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KnotCast Presents - "Furries: The Documentary" Review
Light: A Tale of the Magical Creatures of Zudukii, by T.S. McNally – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Light: A Tale of the Magical Creatures of Zudukii, by T. S. McNally. Revised First Edition.
Syracuse, NY, Bounding Boomer Books, February 2015; trade paperback $9.99 (158 pages), Kindle $4.99.
Back in May 2015, I reviewed Light, by T. S. McNally. My review was generally positive, but I did have several complaints:
“Light is more or less worth reading, but this is one of those books where you have to grit your teeth and plow through leaden prose and grammatical errors on almost every page. There are no spelling errors, but was the novel proofread otherwise? There are plenty of obvious missing and double words, like “‘Brudder! You have my toffee?’ his [Garoo’s] young brother [a fawn] inquired as he leaning forward.” (p. 24), or “You were always were pretty bright.” (p. 31). Fangstro is constantly called a wolf; a canine. Wolves are canids, but are they canines? I can’t read the word “canine” without thinking of dogs.”
Since Light is published by print-on-demand technology, McNally has produced a Revised First Edition that corrects many of these mistakes. The date has not been changed, but the original first edition was 151 pages; this revision is 158 pages. The passage that I quoted on pages 136-137 is now on page 143. The specific errors that I pointed out have been fixed; but Garoo still has an unusually prehensile tail for a kangaroo, and the wolves are called canines, not canids.
Since most of the errors that I complained about are gone, here is my review again with those complaints gone.
“Magical creatures” are the operative words here. I usually divide anthropomorphic fiction into either furry or funny-animal fiction, depending upon whether the anthro animals show some semblance of reality as to species, or whether they are “animal-headed humans”. In Light, though, the inhabitants of Zudukii are totally, blatantly fantastic. It is rare when two characters, say a brother and sister, are the same species, and all are basically humans. A bear has an otter sister, who has a kangaroo boyfriend.
Actually, he’s not exactly a kangaroo. While Garoo is usually called a kangaroo, he is more accurately described (disparagingly) as a kangabuck, a kangaroo with antlers; the son of a stag father and a kangaroo mother. See the cover by Selkie. But most characters do not display a mixed heritage. They are either one animal or the other.
(Frankly, I thought that a kangaroo with antlers sounded ridiculous. But that was before I saw the fish with a reindeer’s antlers on the civic arms of Inari, Finland.)
Does Garoo hop or walk? The reader can’t tell. Does he have other non-kangaroo attributes? Page 29 says, “The crowd had grown to such a size that the kangaroo wrapped his tail around one of the posts as to keep himself from accidently falling into the water.” Kangaroo tails are not that prehensile.
Do the animals, including anthro birds, wear clothes or not? This is vague until page 31, when “Enveloped in a long green dress, a grey bushy form of a squirrel female […]” — although it’s still unclear as to whether all of the animals wear clothes or only some of them.
Light’s plot makes it a Young Adult novel. The adolescents of Emergant, a village in Land Province, are due to all board the Arcane, a religious/social river ship and sail to Omnigic village, the religious capital, where each will learn what magic Power he or she will receive – or none at all. Garoo, the son of Emergant’s Elder, the proudly antlered stag Bomeran, is widely expected to become his father’s successor. But Garoo stubbornly refuses to learn to fight, a necessary duty to defend the village – if it is not a contradiction, he might be called militantly pacifistic. Kareen, his tomboyish otter girlfriend, determines that if he won’t fight for himself, she will fight for him; even if this may make her more favored than him for the heir apparent. But Fangstro, the bullying wolf teenage son of Emergant’s previous Elder, plots to discredit both Garoo and Kareen to become the new favorite; a scheme that becomes more urgent on the Night of Transitions when it looks like Bomeran will be promoted to the Sage of the whole Land Province and leave for Floreinna, the Province’s capital; creating an immediate vacancy for a new Elder in Emergant. For most of the novel, it looks like Fangstro’s plans to make them both absent from the ceremony where the adolescents receive their magic powers will work.
The most interesting aspect of Garoo’s world is its slowly revealed history and social structure. The world has been undergoing a time of peace after the Tri-Societal War of a generation ago, but that may not last. Each of the four Provinces is devoted to one of the four elements – Land, Water, Fire, and Air. A Sage is responsible for a whole Province; an Elder for only one village within it. Describing more details would give away too many spoilers.
Light ends on a dramatic cliffhanger, with a “To Continue in Wind.”
- S. McNally is a frequent contributor to Flayrah under the name Sonious, depicted as a kangaroo. If all his fursonas are put together, you get Tantroo Sonious McNally; but that’s still only a fursona. But it’s an active one. He has written short stories for furry anthologies, and this is his first novel.
TigerTails Radio Season 9 Episode 45
Transmission Lost, by Stefan C. Mazzara – Book Review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Transmission Lost, by Stefan C. Mazzara.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, September 2015, trade paperback $14.50 (unpaged [474 pages]), Kindle $6.99.
Transmission Lost is categorized as science fiction, not furry fiction. Its plot is very stereotyped, but one that a furry fan can enjoy. A human spaceman befriends an animal-like member of an alien civilization and brings peace and friendship to both cultures.
