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Mouse Mission, by Prudence Breitrose – Book Review by Fred Patten
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.
Redbubble Resident
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
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?
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?Zen: Meditations of an Egotistical Duck, by Phicil – Book Review by Fred Patten
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.
Guild News: June 2016
Welcome to our newest member, Madison “Arara” Keller! If you’re interested in joining us, see this page to find out how.
Member NewsErin 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 NewsThe 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 NewsNew 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.
Furry Network’s new content policy gets panties in a bunch.
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
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.
New Kid Toons on Amazon
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
TigerTails Radio Season 9 Episode 46
The Furry Canon: Jonathan Livingston Seagull
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
Simon Thorn and the Wolf’s Den, by Aimee Carter – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Simon Thorn and the Wolf’s Den, by Aimée Carter
NYC, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, February 2016, hardcover $16.99 (307 pages), Kindle $6.99.
Besides furry fiction, there is a category of children’s fantasy about human children learning that they can talk with animals, and that the animals have civilizations of their own. The best of these include the Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis, in which human children discover a large fantasy dimension. Average examples include the recent Secrets of Bearhaven, Book One, by K. E. Rocha, where 11-year-old Spencer Plain learns that his parents can talk with bears and they have helped the bears establish a secret bear society hidden within our own. And then there is Simon Thorn and the Wolf’s Den, by Aimée Carter.
Simon is 12 years old and miserable. He’s picked upon by school bullies and he has no friends. He shares a cramped NYC apartment with his scarred Uncle Darryl. Nobody will tell him why Uncle Darryl is horribly scarred, or why his father is dead, or why his mother has been gone for a year on a zoological assignment – she sends him frequent “I love you” postcards from all over the country that don’t really tell him anything.
Or why he can suddenly talk with animals. He doesn’t tell anyone about this because Uncle Darryl apparently hates animals, even though a mouse he names Felix has become his best friend, and he could prove that he can talk with pigeons easily enough.
Then a one-eyed golden eagle tells him he’s in terrible danger, and his mother suddenly reappears, and Simon discovers that his mother and Uncle Darryl have been hiding the secret that they can not only talk with animals, too, but can change into them, but there’s no time to explain anything because they have to escape RIGHT NOW from an army of rats who want to kill them, and he’s really a hidden prince of all birds, but not the crown prince because he has an older twin brother that nobody told him about, and …
It’s all too much high profile adventure. There is lots of action, but it’s all meaningless. Nobody can tell him anything! Nobody notices anything! You’ve never seen such a string of interruptions and oblivious people.
“The eagle turned his head so he could see Simon with his good eye. ‘You’re in grave danger, Simon Thorn. If you don’t come with me at once –‘
‘Simon?’ said a rough voice outside his door. ‘Who are you talking to?’” (p. 5)
“Out of all the things the eagle could have said, this was the one Simon least expected. ‘You – you know my mother?’
‘Indeed,’ said the eagle. If you would come with me –‘
A snarl cut through the crisp air. Startled, the eagle took flight, and Simon cursed. ‘Wait – come back!’” (p. 14)
“‘They are coming for you, Simon Thorn, and if they find you, they will kill you.’
‘Kill me?’ he blurted. ‘Why?’
‘There is no time to explain. They are closing in as we speak. If you would come with me –‘
Another snarl cut through the air; exactly the same as that morning. Startled, the eagle took flight. ‘Run, Simon, before it is too late!’” (pgs. 28-29)
“‘Where have you been, Mom?’
She frowned. ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart. Work’s been so busy –‘
‘For a whole year? You didn’t take a single day off?’
