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FC-234 In Case of America Break Glass - Almost done with another studio upgrade we go through a quick roundup, quick news, read some fan emails and then do an unusual Q/A session with the chat room.
Almost done with another studio upgrade we go through a quick roundup, quick news, read some fan emails and then do an unusual Q/A session with the chat room.
Watch Video Link Roundup: News:- North Dakota’s First Wolverine In 150 Years Is Immediately Shot And Killed By Rancher
- Why these scientists masturbate animals
- Biologists Observe Female Homosexual Behavior In Wild Gorillas For The First Time
- Man Shoots Up Bathroom When Occupant Takes Too Long, Police Say
- ‘JerkShirt’ Lets You Masturbate ‘Anywhere Without Fear Of Getting Caught’
Gladwin Lavrov – “:short question:”
Chelle – “First Time Email”
Cyber Wragon – “Dear Furcast”
Zach – “The Bulge and the Bulgeless”
[Live] In Case of America Break Glass
Almost done with another studio upgrade we go through a quick roundup, quick news, read some fan emails and then do an unusual Q/A session with the chat room.
Link Roundup: News:- North Dakota’s First Wolverine In 150 Years Is Immediately Shot And Killed By Rancher
- Why these scientists masturbate animals
- Biologists Observe Female Homosexual Behavior In Wild Gorillas For The First Time
- Man Shoots Up Bathroom When Occupant Takes Too Long, Police Say
- ‘JerkShirt’ Lets You Masturbate ‘Anywhere Without Fear Of Getting Caught’
Gladwin Lavrov – “:short question:”
Chelle – “First Time Email”
Cyber Wragon – “Dear Furcast”
Zach – “The Bulge and the Bulgeless”
Is It Worth the Effort to Challenge Misconceptions about Furries?
I have met some people who have the wrong idea about the fandom and think that looking at furry pictures will make someone have sex with a animal,and i'm like no. Furries don't do that stuff at all. I know furry fandom shuns those who abuse animals. How do i let people know that their views of animal abuse are totally wrong?
Anonymous (age 38)
* * *
Dear Furiend,
Once people get an idea into their heads it is really tough to expunge it. You could probably tell them your side of it until you're blue in the face and they will not believe you. Many times it isn't worth your time and energy to bother. It's like with racism. There are people out there who feel, for example, all Muslims are terrorists and all Mexicans are lazy. You could spend hours, days, years trying to tell them otherwise and they won't believe you. Another example would be people who believe the Bible and that Earth is only 6,000 years old. You can take them to museums, have them talk to archaeologists and paleontologists, give them books to read, and they will still believe the Bible. Why? Probably because they were raised to believe the Bible is the Word of God and contradicting it is sinful. You see, emotions and upbringing tend to trump science. This is not 100% true. Sometimes you can actually alter a view, but is it worth all the time and trouble?
That said, the best way to increase the odds of changing a bad attitude about furries is for the people who have these views to actually meet and get to know furries in real life. They have to, of course, want to do this. You can't make them. Prejudices and misconceptions are born of ignorance, and people often hide behind walls of ignorance to protect their belief systems, even if those beliefs are wrong, because it scares them to think that they were being lied to all their lives, and they lack the courage and self-esteem to think for themselves.
So, in short, while it is possible to change beliefs (this applies to strong beliefs not little beliefs like persuading someone to try a different flavor of ice cream), the chances of success are slim and the possibility of succeeding will mean considerable expenditures of time and effort on your part. You need to ask yourself, then, if it is worth the trouble. It might be if, say, the other person is a spouse or parent; it might not be if they are just a passing friend or coworker.
Hugs,
Papabear
The Best Furry Potluck - What food do you bring to furmeets? This week we discuss our favorite (last-minute!) options, and also try to explain the concept of a potluck to a poor, confused Pamiiruq.
What food do you bring to furmeets? This week we discuss our favorite (last-minute!) options, and also try to explain the concept of a potluck to a poor, confused Pamiiruq.
Metadata and Credits The Best Furry Potluck
Runtime: 41:01m
Cast: Crimson X, KZorroFuego, Levi, Pamiiruq, 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.
The Best Furry Potluck - What food do you bring to furmeets? This week we discuss our favorite (last-minute!) options, and also try to explain the concept of a potluck to a poor, confused Pamiiruq.
What food do you bring to furmeets? This week we discuss our favorite (last-minute!) options, and also try to explain the concept of a potluck to a poor, confused Pamiiruq.
Metadata and Credits The Best Furry Potluck
Runtime: 41:01m
Cast: Crimson X, KZorroFuego, Levi, Pamiiruq, 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.
Episode 314 - Pie Time
‘Fursonas’ (The Documentary): Review and Reflections on Dominic Rodriguez’s Magnum Opus
‘Fursonas’ is the 2016 documentary by furry filmmaker and director Dominic Rodriguez, whose furry nickname is Video. Released for the whole world to see on May 10th through video on demand (VOD), it has a running time of 81 minutes, and it depicts the deeply personal views on furry identity, acceptance, and interaction with the media, of several people interviewed within the furry fandom (including the views of the author himself.) While some of the viewpoints expressed can be considered provocative, they are in no way stated in a bold manner by the willing interviewees, but rather wishing to encourage discussion within the fandom: What’s our next step with the media? How should we apply tolerance or acceptance? What really is ‘furry’?
The movie is a different kind of feature film, unlike cartoon furry movies. It’s not about cute cheerful anthropomorphic animals. It’s not a movie you show to your friends to tell them what furry’s about. It’s a discussion about the fandom itself. It bears more resemblance to a recorded open dialog on the fandom by intensely involved members.
Is it worth watching? Yes. Every single adult who has some kind of emotional attachment to our fandom should watch this movie. The movie is in English, but Vimeo’s VOD service (link⇒) also offers subtitles in German, Dutch, French, Japanese, and Latin American Spanish. You can get the full list of video services that offer the movie at Fursonas’ website (link⇒). Herein follow some ponderings about the movie’s themes.
The Adult Content in the Documentary
The reasons why I recommend it to all adults taking part in the fandom, but not minors, are, I believe, in order of importance, three:
- The documentary overtly shows smoking in a joyful setting, as something that is fun and even a good thing. It is shown this way because of the realistic portrayal of the interviewed furries, and some of them like to smoke while they discuss in a relaxed manner. The fact of the matter is:
– Smoking tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States (CDC)
– 1 of every 4 deaths from cancer in the European Union are caused by smoking (EPHA)
– Smoking is a leading factor in developed countries for overall loss of quality of life and lower lifespan
– Long-term exposal to marijuana affects brain development and reduces cognitive abilities (NIH/NIDA)
– Etc. etc.These and other facts remain in the pool of popular knowledge, and adults may consciously choose whether to take them into account or not, but there should be no encouragement given to minors to smoke. People who personally know me know my firm stance on this. It’s the first time I post such a disclaimer in the website and maybe I won’t mention it again. But. Smoking is a serious health risk that should not be trivialized.
