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Claw the Way to Victory, Edited by AnthroAquatic – Book Review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Cover by Jenn ‘Pac’ Rodriguez
Claw the Way to Victory, edited by AnthroAquatic
Capalaba, Queensland, Australia, Jaffa Books, January 2016, trade paperback $17.50 (285 pages), Kindle $5.00.
Claw the Way to Victory is an original-fiction anthology of eleven short stories by nine authors, “each showcasing a different sport and [showing] just how the instincts of an animal matched with the intelligence of a human can help or hurt a player. Scratching? Biting? Against the rules? Not this time.” (blurb) It is published by Jaffa Books in Australia, but printed and also sold by editor AnthroAquatic in the U.S., and was released by him at Anthro New England 2016 in Cambridge, MA on January 21-24; hence the price in U.S. dollars and the Amazon Kindle edition.
In “Descent” by TrianglePascal (gliding), Anthony, a mallard TV reporter, interviews Lacy Gallant, a golden eagle who is about to attempt the first unassisted thousand-foot descent off a cliff into a sheer gorge in history – without a parachute.
“With the camera off, Anthony let himself slouch back into his camp chair, then eyed Lacy again. The eagle was watching the bear and the squirrel [Anthony’s camera crew] with curiosity while she sipped her coffee. She looked impossibly relaxed considering what she was going to be attempting that day. She was dressed in a tank top and a tight pair of shorts, both of them specifically designed to reveal as much of her plumage as possible. It showed off the impressive musculature that stretched from her shoulders down to her powerful arms. Despite how dirty and ragtag the rest of her looked, the flight feathers hanging down from those arms were more immaculately cared for than the claws of most supermodels. There was a healthy sheen about them that bespoke hours of daily care.” (p. 11)
The mammals in the sports camera crew think she’s crazy. Anthony, as a bird but not a hunter-diver, can dimly appreciate what she feels when she’s gliding.
“Discus Dog” by James L. Steele (discus) features Greg Rett, a young wolf in his first Major League Discus game, like football but much more brutal. The two teams are The Force, a nine-animal mix of three canines, four felines, and two reptiles, and The Pack, all wolves.
“The equine switched off his mic and walked up and down the gap between the two teams.
‘All right, you animals, here are the rules. Blood happens, and claws and teeth are okay, but no intentional wounds above the shoulders. Do not use the coin as a weapon against another player. Do not use the stadium walls as a weapon against another player. Do not …’” (p.27)
Greg, in the excitement of the game, bites a rival player’s throat out.
The National Discus League officials question him. The press questions him. No police question him. Everybody agrees that these things happen in the passion of the game, and Greg is a rookie who hasn’t yet developed self-control, so it’s okay. Greg feels that he committed murder (or at least manslaughter), and he can’t believe that he’s getting off so easily. He researches the history of the organized Discus games …
“Bottom of the Ninth” by PJ Wolf (baseball) is narrated by “six-year-old me”, the batter at the bottom of the last inning of Game Three of the Super Series. As he faces the other team’s tanuki pitcher, his musings about the game fill in the reader about animal baseball.
“Felipe Infante is a bull, and he’s paid – handsomely – to hit home runs. Had a pretty good season, too, with thirty-eight of ‘em. He isn’t paid to run the bases, which is why the rabbit is pinch-running for him.” (p. 57)
We never do find out who or what “six-year-old me” is, but we find out so much else about animal baseball that it doesn’t matter.
“A Knight’s Tale” by Eric Lane (tournament swordsmanship) is narrated by Jacob Harper a.k.a. Sir Michael Hemsworth, a coyote knight dueling a boar for the lordship of a modern renaissance fair. When he is gored by one of the boar’s tusks – an accident outside of the dueling rules – he loses his nerve even after he heals. Marcus Wen, his otter best friend, helps him get it back again. This is a well-written story with the knight-reinactors taking advantage of their animal traits, although the dueling is hacking with blunt flat-edged swords which Lane constantly refers to as rapiers, which are later thin-pointed swords used for thrusting. I think that Sir Michael Hemsworth should have been Sir Michael rather than Sir Hemsworth, too.
“Ping Pong Diplomacy” by Huskyteer (ping pong) is, no surprise, about an internationally-prestigious table-tennis tournament between teams led by Tux, a U.S. cat, and a Communist Chinese team led by a tiger.