Jack Squier is a 26-year-old civilian cargo pilot with Stellar Horizons (“You have it, we’ll ship it! Lightspeed guaranteed!”) in the far future. The UN Navy, which seems to be part of a large interstellar human civilization (does UN still stand for “United Nations”?), is fighting against the alien feline Ascendancy, a.k.a. the Ailians. The UN Navy, due to running low on transport ships after ten years of war, contracts with Stellar Horizons in NYC to deliver combat supplies to the front. The route that SH gives to Jack cuts briefly through Ailian-controlled space, but he’s assured that he doesn’t have anything to worry about.
“‘The Star’s Eye is the largest cargo ship we have that still carries a one-man crew. Relax, Jack, you’re only gonna be in Ailian space for two realspace stops. The rest of it’s hyperspace until you get to the Antaeus sector. By then you’ll be well within friendly territory. Don’t worry about it. Besides, you hate working with other people, remember? Consider this a blessing.’” (p. [3])
The enemy is the Ascendancy, an alien interstellar empire somewhere around the Outer Milky Way worlds.
“First contact had been been made [when Jack had been sixteen years old] with the Ascendancy, an empire spanning several galaxies inhabited by the feline race of the Ailians. Looking as a cross between a ten-foot-tall human and Bengal tiger, the Ailians were strong, ruthless, and extremely protective of their territory. And as it just so happened, humanity had unknowingly begun to encroach upon that territory. Thus humanity had entered into war with the Ascendency, just as determined to expand their borders and claim much-needed resources as the Ailians were to retain them and take over human territory for their own.” (pgs. [3-4])
Mazzara writes very good space opera of the old-fashioned “Flash Gordon” variety, even if I do have serious reservations about spaceships blasting off for the other side of the galaxy from a spaceport in New York City. They have controls about as simple as 21st-century automobiles, too.
“‘Star’s Eye, you’ve got clear weather, and winds less than five kilometers per hour. You’re clear to take off whenever you’re ready.’
Jack strapped himself in, flexing his fingers around the dual joystick-type handgrips which served to control his ship. […] He flipped several switches and was rewarded with a strong thrum from the four engines as they powered on. With a press down of his left foot, the ship leapt off the spaceport tarmac to an altitude of a hundred meters in an instant.” (pgs. [4-5])
Naturally, Jack’s peaceful cargo run is interrupted by an enemy patrol boat; a one-being gunboat similar to but more powerful than his own. The space battle described seems modeled upon Battle of Britain dogfights, at really close quarters.
“Jack looked over as the Ailian ship pulled alongside his. While he was certain the pilot of the other vessel could see into his cockpit, Jack couldn’t see through the blacked-out viewports of the other. Nevertheless, he knew the enemy pilot was looking right at him, so he smiled and gave a jaunty wave. Fighting the nausea that was threatening to make him spew his guts all over his controls, Jack reached for the override switch that controlled the safeguards on his hyperspace engines.” (p. [8])
Jack’s shot-up ship emerges from hyperspace near an uncharted planet. He crash-lands. So does the equally shot-up Ailian fighter.
Jack’s preparations for leaving his wrecked spaceship to explore an unknown planet seem more like exploring a dangerous Southeast Asian jungle.
“Jack returned to his cabin, opening a locked compartment underneath the bed. Reaching inside, he drew out a belt made of military-spec webbed material. Attached to it was a holster, magazine pouches, a flashlight, and a small fixed-blade knife. Jack checked the holster out of habit. Fitted snugly inside was a matte-black .45 semiautomatic. The same one, in fact, that he’d carried as a pilot in the Navy. Jack enjoyed shooting and he’d kept up with it after retiring from the military. With ten shots in the magazine, one in the chamber, and four spare magazines n his belt, Jack would feel quite a bit stepping out onto an unfamiliar planet with it than he would have without it. He strapped the belt around his waist, and went back to the door.” (pgs. [11-12]. Note “door”, not “airlock”.)
And naturally he immediately meets the Ailian pilot.
‘Three meters tall. Pale orange, black-striped fur. A long tail, nearly half as long as the body was tall. Bipedal, two arms, carrying a rifle only vaguely similar to Jack’s own. Clad in a singed red flight suit, bright yellow eyes reflecting the firelight. Female.” (p. [12])
The female Ailian, who speaks English with what reads like a strong Russian accent, is Lieutenant Aria Me’lia. They have a stereotypical trek through the jungle/forest as reluctant allies, saving each other’s lives and bonding together. The exotic alien animals will be appreciated by furry fans, too.
