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KnotCast Presents - "Fursonas" Review
TigerTails Radio Season 9 Episode 44
Adults Need to Learn to Prioritize
You see, I work as a Sales Associate at the local store of a Liquor Store franchise, and it's conveniently located by my apartment. My schedules are Saturday to Wednesday, all 8 hour shifts, with Thursday and Friday off. I have full time hours, and I'd hate to give them up. I'm very happy with this schedule, and I have things that I do on those two days.
However, I formed a sort of Star Wars/Jedi club with some friends last year, and two of them have set up a regular training schedule, seeing as we do light saber duels.
Problem, it starts on Saturday evening, and that's when I start my shift. Granted, with the school year just about over, a lot more free time is available. The issue?
There are now possible scheduling problems. If I do it Thursday evening, after a Dungeons and Dragons game I have in the morning, I may not be able to join some other games held in the evening. If I do it Friday, I would have to meet up with them at 4pm, and then leave for the game I play in every Friday.
The best option I have is to see if I can switch my days off to Friday and Saturday, but I’m scared that to do so, I'll lose my full-time hours, and that it'll affect my social life with my friends.
Please help.
Jesse (age 23)
* * *
Dear Jesse,
Part of being an adult is learning how to set priorities. In your case, the number one priority should be keeping your full-time job. I would not risk losing full-time status for the sake of playing games with your friends.
Schedule fun time on the Thursdays and Fridays you have off. If you can’t, and your friends are not willing to try and accommodate your work schedule, then try to find friends who will.
Social time is important, but work is more important. Welcome to adult life!
Papabear
Member Spotlight: George Squares
1. Tell us about your most recent project (written or published). What inspired it?
I think I’ve become known as a person interested in nonfiction writing just as much as fiction in the furry fandom. I publish things whenever I can at [adjective][species] (a team I’ve had so much pleasure working with), and I have a piece coming up about analyzing some of the sociological aspects of post-con depression.
But my biggest project, which I have been working on for well over a year now, is my novel The Bad in the Briar, which is about a fox with psychic powers who lives in an insular mountain community with a family who doesn’t have electricity. It’s a coming of age story with a splash of horror and adult content. I wanted to write a fantasy that felt very human and very earnest despite taking on an epic fantasy model. This might be a story about somebody from your home town who dropped off of the face of the earth as opposed to a crown prince discovering their heritage.
2. What’s your writing process like? Are you a “pantser,” an outliner, or something in between?
The best metaphor I have for my process is something akin to clay relief sculpting. You have a planning stage where you draw out a rough idea of what you want your sculpture to look like. You add large chunks of clay to the piece, which look ugly and gormless as first, but once the big chunk is on the slate, you go through a subtractive process to redefine elements of your sculpture. You carve in small details and remove a lot of the raw product to make a beautiful piece, and then you add more rough shapes into the artwork to slowly shape it, repeating your process.
So for writing, I’ll do a very non-detailed skeleton outline. It will be simple and sparse but it will have a clear beginning, middle and end. I’ll leave myself a lot of wiggle room for the in-betweens to grow organically, but knowing what is going to happen with big decisions in the plot helps me ahead of time. It also allows me to work on something like the end before I write the beginning, or vice versa. Sometimes your finished product is going to veer away from your original plan, but that’s the nature of art, and sometimes it works out for the better.
Keeping a plan very simple is helpful for me, because I know that as you write and continue to add prose, you’ll introduce complications of your own, and the story will develop like a weed that’s getting out of control. You don’t have to add more complications to the planning stage.
3. What’s your favorite kind of story to write?
A lot of the pieces I tend to work on draw inspiration from living around poverty for most of my life. I like thinking about the places in America (and not just America) that often don’t get their stories told. Really bizarre, niche things like the inexplicable phenomenon that is roadside dinosaurs, or towns in the deep South that still exist to this day which only have one federal building in their town–that building being the post office.
We have places in America like the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina which is this grand, majestic castle showing off the wealth and opulence of the Vanderbilts that exists within driving distance of some of the most ridiculous tourist traps you’ve ever seen; things like gemstone mines with egregious pictures of cartoon prospectors where tiny children pan for uncut gems and go wild about owning a “real-life” emerald. That kind of juxtaposition is amazing to me.