“‘I’m Jun,’ the tiger rumbled. “It means ‘army’.’
That worked. The guy was pretty much an army all by himself.” (p. 102)
Tux has always been a fan and player of table-tennis, which is why he is chosen for the U.S. team invited to China. But the Chinese have developed table-tennis into a cross between a science, an art form, and a religion; and they are helped here by their animal nature.
“Only then did Tux have time to work out what was off-kilter about the game.
Jun wasn’t using a paddle. He was simply hitting the ball with the enormous pad of his paw, easily as broad as a competition paddle, and, Tux thought, remembering the pawshake, with just the right combination of firmness and flexibility, like a layer of rubber.
Was that even legal? And how was he supposed to counter it?’ (p. 104)
Tux takes advantage of his own feline instincts to stay glued to the bouncing ball. Huskyteer mixes the game competition with low-grade diplomatic espionage.
In “After the Last Bell’s Rung” by Patrick Rochefort (boxing), Balus Bubalis is an Asian water-buffalo by species but a Texas native. He was the Texas Pro-Am Heavyweight Champion in his youth twenty-five years earlier, but he never went professional, retiring instead to help his dirt-poor family. He later became a physiotherapist specializing in treating sports injuries. The unnamed narrator interviewing him and his old coaches for his life’s story focuses upon how having thick horns affects boxing. There’s no drama in this story, but a lot of heart. Balus is the sort of quiet man who was featured in lots of “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Ever Met” stories.
“A Leap Forward” by MikasiWolf (running) isn’t about a formal sport as much as using running training to stay ahead of the police. Lesaut (civet) and Liam (angora cat) are parentless street youths who have their own society, The Movement, on the rooftops of the city of Intersection. They practice the Art of Displacement, both a physical exercise and a philosophy to hone their speed and agility.
“Each day, the disciples of The Movement, known as ‘Traceurs’, would meet on their own mutually-agreed roof for dinner and socializing. And once a week, there would be a get-together known as the Gathering, in which everyone would share their own thoughts and encouragement they may have for the rest of the immediate community. Lessons learnt, job offers, and personal philosophies; everything went as long as it was constructive to one’s well-being.” (p. 142)
The older Liam asks Lesaut to mentor a newcomer, the 16-year-old horse Snoss, to The Movement. He doesn’t tell Lesaut that the police in the streets and subways below are looking for Snoss. Lesaut needs all that he has learned of the Art of Displacement to keep himself and Snoss out of the hands of the authorities.
“A Gentleman of Strength” by Dwale (sumo wrestling) is a polite translation of rikishi, a sumo wrestler, usually translated just as “strong man”. This is the story of the final tournament of Ame, an aging honey bear sumo wrestler, who is wondering whether he should keep wrestling until he attains the title of komusubi or retire before fading strength forces his retirement. The story describes sumo wrestling in depth, adding such animal traits as whether a plantigrade or a digitigrade stance is better for a sumo wrestler, the disadvantages of having a long tail, and so on.
“Nightball” by TrianglePascal (basketball) contrasts the playing of day animals and night animals. Never the twain shall meet – until a day animal, a cat, goes out for a nocturnal team. The attributes of the nocs (a skunk, an owl, a deer, etc.) are illustrated. The story is why the cat wants to play with them. None of the characters are named except for their species. They don’t need names here. This is the second story here by TrianglePascal.
“Eight Seconds and the Grace of God” by Patrick Rochefort (rodeo) is set in the macho world of cowboy poker players and rodeo contestants (of both sexes) in Alberta, where both the stallion and steer riders and the stallions and steers are sentient. This is Rochefort’s secod story here.
“The big, brown steer had a coat like cheap milk chocolate, and he stared down at Dawson in a way that mutt didn’t like, as if he was just measuring him up for how hard he’d have to stomp the dog flat.” (p. 226)
Barroom fights and fights in the rodeo ring. American and Canadian rivalry. Bradley Shoulders and Cameron McKenzie are both steers, but they sure aren’t friends. Cameron is friends with Dawson Chinook, the mutt. Dawson is hot to ride Bradley in the rodeo and win, to square up for his pal getting sucker-punched. But the hulking steer is three times Dawson’s size. Who the fuck cares!