“The larger animal howled in frustration as its prey escaped up the tree. Jack got a good look at it as it stood at the base of the tree, staring up at the escaped animal. The predator was huge, easily as big as Jack and maybe just a little bigger. Like the smaller animal, it had four legs, but the similarities stopped there. Twin tails extended from its haunches, each of them tipped with a wicked-looking short blade of what looked like blackened bone or horn. The blades glimmered in the firelight, shining with a natural polish. Each of the beast’s four paws ended in short, slightly curved claws. The most fearsome part of it was its muzzle, which was longer than a wolf’s and was filled with twin rows of sharp, shark-like teeth. The animal was covered with fur in a pattern of green, brown, and black, the perfect natural camouflage.” (p. [32])
and
“Jack opened his eyes and found himself face to face with a large dog-like creature. The blue-furred beast was gazing at him with five large green eyes arranged in a pentagon on its head, four nostrils flaring as it sniffed at him. It had been prodding at his face with one paw. Jack slowly raised his head, and the animal jumped back from him, spooked. Shying back several more steps, it turned and ran off into the distance.” (p. [63])
The trek includes having to climb a low mountain range. There’s a waterfall shower scene, of course.
“Aria was standing up in the waterfall, her face turned up to the cascade as she let the water flow over her. She was turned towards Jack, slightly to one side, but she hadn’t seemed to notice him. Inadvertently she was giving him quite the eyeful. Jack had already seen her nude a few times before, of course, when he was tending her wounds and in the tent, but that had been in close quarters and he hadn’t been bold enough, or interested enough, to look for more than a few seconds. But now the setting and her unguarded appearance was piquing his curiosity.” (pgs. [56-57])
By the time Jack and Aria do find help, they are more than just good friends. The “help” is of a dubious nature, however.
“‘Pirates.’ Jack said, the fear obvious in his voice. ‘That’s the insignia of the Scorpion Guild. Before the war started, they were the biggest threat to shipping in human space. They still operate throughout the war zone and all over the galaxy. They’re part of the reason that the military has a shortage of transport vessels. I bet that’s one they stole.” (p. [95])
This is barely a quarter of Transmission Lost. Plotwise, it’s a combination of well-worn newspaper comic-strip s-f and the “space empire” skullduggery that Edmond Hamilton used to churn out in the 1940s Captain Future pulps and novels like the 1949 The Star Kings. (Full disclosure: I loved The Star Kings. My junior high school library had it, and I must’ve read it a half-dozen times.) But Mazzara’s breezy, well-fleshed-out writing keeps it feeling fresh, at least as it relates to Jack Squier and his ten-foot-tall anthropomorphic tigress partner/mate (cover by Tyler McDonald). And when they get off that jungle planet and into the flow of Ascendancy society, and then the maelstrom of Ascendancy politics – well, there are enough ten-foot-tall tigeroids for everyone. If you like undemanding space opera adventure with furry aliens, you’ll like Transmission Lost.
Rattle and Hummmm…
We came across this announcement from Screen Daily: “Kaleidoscope Film Distribution (KFD) is handling world sales on animated feature Danny Diamondback, which Aardman Animation alumni Darren Walsh (Shaun The Sheep TV series) will direct. It’s the story of a young rattlesnake with a musical talent in his tail. The film is based on the children’s novella of the same name, first published by Harper Collins and written by illustrator and production designer Barry Jackson (How The Grinch Stole Christmas). Jackson has written the script and will be heading up production design on the project. Siege Train Studios’ Curtis Augspurger (Valiant), Matthew Hampton, and Cora Palfrey will produce the film alongside Jackson. Bibo Bergeron (Shark Tale) will serve as executive producer.” That’s one heck of a lotta veteran anthropomorphic talent on one project. No word yet on if the film is to be CGI or claymation. Guess we’ll find out after they give us a projected release date!
image c. 2016 Kaleidoscope Entertainment
S5 Episode 15 – I Live With Hexxus - Roo and Tugs are joined by Nuka once again as they explore the world of toxic parents in the context of furry. What are toxic parents? Should you be concerned about them? What do you do if you think you have one?
NOW LISTEN!
Show Notes
Special Thanks
Nuka, our guest from the IARP. Check out their research at www.furryresearch.com.
Leo the artist, for both sending email and the ident!
Timid Grizzly
Anonymouse
Snares
Niko, from our FanX 2016 audio archive!
Crystal Mountain Pony Con!
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!)
Topic opening: Mystery Skulls - Ghost. USA: Warner Bros Records, 2011. Used with permission.
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!)
Next episode: Our next episode is about FurAffinity. What is it? Why is it so popular? What does it do? What doesn't it do? Send your emails by June 2, 2016! S5 Episode 15 – I Live With Hexxus - Roo and Tugs are joined by Nuka once again as they explore the world of toxic parents in the context of furry. What are toxic parents? Should you be concerned about them? What do you do if you think you have one?
Episode -37 - Vox has evolved into....a shark!
Episode -38 - Live from FurEh, except recorded
Ep 66 – Scene it, Wrote it - What makes a scene? In writing, not that mess of animals who record this podcast. We discuss about how scenes are set up, what entails them, how to start one, end another and chain them all together. Send us your feedback, q
What makes a scene? In writing, not that mess of animals who record this podcast. We discuss about how scenes are set up, what entails them, how to start one, end another and chain them all together.
Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints:
@FangsAndFonts
Facebook.com/FangsAndFonts
Fangs and Fonts
Click below to Listen http://www.fangsandfonts.com/FnF/Episodes/Ep66-Scene_it_Wrote_That.mp3Download here | Open Player in New Window
Ep 66 – Scene it, Wrote it - What makes a scene? In writing, not that mess of animals who record this podcast. We discuss about how scenes are set up, what entails them, how to start one, end another and chain them all together. Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, [...]News from the World (May 2016)
FurAffinity, the fandom’s biggest social website & art gallery, has once again had computer-related problems, being unavailable for several days, and later reverting back to older backups. With ever-delayed upgrades and occasional server issues, FurAffinity is famous for both its questionable stability, and its non-relenting established dominance over other similar websites.
A vulnerability in the widely-used library ImageMagick was exploited to obtain the full source code of FurAffinity, code that was later distributed anonymously on a handful of USB pen drives located throughout the Biggest Little Fur Con (Nevada, US). A later attack deleted user profiles, submissions, and others (source⇒).
FurAffinity community manager Dragoneer, as well as its staff, responded to worrisome statements by explaining the issue, and later restoring the website. The site remains until Monday 23rd in read-only mode while they continue their security audit. At the same time, traffic on Inkbunny and Weasyl has spiked considerably (source⇒). The more recent Furry Network website (link⇒) asks no invitation now to register, so anyone can make an account. It also has an extremely easy-to-use tool to migrate art & watches from FurAffinity.
In the short amount of time FurAffinity was fully functional after the attack, some users published journals on how to reach them or their art through other different websites. Some (source⇒) consider FurAffinity the “Microsoft Windows” of furry websites: while it’s not the best, it established itself at a key moment in time, so pretty much everyone uses it now either way. Except Microsoft Windows has never gone 10 years without a code rewrite.
If you continue to use FurAffinity, it’s strongly advised that you change your password to a unique string of characters, as there has been some attempts at compromising external e-mail accounts. This can only be done once the website stops being in read-only mode. Also, remember that all messages on the website, either private or public, are stored in plain text format (not encrypted). Artists should not rely on FA’s private message system to handle commissions.
Furry animator Fredryk Phox / Matthew Gafford has released A Fox in Space, an episodic show of Star Fox fan-inspired adventures. Star Fox is Nintendo’s main character from the videogame series Star Fox. Some call the character Fox McCloud (not anyone else but himself, see episode.) The show is a funny and authentic take on its universe, and it’s a surprisingly high-quality production despite the limited budget & staff involved. The first episode is close to reaching a million views on YouTube.
The project has a Patreon website (link⇒) and regular streamings of the whole creative process (link⇒).
Spanish furry audiovisual communications guy & announcer Ribbs (link⇒) has professionally dubbed the original English voices to Spanish (so now ‘Pew Pew’ sounds like ‘Pñao Pñao’, amongst other improvements.)
English (YouTube⇒)
Spanish (YouTube⇒)
Furrnion registration is now open! (link⇒) The Spanish furry convention will be held through the 27th to the 29th January 2017. Registration opened on May 1st at a discounted price (the discount will continue for an unspecified amount of time.) The convention will soon have a promotional video of fursuiters doing silly fursuiter things at the venue.
And now for something completely different! Korean furry blogger Basdog, at blog.naver.com/fueholic (link⇒), contacted FurryFandom.Es, interested in translating many of our articles to Korean! He runs a blog which is meant to give an inside view into the world of furry to those Koreans unfortunate enough to not understand English. Thus we are united in our wish to spread furry culture all over the world! We are adding Basdog’s website to our ‘Partners in Press’ section on the top right menu, along other furry news websites we use to document our own. To those interviewed here at FF.es, do not feel surprised to be sent fan comments in Engrish!
The entry News from the World (May 2016) appears first in FurryFandom.es.
Episode 315 - Gateway Species
They’re Back for Blood. Again.
Devil’s Due Entertainment have announced that their most successful comic book, Squarriors (written by Ash Maczko and illustrated by Ashley Witter) will soon return with a new full-color 4-issue miniseries entitled Volume 2: Summer. One comic book reviewer described the original series as “Watership Down meets The Walking Dead“. If cute rodents with swords and lots and lots of blood are your thing, it’s all here with top-notch art. Watch for it next week, and visit the Devil’s Due web site to learn more.
image c. 2016 Devil’s Due
Looking at post-con depression through a lens of literary theory
When I first heard about the concept of post-con depression, the idea made a lot of sense. We have a massive community of people who meet each other over sites like Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and various furry art hubs. These groups of people travel across or fly over states, countries or in some cases continents and oceans to see these online friends possibly once a year for a weekend, if that.
That’s already bittersweet.
But when you consider going to a big con – and presently attending is an amalgam of so many internet personalities you had conversed with or seen – it feels less like a get-together of friends and more like a supernatural event. Maybe like that scene in the film Big Fish where all the people Edward Bloom had met in his life showed up to attend his funeral, juxtaposing themselves as they exist now with the ghost of the narrative that surrounded them. Except less macabre. Alternatively, it could be compared to something like a World’s Fair for a very specific group of people.
And this convention I attended was indeed very fair-like. In the dealer’s den there were booths for everything from harnesses and tails to scarves and soap, plus artwork, books, jewelry, and custom renaissance fair outfits. There were board game expositions with groups of friends playing together. I attended and participated in panels with some of the brightest creative minds, young and old, that I had met.