- The documentary talks about serious subjects that children will not understand. Older teenagers might. If seen by older teenagers, it should be in a setting where calm discussion about the fandom is encouraged; otherwise they’ll lose interest.
- There are sex toys in the movie. They are not glamourized, they are shown as is. They purposefully appear to incite discussion about whether sex-related material or themes should be openly talked about or displayed to the media or to con-goers. The sex toys might not be something adequate to show to children. However, sex toys don’t kill people. Smoking does.
What It Is to Be Furry
Video chooses to interview only (willing) furries that are fursuiters. It could be considered a mistaken decision; the great majority of furries are not fursuiters. Video explains this decision in a Glamour interview: “Not everyone has a fursuit, so it was important to talk to people with fursuits — that showed dedication to the community.” (link⇒) Arguably, there are people even more dedicated to the fandom than any of his interviewees, that have never had or used a fursuit. We could start by naming major website administrators, and then continue the list with writers, artists, convention managers, and so on. This is, however, a minor complain that I wish does not derail the discussion of the movie’s themes themselves. Fursuiting as a ‘thing’ is mostly shown in the first half hour of the documentary, giving way to more important subjects.
And a subject that’s addressed, is the statements of belonging to the fandom made by some of the interviewees. Boomer the Dog is the biggest contender to the common definition of furry. As we all know, the furry fandom is most commonly defined as a subculture / group / cultural movement centered on animal anthropomorphics, be it cultural depictions that are imagery, literature, song lyrics, movies, role-play, and so on.
Boomer is a person who fell in love with a live-action TV series from the early 80s called ‘Here’s Boomer’, where a stray dog travels across the country helping people. From then on, he started collecting pictures of real dogs, barking like a dog, and dressing like a dog. He feels like a real dog inside. Personally, what I believe is his most striking achievement, is having a ‘fursuit’ that barely costs over 7 US dollars; that has to be the best ratio price-performance for a ‘fursuit’ I’ve ever seen (maybe only competing with ConFuzzled’s ‘frankensuits’). Anyhow, pretty much anything shown about Boomer has him closely identifying with actual dogs, not fictional anthropomorphic dogs. And this is me talking: that’s not what the furry fandom’s about, in general. Therefore, to have Boomer on TV talking about himself being a furry, as it happened (gaining some hatred in the fandom for it,) is a misrepresentation of what the furry fandom’s about. Furry is not about feeling like a dog, or loving real-life dogs. Several statistics collected by furries on general practices and beliefs can prove this.
But, should this be the case? From a descriptive standpoint, Boomer’s overall preferences are not furry, they are animalistic. From a prescriptive standpoint, I don’t know whether I should categorically say they should not be furry. Furry has evolved throughout the decades. As noted by interviewees, some furries believe the fandom should be about expressing yourself, being who you want to be and doing what you want to do, beyond common staples or boundaries. The furry fandom prides itself in being more welcoming to widely diverse people (while still, at some point, criticizing some members.)
To me, the clearest manifestation of the genuinely well-intended desire of the fandom to be inclusive and accepting, is Dr. Courtney Plante / Nuka’s struggle to objectively define furry from a sociological standpoint. He and his team at the IARP have had difficulties defining what a furry (person) is for their scientific studies (in order to then point out what furry fans do or like or how they behave.) There are many different people that take part in the fandom! Thus what they ultimately chose as a definition is: a furry is anyone who identifies themselves as such!
At a Texas Furry Fiesta talk, Nuka mentions that, amongst the hundreds of different fursonas he’s registered in his studies, there are some who identify as the species pastry. How is that even remotely furry? PRGuitarMan, the creator of Nyan Cat (a mix between a cat and a pop tart) and probably the most known pastry-related furry-like person, has a FurAffinity profile. And yet most of his art or interests aren’t really animal anthropomorphic. The editors at WikiFur describe him as a pseudofur, “someone who is in the furry fandom, but doesn’t quite fully consider themselves ‘furry'”. If he did happen to consider himself furry, and decided to appear on national television to talk about his likes as is (calling them furry,) would there be the same outrage that came out against Boomer the Dog when he did so? I don’t think so! Because PRGuitarMan’s stuff & memes are cool, popular, and hardly dislikable, I don’t think there would be an outrage. Whether his likes were an accurate representation of the fandom, or whether he’s really a furry or not, would not be a startling issue.
So if the real issue is not whether people are accurately representing the fandom when speaking to the media claiming this or that trait of theirs is furry, what is the issue? What do furries have against someone like Boomer the Dog, or Chew Fox? The issue is whether they’re disturbing. Creepy. Don’t cause sympathy. And who gets to decide that? One thing would be that they act in morally objectionable ways. But sex is not morally objectionable, whether in fursuit, out of fursuit, or chimpanzee style on a sex swing. Having an enormously ingrained passion for dogs and a dog identity is not morally objectionable either. It’s just unusual.
So why should we censor ourselves? Or censor others that wish to belong to our fandom, since we don’t share their particular preferences or tastes or take on life? The answer is, we should do this because the furry fandom is a stigmatized fandom in popular culture. There are visible repercussions to this fact in the movie: a furry interviewee, Diezel, lost his job because his employer didn’t like what he heard or read on the internet about furries. We furries don’t have it as easy as sports fans, or other fans, who can show to the whole world how passionate they are about what they like, without disapproval or scorn from the rest of society. And yet we yearn for approval and understanding. Just like any other social group! People feel happy and good when they don’t have to be secretive about their passions in life. So when we show ourselves as furries, we try to show the side of the fandom that’s most pleasant or agreeable. And that unavoidably means excluding others, marginalizing them. Against something that’s almost as important to the fandom, or sometimes even more important to the fandom, than animal anthropomorphism: the patently strong sense of friendship and community that makes us be the fandom we are.
Exclusion, censorship, or bitterness, are not a burden we’ve forced on ourselves through our own will. It is largely through the will of general society and media, that unnecessarily stigmatizes the furry fandom, that we feel we must exclude or control ourselves. By exerting this control, we’re undermining core values of the fandom; doing to other members, or to ourselves, what we don’t want society to do, to us.
The Media, Uncle Kage, and Anthrocon Policies
Furry fandom is still not a mainstream fandom, but it has grown large in the last two decades. Something that happened to me last week, that was absolutely unexpected, was meeting someone (who is a furry fan) that I had actually met almost a year ago at an event totally unrelated to furry. Just so you understand the chances of that happening, I’ll say Spain has a population of about 46.5 million people, of which around 510 are openly self-recognized furries. So whenever you meet someone here, there’d be approximately a 1 in 100,000 chance they’re a furry fan. That’s about a 0.001% chance. I was kind of amazed it happened, but it did! What would have the chances been 15 or 20 years ago? Probably not even a quarter of that.
There are more people than ever joining our fandom, even against the stigmatization we might suffer or have suffered. To the point that you will certainly find many people who do things you’re not into, or things you even somewhat dislike.
