddies and celebrated drag kings and queens to the imaginatively sexy and romantic and a trip to a Furry convention, this batch of shorts truly embodies the “only in San Francisco” spirit.”

• $12 for each show. Ticket sales open on June 3, 2016. Find more at their site, and here’s a program for the whole festival.

“I can’t believe it – we’re right next to Michael Moore’s latest on Google Play,” said Fursonas director Dominic Rodriguez.  “It finally got real for me when I realized you could watch it on planes.”

I checked the “documentary” category, and there it was, the second most popular movie. Since mid-May, it’s still on the front page.  That’s quite a step up from all the years when Dominic was working on just another student project made for passion.  He said the crew still felt like students even when they were accepted to the Slamdance fest, where a distributor picked up the movie.

There’s more greatness to come.  And the public is loving it as much as furries who praise it. (Not all, since it is polarizing in some ways – but man, it is special to read outsider opinions like this.)

“…a tender and nuanced meditation on a community that’s still trying to find itself… a noteworthy achievement for having the skill and will to let the narrative breathe.” – Criterioncast.com

The next greatness?  Frameline Film Fest is the oldest ongoing festival for LGBT cinema.  During the height of Pride month in San Francisco, 80,000 people come out for this world class queer art event that’s now getting Furries in the mix. What an honor.  Not just for the Fursonas crew and supporters, but also for Ash (Eric), director of Furries:

“I am very proud to announce the film festival debut of my documentary, FURRIES, at Frameline40 in San Francisco!

You can catch the film, paired with various shorts, as part of their “Only In San Francisco” shorts program… I’m told that special seating arrangements are being made for those wanting to attend the premiere in their fursuits!

I can’t express in words how much of an honor this is. I simply cannot wait!”

Fursuiters in the audience will probably be stars as much as the movies. While sadly Dominic can’t make it, Ash will be there to help present and make a great fandom event.  That’s the coolest thing about this – furs are invited to a big event, but the movies are their own home-grown labors of love.  Just like everything else they do. This is going to be a great match for previous years of Furry floats in the SF Pride parade.

Ash explains more:

“I’m excited to finally share the film with audiences at Frameline, the world’s largest LGBTQ film festival. Frameline is excited too…very exited, in fact, that the Bay Area has such a big, local group of furries. They are hoping for a furry audience at the premiere.

Both Dominic and I explored the fandom in different ways, allowing both films to feel like unique experiences that (although there is SOME overlap in defining certain terminology) our films are not mutually exclusive. Collectively, I think they cast a wide net of understanding over the furry experience.”

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

Mouse Mission, by Prudence Breitrose. Illustrated by Stephanie Yue.
NYC, Disney•Hyperion, October 2015, hardcover $16.99 (266 pages), Kindle $9.99.

Mouse Mission is The Mousenet, Book 3; the conclusion of the trilogy that began with Mousenet and Mousemobile (both 2013). To repeat the events in the first two books, 10/11-year-old Megan Miller learns that the mice of the world are as intelligent as humans, but are too small and fragile to create a civilization. They’re isolated in small groups; and they can’t be heard by humans unless they scream all the time. The mice learn that Megan’s uncle, Fred Barnes, is an electronic tinkerer who has invented a miniature computer just for his own amusement, but which would be ideal for mice to communicate with each other throughout the world; and with humans.

In the first two books, Megan and Uncle Fred become part of the Humans Who Know about the Mouse Nation, and the mice figure out how the five humans can mass-produce the Thumbtop computers, supposedly as toy keychains but actually for the mice to use. Megan’s uncle and step-dad, Fred Barnes and Jake Fisher, create their home-run Planet Mouse factory in Cleveland, ostensibly to manufacture only a tiny number of miniature computer toys, but actually with a secret assembly line of seven hundred mice making Thumbtops for mice all around the world.

One of the Humans Who Know is Megan’s mother Susan Fisher, who is an environmental activist. Breitrose unfortunately allowed Mousemobile to become very preachy about the danger of Climate Change, which the five Humans Who Know and all the mice are very passionate about. The message of Mouse Mission, Saving the Rainforest, is fortunately integrated into the plot much better.

Susan Fisher’s current environmental campaign is saving the rainforest that covers the fictional island-nation of Marisco in the Indian Ocean (a pastiche of Madagascar).