Come Saturday, I saw all of the props and displays getting taken apart, and that was my first inkling of inexplicable dread, like a small voice in my head that said ‘this ephemeral extravaganza is going to phase out of existence entirely, and what was will never be again‘. That voice was no long a whisper when Sunday morning came, and I could see a sizable chunk of the crowd had already gone, having stole away in the night. I regretted not going to the Saturday dance. When I was younger, I used to be very much into British and Irish folklore, so the thought of pixie rings popped into my head: where people could not stop dancing if they joined in the revelry of the faeries, and having partaken in their food and their music meant the people could no longer return to the mortal world.
It certainly didn’t help that this convention was Rainfurrest 2015.
That being said, I most certainly don’t have precognition, so my hairs would have stood on end similarly for any big con with a support group for writers. At one point on a Saturday, I remarked to a friend: “you know, everybody we run into seems to be wearing ears and a tail at the very least, and I’m starting to want one. But then I realize I’d have nowhere else to wear it.”
And that moment was the light bulb going off in my head– that decisive moment where you can feel that a subculture is truly a subculture and is leaving an anthropological impression in the world. I thought of Foucault’s literary theory of Panopticism.
For those not familiar, Michel Foucault was a French philosopher made famous for his ideas of power and control and how they construct and interact with our social worlds. One of his ideas was that of the social Panopticon, based on an institutional building invented by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century where a single guard would sit at the center of a spherical building, the surrounding walls holding the prisoners in their cells, making all cells in the institution visible to the guard at a time. Despite this being impossible, prisoners could still feel the gaze of the sentinel, and it was enough to prevent bad behavior. Inmates would start policing their own behavior as well as the behaviors of other prisoners, because it could not be discerned whether the guard was looking at them at any time or not. Foucault presents the argument that all of society acts as this guard, including ourselves, while at the same time we each act as the prisoner. We self-police based on the gazes we give and receive, and what we consider “bad” behavior changes as the guard changes.
Fashion is a very subtle form of this self-policing, and it can be exacerbated to extremes in environments like high school and freshman college dorms. For example, as a personal experience, when I was in high school I noticed that everybody wore jeans, while I didn’t care for them. I made it a point to not wear jeans. I wore nylon shorts, and khakis, and any form of legging that I could find that didn’t include denim. I never talked about this, but it was noticed. Many young women would look at my legs and raise their eyebrows. At one point I was nicknamed “professor” because I didn’t wear jeans.
By the beginning of my senior year, I started wearing jeans. I had warmed up to them, though I can’t say if this was more due to a change of taste or sheer peer pressure. Either way, my wearing jeans was noticed. I was given croons of approval. I was invited to more social outings. There was a noticeable difference in how I was seen and treated, and more than a few people told me I was, no kidding, now hot.
We know that the societal pressures of fashion are real. While the high school example is an extreme, I felt the same pressure from not wearing ears, a tail, or a costume over the course of a single weekend at a furry con, and that is nuts. That the furry con and subculture has a strong enough ethos to give me subconscious pressure about not wearing something is significant to me. It blurs the lines between culture and subculture in a way that gives me a small headache.
It gave me a new outlook on what post-con depression could be: not just the distress from parting with friends who you talk to every day, but self-doubt about the permanence and place of your subculture. It elicits questions like: “Was the furry of today going to be the furry of tomorrow?”, “Are all of the other cons like this?”, “Is it gone already and is it never coming back?”, “Should I have danced that last Saturday night, and will I regret not doing so for the rest of my life?”
I would bet these sentiments exist in other conventions where contribution, creativity and ingenuity is at the crux of the particular subculture, but there is so much in furry tied to identity and presentation of the self that I’m not sure it would be entirely the same at any other nerd convention.
We love our friends, and we miss them, too, but we also have this lingering thought of “the fair has left the town, but it has been here before me and will go on without me. When it comes back, if it comes back, will I still be able to recognize it? Will I want to be back?”
That is a lot to grapple with.
The Dangers of Going Off Medication without Doctor Supervision
I don't know if this counts as much as a question as it does as a desperate cry for help.
Also, this is going to take very long to read, so take as much time as you need to respond, and to anyone who reads this, I hope it's at least helpful for you.
I have written to you before back in the day when I had a different fursona and I had no problem in letting everyone know who I was and what 'my situation' was, back when I was still a manipulative man child desperately looking for excuses to latch onto the carefree nature of my childhood - avoiding the responsibilities that adulthood brings. I've been telling myself for the longest time that it's okay to be childlike (having childlike interests) only to disguise my immaturity. I'm aware it's okay to collect plush toys and keyholders and play games and all that stuff, but I've been using all that scheme as a scapegoat to keep myself from becoming an adult. I have finally turned 24 just today and I'm still as stuck as I was when I was 18 and I spent a whole year doing nothing after high school.
I haven't lost it. I keep being manipulative, I keep getting jealous and envious and angry over petty things, enforcing the idea on myself that I'm worthless and therefore I have the 'right' to be upset over ridiculous things, and I constantly compare my personal value with others so as to keep telling myself that other people are better than me and that that's the reason why I don't make it in life.