“Marge the Barge” by Mary E. Lowd (ice skating) is a large Newfoundland dog with five rambunctious puppies. She’s a hockey mom in a figure-skating rink where all the skaters are little cats, small dogs like Chihuahuas, and squirrels. Marge suffered an injury that ended her hockey-playing days. Her only hope for staying on the ice is to learn to become a figure skater. But a huge Newfie amidst all those dainty animals performing graceful ballerina twirls and the like? Will Marge’s determination be enough?
Claw the Way to Victory (cover by Jenn ‘Pac’ Rodriguez) may be the best anthology that I’ve ever read, in terms of all of its stories being so well-written that they deeply held my interest even though I don’t have any interest in their sports (in ten cases; “A Leap Forward” is well-written but isn’t really about a sport). Ten different sports. Stories ranging from dramas of whether the protagonist will win, to a quiet human-interest piece. In a couple of cases, notably “A Gentleman of Strength”, it has taught me a lot about its sport while recounting a deep human-interest story. I feel safe in guaranteeing that you’ll really like Claw the Way to Victory even if you’re not interested at all in sports. And if you are …
Rik-Tikki-Tikki The Ivory-Fanged
New discoveries from this year’s WonderCon: Rikki is a full-color comic book adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s well-known mongoose-vs.-cobra story Rikki Tikki Tavi. The story was adapted and updated to a more modern setting by Norm Harper, with illustrations by Matthew Foltz-Gray. Originally created as a 4-issue comic book mini-series, after a successful Kickstarter campaign they re-released Rikki as a graphic novel in trade paperback, complete with the original Kipling story as well as a cover-gallery by the artist Christine Knopp. Find out more over at the publisher, Karate Petshop.
image c. 2016 Karate Petshop
TigerTails Radio Season 9 Episode 37
The Shadows That Linger, by M. Andrew Rudder – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Cover by Randy Thompson
The Shadows That Linger, by M. Andrew Rudder.
Dallas, TX, Argyll Productions, July 2015, trade paperback $17.95 (314 pages), Kindle $7.99.
The Shadows That Linger is a superhero comic book in text form, in a funny-animal world.
“Superpowers had begun to appear five years ago, and with those powers came superheroes. With superheroes simultaneously came supervillains, government agencies to try and sponsor, control, or extinguish them, and a different kind of warfare.” (p. 5)
Among anthropomorphic animals or humans. Well, if I suddenly gained superstrength, superspeed, the ability to fly or to phase through solid objects, invulnerability, or anything else like that, I don’t think that the first things I’d do are to design a flamboyant costume and name for myself, and get together with similar individuals to form a club of superheroes – or, if I decided to become a supervillain, to join others in a society of supervillains. But maybe that’s just me.
Let’s see: The Protectors in Seattle are the good guys. They include Thunderwolf, a “muscular wolf” with a “shockingly blue Mohawk crackling with static electricity”; White Magus, an arctic fox with shimmering fur dressed in a tuxedo, “brandishing a ruby-topped cane like a sword”; Pathfinder, the leader, “a husky, tall and muscular, dressed in segmented body armor that gave her freedom of movement while also protecting her from those criminals who preferred guns to lasers” who can track anything; Zahnrad, a diminutive female pine marten with a thick German accent “dressed in functional overalls” who can undo property damage – well, you get the idea. The Consortium are the supervillains, with Puppeteer, “a fox in black leather motorcycle gear” who controls minds; Firestarter, a superfast female dhole dressed in “a tight outfit in red, black, and blue, completed by a streamlined helmet with a tight visor over her eyes”; Dazzlewolf, garishly costumed who can create multiple copies of himself; and others.
Pariah is the newest member of the Protectors; a 19-year-old “fennec fox” with a thick Iranian accent “in white and green spandex with a green mask. There was a stylized green nightingale on his chest, and a cape billowed behind him thanks to Thunderwolf’s gales.” (p. 7) (Dazzlewolf’s costume also includes a “massive flowing cape”. I’m sorry, but I can’t take either superheroes or supervillains in capes seriously since seeing Pixar’s 2004 The Incredibles.) Pariah’s powers include the ability to heal physical injuries.