“This was one of the last forests on that part of the planet that was still completely wild, and it had been kept that way by the government of Marisco until recently, when a group of generals seized power. A month ago, mice had found a document on the generals’ computers – a document that revealed their plan to sell the rights to the forest to Loggocorp, a huge international timber company.” (p. 16)

Susan has been working with ex-President Pindoran’s government-in-exile in London, which has been in touch with rain forest experts through London University. They hope that together they can prevent the generals’ plan to sell off Marisco’s forest and maybe even restore the previous government. But Loggocorp has hacked into Pindoran’s computer to keep track of his plans to keep them from getting the forest, and they have learned of the forest experts including Susan’s plans to stop them. Loggocorp has hired some of the best computer hackers in the world to eavesdrop on the experts (including Susan’s and, through her, the mice’s secret e-mails), so nobody dares send e-mails any more. Worse, Loggocorp has hired one of Fred’s ex-acquaintances, an individual fired for hacking, to snoop around. A delegation of humans and mice go to London to coordinate with the forest experts in privacy – but Loggocorp is waiting for them.

“For the first time since they’d known him, Sir Quentin [a mouse] spoke in a rapid burst of MSL [Mouse Sign Language, which mice usually use to talk with humans], ending with signs simple enough for the humans to understand. Pointing to a watercolor painting labeled St. Paul’s Cathedral at Dawn. Pointing at an ear. Paw to lips. Hush. St. Paul’s Cathedral at Dawn is listening.

Now Sir Quentin was making the unmistakable signs for ‘Follow me!’ and he headed for the bathroom. With one last sign. Bring the Thumbtop that Jake had left on the coffee table.”

(The mouse had stayed behind in their hotel room when the humans had gone out to see London, and he was there when a man broke in and planted an electronic bug behind the painting. p. 92)

The Humans Who Know and the British mice hastily organize a fake Rising Sea Level Conference to disguise the meeting of rain forest experts, at Buckford Hall, the palatial but run-down estate of the Duke of Wiltshire, with ex-President Pindoran posing as a concerned sea level scientist from Fiji (where the islands really are threatened by rising sea levels). But Loggocorp infiltrates that, too. A lot of hugger-mugger ensues throughout the Duke’s estate, but every time it looks like Loggocorp is about to steamroller over the Humans Who Know, the mice devise a strategy to save the situation. Okay, it gets a bit juvenile – the Mousenet trilogy is written for 8- to 12-year-olds – but it’s satisfying to have the animals save the situation rather than to have the human children save it for them.

Mouse Mission will appeal to furry readers more than the usual talking-animal children’s fantasy because the animals are not supporting characters to the children. It’s the mice who advise The Humans Who Know. The Humans Who Know – three adults and two pre-teens – are all equal partners. The kids don’t run things, and there are several mice who are also equal in planning. The mice, whose squeaking language is impractical for humans, communicate with them by Mouse Sign Language where necessary, and by computer – the mice using Thumbtops and the humans using laptops — as soon as they can.

As Stephanie Yue’s cover shows, the mice don’t wear clothes since they have fur. Breitrose’s Mousenet trilogy is like Robert C. O’Brien’s Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH in this respect (and very unlike Don Bluth’s movie, where the rats imitated the humans as much as possible). They only use what they need. There are other more sophisticated touches, such as the mice taking advantage of the humans’ inability to tell an unclothed mouse male from a female. And Ken, the London mouse with a Cockney accent.

“‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ said Ken, climbing out of Jake’s pocket, where he’d been riding. ‘Lovely stuff. ‘This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.’ We all had to learn it. Shakespeare, innit? Richard the Second. But now we got a job to do. Right? Take a message to that Sir Brian about where them experts should be delivered, from the airport.’” (p. 88)

Mouse Mission is a satisfactory end to the trilogy, and is better than the message-heavy Mousemobile. This is another book recommended for furry fans with children more than for adult fans.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Learn more about the Mousenet Series
• Kirkus Review of Mouse Mission
• Prudence Breitrose’s thoughts on her books success

Redbubble has discovered another fine artist whose work includes quite a bit of animal interest. Her name is Ruta Dumalakaite and she’s from Lithuania. Recently, Ruta was selected to be the Artist In Residence for the Redbubble office in Melbourne, Australia. Her shop at Redbubble features her works (animal, human, and just plain fantastic) on not only prints but t-shirts, tote bags, and other goodies. (There are links to her Etsy shop and Tumblr there as well.)

image c. 2016 by
Ruta Dumalakaite

Hello Everyone! 