In fact I'm getting everything mixed up. So, if you don't mind reading a bit more than usual for a question, here are a few anecdotes that might give you a better idea of my current emotional and mental state.
I had been doing a Fluoxetine treatment for little over six months and I had decided to drop it because I told myself I don't need pills to do well in life and feel better, and for some time it seemed to be true as I was in fact doing better.
I don't know if it's got to do with me having left the pills, but now I get more and more hysterical more easily, getting upset over the smallest remarks, pretty much like my 2nd girlfriend used to do, who was by far the most manipulative person I've ever met - she used physical illnesses to keep people held by the b@lls, that's how far it went.
Last Friday I was in the university's cafeteria and, scrolling through Google+, I found a particular post in a fetish themed community I was following; someone had republished a picture of a furry I really like/d with another fur (a picture that they themselves would have never shown me), and if anyone has known me for a long time they would know I lost my sh!t over it; my face went hot and my hands and legs went cold, and I was so angry I wanted to punch the table and make a hole in it if I could have. I saw myself getting back to the old days of getting upset and angry and full of hatred over something that somebody else would never have (seriously, it's ridiculous). And most importantly, I realized that I was essentially being so overly sensitive over everything so as to get back to my man-child days of trying to manipulate people with my anger or sadness.
I went and told this furry how I felt and things between me and them have been really awkward since then, as I'm not even sure how s/he feels about it and I'm almost certain I left a horrible impression (I know I in their shoes would have been creeped out as hell, or pissed at least). But most importantly, and as far as my own issues are concerned (which are the only thing I can actually make a dent on), seeing them in my contacts list is only a permanent reminder of my current emotional and mental decay. I'm 24 and I keep doing the same things I did when I was 18, which were already immature and harmful in their own accord back then.
The most important thing, and the MAIN reason why I'm writing this letter to you (gee, it took me so long), is because all of this is heavily interfering in my main concern, which are my studies, or lack thereof in my case.
It's the second time I'm going through the same course—I lost a whole year last year, and in doing so I also wasted a great job opportunity to earn a lot of money just looking after my brother's house while his partner and him were on a holiday trip to Europe, also throwing our relationship down the sh!tter with how I evaded that responsibility. So I did nor one thing nor the other.
You would think that being the second time I'm doing the first year of this career, I would have some experience and I would be studying harder. But in fact, I'm as lost as I was last year and everyday I'm about to give up. Sometimes I even feed myself with negative thoughts about jumping off the bridge I cross every Tuesday and Thursday night on my way back home from volleyball lessons.
Basically, I'm constantly falling back into the vices of deceiving myself with "I'll study later" and investing time and emotions into internet stuff, putting so much thought and energy into it that getting upset over internet events can already ruin my day to the point that I no longer have any motivation to do anything else. That day when I saw this picture of this furry crush with someone else, I was so upset I took a bus back home and told my mother that "algebra class had been cancelled" just so I could give myself an excuse to sleep all day. That's how far it goes.
So here's the question: What do I do?
Anonymous (age 24; Argentina)
* * *
Hi Furiend
Question: did all this bad stuff happen after you stopped taking Fluoxetine? Are you still not taking it?
[Note to readers: Fluoxetine is an antidepressant designed to also lessen anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and panic attacks. It should be dispensed only under a doctor’s supervision.]
Papabear
* * *
It wasn't immediately after I stopped taking it, but I'm still not taking it, and in all honesty I don't want to keep on taking it because I don't want to rely on pills to grow up as a person.
* * *
Hello, again,
Okay, well, there is a clear correlation between your not taking your medication and things getting much worse for you. I understand and sympathize with the fact that you don't want to be on medication, but sometimes people need medicine. There is no shame in that, and there is no shame in your taking Fluoxetine any more than there is shame in someone with a heart condition taking medicine so that they can live.
It is very common for people such as yourself to suddenly decide—usually against doctors' orders—to stop their medication. This is unwise and often leads to a lot of pain and suffering. Just because you are on medication doesn't mean that it is the thing responsible for your personal growth. That's all you. Indeed, NOT taking it is making it MORE difficult for you to become the kind of person you wish to be.
I am not a doctor, so I am not comfortable stating for certain this is what needs to be done, but I would very strongly recommend you go back to your physician and talk to him or her about this. My prediction is that the doctor will prescribe the Fluoxetine again (it seemed to be working) or possibly change the dosage or try a different medicine if it makes you feel better. Also, talk to your doctor to see if there might be things you can do to, over time, lessen the dosage or even, eventually, get off of it, but stopping it abruptly on your own without medical advice was not the thing you should have done.
Some people think it shows weakness taking medicine. Actually, it takes great strength to admit you have a problem and follow your doctor's orders. Keep working on your condition and perhaps it will improve in the future, but for now, I'm fairly certain you need to get back on Fluoxetine, hon.
Good Luck,
Papabear
ep 116 - POD Dragon! - Yay, we're back! Hopefully for good this time. G…
Yay, we're back! Hopefully for good this time. Great ep where we talk about POD Dragon, revolutionizing slavery, Fallout 4, Quantum Break, the 2016 election and more! ep 116 - POD Dragon! - Yay, we're back! Hopefully for good this time. G…
Charity Anthology Wolf Warriors III: Winter Wolves – OPEN FOR SUBMISSION.