Uncle Kage’s stance and the Anthrocon’s policy is to strongly restrict the media from documenting their convention as the media sees fit, and to even mock and despise furries who give fodder to them for us to be stigmatized further. After many years of taking this approach, they’ve gained respect and love from Pittsburgh’s locals & media. What they don’t seem to realize, or don’t wish to take into account as much, is that they’re also excluding increasingly larger numbers of people.
Journalism and media is also a passion for some furries. Flayrah’s editor-in-chief GreenReaper, who is also a main administrator of Inkbunny and WikiFur, tried a couple of years ago to set a stand at the Anthrocon to advertise his furry journalistic website. His petition for a stand was denied, allegedly because a news report they’d done in the past only questioned whether it’s a good thing the Anthrocon board is strict in their approach to allowing attendance. GreenReaper makes no money from maintaining Flayrah or writing news, it’s a passion project. And neither do I. I created this open website, FurryFandom.Es, because I love the fandom, its culture and its people, and I wish for everyone who might be mildly interested in it to have the chance to learn about it and join in. I am now a furry journalist. It is at this point that I’m afraid that by questioning Uncle Kage’s actions, even though he’s someone I greatly admire and respect, I could be somehow excluded from taking part in Anthrocon as I most desire, maybe by reporting about it to Spanish furs and the world, if I ever get the chance. Dominic / Video is now banned from Anthrocon 2016, probably for not agreeing to its policy in regards to media.
Maybe they should be cautious with the general media. But to apply strict rules to furry media, like to Video / Dominic, to GreenReaper, or to maybe myself, is hurting a legitimate take on the furry life, on contributing to the community.
Uncle Kage claims to be a pillar of his local community, and acts as ambassador of the furry fandom. I don’t question any of that. He’s a doctorate scientist and a researcher. He’s worked for the FDA amongst other institutions, and has published several peer-reviewed studies. If you haven’t noticed in my previous interview with Nuka, if there’s something I love almost as much as furry, is science. And, he’s also the CEO of the world’s largest furry convention, that’s been celebrated annually for 18 years. 18 years! Certainly he must be doing something right!
But also, he feels it’s appropriate to publicly call, using a microphone, another furry, “a fuckin’ bitch”. And he states, scornfully on camera, that Boomer the Dog is a crazy person. Though these or other similar comments are something I could do in the privacy of my home (about people I don’t like,) to be purposefully caught on camera saying these things to others who amicably wish to be part of our fandom, is disheartening. It doesn’t show in a good light the furry fandom.
Also, he drinks too much alcohol. Admittedly it’s not distilled drinks, it’s wine, which is somewhat better because it’s fermented grape. But ethanol is nonetheless toxic; alcohol intake is the leading cause of morbility across many countries, and one of the most commonly abused drugs in the world, causing many more deaths and personal suffering than marijuana smoking. He likes getting inebriated. He often makes his speeches with a glass of wine, or a bottle or two, in his hands. That is something I respect, he still is a very functioning person; this is what he likes, he’s an adult and he can choose. Whatever. Still, it’s not a trait of someone I’d call morally above most people, or morally above most furries. It’s not a behaviour I’d happily show to my kids, if I ever have kids. In fact I’d be more concerned with showing alcohol abuse to kids more so than sex toys. Sex toys don’t kill people. Alcohol does.
A Conclusion
So, as a fandom, what should we do about all this? I wish I had a firm answer. I wish I had as much clarity of mind about my approach as Uncle Kage has in the documentary. “Use chloroform on dislikable people when cameras go rolling.” But I don’t think the question “How should we approach tolerance in the fandom?” has an easy answer, or that this is an easy problem to solve. Welcoming anyone and everyone maybe isn’t the best thing to do. Consciously ostracizing others I don’t think is a good approach either, unless they have criminal intent (or something to that degree.)
I do know something that will improve the community, though. And that is, treating others who wish to take part in our fandom with respect. To strengthen the sense of community in our fandom not through angry mobs, or scornful attitude to other furries, but through genuinely well-intended exchange. Dominic’s documentary is not about us versus them. The documentary is about us versus us.
I want to personally thank Dominic for his documentary; and thank every furry who was interviewed in it, for their contribution to the project.
The entry ‘Fursonas’ (The Documentary): Review and Reflections on Dominic Rodriguez’s Magnum Opus appears first in FurryFandom.es.
The Guardian Herd: Landfall, by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
The Guardian Herd: Landfall, by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez. Illustrated by David McClellan; maps.
NYC, HarperCollinsPublishers/Harper, February 2016, hardcover $16.99 ([xvi +] 328 [+ 4] pages), Kindle $9.99.
The adventure grows more desperate in this third volume of The Guardian Herd saga. It might be described as a My Little Pony with savage teeth and razor-sharpened hooves in it.
The multicolored flying pegasi of Anok are divided into five rival herds that the young Starfire has been trying to bring together peacefully. As he said in The Guardian Fire: Starfire, first novel in the series, when the over-stallion of another herd proposed making an alliance and forcing the other herds to join them, “But that’s not uniting; that’s conquering.” The Guardian Herd: Stormwind, the second novel, ends with Star learning that Nightwing the Destroyer, the crazed, all-powerful black stallion of 400 years ago, is flying back to Anok to conquer the herds and kill him. But the five herds are still fighting among each other; Star is still untrained; and Star fears that he may turn as crazed and deadly as Nightwing is.
Landfall begins, not counting a dramatis personae of 40 important pegasi, with a 16-page battle to the death between Nightwing and Starfire. And Star dies! Horribly (but not too horribly; this is a Young Adult book). He’s saved by a ghostly deus ex machina that tries to make us believe that he wasn’t really dead, y’know, just in an exceptionally deep suspended animation.
Umm … no. Sorry; this isn’t believable. I’ll buy the talking, flying horses, but I won’t buy Starfire being not really dead. He’s killed too definitely, and his salvation by the equivalent of Tinker Bell showing up and waving her magic wand is too cheesy. It further destroys the suspense by showing that whatever hardships Star suffers in the future at the hooves of Nightwing, if they get too bad we can expect an unexpected deus ex machina to bring him back to life.
Aside from that, Alvarez keeps up the suspense very well. Star’s friends hide his body giving him time to “heal”. Nightwing meanwhile consolidates his supremacy.
“‘The herds are hiding from him [Nightwind], right?’ asked Bumblewind, his eyes trained on his twin sister.
She snorted. ‘It’s the opposite,’ Echofrost took a gulp of air, staring at the pegasi around her, waiting for all mumbling to cease. Then she spoke. ‘They’ve answered his call. All of them.’
The gathered pegasi shrank from her words. ‘No,’ whispered Bumblewind. ‘That can’t be.’
‘It’s worse than that,’ she said. ‘Nightwing knows he injured Star, that his body is so damaged he’s dead, or as good as dead. He says his connection to Star’s mind has been severed, and he …’ Echofrost glanced at Morningleaf, grimacing.
‘What is it?’ breathed Morningleaf.
‘He’s offered to make a pact with the first steed who’ – Echofrost lashed her tail and tears raced down her cheeks – ‘who brings him Star’s head.’
‘His head!’ Morningleaf staggered sideways, and Bumblewind caught her in his wings.