We open tonight's show with a discussion of a recent scientific paper about what scientists currently know about sexual orientation and identity. It's a fairly long read (60+ pages), so we rely on Viro giving us a breakdown and going through the relevant portions. It's almost like Viro is a PhD Science Collie...

Our main topic is an introduction to kink, and, to a lesser extent, an introduction to Kink Month. We wanted to set the stage for the following episodes by going over commonly used terms and defining them — as we have said numerous times, it's important for everyone to be on the same page when discussing sexual activities. 

The furry fandom is enriched in media that portrays various kinks, whether that's artwork, stories, or even videos of fursuiters engaging in various forms of play. As perhaps the only fandom that exists without a pre-existing narrative or established universe, for many furries the sexual content is their primary focus and involvement. For other furries they would rather not acknowledge that this portion of the fandom exists. 

As a community, it's important to understand how to share our sexual interests in a way that is healthy and appropriate for the context and location the discussion is occurring in. As individuals, it's important for us to learn how to communicate our likes and dislikes to our sexual partners in order to meet everyone's wants and needs and to ensure that no boundaries are crossed without enthusiastic consent. We discuss this and how to be more open minded about kinks you had either previously never expressed interest in or believe yourself to not be interested in.

We then talk about some of the most common kinks in the furry fandom. This is in no way scientific (and we pulled our information from a brief f-list search), but it helps to show just how diverse and enriched the fandom is in kink. Resources like F-List are great for communicating your sexual kinks and enjoyments for online roleplay, but if you plan on taking your online play partners on in the real world, ensure that they know which kinks are for online enjoyment only and, perhaps, consider creating a separate profile that lists your real world kinks and fetishes as they apply. We also have a brief introduction on BDSM, which we will discuss in greater depth next week.

We close out the show with a question about someone who has "literal feral attraction". We discuss our impending lawsuit for violating our brand and also whether or not fantasies should become realities.

For more information, including a list of topics by timestamp, see our Show Notes for this episode.

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 021 Introduction to Kink - Kinks are an important part in a relationship, but what exactly are they, where do they come from, and what is a healthy way to act on them?

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

Zen: Meditations d’Un Canard Égoiste (Zen: Meditations of an Egotistical Duck), by Phicil
Paris, Éditions Carabas, November 2015; hardcover €16,00 (80 pages).

Google’s automatic translator says that “un canard égoiste” is “a selfish duck”, but in this case “egotistical” is a better translation than “selfish”. Jean Plumo sees everything as revolving around himself, but he’s not particularly selfish once the needs and desires of others are brought to his attention.

The Patten-Nakashima conspiracy to get you to read French funny-animal bandes dessinées that aren’t likely to be published in English has probably let you down this time.

Jean Plumo, a mallard office-worker in a funny-animal world, is fed up with not only being yelled at by an unsympathetic boss, but at not getting the respect he feels that he’s due from his fellow deskmates. When he sees a copy of Bronzage (“Tanning”) magazine on his boss’ desk with an article about a luxurious vacation retreat to study zen meditation all day (implied under the sun; a good way to get a tan), he decides to sign up for it.

It’s not what he expects.

Zen: Meditations of an Egotistical Duck probably isn’t what you expect, either. Yes, there is a story here, but there is a serious lesson on the history and teachings of Buddhism and zen meditation as well. There are three long interludes in the story when Bernard, the master of the retreat (a Saint-Bernard dog), tells everyone a famous Buddhist legend: “Sur les Pas du Bouddha”, Prince Siddharta’s life and conversion into the Buddha in India (about 500 B.C.; Buddha drawn as a tiger); “Bodhidarma, l’Insaisissable”, one of Buddha’s “perfect disciples” (drawn as an elephant) introducing Buddhism to South China, and disappointing everyone by insisting that it’s impossible to know anything, and the secret of immortality lies in studying nothingness for the rest of your life; and “Asanga et la Sagesse”, about a famous Buddhist monk about 400 A.D. (drawn as a dog) spending a dozen years in meditation to become pure enough to see a spirit, then not recognizing one when it appears. There is a parallel in the spirits of Buddha, Bodhidarma, and Asanga appearing to Jean, and him dismissing them as just other students in the retreat. Does Jean get anything out of the retreat at the end? Well, yes – in his egotistical way.

Zen: Meditations of an Egotistical Duck is witty, but it seems more worthwhile for the student of zen Buddhism than for the average funny-animal fan. The French is more complex than usual, too; full of adult slang. There are probably better Buddhist primers for beginners available in English.