Wolves are known for being proud, majestic creatures. Known for their loyalty, courage, and intelligence – but it wasn’t always that way. There was a time people saw wolves as only monsters and creatures to fear, for they hunt in the night, kill livestock, and send eerie howls to the full moon. These fears have almost driven these misunderstood creatures into extinction. As scientist studied them more, the more public opinion of them began to change – but stereotypes are hard to get rid of.
That’s why organizations like the National Wolfwatcher Coalition strive to ‘educate, advocate, and participate’ for the long term recovery and the preservation of wolves based on the best available science and the principles of democracy.‘ One of those ways is through their popular anthology, Wolf Warriors.
You can be a part of it. Going into it’s third volume, Wolf Warriors III is being edited by Thurston Howl and published by Thurston Howl Publications. The anthology is used as a fundraiser for the National Wolfwatcher Coalition to continue their mission. The idea for the anthology played a huge part in getting Thurston Howl Publications off the ground and putting Howl’s editing skills to work.
Thurston Howl Publications is an odd duck in furry publishing:
“THP is one of the world’s first furry-inclusive (as opposed to furry-exclusive and furry-excluding/non-furry) publishing house. Based in TN, it publishes almost ten books a year, has a staff of almost thirty people, and, so far, has received a nomination for the Ursa Major Award for its nonfiction furry essay collection published last year. (Furries Among Us). It is a very good group, and I’ve loved all of our clients so far.”
Howl himself stumbled across our fandom when he was doing research about animals who symbolize literary representations of lust:
“Of course, I stumbled across the fandom through media portrayals of furry as a “kink,” but after going to my first furmeet and interviewing furries, I realized I wasn’t too different at all. That was roughly four or five years ago. Since then, I have written, edited, and published furry fiction. I want THP to rise up as an affordable yet high-quality seller of books for the fandom.”
Thurston Howl
This year’s theme for Wolf Warriors is Winter Wolves. What does that mean?
“Honestly, I’m expecting half of the pieces to just have a winter setting, while the other half might be specifically holiday-themed.”
If you wish to submit, you’re free to interrupt that as you will. There’s no limit to genre or even type of story. They’re looking for everything from short stories, essays, flash fiction, poetry, and artwork, to photography. Submission guidelines for each can be found on Thurston Howl Publication’s website. Please be sure you read all the requirements before writing or submitting your story. This is a general audience book, so any adult content will not be accepted.
Wolf Warrior is a non-paying market book, but if your work is accepted, Thurston Howl Publications will discuss terms and rights. The true goal of the anthology is to show people that wolves are not the monsters we’ve build them to be. To show people how amazing these beautiful creatures are. Whether they walk on four paws or two, wild or civilized, let’s show what the true beauty of wolves can be. Aroooo!
Wolf Warrior III – Winter Wolves deadline is June 15th. The book is planned for release later this year.
-Pup Matthias
The Sage of Waterloo: A Tale, by Leona Francombe – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
The Sage of Waterloo: A Tale, by Leona Francombe
NYC, W. W. Norton & Co., June 2015, hardcover $22.95 (x + 224 pages), Kindle $11.99.
This leisurely novel will tell you more than you want to know about the famous Battle of Waterloo of June 17, 1815. To the rabbits who live there today, it’s the only exciting thing that ever happened there. They never tire of hearing about it, in detail. William, the narrator, is one of those rabbits.
“Waterloo is where I was born, and where I spent the first three years of my life. Well, technically it wasn’t Waterloo itself but the ancient Brabant farm of Hougoumont, one of the iconic battle sites situated in the fields a few kilometers farther up the Chaussée de Waterloo. In 1815, this long, forested avenue funneled weary streams of humanity back and forth between the battlefield and the city – between destiny and deliverance.” (p. 5)
This may be the last generation that Hougoumont knows as a farm. William describes its decline from a working farm to a forgotten relic. “I was happy at Hougoumont. The last farmer to live there was not like the aristocrats who had once owned the chateau (there was no more chateau – the French had shelled it). He raised cattle, and seemed far less interested in rabbit and pigeon dishes than his predecessors. He was, thank heavens, a frozen–food sort of man, and thus our existence was blissfully irrelevant.” (p. 7) The rural village of Waterloo has expanded into a modern small city, and the old farm with its rabbit hutches and dovecotes will soon be torn down.