“He’d never healed this many people at one time before, and he was definitely tired, but he wouldn’t pass out or anything. He’d only joined the Protectors a month ago, and though his ability to patch up their comrades after skirmishes with the more destructive superheroes had been invaluable, this had been his first large-scale healing. Moving from person to person, letting his power course through them, pushing away their pain and repairing their bodies would definitely earn him a full night’s sleep.” (p. 12)
Pariah is cleaning up after their latest battle when he comes upon the mortally wounded Puppeteer, the leader of the Consortium, dying from one of Thunderwolf’s lightning bolts. Even though he knows that helping their enemies can get him expelled from the Protectors, he cannot refuse to heal anyone needing his aid. The cured Puppeteer promises not to fight him in exchange for having saved his life. The rest of the Consortium would never approve such mercy, so they both have a motive to keep this a secret.
Puppeteer, a 47-year-old red fox who can read minds as well as control them, now knows Pariah’s secret identity and past. He is Aziz Jobrani, who had escaped from the oppressive Iranian government’s genetic experiments, drugs, and torture that had resulted in his superpowers of flight and healing. By an incredible (and not really believable) coincidence, Puppeteer is Suleiman Madani, also an escapee from the same Iranian experimental labs after he developed superpowers. He came openly to America, used his mindreading ability to make himself a billionaire, and has amused himself playing a Seattle society leader and a supporter of the Protectors at the same time he has been building up the Consortium to oppose them.
Puppeteer is no Robin Hood, but he has only stolen from the rich who can afford their losses, and manipulated politicians into voting the way he wants. He has not considered the Protectors a serious threat – he is contemptuous of their only appearing where they can expect favorable receptions and media, not where they might be truly needed. Now he is impressed by its newest member’s genuine desire to help those who need his medical talent. He also knows that Pariah is secretly gay. And so is he.
The Shadows That Linger is intriguingly imaginative. The Consortium only works because all of its supervillains are intelligent, not psychopathic killers as in most comic books. If a crime isn’t profitable, they aren’t interested in it. They don’t slaughter masses of civilians or their own gangs just to demonstrate how evil they are. They don’t monologue at length about how clever they are, giving the heroes/the authorities/anybody plenty of time to prepare their counterattack.
The two groups maintain a wary communication between themselves, since these supervillains aren’t (usually) deliberately destructive.
When a new supercharacter appears in the world, both the Protectors and the Consortium try to recruit him or her until it becomes clear whether he/she will accept “do-gooder” work; is selfish, preferring to join a group devoted to self-interest; preferring to operate alone, whether for good, evil, or self-interest (for personal enrichment by legal means such as superpowers-for-hire); or is a murderous psychotic whom neither the Protectors nor the Consortium want running around loose.
One of the reasons that Puppeteer is not worried about the Protectors is that he has infiltrated them, disguised as Nocturne, a “mystery” superhero from another city who occasionally visits Seattle and “drops in” to socialize with them. [There are many different superheroes and –villains in other cities, such as Ricochet in Baltimore, a grey mouse “dressed in white tights with an orange line down the middle of his chest, with other smaller lines bouncing off of the middle. He did not wear shoes or gloves, but did wear a domino mask, and had an assortment of pouches on a toolbelt.” (p. 32)] That way he can learn their plans without getting too close to them. At least one superhero, Dissimulo, appears as a different “species, gender, sex, or civilian identity” each time he/she appears. I don’t recall any regular comic book in which a supervillain infiltrates the superhero organization in disguise.
In this world, both the Protectors and the Consortium enjoy considerable “down time” when they are in their secret identities as individuals. Aziz and Suleiman meet privately to get to know each other. They are both gay, and the young Aziz is impressed by the more mature Suleiman. It’s hard to say whether they become lovers or whether Suleiman becomes a willing comfortable father-figure.
They have hardly begun to meet when they, and all the Protectors and the Consortium, are confronted by a nameless and insidious menace that destroys by causing overwhelming despair:
“Swirling blackness engulfed the front of the Headquarters of the United Nations. Phantoms walked through it, some kneeling over those trapped within its depths, some whispering to the captives, others reaching for the press or superheroes. As Puppeteer stepped forward, the tendrils solidified into people, people the red fox recognized.
‘You killed us,’ one of the wolf guards from the facility in Iran whispered, floating closer to him.
‘You killed all of us,’ one of the other victims of the experiments said, a crow who had died when he’d set the building on fire.” (pgs. 90-91)
The Shadows That Linger (cover by Randy Thompson) tells how both groups, and Pariah and Puppeteer personally, are affected by and deal with this new menace.