– Fred Patten

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New Members

Welcome to our newest member, Madison “Arara” Keller! If you’re interested in joining us, see this page to find out how.

Member News

Erin Quinn’s first novel Tailless has been released by Rabbit Valley.

Joel “Zarpaulus” Kreissman’s novel The Pride of Parahumans has been accepted by Thurston Howl Publications.

In short fiction news, several members have stories in Fred Patten’s upcoming anthology Gods With Fur, including Alice “Huskyteer” Dryden, Kyell Gold, Mary E. Lowd, Watts Martin, and Televassi. Rechan sold the flash fiction piece “Letter from the Front Lines” to Bards and Sages Quarterly.

Huskyteer won the Ursa Major for her short story “The Analogue Cat.”

(Members: Want your news here? Start a thread in our Member News forum!)

Market News

The third volume of the charity anthology Wolf Warriors is seeking wolf-themed fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction through June 15, 2016.

Fred Patten’s next anthology for FurPlanet, The Dogs of War, is looking for original furry military-themed stories “preferably of 4,000 to 20,000 words.” The emphasis should be on military actions, not politics; Fred notes that despite the title, he’s looking for all kinds of anthropomorphic animals, not just dogs. Payment: ½¢ per word, on publication. Deadline: October 1, 2016. (Read the submission call.)

ROAR 8, FurPlanet’s annual general audience anthology, will again be edited by Mary E. Lowd. Next year’s theme is “Paradise.” It will be open for submissions from September 1, 2016 through February 1, 2017. (Read the submission call.)

Laura “Munchkin” Lewis’s charity poetry anthology, Civilized Beasts, is accepting submissions for a 2016 volume.

Remember to keep an eye on our Calls for Submissions thread and our Publishing and Marketing forum for all the latest news and openings!

Guild News

New FWG president, Watts Martin (“Chipotle”), took office on June 1. (Read Watts’s introductory post.) Everyone in the Guild offers thanks and well-wishes to outgoing two-term president Renee Carter Hall!

The FWG University is now open! Our next workshop, “Four Simple Ways to Strengthen Your Prose,” will open for registration on June 20. For more info on this and other upcoming workshops, see this thread.

Voting remains open through July 1 for this year’s Cóyotl Awards.

Want to hang out and talk shop with other furry writers? Come join us in the forum shoutbox for the Coffeehouse Chats, Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Eastern and Thursdays at 12 p.m. Eastern. More info on the Coffeehouse Chats is here. (Remember, our forums are open to everyone, not just FWG members. Come register and join the conversation!)

Elsewhere on the Internet, we have a Goodreads group with a bookshelf featuring books by our members. Feel free to add any members’ books we’ve missed so far (see the instructions here on how to do that).

Remember, we’re always open for guest blog post submissions from FWG members—it’s a great way to help out fellow writers. See our guidelines for the details.

Have a creative and successful month! If you have news, suggestions, or other feedback to share, send an email to furwritersguild@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist a flippant headline. I’m laughing with the subjects of the story. Some of the crinkly among us will consider panties and similar undergarments to be literally just something to wear. And who am I to judge? It’s not my place to “change” them.

This reminds me of an amusing topic at Reddit’s r/furry community. It asked, if furry fandom had a motto, what would it be? Winner- “Yes, I am into that”.

There’s an endearingly permissive spectrum of Things Furries Are Into. At the far end is a topic that’s naturally going to be more uncomfortable than any other.  You see, quirky curiosities like Vore aren’t going to happen outside of fantasy and imagination.

This one (let’s name names – “cub”, babyfur, littlefur, AB/DL, age play) is likely to be nothing but consenting role-play.  But people get squeamish.  We’ve all been vulnerable kids or responsible caretakers at some point.  I don’t like slippery-slope overreaction, but it makes an extreme test of the coexistence of two fundamentally different camps.

I call it the Big Umbrella from Disney to Dirty.  This shouldn’t have to be said but many furries want NOTHING to do with dirty stuff.  The divide of clean vs. adult is unresolvable with this hobby.  But you have to remember that your parents had sex AND raised kids.  Duality is part of life.  Handling it poorly is a problem with neurotic, puritanical America, where sex is scary and murder is entertainment. Torture-porn is box office gold but a TV nipple-slip is a scandal.