“I am no longer young. I’ll be eleven in a few months, which not only requires math well beyond my skills to calculate in human years, but also obliges me to press on with my storytelling. Those of you who are already experiencing the adventure of aging may have discovered that this part of the journey does not only entail unexpected dips and fissures in the road, aches in the limbs, problems reaching those hard-to-clean areas (Old Lavender gave them up early on) and so forth.” (pgs. 12-13). William describes his hutchmates in detail. “Jonas, a distant cousin, was a rash, handsome buck infamous for his preening, scheming, and disreputable tail-chasing.” (p. 13) “Boomerang, a slightly crazed uncle, had the obscure habit of throwing himself sideways against the barrier, bouncing off at ever-more-interesting angles.” (p. 14) “Caillou was the runt (his name, fittingly, meant ‘pebble’).” (ibid.) And others. “Most of us followed the general rules that defined the Hollow Way. Yield. Bump ahead. No left turn. That sort of thing. It was a predictable sort of life, vigorously stamped with the colony’s imprimatur: milling, eating, nudging, nipping, dozing … milling, eating, nudging, nip …You get the idea.” (p. 16)
The doyen of the hutch is Old Lavender, their ancient grandmother. “No one could say how long Old Lavender had lived in the colony. She was grandmother to at least ten generations, and while other relatives disappeared over the years at the farmer’s whims, or those of Moon, the invisible arbiter of our kind, she had always been permitted to stay. No one dared to cross her. She was just too big, for one thing. And of course, there was that smell …” (p. 2) And Old Lavender likes to tell about the Battle of Waterloo.
“After a period of reflection – several days or so – Old Lavender would lecture to the enclosure at large. The place was crowded: we were unable to eat, groom, fornicate or daydream more than about a foot away from someone else, so she had a decent captive audience. Not that we objected. She mined her Waterloo passion for treasures that were exclusively ours for the taking.” (p. 29)
Francombe tries to keep it interesting. Parts of the story are straight narration. Parts are in the form of a quiz.
“Mornings were reserved for pop quizzes: ‘What did Wellington have for breakfast?’ (Hot, sweet tea and toast. Napoleon, by the way, took his breakfast on silver plate.) ‘Why was Napoleon such a poor rider?’ (He slid around on the saddle too much, wearing holes in his breeches.) ‘How long was Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher pinned under his dead horse?’ (Even longer than it takes to pronounce his name properly.) ‘What did they use to revive him?’ (Blücher, not the horse: gin and garlic.)” (p. 35)
William loses himself in visions of himself as the heroic cast.
“I hardly knew which one to choose from. For guaranteed escape, Wellington was always a good bet, so I would track him eagerly as he rode about all day in his plain blue frock coat and bicorne hat, amazed at how such a mythmaker could subsist on just hot tea and toast. Then I would leave the Duke to his reconnoitering for a while and practice pronouncing Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. I never really mastered it, despite all the hours spent trying, thereby gaining a much greater appreciation of the old Prussian general’s predicament. (He was seventy-three at the time.) When these activities paled, I imagined myself boldly escaping from the Hougoumont barn during the fiercest of the fighting, leaping across the chateau garden through a blizzard of bullets, the finger of providence firmly upon me.” (p. 36)
This sort of thing goes on throughout the book. It is not all fleshed-out history, though. It is mixed with William’s explorations outside the Hougoumont rabbit hutch. He is dumbfounded to discover that a blackbird knows as much about the Battle of Waterloo as his grandmother does. When Old Lavender disappears, William and Arthur, the blackbird, search for her. What they find relates not only to her but to William’s own history.
The Sage of Waterloo (cover by the Strick&Williams art agency; a montage from Getty Images) is clever. It transcends the story of the Battle of Waterloo to tell its own original story. But if you are not interested in the Battle of Waterloo itself, there may not be enough here to hold your interest.
Cheaters Are Fast, But Not Fast Enough
This June, Boom! Studios will release Cheat Code, the latest Original Graphic Novel based on the popular animated series The Amazing World of Gumball from Cartoon Network. “Cheaters never prosper. But Gumball and Darwin don’t know that! While the Watterson boys are grounded, their classmates advance ahead of them in the new, super-popular video game Monster Fight Friends. A mysterious and forbidden cheat code is just what they need. Too bad it unleashes a gigantic, tech-crazy kaiju onto the streets of Elmore! Written by Megan Brennan (Pencil Pup) and illustrated by Katy Farina, The Amazing World of Gumball: Cheat Code takes adventure in Elmore to a whole new level.” Find out more about this new trade paperback over at Simon & Schuster.
image c. 2016 Boom! Studios
FA 019 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - What are cognitive distortions and what are the common therapies recommended to help treat them?
Hello Everyone!
On this week's podcast we open with a discussion on why you might be experiencing poor sleep when you are in a new environment. Is it just anxiety, excitement, or could it be a more primal, feral sensation that your brain is having?
Our main topic is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Cognitive Distortions. We discuss what the most common cognitive distortions are and how they can affect the way that you perceive the world, as well as interfere with your relationships. We then discuss ways that you can manage these distortions and find a path to a happier, healthier you.
Cognitive Distortions are a serious issue, especially when you put them in play into a relationship. They allow for negative, self-sabotaging behavior to rear its ugly head and the collateral damage can be incredibly great. While we discuss common methods for coping and resolving these issues, we do want to stress that we are not licensed mental health experts; this podcast does not represent any form of consultation or diagnosis. If you have further questions or want to come up with an action plan for correcting behaviors we discuss in this show, seek help from a licensed professional that specializes in this area.
We close out the episode with a question about how to tell your long-term monogamous partner that you want to give polyamory a try. We talk about communication a lot in our answer.
For more information, including a list of topics by timestamp, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
FA 019 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - What are cognitive distortions and what are the common therapies recommended to help treat them?