I also feel like for a community that spends so much of its time talking to long distance friends over the internet, surprisingly few stories incorporate aspects of online life. Little things like sending a text or showing off a character’s typing habits, or one person’s tendency to make typos versus another person. I try to incorporate how social dynamics have evolved a bit when it comes to things like instant messengers, texts and twitter.
Something that’s interesting to me is also how I feel like I’ve become this inadvertent liaison between writers who write and love erotica and writers who strictly write for a general audience. I write both of these things, and I care a heck of a lot about both. Furry is an interesting space that I think desperately needs stuff like smutty gay fiction as well as something you may read and say “oh hey, I can easily see this getting The John Newbery Medal.” All I can say is that art comes in many different forms, and I have high standards for all of it, no matter the content or the purpose of the writing.
4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why?
I think a lot of things that have irked me about adventure or fantasy novels is that the main character is stressed as an “every man.” They’re supposed to be our windows into fantastic worlds and they aren’t supposed to have the strongest personalities because it’s believed that these types of characters can be easier to relate to. That’s always bothered me, so I wanted to spend extra time on making sure I really liked the protagonist of The Bad in the Briar, Keene. He’s this quiet, observant guy with decent intentions. He hasn’t been dealt the best cards in life, but he copes with them in the best ways that he can, and I try to make those coping mechanisms fun.
5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?
On one hand, memoirs and fiction that read like memoirs. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is about this girl who lives with her weirdo family in this castle that’s falling apart and how they deal with the eccentricities of their home and one another. Into the Wild, which is a nonfiction story written by John Krakaur, really helped me think about how to write an adventure story about a real person who breathed and died in the unforgiving Alaskan wilds.
On the fiction side of things, I’m a huge fan of alternate history. The Man in the High Castle and Kindred come to mind immediately. Those are both examples of works with highly speculative concepts such as time travel and alternate dimensions but focus so much on the characters and a grounded society that you can sometimes forget you’re reading a fantasy.
Rikoshi’s work has given me a great deal of inspiration, too, and I think he was a writer that pushed me to think of erotica as an art that deserves respect and patience. I think he was the first one who inspired me to attempt to carve out a space for erotica in furry, and say “hey, there are a lot of smart things going on in the best of this genre and they deserve to be talked about.”
6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved?
I read too many books that I love, but God of Clay by Ryan Campbell and Song of the Summer King by Jess E. Owen are two very different and very accomplished examples of a great read.
7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?
I’m an avid baker. I make my own breads and cakes and spend more than a few nights enjoying shows like the Great British Bake-off and Cutthroat Kitchen. Amateur gardening, video games and table top games have their place in my de-stressing rituals, too. I also like to hike and explore my town, looking for strange things that might give me a little bit of writing inspiration.
8. Advice for other writers?
Write what you love. There’s always going to be an audience for everything. Don’t get bummed out when somebody doesn’t like a thing that you write, because what makes readers and the world of writing great is just how diverse everybody’s tastes are. You can write a masterpiece and somebody will be guaranteed to still hate it (which is a real issues even for big deal authors and New York Times bestsellers). Just always be mindful that your writing can always improve, and for all serious writers, improving is a life-long journey that does not end. Well, at least not until that pesky mortality comes along.
9. Where can readers find your work?
I’m all over the place. You can find two of my adult stories in the anthologies Will of the Alpha 2 and Dungeon Grind. I’ve published poetry in the Weasel Press anthology Civilized Beasts and the online journal [adjective][species], where I also publish essays and nonfiction pieces.
10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom?
My favorite thing about the furry fandom is that I can tweet a long, rambly stream of thought about why I think a weasel makes sense for me as a representative species and strangers will look at it and go “hey, that makes sense,” which is equally cool and also bananas.
Check out George Squares’ member bio here!
She Built A Brick… Mouse…
No better way to explain Mouse Guard: The Art of Bricks than this article over at Comics Alliance: “Last year at Emerald City Comic Con, toy brick artisan Alice Finch and her incredibly detail-oriented team put together an awe-inspiring display of David Petersen’s Mouse Guard dioramas built entirely out of toy bricks. At the time, we referred to it as one of the standouts of ECCC, and now Archaia is releasing a full-color hardcover packed with photos of the team’s incredible work. Finch, a member of the Seattle-based toy brick builder club ArchLUG, has already drawn acclaim for her recreations of Hogwarts and Rivendell alongside fellow ArchLUG member David Frank, but her team’s work on these Mouse Guard dioramas are a cut above.”
image c. 2016 Archaia
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”
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?