Echofrost nodded. ‘Yes, to ensure that Star can’t heal himself. That he’s truly dead.’” (pgs. 51-52)
The two dozen or so of Starfire’s followers who become his guardian herd – Silverlake, Dewberry, Sweetroot, Hazelwind, Redfire, Ashrain, and others – vow to keep Star safe from Petalcloud and Frostfire, who have taken Nightwind’s offer, and the armies of thousands of pegasi that Nightwind has given them to find Star and his tiny herd.
Star eventually awakens from his long unconsciousness, but he is still grievously wounded and in need of nursing back to health. Landfall splits into two stories in alternate chapters or pairs of chapters: those of Star and his United Council of core followers hiding in the Trap, a narrow valley in northwestern Anok filled with spruce and pine trees so thick that any pegasi in it can’t be seen from the sky; and the adventures of Morningleaf, Shadepebble, and Brackentail, three yearlings who leave the Trap to lure Star’s enemies far away from them.
During this time, the holdout from Nightwind’s tyranny among the other Herds gather secretly around Star’s United Council.
“The dark bay mare [Ashrain] cocked her ears forward. ‘River Herd steeds fight best in the open sky, but Jungle Herd understands tight spaces. We know how to fight in the tree.’ She looked directly at Hazelwind. ‘We’re offering to show you our ways , and I’ve spoken to Redfire of Desert Herd and Birchcloud of Mountain Herd. They also want to share their knowledge. Desert Herd will teach us their ground-fighting techniques, and the Mountain Herd mares will teach us their aerial formations, in case we’re lured into the sky. I propose we form a United Army now, before our enemy arrives. If we train together, we’ll fight together better, and we’ll hold out longer.’” (pgs. 119-120)
It’s what Star has wanted; to bring the Herds together. Now they have a common cause; a more martial one than he’d wanted, but one that works. Star slowly heals and learns at the same time.
“That’s true,’ said Star, feeling grateful and hopeful. He would learn the warrior ways of River Herd, Jungle Herd, Mountain Herd, and Desert Herd. When in the history of Anok had there been an opportunity like that?” (p. 121)
Star and the others learn how to fight, including sharpening their hooves.
“Each pegasus took a turn examining Clawfire’s hoof. When it was Star’s turn, he lowered his head and peered at the hoof’s edge from all angles. He noticed that the very front of the hoof slanted into a thin, crisp edge. The sidewall was thick and smooth to support Clawfire’s weight. ‘Can I touch the edge?’ Star asked.
Clawfire nodded, and Star felt the rim of Clawfire’s sharpened nail with his wingtips. The severe edge sliced right through Star’s end feathers. He jerked his wing away, and the watching pegasi nickered in amazement. ‘That’s sharp,’ Star said, whistling.” (p. 134)
The pegasi can use their wings as supplely as hands. “The other warrior [one of Petalcloud’s scouts] wiped the sweat rolling down his brow.” (p. 68) “He wiped his face with his wing […]” (p. 158)
The inevitable massed battle, when it comes, lasts about sixty pages. Nightwind stays above it and sends Frostfire and his Black Army and Petalcloud and her Ice Warriors army to destroy Starfire and his United Army. It all makes me think of King Harold of England during 1066: first racing from London with the English knights to meet the invading Norwegian Vikings at Stamforth Bridge, then turning and racing to Hastings to meet the invading Normans. Harold was killed at Hastings, but Starfire doesn’t die and this series doesn’t end (except for Landfall on a cliffhanger). Volume 4, The Guardian Herd: Windborn, is due in September.
As before, the pegasi are described in very colorful terms. Crystalfeather is a small chestnut mare with bright-blue feathers, two front white socks, and a white strip on her face. Flamesky is a red roan filly with dark emerald and gold feathers. But David McClellan’s illustrations are only small chapter heading portraits of pegasi; and frankly, in black-&-white, all the pegasi look too similar. His dust jacket is attractive, though,
Feline of Fury! (Furry?)
Here’s a new full-color comic-book miniseries coming our way later this month from Antarctic Press: Ultracat, written and illustrated by Jose Fonollosa. “He came from Spain, he ain’t no bird or plane! It’s Ultracat! With his ultra-speed, ultra-strength and ultra-cuteness, the world’s feistiest feline conquers all criminals, from minor burglars to super-villains to that annoying evildoer pug across the hall! Just don’t ask him to go out in the rain or pass up a nap…” So noted. Of course there’s more over at the Antarctic Store.
image c. 2016 Antarctic Press
The Furry Canon: Equus
Equus, Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play, features a cast of humans and horses. The horses, of course, are humans dressed as horses. They are intentionally abstracted, usually wearing nothing equine beyond minimalist horse heads and tack that never obstruct their human faces. The horse costumes are the extent of bodily anthropomorphism in the play. The horses’ actors and actresses move like horses; they do not speak. Why do I render my verdict, then, that Equus belongs in the Furry Canon?
[EDIT: After warranted critique, I’ve decided to reverse my verdict. While Equus should not be part of the Furry Canon, I think it addresses matters relevant to the furry experience, albeit torqued by mental illness. Read on for my reasons.]
In a comment on JM’s review of Animal Farm, Scale wondered “whether a good serious novel/movie starring furry fans and fursuiters, dealing with social and identity issues related to the fandom, and perhaps including an escapist furry nested narrative, could qualify as a furry classic.” While Equus predates the furry fandom, it pointedly explores these very issues1.
Ready, then? Let’s begin.
Alan Strang, a reclusive teenager, has just blinded six horses with a metal spike. No one knows why; he had always loved horses. As it stands, though, psychologist Martin Dysart is Alan’s only hope to avoid incarceration. As Dysart meets with Alan, Alan’s parents, and others involved in the case and gathers bits and pieces of Alan’s past, he tries desperately to figure out what motivated the heinous crime. These pieces form an image of a personal religion Alan has elaborated since he was very young that focuses on becoming one with “Equus,” the “God-Slave” embodied in all horses. This religion’s sacrament is a clandestine, sexually charged midnight ride every three weeks in a field beside the stable where Alan volunteers his free time. When Equus’s demands prove too much for Alan, he lashes out in violence against his god.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dysart is deeply unhappy with his place in life, continually dreams of ancient Greece, of a “primal” age of sacrifices and pantheons to lend life significance through ritual. His encounter with Alan throws his mundane life into sharp relief: here is someone who has summoned a personal god and worships Him regularly, casting off the monotonous, empty grind of capitalist productivity. But the plea of the judge who sent Alan to Dr. Dysart was that the psychologist relieve the boy’s pain. Dysart fears that doing his societal duty–dissecting Alan to extract Equus–would leave behind a hollow man, a cog in the machine: a husk like himself.
Equus is strongest when it comes to questioning the medicalization of abnormality, the idea that deviation from the culturally acceptable must be diagnosed as a disease and cured. This Dysart attributes to the reign of the tyrant god “Normal,” whose throne is that of expediency and efficiency, founded on health and happiness. (Recall how “sick” has come to be a synonym of “degenerate.”) His edicts include allaying all pain and slaking appetites at minimal marginal cost.