‘I –‘ his mother began, but the door burst open before she could say anything else.” (p. 33)
“Darryl landed hard on the asphalt and began to kick the swarm of rats out of the way. Simon scrambled after him. Rats immediately began to climb up his legs again, and though he brandished the blade threateningly, he couldn’t bring himself to kill them. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Even as another flock of pigeons dived from above to fight the rats, Simon could see that there had to be hundreds, if not thousands by now, coming relentlessly for them. They were trapped.” (This is in the middle of a New York City street in mid-day, and nobody notices anything. p. 51)
“‘Hey!’ yelled the doorman, but Simon was already running. The rats had nearly taken over the sidewalk, but seemingly oblivious pedestrians had formed a path through the battle, and Simon jumped from one clear spot to the next, narrowly missing several tails.” (p. 78)
“Vanessa stepped out from the crowd and blocked his way. Behind her, another half-dozen human members of the pack appeared, forming a semicircle around them. Tourists and families stepped around them easily, not seeming to notice the intrusion, but Simon stopped cold.” (p. 254)
I could go on, but you get the idea. The action gets increasingly desperate, and increasingly bland since Simon, who doesn’t know what’s going on, always easily wins. When he’s forced into a magical duel with Ariana, a girl who can turn into a black-widow spider and who is famous among the Animalgams for never being beaten, Simon easily beats her. The shapeshifting is not even pretend-plausible; it includes clothing and size. If a boy or girl turns into a mosquito, a shark, an alligator, a butterfly, or an elephant, the change is instantaneous and the Animalgam is ready to go. There are the stereotypically helpful sardonic tomboyish girl his own age, and the comically awkward glasses-wearing nerd who becomes the protagonist’s only friend – here it’s Jam, Benjamin Fluke, a boy weredolphin
Simon Thorn and the Wolf’s Den (cover by Owen Richardson) does not say that it’s Book One of a series, but the inconclusive ending leaves no doubt that a sequel is coming. Buy only if you’re really desperate for talking-animal books.
The Ladies, They Do Like Ladies
Here’s what it says: “On Loving Women is a new collection of stories about coming out, first love, and sexual identity by the animator Diane Obomsawin. With this work, Obomsawin brings her gaze to bear on subjects closer to home—her friends’ and lovers’ personal accounts of realizing they’re gay or first finding love with another woman. Each story is a master class in reaching the emotional truth of a situation with the simplest means possible. Her stripped-down pages use the bare minimum of linework to expressively reveal heartbreak, joy, irritation, and fear.” What it does not say is that Obomsawin tells these stories through simply drawn but very anthropomorphic characters. Now this 2014 trade paperback has been re-released by Drawn & Quarterly.
image c. 2016 Drawn & Quarterly
Episode 316 - Furry Jesus
Episode -35 - Anywhere between 4 and infinite dicks
Episode -36 - Disgusting Molestation Nubs
Doing the Impossible - The WagzTail team discusses an impossible race in the Tennessee mountains and ponders what possesses people to do crazy things. Also a diatribe against rude bicyclists.
The WagzTail team discusses an impossible race in the Tennessee mountains and ponders what possesses people to do crazy things. Also a diatribe against rude bicyclists.
Metadata and Credits Doing the Impossible
Runtime: 35:03m
Cast: Crimson X, Levi, Wolfin
Editor: Levi
Format: 128kbps ABR split-stereo MP3 Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.
Doing the Impossible - The WagzTail team discusses an impossible race in the Tennessee mountains and ponders what possesses people to do crazy things. Also a diatribe against rude bicyclists.
The WagzTail team discusses an impossible race in the Tennessee mountains and ponders what possesses people to do crazy things. Also a diatribe against rude bicyclists.
Metadata and Credits Doing the Impossible
Runtime: 35:03m
Cast: Crimson X, Levi, Wolfin
Editor: Levi
Format: 128kbps ABR split-stereo MP3 Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.
If You Seek Meaning in Life
Now, that love once did not exist because there was a time before which I did not know Jim. But, after I met him and got to know him, I fell in love with him. Therefore, Love can be Created, and, if it is Real Love (not lust or romantic idealized love, but real love), it will always exist.
Therefore, we are beings who have the power of Generative Love, and that is the remarkable gift that God has given us.
Our purpose, then, is not to seek to be loved (passive love, because you are merely receiving it), but to learn to love and to create everlasting love in the universe.
(Real love does not dictate, does not seek to change others, but is accepting of others for who they are.)
If you seek to do something truly meaningful in your life, then go out and create a loving world.
Blessed Be.
“Shut Up, You’re Weird Too” from furries around the world – NEWSDUMP (5-27-16)
Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.
Canada’s CBC Radio – “‘Fursonas’ unzips the complex world of furry fandom.” Interview with Dominic Rodriguez (Video the Wolf), director of the movie.
Criterioncast.com reviews Fursonas. Joshua Brunsting calls it: “…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.”
Furries Love Zootopia. On Uproxx, they smartly highlighted part of an interview with Video to point this out.
“Brisbane ‘furries’ find community and acceptance inside animal suits.” ABC News in Australia covers a “haven for the shy and socially awkward”.
Mexican news interview with Paco Panda (Tip: Fred Patten.) Translated from Spanish. Paco el Panda is identified as an artist in Guadalajara.