There are several inconsistencies and amateurishnesses in the writing, such as introducing a new character as a stallion who is then referred to as “she”. But on the whole, if you are interested in costumed supercharacters at all, you will enjoy this. (I was amused for personal reasons by one sentence: “Since he [Pariah] didn’t have posters, framed pictures, or had even changed the colors of the walls, his room looked […]” (p. 47). When the Iranian revolution took place in 1979, many of the upper-class monarchist refugees settled with their wealth in Los Angeles. They almost all decorated their new homes and businesses with framed portraits and calendars of the deposed Emperor, or travel posters of scenic Iranian locations.)
Episode 308 - Macabre Fennecs
White Cat vs. Big Bugs
Now check this out over at Kids Can Press: “Fluffy Vandermere, the cat sergeant in charge of P.U.R.S.T. (Pets of the Universe Ready for Space Travel), works tirelessly to protect the world from alien (aka bug) domination. It’s a big job. “The whole planet is Fluffy’s space station. All the people in the world are his humans. And every space pet out there is his responsibility.” Now, suddenly and without warning, Fluffy discovers P.U.R.S.T. headquarters, the most secure building in the world, is under attack by an angry swarm of insects, and they’re armed with every cat’s worst nightmare — spray bottles! Warding off this level of terrifying invasion will require cunning, skill, ingenuity and the ability to move quickly. Fluffy’s been out of the field and at his desk job for quite some time now — is he up to this massive challenge? You bet he is!” Fluffy Strikes Back is the creation of writer and artist Ashley Spires. This new full-color graphic novel for intermediate readers is a spin-off from her successful Binky adventure series. It’s available in trade paperback and hardcover editions.
image c. 2016 Kids Can Press
FC-230X Knot FurCast
Fayroe called out sick and CJ was out of town. Then Paradox got sick. Well, it was either cancel, or do something special, so we did! With the cameras turned off and a cup of tea in hand, Paradox played through some YouTube videos that have been building in the video recommendation cue for a while. Normally we shout out YouTube videos or channels as part of our “discovered media” segment and recommend checking them out on your own, but for tonight we decided “this video is an hour long? Cool let’s play the whole thing!”
Instead of recording the show (which would really just be a recording of other people’s videos) instead we’ll just list out all the videos we played. Some are humorous, some are filled with cool science or even both. Most are furry related but not all. A few are simple examples of some fantastic but perhaps not so well known YouTube channels we recommend checking out. If you’re looking for some new things to subscribe to than this is the post for you! Thanks to everyone who joined us live. Hope you enjoyed the random but cool playthrough of some awesome stuff on YouTube.
Watch Video Watch Video Watch Video Watch Video Watch Video Watch Video Watch Video Watch Video Watch Video Watch Video Watch Video Watch VideoWe Draw Furry Porn: 6 Things We've Learned On The Job - on CRACKED.COM
http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2060-were-professional-furry-porn-artists-6-on-the-job-lessons.html
OH boy...
-J
We Draw Furry Porn: 6 Things We've Learned On The Job - on CRACKED.COM
http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2060-were-professional-furry-porn-artists-6-on-the-job-lessons.html
OH boy...
-J
Call for Submissions: The Second [adjective][species] Poetry Collection
Renee Carter Hall (“Poetigress”) is a writer and poet whose work has been published both inside and outside the furry fandom. She is the current president of the Furry Writers’ Guild and was Writer Guest of Honor at RainFurrest 2015.
I’m honored to have been asked to curate the [adjective][species] poetry collection for 2016! Based on last year’s feature and on the recent release of the furry poetry anthology Civilized Beasts, I know there are lots of great poets in the fandom working in a wide variety of styles and voices, so I’m looking forward to seeing what comes my way.
For this year’s feature, I’m narrowing the focus just a bit and looking for submissions relating to animals and spirituality. I’m defining both “animals” and “spirituality” pretty loosely, so this can involve anthropomorphic animals, the furry fandom, therian/Otherkin, and any sort of belief system—or lack of belief—where animals play some role. It doesn’t have to be organized or established religion, although that’s certainly welcome too. Really, the only thing I’m not looking for is work that demeans any particular faith or belief system. What I want, ideally, is celebration, exploration, and introspection, not debate, proselytizing, or anything obviously written for shock value alone.