Role-play can be chaste, but adult art is a specific issue.  Pushing the limits of cute, pastel-hued character art has been a thing since many furs were still in di… uh, bad figure of speech.  Read Fred Patten’s discussion about 1990’s Tiny Toons fan art that provoked Warner Bros. cease-and-desist letters. Some furries get extremely prudish, and others get vehemently defensive: “We’re here, we’re crinkly, get used to it.”

It’s certainly not a thing you’d want associated with regular life or profession – like when a character in the documentary “Fursonas” was bullied out of a job.  To push it as a “rights” thing seems ill-conceived and embarrassing… but on the other hand, it’s not fair to be scapegoated about harmless private quirks.  In 2015, the Rainfurrest convention shut down due to vandalism and it was conflated with “morals” offenses.  There’s a “fandom complex” about this.

#rainfurrest #RF2015 #rf2016
RF issues in a nutshell. pic.twitter.com/ge6Rdjp3ny

— Corri T. Cub (@corri_yammari) October 10, 2015

Does a subculture need moral nannies?  How about nannies who support cub-furs to be themselves, like good partners?

It all leads to an update for last week’s story – the launch of Furry Network, a “furry fandom game-changer”.

Complaints about management of a furry art site?  That wasn’t going to happen to Furry Network, was it?

TL;DR - cub porn is no longer permitted on Furry Network. Full details: https://t.co/sWvvgeSCZv

— Furry Network (@FurryNetwork) May 28, 2016

• Forum topic: “Remove allowing Cub Pornography on the website.“
• Forum topic: “Possible compromise for the cub art issue.“
• “It’s like they have a God-complex. “I don’t like this, remove it or else.” Even though FN HAS a blacklist so you don’t have to see that type of stuff, they feel like they have to “save everyone from seeing it”. – (Waba Grill)

Crassus writes in:

“I did a bit of research and I discovered something rather odd that I don’t think has been made widely known yet. There was a security setting on FN’s Support forums that was not toggled, so it is likely that those votes in favor of the Cub art ban were actually made by a small group of people who spoofed hundreds of votes… In other words, signs indicate it was a hoax.

The timing of the revelation coincided with Varka’s locking of the thread and preventing new comments.

If Varka knew about the possibility of a hoax, why did he proceed with their demands?
Why did Varka leave it to a democratic majority decision when this is more of a civil rights issue?
Why did Varka allow such a thread to continue when the forum itself is supposed to be for tech features?
Will Varka be pressed to consider the implications of the ban if it is made widely known that a hoax took place?

And finally, will Varka retract the ban?

I wrote a short thought-piece on it on my IB Journal: “Were the FN Cub Porn Ban Votes FAKED?“

In light of the ban taking place in record-breaking time I think this revelation is rather significant and could have a long-standing effect on the community if not acknowledged.” – (Crassus)

In my opinion, I wouldn’t be surprised if people went out of their way to take advantage of such a voting loophole.  But it just sounds circumstantial without someone naming themselves for doing many votes.

Whether voting is fair or not, it’s Furry Network’s call to set policies (you use Facebook and don’t get to vote there, right?)  Even if the voting was worthless, FN’s policy is in line with other sites.  Their announcement seem reasonable and caring to me.  It’s very sensitive content, there’s other sites that host it, and “professionalism” (a subjective word) is a tradeoff from extreme freedom for a special subset. They don’t want harm for professional artists using the site.

Furry Network runs a business, and they’re offering significant potential to improve Furry Business for others. Access to the work of developers doesn’t make entitlement to “rights”, it’s more like being a guest or partner. (Don’t like the policy, don’t use the site.)

Keep in mind how FurAffinity couldn’t make a relationship with payment processors:

• Flayrah: Fur Affinity loses AlertPay account, bans cub porn (2010)

Remember how long and loudly people complained about wanting a better site?  It makes a conundrum if you can’t pay to build a site when policies make it hard to develop a business.  Freedom or funding?  You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Dragoneer did keep the site largely a haven for adult content – arguably a pro-artist compromise that held back development (separate from management topics), but supported Furry growth until now.

That may have led to this point when a new site can swoop in with a solution – not because Furaffinity failed, but because FA navigated limitations to make this possible. There had to be a community who like what Bad Dragon sells. That’s how BD built a baked-in payment system for FN.

With Furry Network’s policy, multiple sites are still needed to cover all the bases.  Competition is good, and this doesn’t stop you from expressing what you want on your own, or sharing it peer to peer.  Enjoy being DIY, which I think is the coolest thing about furries.

Fan entitlement is another topic, but keep in mind that it’s a real thing.