In contrast, Dysart dreams of a world of “thousands of local gods” to ground the experience of the diversity of humanity, a world in which the ancient Aegean and Alan equally partake, but Dysart cannot. Allowing individual geniuses to flourish could inject wonder and worship into the monochrome of life.
Of course, Dysart ignores that Alan was, indeed, in pain; that we should be loath to romanticize mental illnesses, which are real; and that the solitude of individual worship can not only tear the worshiper apart, but harm others. Alan’s isolation and secrecy permit no outlet for his anxieties or joys besides his trysts with Equus; when a tryst cannot satisfy a perceived need, he gouges out six horses’ eyes. Few accept violence as the cost of worship, and for those who do… well, I know a couple dozen national security apparatuses that want to meet them.
Equus is, without a doubt, “serious.” But what does this dark tale have to do with furries whose drama, while much ballyhooed, to my knowledge has never culminated in murder? Quite a bit.
First–and this was what stood out to me when I read the script years back–Equus is the story of a boy who has an abnormal relationship with animals. Those around him confusedly report his affection for talking animal stories, his nighttime reenactment (in his room) of donning a bit and whipping himself, and of never wanting to ride the horses he worked with, only to care for them. Indeed, he actively despises the trappings of upper-class English riding. Alan’s fixation on horses fits none of the typical patterns.
To furries, this is old hat. A Twitter friend of mine—a horse, to boot—commented he had difficulty taking Equus as seriously as his non-furry classmates because Alan’s relationship with horses, though incomprehensible to them, was quotidian to him. The familiarity of it all dulled the play’s drama. But in outline, this is a major indictment sometimes leveled against furries: that they love animals in an inappropriate or inordinate way, whether that be adults clinging to something branded infantile or someone having disapproved sexual preferences2.
On that note, as with media coverage of furries, Shaffer focuses on the sensational–meaning, of course, the sexual. For instance, Alan considers his first experience of riding a horse to have been “sexy” and—in innuendoes I did not understand as a teenager—the play describes horse heads as phallic. Alan’s midnight rides are explicitly sexual, though the union is a mystical one, horse and human merging to create the centaur (quite apropos: at once teacher and raucous destroyer in Greek myth). Alan loses his mind when a new sexual desire conflicts with his desire for midnight runs with Equus.
Now we come to my major gripe with the play: in Equus, sex is either the prototype or the paragon of all human pleasures and relationships. Dr. Dysart and Alan’s parents are not having sex with their spouses regularly; therefore, they are unhappy. Alan has a sexual experience with Equus every three weeks; he is fulfilled.
This obsession with sex sidelines necessary non-sexual elements of the human (and extrahuman) experience. To use C.S. Lewis’s terminology: when Venus rules with such an iron fist, Eros quails while brotherly love (philia) and affection (storge) flee. Alan’s trauma, which Shaffer casts as a psychosexual drama, is as much due to his intense paucity of experience with the variety of human relationships as it is about the difficulty of actualizing the range of his pleasures. He has no friends; he reads no books; he does not, apparently, attend school. Friends and family who treat him with basic respect as a soon-to-be adult are absent from his life. In this extreme social isolation, his outlets are reduced to sexual fulfillment alone–he gets stuck in a rut–and any competition for his sexual feelings becomes an existential crisis.
Indeed, Alan might be considered a particularly devoted paleofur–one of that cadre who came of age before the internet. His escapades were lonely ones, without a rational animal to keep him company. Nowadays, a computer terminal can connect us to others around the world, no matter how niche our interests. And while niche communities can become insular and harmful, I would venture that even an imperfect community is better than none at all. To paraphrase God in Genesis, it is not good for human to be alone3.
And as religion—no matter what some may say—is about more than micromanaging bodily pleasures and pains, so is furry. The anthropomorphic subculture is about constructing personal and social systems of meaning, based in images of nonhuman animal life, and building the worlds these symbols delineate. In our interactions, online and off, we instantiate these imagined worlds in the flesh, binding ourselves together as dialogue partners, friends, patrons and artists, fans, and so forth.
If only Alan Strang had lived in the times of the internet. Furry is infinitely richer than Shaffer’s constricted, impoverished vision of humanity in Equus. With such a community of peers available, Alan may have learned that others spoke his metaphorical language and, able to speak with them, could have expressed his otherwise inexpressible troubles and joys.
While it has significant blind spots, and even if it is not well-known to furries, I would still believe Equus to be highly relevant to the furry experience and would recommend it for inclusion in the [a][s] Furry Canon.
1 Indeed, when I first read the play, I did so because it was about horses. I was not expecting to find a character who, like me, lent to them significance that differed both in quantity and quality from the average. This year I was able, for the first time, to see it onstage. My observations are based on both the text and the production.
2 Both are major points made against furries with varying degrees of inaccuracy.
3 Note, too, that the first companions God creates for Adam are “every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air.”
The Furry Canon, recommended, at the time of publication:
Redwall
Black Beauty
Neighbors, by Michael H. Payne – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Neighbors, by Michael H. Payne
Balboa, CA, “Hey, Your Nose is on Fire” Industries, October 2014, trade paperback $10.00 (212 pages), Kindle $3.00.
August Lancer, the narrator, is a young resident of Haven Space, a sanatorium and rehabilitation clinic in Southern California. Dumped there by his father (who sends expense money but never visits), Gus is a loner in a wheelchair, afflicted by a degenerative condition that has paralyzed him from the waist down and made it almost impossible to talk. His only pleasure is watching a TV cartoon series about ponies.
This all changes when Gus is adopted by a hospital therapy black cat named Spooky, who tells him that her name is really El Brujo.
“‘El Brujo?’ I heard myself ask with words that weren’t words. ‘But … you’re female. Aren’t you?’
Another little smile. ‘I’m a bit of a trendsetter.’” (p. 19)
Gus finds himself able since her appearance to talk with the other animals and birds around him. Serena the squirrel. Jefe the crow and his flock. The sparrows who nest just outside the window. Nobody else notices anything unusual, even when El Brujo and Jefe dance together, so Gus worries about it.
“Another thought hit me hard, then, one that I’d tried my absolute damnedest over and over the last bunch of months to stop myself from thinking: what if El Brujo and Serena and the sparrows and crows this morning and the weird little voices I heard in the trees and bushes out in the neighborhood –
What if it was all in my head? What if the shredded chunks of my nervous system weren’t making me understand the animals but were instead making me imagine I could understand them? Was it just a matter of time before rows of dancing chipmunks were telling me to set things on fire and kill people?” (p. 31)
But he doesn’t worry about it for long. Soon he’s taking it in stride, as he promenades about the neighborhood in his wheelchair where the animals provide an alternate to spending all his spare time writing pony fanfiction.