The fine print on what to send:
- Length, form, style: Totally open. Send me free verse, formal verse, whatever you like. If you’re using an obscure form that I might not be familiar with, let me know what it is so I can understand the full effect.
- Submissions may be published or unpublished. If a poem has appeared previously in a print or online publication, please let me know where, so we can give proper credit. (If it’s only been posted to FurAffinity, SoFurry, your personal blog, etc., there’s no need to note that.)
- Submissions don’t have to be new. You can write something new for this call, or if you have something you wrote years ago that fits, send it along.
- If in doubt, send it. Sometimes we don’t know what we’re looking for until we see it, and the worst we can say is “no thanks.” So if you’re on the fence as to whether your work might suit, send it and let’s see.
- You retain all ownership and rights to your poetry. [adjective][species] simply licenses your work for posting on the site. If you need your work taken down at any time, simply let us know. All posts are made under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license, unless you specify otherwise.
How to submit:
- Send 1-6 poems, either in the body of the email or attached as a Word document, to:
aspoetry2016@gmail.com
no later than April 22. - Be sure to include what name you want your work published under (real name, pen name, furry name, whatever works for you), and if you like, you can also include a link where readers can find more of your work.
- Everyone will get a yes or no response, but I’m afraid I can’t offer feedback or critique on submissions.
I’d like to draw from as many perspectives as possible, so if you can help spread the word about this call to other poets and poetry communities, please do! Any questions, post a comment here or send them to the email listed above.
Dudley & Gilderoy: A Nonsense, by Algernon Blackwood – Book Review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Dudley & Gilderoy: A Nonsense, by Algernon Blackwood.
London, Ernest Benn Ltd, December 1929, hardcover 8/6 (281 pages).
Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was a prominent British author who wrote many literary fantasies and ghost stories during the early 20th century. His John Silence was one of the most popular psychic detectives during the heyday of that literary genre just before World War I. H. P. Lovecraft named him as a “modern master” of supernatural horror.
Dudley & Gilderoy, published toward the end of his literary career, is an anomaly. Because it features a talking cat and a parrot, and is not a supernatural novel in the horror sense, it has been described as a children’s fantasy although there is no evidence that Blackwood or the book’s British or American publishers ever considered it to be for children. Everett F. Bleiler, in his monumental The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983), describes it as “A moving story, although the tragic ending is disconcerting.”
The novel begins with a quotation from the then-recent The Modern Cat: Her Mind and Manners. An Introduction to Comparative Psychology, by G. S. Gates (Macmillan, 1928):
“an attempt to prove that the cat is a more delicate organism and of a higher order of intelligence than any other four-footed beast … also possesses a language much like the Chinese and possibly derived from it. In the word part of the language there are, probably, not more than 600 fundamental words, all others being derivatives.”
The late 1920s and early 1930s were a period of several “scientific” attempts to prove that animals had their own languages or could understand whatever human language the researcher spoke; see Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities, by Jon Bondeson (Cornell University Press, May 2011) for a description of some of the “talking dogs” experiments, especially in Germany. Blackwood’s “nonsense” may have been to some extent a commentary on this. The intelligence of the West African grey parrot, on the other hand, has been long recognized.
The leisurely novel begins in “The country house in Kent, dreaming among its well-kept gardens”, in early March:
“Something, apparently, was astir at the unearthly hour of 5.30 A.M., though it was not the human occupants of the Elizabethan building, and assuredly not the servants. [Note the pre-World War II British upper-class attitude that servants are less than human.] Colonel Sir Arthur and his Lady still slept audibly; Molly, their thirteen-year-old daughter, at the other end of the house, made no move; the younger children, lying in crumpled heaps, equally held steady; the French Governess showed no symptoms of élan; and the staff, as already mentioned, gave no sign.” (p. 10)
“The Day Nursery, whence it proceeded, lying away from the rest of the house in the eastern wing, held at this early hour two occupants, neither of whom slept; one, a biped, denizen of the air; the other a quadruped, denizen of the world. The speaker was a West African Grey Parrot, a King Grey Parrot, to give him his full title, with red feathers among the grey, and his name was Dudley; the other was a common red-haired cat with a flat-topped skull, and his name was Gilderoy. Dudley belonged to Molly, Gilderoy to himself, and the Day Nursery was their home, the parrot having occupied it for years, the cat for months. […] The two animals were very great friends. In appearance, Dudley was dignified, solemn, austere, aristocratic, his sleek feathers glistened, he was extremely soigné. Gilderoy was – otherwise.” (p. 11)
Dudley sets off the adventure.