San Francisco Bay Area Furries get one of the best Furry News articles ever. How the furry community rallied when Zarafa Giraffe lost his head. Don’t miss our articles that mention it here and here already… it’s too good not to link again.
Bay Area Furs are very photogenic. “Photo Du Jour: Furries Like Taking Tourist Pics Too.”
OMG! @LoboLoc0 does amazing work! A shot from our SF photoshoot last Sun,in front of the Painted Ladies of Alamo Sq. pic.twitter.com/R53FAGZzV4
— Zarafa (@Zarafagiraffe) April 23, 2016Fursuiters at How Weird Street Faire in San Francisco.
In past years, furries have appeared in the fair’s promotional videos, news articles, and on local ABC TV news about it. This event starts their local street fair season. This gallery (browse to find some furries) shows the huge volume of the crowds – thousands upon thousands of people all dressed their weirdest. When fursuiters stand out among them, it says a lot about their undeniable fuzzy glamor.
RIP to Kyu Fox.
A Bay Area Furries announcement said: “Kyu Fox passed away on April 13th. He was fairly well known in the local community, and his loss is deeply felt.” There was a memorial potluck/bbq with fursuits on May 1. Photos or stories about Kyu were shared for a scrapbook scanned for everyone, with an original book given to his family.
“My First Furry Convention: Shut Up, You’re Weird, Too”.
A long time con staffer (for all kinds) gives an inside view of the mess and the magic. He discusses the small percent of assholes who inhabit every community (naming vandalism at an anime con of 17,000), mitigating complaints that Furries have unique problems. And he praises living with an open mind.
Ever heard of “FLESHIES?” Three trashy articles about furries, petplay, and otherkin.
Britain’s Daily Star: “Who are the furries? Britain’s kinkiest sex craze: People who romp dressed as ANIMALS”. They tweaked that headline for hits – before it was “Inside the world of ‘fursonas’, sex myths and £2000 costumes.” Marvel at the absurdly shitty fact-checking, “anonymous” sourcing and fake language. “Fleshies?” It’s the work of dishonest journalists stuffing in fake content to meet a quota. In journalism school, they call that “shaving the hamster”. More in Britain’s Daily Mail: “Secret Life of the Human Pups – the weird world of the grown men who enjoy dressing up as DOGS in roleplay craze sweeping the nation.” Then there’s VICE: “What It Means to Be Trans Species.”
I honestly think some of these #HumanPups could benefit from therapy, but unfortunately they're not allowed on the couch.
— Richard Osman (@richardosman) May 25, 2016Basically they're dog shaggers lets be honest #humanpups #vile
— Katrina (@xkatrina7291x) May 26, 2016Missing teen lost and found, fur charged with kidnapping.
Aiyana Wolf listed her age as 19 on FurAffinity. Her account has one art submission that declares love for Kelo, a 30-year old man. But she turned out to be age 16. Somewhere in their relationship, he stepped over the line. It was reported that she had a mental condition that “does not allow her to make realistic life choices.” She ended up running away from home to be with Kelo. They were found together and he was charged with kidnapping.
The out-of-touch professor.
On philly.com – “Commentary: First on campus encounter with ‘furry’ subculture.” A college professor belittles weird young people (it sounds like he finds “prancing” to be shamefully unmanly). He shares his dubious research to find out what they’re into – including this absurd gem. (Imagine this read in the droning voice of Ben Stein):
“the teenage outcast becomes a full-fledged furry, choosing a character name, a species, and personality traits, purchases a fur suit or animal costume, and joins the furry community, where he is mentored by older furs.”
Reddit – “TIFU by accidentally telling my four-year old daughter to be a cat.” We’ve all been there.
This is a great little animated short! “Film short about disabled puppy wins hearts, 59 awards, job offers from Disney.”
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AMAZING FURRY NEWS COMING SOON – Are Your Kids Safe From Weird Fur Craze Sweeping The Nation?
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Furry Anti-Defamation League Protests "No Dogs Allowed" Signs
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 23, 2015Fox Suits: The Blue Jeans Of Fursuiting
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 23, 2015Furry-American Rights: The Surprising Wedge Issue For The 2016 Election
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 26, 2015Hotel Offers Free Rabies Shots To Guests Who Complain About Furry Convention
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 26, 2015Ambulance Called To Furry Con Due To Hug Overdose
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 30, 2015Gay Bar Shuts Down To Reopen As Furry Bar
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 30, 2015