“Down Parkhurst to Hawthorne is an easy enough roll, but Hawthorne between Parkhurst and Demmler has this hill. I doubt anyone not in a wheelchair would even notice, but I always have to stop for a breather at the Ramsays’ house. Fortunately their driveway was empty, so Traveler came walking out instead of charging. ‘Good afternoon, August,’ he said as formally as only a Doberman can. ‘As the master and mistress are away, I hope you’ll forgive me if I dispense with my usual barking and growling.’” (pgs. 41-42)
Neighbors is a sedate and whimsical novel. Gus wheels himself around the neighborhood, introducing the animals to each other. Jefe the crow and Traveler the watchdog become unlikely best friends. Gus puts up with Jefe’s friendly sibling rivalry with his sister Honoria, and works Serina the squirrel into their family. He is charmed when a new family with a puppy moves into the neighborhood.
“The scurrying had gotten El Brujo’s attention by then, and she surged upright, her front paws on the arm of the chair, her tail flicking slowly. ‘That smells like a –‘
Which was when it popped out from under cover into a less bushy part of the yard: a female puppy about the size of a clenched fist, all fly-away dark red fur, huge brown eyes, and flapping pink tongue. ‘Singing!’ she shouted. ‘Dancing! Just! Can’t! Stop!’ And she began spinning in circles.” (p. 53)
Gus is more than charmed when the new Schwarber family turns out to be a father with a daughter his own age, Donna, who is as crippled emotionally as he is physically. Gus’ animal friends help him develop some reluctant social skills so he can help draw Donna out of her shell.
“I nodded, but a commotion at the window drew my attention: a large scruffy crow flapping in from the afternoon to land on the sill, a slightly smaller and sleeker crow grabbing the top of the frame where it stuck out toward the outpatient center. ‘Hey, hey, hey!’ the big crow screeched. ‘What’s the beef here, huh? Honoria said she heard shouting, and –‘
‘Sounded to me,’ the smaller crow interrupted, ‘like there was gonna be a carcass or two coming out this window in a couple minutes.’ She cocked her head. ‘But nobody’s eating nobody!’
Serena huffed out a breath. ‘There will be no eating of anyone today! Today is only for happiness because soon Mr. Augie will begin courting his future mate!’
My lungs turned to stone, but the two crows seemed to explode, Jefe flapping his wings and shouting, ‘About damn time! You been miserable that way long as I’ve known you!’
Honoria swooped in over her brother’s head and skittered to a stop beside El Brujo, her talons shredding my sleeping bag worse than Serena ever could. ‘This for true, gata?’
‘Apparently so.’ El Brujo flicked her whiskersat Serena. ‘I was advocating a ‘slow but steady’ approach to counteract August’s ‘frozen and unmoving’ method, but when Miss Serena involved herself –‘
‘Yes!’ Serena chittered, doing a little dance on the bedpost. ‘I am proactive by nature!’” (pgs. 91-92)
Payne puts real personality into the raucous crows, dignified cat, hyperactive squirrel, exuberant puppy, and several others, as well as into the humans.
But the reader will recognize that, in the background, there are threats of Gus’ father losing Lancer Aeronautics and no longer being able to afford to keep Gus at Haven Space; of arrogant Mrs. Ford’s campaign to drive the sanatorium with its property-value-lowering cripples and retards out of the neighborhood; and of the animals such as Snowbird the cat and Otho the coyote who don’t believe that animals and humans should mix socially – and are ready to kill the ‘traitors’.
Neighbors (cover by Tom Payne) is never dramatic, but it is quietly charming. It’s an excellent talking-animal fantasy for those who aren’t yet ready for a furry-genre novel.
FA 018 Gaslighting - Can twitter lists be potentially libelous? What is gaslighting and how do you identify it in a relationship and mitigate against it?
Hello Everyone!
On this week's podcast we open with a discussion on Twitter lists that propagate libelous information. How should you handle a situation when someone is falsely accusing you of doing something potentially illegal?
Our main topic is gaslighting. Gaslighting is when someone maliciously attempts to convince you that your perception of an event is false in order to manipulate you. This can take the form of calling you crazy, saying that you are wrong about something, or making you doubt your own memories. Oftentimes, this method is employed by people close to you, such as a partner, a parent, a teacher, or a boss.
If you are susceptible to these types of suggestions it can be incredibly damaging to your psyche. We discuss how to identify gaslighting and distinguish it from a genuine misunderstanding, then describe ways to defend yourself against gaslighting, including what to do when you realize that you are being gaslit.
We also answer a listener question about how to tell a partner that you are in love with them, and how to challenge the gender norms that the man in a relationship has to be the first one to offer such a confession. What can a lesbian do?
We end with some feedback concerning our show and the bias that we, as hosts, have as (mostly) gay men. Are we intentionally excluding other genders or relationship styles when we offer advice?
For more information, including a list of topics by timestamp, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
FA 018 Gaslighting - Can twitter lists be potentially libelous? What is gaslighting and how do you identify it in a relationship and mitigate against it?
Theme Song?
Fursonas documentary out now – one of the top Furry News stories of the year.
Today is the day! Our #documentary, Fursonas, is now available on iTunes https://t.co/UzdP1HXz82 #furryfandom pic.twitter.com/QAoUdWEqN1
— Fursonas (@FursonasDoc) May 10, 2016Here’s one of those media events where a story catches on and gets a lot of coverage at once. That used to happen very rarely. Now it’s happening every month or so in 2016, “The Year of Furry.” The director, Dominic (Video Wolf) is killing it with interviews and promotion.
- Newport Beach Film Fest: “A Furry Flick: The Beauty & Complexity of the Furry Fandom
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: ‘Fursonas’ explores Furry fandom and the media
- Radio podcast – Dominic on The Kevin & Bean Show
- The Daily Beast: “Exposing the David Miscavige of Furries”
- Inverse: ‘Fursonas’ Documentary Illuminates the Beauty and Anger In Furry Culture
- Slug Magazine: DOMINIC RODRIGUEZ: THE PERSONA BEHIND FURSONAS
- Glamour: What’s a Furry? A New Movie Takes You Inside Their World
- Esquire: What It Means to Be a Furry
- Salon: “‘The Lion King’ is an extraordinarily sexual film”: Inside the fascinating, misunderstood world of furries
- Uproxx: ‘Fursonas’ Offers A Dark Portrait Of A Furry Demagogue, And Some Complex Insights Into The Nature Of Acceptance
Those headlines will make some whiskers twitch! I think the movie isn’t made just to cause a stir. It’s an honest and well told story aimed at your brain and heart. (More about this below). For info from other furries, see these:
- Flayrah – Interview: ‘Fursonas’ documentary director Dominic Rodriguez (Video the Wolf)
- Dogpatch Press – ‘Fursonas’ beats Zootopia as most important furry movie, coming soon on Video On Demand.
Coming soon – a special announcement about Fursonas, with partnership between Dogpatch Press and a high profile special event.
First, see the movie with a Furry audience at Biggest Little Fur Con in Reno.
The show is Saturday 5/14, 1-2 PM. From the con events schedule:
“Fursonas is a four-year exploration into the complexities of furry fandom. The film premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in January, where it received the Spirit of Slamdance Award for bringing positive energy into the festival. Since then, the film has shown in select theaters across America to both furry and non-furry audiences… This special screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director, Video.”