“‘I am tired of this dowdy room,’ he announced.” (p. 18)
“‘Let’s go,’” Gilderoy replies, and they are off. Dudley leads. “Whoever went first would, of course, be first to meet the dangers. ‘You look best from behind,’ observed Gilderoy admiringly. ‘Your back view, I consider, is lovely.’” (p. 19)
The two animals get out of the Manor House through an open skylight, and set out walking:
“‘You waddle,’ remarked Gilderoy, his tail in the air like a ramrod. He made himself very big and protective. ‘I’m behind you, remember.’ ‘My wings,’ replied Dudley some twenty yards later, ‘are clipped and I possess two feet.’ He stalked on. ‘I need only – two,’ he added presently. There was a touch of grandeur in his attitude.” (p. 21)
Presently they reach the main road:
“Gilderoy watched him. ‘D’you know where you’re going?’ he flashed with his whiskers, not stirring an inch himself.
‘Er – not exactly,’ the bird replied, indifferently. He did not stop. ‘London, anyhow,’ he added.
‘Wrong direction, then,’ Gilderoy informed him bluntly, as he stood there sniffing the air with little twitching jerks.
Dudley turned in a slow circle till he faced the other way. ‘For where?’ he asked again gently.
‘Train,’ said the cat, watching him with steady eyes. ‘You walk like nothing on earth,’ he commented, as his friend, turning another half-circle, drew alongside with his odd waddling gait.” (p. 25)
The pair agree that they are traveling too slowly:
“‘Then please carry me, he [Dudley] signified. ‘The dust bother my toes rather.’
‘Hop on!’ agreed the other, lowering his scrawny back to an easy position. ‘And don’t scratch or tickle.”
Dudley, without further ado, fluttered on to the red back, raising a cloud of dust as he did so, and the then raced down the long hill towards the station. The cat went at a good speed, though, out of consideration for his friend’s disabilities, hardly his top speed, and the bird held on and kept his balance without undue loss of dignity. The wind blew out his tail feathers grandly.” (p. 29)
The animals have their first encounter with humans at the tiny station at Muddlepuddle:
“He [The Ticket Man] gasped, he paled, he took a step backwards. The pencil dropped from behind his ear, the cap fell off his head, the spectacles slipped down his nose. He stumbled over a chair behind him and collapsed in a heap against the iron stove.
‘Thank you,’ said Dudley, using Mother’s patient voice the children heard when they asked for one more story. He turned away, leaving the tickets where they were. ‘Now, cat!’ he signaled with a shrill, peremptory gesture. ‘Hop for it! Quick!’
Gilderoy, though resenting being spoken to like that in public, was ready in a flash, so that the bird dropped straight down on to his back below the window–ledge, and a second later the pair were racing along the platform among the rolling milk-cans, looking for an empty carriage.
‘I said ‘Leave it to Me,’ didn’t I?’ proclaimed the bird’s attitude proudly, as they scampered along.
‘Use my proper name before people, please,’ said Gilderoy stiffly.
‘Sorry,’ said Dudley promptly in a child’s voice.” (p. 36)
The many adventures that the two friends have in London would be tedious to list. It is difficult to read Dudley & Gilderoy today without thinking of Disney’s The Aristocats, although in detail the two are nothing like each other. Dudley’s imitative vocabulary, switching abruptly from an upper-class woman’s refined tones to a working-man’s roaring epithets, cause much amusing confusion. They take refuge in the home of Mrs. de Mumbles and her lower-class maid Mrs. Dibbs. They are never secure, however:
“… but danger was in the air and his [Gilderoy’s] whole body knew it.
Both creatures realised clearly that they had escaped, that they were being followed, and that steps were being taken for their recapture. A bell would ring … Hawley [the Manor House butler] would enter and enquire for them … they would be taken ignominiously away. Dudley, of course, would play the master rôle, for the cat, true to his evasive nature, had attracted little attention. The point was: how was the Muddlepuddle Manor House menial to be defeated? It called for careful planning.” (p. 163)
The eventual conclusion, which returns Dudley & Gilderoy to their starting point, is both emotionally satisfying and disappointing. The unexpected coda, however, reveals that one of the animals is much older than is realized, and leads to a tragic ending.