We got this from the Animation Magazine web site: “A new Amazon Video pilot season kicks off on June 17 in the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Japan. And this year’s crop includes five new kids’ animation series to keep an eye on: Little Big Awesome, Morris and the Cow, Toasty Tales, The Curious Kitty and Friends and Jazz Duck. (There’s also a live-action project from Sid & Marty Krofft: Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.)” Yes that’s right: They’re re-making the 1970’s live-action series about two young boys who live by the ocean and their secret friendship with an outcast tentacled sea-monster. Turns out that the whole slate of six features some anthropomorphic content, even if all of them aren’t necessarily anthropomorphic animals! Check out the article to learn more.

image c. 2016 Amazon Video

Ugh.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a 1970 novella, hereon referred to as JLS, is really bad. How bad? Read on.

I’m reviewing JLS for the [a][s] Furry Canon project because it appears on Fred Patten’s “Top Ten Furry Classics”. Fred’s list was one of the inspirations for this project, and so I’m working my way through all ten of Fred’s choices. Unfortunately they include JLS.

To be fair to Fred, his top ten is obviously not intended to be a “best of” – it’s more a list of books that are important to furry in some way. It includes choices like the first by-furry for-furry book (Paul Kidd’s Fangs of K’aath), and (as Fred puts it) the first serious* intelligent* animal novel for adults*, Sirius.

* My experience with JLS has caused me to doubt Fred’s judgment of quality. So I’m going to consider these terms to be provisional, until I’ve read and reviewed Sirius.

All of Fred’s top ten—including JLS—receive Fred’s approval as “great reading”. I am here to tell you that JLS is not great reading. To the contrary: it is asinine, tedious, humourless, preachy, and (mercifully) short.

JLS is a story about a seagull who learns to transcend the boundaries of space and time using the power of his heart. Argh.

Do you really want to hear all the ways this book sucks? Because it’s worse than my synopsis in the preceding paragraph (minus my ejaculation of psychic pain) suggests. I thought that this review might be fun to write, but all it’s doing is reminding me of the experience of reading JLS, which is much like living through a Picard facepalm.

JLS starts with JLS himself—the triple-barreled name of our seagull hero—pissing about. He is ignoring his seagull mates and instead flying stunts. (This is written in weirdly specific aeronautical jargon.) Jonathan learns to go fast, and then gets kicked out of his seagull team because he has the moral courage to follow what’s in his heart. And then he meets a fucking immortal seagull guru and starts transporting himself around the place instead of flying. And then becomes this bullshit secular religious prophet, where he teaches other seagulls to follow their dreams.

The writing is bad. It is written alternately in the style of what I imagine goes on at r/seaplanes, and coddling new-agey claptrap. It’s about as edgy as a weak episode of Diff’rent Strokes.

In line with the softcock positivism of JLS, the tone of the writing is bland and—at its best—worthless. I’d compare it writing that appears on an eagle-themed inspirational poster, or the platitudes spouted by Malibu Stacy’s short-lived competitor Lisa Lionheart, or perhaps the motivational messages of professional wrestling cheeseball Bo Dallas. Except that JLS is less pithy, and has less to say.

I’d say that JLS is unpublishable, yet it has sold in excess of one million copies—that’s a lot of readers’ eyes being rolled as they suffer through this thing—and was rewarded with a film feating a Neil Diamond soundtrack. Both the film and soundtrack have a reputation for being terrible.

So I guess you could say that I respectfully disagree with Fred’s characterization of JLS as “worth reading”. I can only imagine that he included JLS in his list because of its commercial success, or perhaps due to some short-lived cultural impact on its publication in 1970 (Fred was 30 at the time). In either case I can’t imagine anyone picking it up in 2016 and deciding it’s worth a damn.

I’m happy to conclude that JSL fails at the most basic level to be a book of any value, never mind one of the quality necessary for recommendation into the [a][s] Furry Canon.

It think it fails on our other criteria as well – longevity & furry connection.

I know I’m not the only person who knows JLS solely through its use as an expletive by The Simpsons‘s sea captain, which I think says it all as far as longevity goes. And while I know of at least one furry seagull who takes a kind of furry pride in the existence of JLS, he is Scottish and therefore you can imagine how he feels about being told by a hippie to find the courage to let his heart soar free.

In summary, Jonathan Livingston Seagull deserves neither your time nor interest. It will not be taking a place in the Furry Canon.

The Furry Canon, recommended, at the time of publication:
Redwall
Black Beauty
Equus