A fan comment says why Fursonas stands out as both a good Furry movie and a Good Movie:
“This film is like no other furry fandom documentary. Rather than focusing on just the innocent facade Uncle Kage puts the furry fandom behind, This film puts you into the minds of many different members of the fandom; furries who are well known and admired to ones who are criticized for their conceivably “unfavorable” lifestyles. You will be shuffled between opinions as you watch the film shift its tone, leaving you with mixed emotions and showing nothing but the truth. This film is undeniably worth the watch!” – (Caffeinated_water)
About those fur-raising headlines – just my opinion.
The movie is being characterized from some writers as a “whistleblower” piece, or a takedown story about dictatorship by Uncle Kage, the CEO of Anthrocon.
Yes and No. There’s a lot more than Kage in it, but he serves as a focal point.
The movie does criticize how some furries’ personal expression has gotten the outcast treatment. That’s paradoxical to acceptance. But in my opinion, the judgy treatment represents community tendencies more than one guy’s domination. He’s not a villain.
I sympathize with the movie. I also respect Kage, especially with last year’s PR coup of getting a Furry parade celebrated on the streets of Pittsburgh. I think he’s doing a job and his heart’s in the right place. He also makes the same mistakes as the rest of us when saying personal opinions in official capacity.
I also think the movie’s criticism is fairly gentle, letting words speak for themselves.
“Exposing the David Miscavige of Furries” compares Kage to a leader of Scientology. I think that’s grossly exaggerated by that writer. Furries aren’t a cult, nobody is forced to be here, and there’s little exploitation without real ranks.
Dominic was banned from Anthrocon for using con footage without permission. Permission wouldn’t happen without giving up extreme editorial control over his work. Con organizers have admitted not watching the movie when they made the ban.
On one hand, the ban make’s Dominic’s point. On the other hand, it’s not exactly dictating if they’ve been put in the position of needing to be strict. Who’s most to blame for this? Society! If furries weren’t a target for misrepresentation, it wouldn’t be such an issue. The con can’t just look the other way for one person, because “big media” could get away with more.
Dominic made a conscious choice to use footage against the rule. I think his choice is legit to get his movie out, because his heart’s in the right place too. It reminds me of pirate radio vs. FCC regulation, or local craft food vs. the FDA. It’s not bad to have regulations – it’s bad when individuals can’t have freedom without overdone standards meant for big business.
Lastly, I think there’s more dubious cherrypicking by a writer here: “‘The Lion King’ is an extraordinarily sexual film”: Inside the fascinating, misunderstood world of furries. That’s an unfortunate quote out of context. But that kind of risk is just part of having something worthy to promote. Check the interviews – I think Dominic is doing a fantastic job and not “scandalmongering” or discrediting people.
See the movie for yourself and make up your own mind.
Timely, in a Sad Way
For those who might have missed it, this is from Wikipedia: “Pearls Before Swine is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis, a former San Francisco, California lawyer. It chronicles the daily lives of five anthropomorphic animals: A Pig, a Rat, a Zebra, a Goat, and a fraternity of crocodiles, as well as a number of supporting characters. Pastis has said each character represents an aspect of his own personality and world view.” The continuing comic strip can be found over at GoComics. Now, Andrews McMeel Publishing bring us the latest Pearls Before Swine collection in trade paperback. “In I’m Only in This for Me, the Pearls gang dares to tell the hard truths that the country needs to hear: The importance of prioritizing cheese over everything else, the sadly ignored capacity of bears to solve all of life’s problems, and the crucial Recognition Gap between women in bars and semi-obscure cartoonists with delusions of grandeur. But beneath all the selfishness, absurdity, bungling crocs, and bazooka-wielding ducks, Rat, Pig, Goat, and Zebra continue to find that friendship can make life warmer, humor can make stupidity less annoying, and cheese really does make everything way, way better.” Check it out over at Amazon. This new book also includes some special collaboration cartoons between Mr. Pastis and Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson.
image c. 2016 Andrews McMeel Publishing
To Be Happy, Start Living by Your Own Standards
I'm going to be a little more serious today.
I've recently been feeling very down because I've been so jealous of other people's lives and social lives. It hurts me deep inside and makes me feel like I've done nothing and wasted everything that I've done. I work so hard but people don't notice that. I just want to live a normal life. I only have 2 good friends and that makes me pretty depressed. One of my friends is foreigner and her parents don't even know about me and they won't let her EVER go with anybody. My other friend is a bad girl. I say this because she cusses and gets Fs. Teachers tell me to get new friends but I truly can't. No one is as trustful as they are. My mom works all day until 9 so I never get to see her. Middle school is coming up and I don't know how I'm ever going to survive. I feel like a failure. It kills me everyday.
Please help, Papabear!
Cici (age 11)
* * *
Dear Cici,
There is a lot going on in this letter, not just one question. The issues include: 1) you are jealous of other people who, I guess, you feel are more accomplished than you and have better social lives; 2) you don’t feel you get the recognition you deserve for working hard; 3) you want a “normal life”; and 4) you worry you only have two friends, one with whom you can’t socialize openly and another that people say you should stay away from.
To really get a firm grip on what caused all this, Papabear would need to sit with you on the couch for many hours. So I must talk in generalities because I don’t know all the information for your specific problems.
Regarding jealousy: Jealousy is an ugly green monster that eats the soul. You must remember that there will always be someone who seems more accomplished, richer, smarter, better looking, more skilled, more admired than you. Therefore, it is fruitless to play the comparison game. It’s a true cliché that the only person you are really in competition with is yourself. Be the best Cici you can be. More importantly, be the best person you can be. Be kind and considerate and helpful to others in the world—from people to animals to plants to the planet itself—and you will have much to feel proud about. Also, examine why you feel jealous of these people. Are you being realistic? Perhaps they are more popular because they are shallow and focus on their appearance or just pretend to like others and are afraid to be themselves. Perhaps they are rich because mommy and daddy gave them unearned money. The list goes on. I can only speculate because I don’t know who these people are or why you envy them. Remember, though, jealousy only hurts you. Set your own goals and work towards them and don’t worry about what other people are doing.
I don’t know what you mean by “I've done nothing and wasted everything that I've done.” If you’ve wasted what you’ve done, then the first part of that sentence is not true because you actually have done something. Anything you do is something you can learn from and grow from, so it is never a waste. Mistakes are just as valuable as accomplishments if you learn from them. Set realistic goals for yourself, and then try to meet them or even exceed them. Take it one step at a time and don’t be discouraged if sometimes you have to take a step backward.
As for #3, I don’t think there is such a thing as a “normal life.” I don’t even know what that means. Everyone has a different life and a different story. Each life is unique. Normal is a myth. If you try to live your life by some artificial or mythical standard of “normal,” you will always be disappointed. Live the life you were meant to live that is unique to you, not some bizarre society standard.
Friendships. Friendships form because two people like each other for who they are. If you like these two people and they like you, then that is all that matters. If you wish to make more friends then the way to do that is to socialize with people, especially doing things that you have in common. Take an interest in their lives and who they are and they will reciprocate if they like what they see in you. Here’s a nice article with some helpful advice on making new friends: http://www.succeedsocially.com/sociallife.
Finally, your mom. I’m sorry she has to work so much and you don’t have much time together. How about on the weekends, though? Unless she works seven days a week, there must be some time there. And, if she is busy doing things around the house, spend time with her by helping her with household duties. Although this isn’t “fun time,” it is still “together time,” and she will appreciate the help, believe me. Then, those things will be done more quickly and she will have time to do something more relaxing with you.
And finally finally! Don’t be so hard on yourself. Start by not saying things like “I feel like a failure.” When you start to say something negative about yourself, stop. Pause. Then think of something you like about yourself, such as “I’m doing better with my classwork” or “I’m doing better making friends” or simply “I’m a good person who cares about other people.”
In summary: stop comparing yourselves to others, set your own goals and work towards them, and stop being so down on yourself.
Hope that helps.
Hugs,
Papabear
Black Angel, by Kyell Gold – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Black Angel, by Kyell Gold. Illustrated by Rukis.
St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, March 2016, trade paperback $19.95 (vii + 379 pages).
Black Angel is the conclusion of Kyell Gold’s Dangerous Spirits trilogy that began with Green Fairy (March 2012) and continued with Red Devil (January 2014). The three novels are a powerful mixture of spiritualism, drugs, and adolescent angst, shifting between centuries and societies. They are also set in Gold’s larger Forester University anthropomorphic-animal alternate universe, with clear parallels to our own. Each of these three is complete, but assuming you will like Black Angel enough to want to read the others, readers are recommended to start all three from the first.
Solomon Wrightson (black wolf), Alexei Tsarev (red fox), and Meg Kinnick (otter) are three very troubled seniors at Vidalia’s Richfield High School. All three have left home. Sol, who has just realized that he is gay, is constantly nagged at home by his father to excel at sports. Alexei, who has come from Siberia on a student visa, is concerned by the silence of his sister back home; he is sure that their parents are intercepting their mail. The mannish Meg has gotten her parents to let her move into a decrepit apartment to be an artist. Her apartment has become a social center for the three. Sol’s traveling into the past in Green Fairy, and Alexei’s being haunted by a ghost in Red Devil, may be due to external causes in those novels, or – as the rational Meg scoffs – it’s all in their imagination.
“Hi. I’m Meg. I’m nineteen, and I’m fucked up.
That’s not a big secret, by the way. Pretty much anyone who knew me from about fifteen to now would tell you the same thing. Only back then I thought it was a good kind of fucked up.” (p. 1)
She’s not so sure any longer. Sol and Alexei are moving out to grow in their own directions. Sol is going to college, and Alexei has to get his student visa extended. Meg considers herself more rational and mature than either of them, but she is also aware that she’s stuck in an adolescent rut while they’re moving on with their lives. So she’s glad to have the apartment all to herself when Sol and Alexei move out, but not sure what to do next.
In addition to being an Art Institute applicant, Meg takes commissions over the Internet for fantasy art.
“‘I need to get caught up with these commissions first. You know I need to do like ten of them a month to make rent and food.’ And booze and weed, but I left those as understood.” (p. 67)
She considers starting an online comic strip, using an idea she’s had since her childhood for a story about Marie-Belle, a young muskrat living in the bayous around New Kestle [New Orleans] in the past who wants to become a voodoo priestess.
A parallel story appears in Chapter 6. Meg suddenly has dreams of Hannah, an adolescent otter in a rigid future Christian society who chafes at its restrictions on women.
“I sat bolt upright in bed, convinced I was soaked through, heart still pounding. The dark room, as silent as when I’d gone to bed, still seemed to echo with the call from my dream, the name, ‘Hannah!’
I’d never dreamed that vividly before. The meds had given me some fucked-up nightmares, but nothing that coherent, nothing with smell and dialogue and hunger in my stomach and the heat of sun and the cool of water, that left me rubbing paws through my fur surprised that it wasn’t still wet.
A dream like Alexi and Sol had had.
I made sure that I wasn’t hallucinating something from my dream coming back to my bed, the way Sol had, but it didn’t make me feel better when I didn’t find anything. Alexei’s dreams hadn’t brought back anything except a ghost.
The good news is, my ghost is a fifteen-year-old otter girl, not a scary Russian soldier. I laughed at that and then clutched my sides, breathing hard, laughter turning shaky and hysterical. It was like I was listening to myself laugh and didn’t have any control over it.” (p. 53)
To further complicate the plot, at nineteen Meg is also very concerned about her own sexuality – or lack of same. Is she heterosexual? Homosexual? Bi? Asexual? Why doesn’t she feel any urges when confronted with good-looking young otters or animals of other species?
Black Angel turns into three parallel stories, each told in full chapters. Meg’s predominate, but those of Marie-Belle the muskrat and voodoo – or is it vodou, not voodoo?– in her comic strip, and of Hannah the otter and her Christian cult in Meg’s dreamworld, are so rich that the reader will forget about the larger story while reading those. Meg grows increasingly afraid that she can’t keep them from taking her over.
[Meg is walking with Athos, her grey fox friend who supplies her pot but who also seriously cares for her. They are discussing her comic strip.]
“‘But you know that,’ he said. ‘Your comic was in Colonial times, right?’
‘No. 1915,’ I said automatically.
He said something about the style of the houses and I replied that they were old houses, all the while thinking, how did I know the date that certainly? I knew it was about a hundred years ago, but then why didn’t I answer ‘1912’? Or ‘a hundred years ago’?” (p. 83)
As Meg is drawn increasingly into her dreamworlds, and objects from those dreamworlds appear in the real world to increasingly confuse her, her friends – Athos (fox), Alexei and Sol, Mike (sheep), Bellie (raccoon), Eve (another raccoon), Alain (fox), Sherine (weasel), and maybe someone (or something) from either Marie-Belle’s or Hannah’s worlds – try to help her, despite herself.
Not only is this an excellent story, it presents several vivid word-portraits of life in three anthropomorphic societies.
[Meg’s present world.] “So I went to the [city] pool. Not many otters there, because they mostly have pools in their houses, or they live in that big complex on the river and swim there. But about every other major species demographic was there: foxes, wolves, mice, rats, deer, squirrels, cougars, rabbits – a million god-damn rabbits – and even a few bobcats, playing against the water-hating stereotype. The pool blasted Neutra-Scent and today had added in a cut-grass smell that was supposed to make it feel like a backyard pool.” (p. 32)
[Hannah’s futuristic world.] “‘Go on. What’s going to happen to me in church?’ Hannah dove before Angeline could answer, plunging through the water toward the roots of the nearest cyprus. She knew Angeline could follow easily, but when she surfaced by the trunk, only a few otters remained in the church water, and Angeline was not one of them.” (p. 103)
Besides word-portraits, this contains ten full-page interior illustrations by Rukis. Black Angel is a fine conclusion to the Dangerous Spirits trilogy.
Black Angel Cover by Rukis