Around the late 1950s, s-f fans were reading s-f books faster than they were being published. Everett F. Bleiler’s pioneering The Checklist of Fantastic Literature (Shasta Press, 1948), described in a review in Astounding Science-Fiction (July 1949) as “indispensable to librarians, book dealers, and especially antiquarians,” was pored over by fans for more to read, although its 5,000+ titles are dominated by what could be better described as pre-s-f, such as Jonathan Swift’s Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships (1726), and Hercule-Savinian Cyrano de Bergerac’s The Other World: or the States and Empires of the Moon (1657). Blackwood was one of the more readable authors indexed, and Dudley & Gilderoy was one of his more popular titles. (The “talking” animals communicate by body-language without speech, however.) Today, with more than enough s-f & fantasy for the most devoted bookaholic, Dudley & Gilderoy is forgotten.
Dudley & Gilderoy was published simultaneously by Ernest Benn Ltd. in London, and by E. P. Dutton in NYC, in December 1929.
Member Spotlight: Ryan “Not Tube” Campbell
1. Tell us about your most recent project (written or published). What inspired it?
My most recent book is my novella, Koa of the Drowned Kingdom, published through FurPlanet. It’s about a young fruit bat with torn wings who lives with a family of otters and dreams of rejoining the flighted world of the bats he left behind. The original idea for the book, like most of my books, came from a song on the radio. I don’t remember what it was anymore–something about an upside-down world, I think. That set off the fireworks in my head and I started imagining who would live there (bats, obviously), and what that world would be like. That night I couldn’t go to sleep. The story kept twisting and building itself in my head. By the time I finally dropped off, I’d composed nearly the entire thing, including every major plot point and all the major characters. From there it was just an issue of writing it down. I really tried to focus on a tight, well-edited plot, in which every piece is necessary at least twice. Pull one thread and it should fall apart from both ends. I find writing those kinds of plots very satisfying.
2. What’s your writing process like? Are you a “pantser,” an outliner, or something in between?
It’s funny–I used to be a pantser, but I’ve found lately that that doesn’t work out well when I’m trying to get motivated to write. I have to know before I sit down what I’m going to be working on for the day, and it also helps if I have big major plot events that I’m looking forward to writing–that I’m writing toward. And now that I’m writing bigger, more complicated novels, I pretty much have to have an outline. That’s not to say that ideas aren’t occurring to me all the time during the process, or that I don’t change things or add things as I go! The outline gets modified a lot. The characters speak to me and require me to motivate them in different ways before they’ll agree to move through the obstacle course I’ve set up for them. But I have to know: if I change this plot element, how does that impact the story later? How will this compromise someone’s character arc? And the stories tend to be just a bit too big for me to do that well without an outline.
3. What’s your favorite kind of story to write?
Fantasy all the way. I love working with magic because to me it’s the closest to writing from pure imagination. Anything you can think of you can get away with, as long as you set limitations around it, rules, and then work within those rules consistently. It’d be fun to write scifi, but I kind of feel like I’m not smart enough. To write scifi you have to know how the whole world works, and I’m more an inner mind kind of guy. I’d rather make stuff up than take it apart to see how it works.
4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why?
To some degree I identify with all my characters. If we’re talking about The Fire Bearers, then I identify with Clay’s sense of wonder and also his self-doubt. I can be defensive and officious like Doto at times as well. And maybe most of all, I identify with Laughing Dog and his independence, his tendency toward selfishness, and his rejection of his people’s beliefs.
5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?
Okay, I love love LOVE Robin Hobb and snap up everything she’s written. I love the way she writes characters who push back against their destinies and against the identities the world tries to foist on them. I resonate strongly with the way her characters hurt themselves because they feel like they have to. I’m a huge fan of Terry Pratchett as well. I love the way he blended wisdom and humor, the way he found love and compassion for people in their foibles, in their weaknesses. I think he’s one of the greatest humanist writers I’ve ever read. Going farther back, Ray Bradbury and Tolkien were my biggest influences in my youth. They took me to faraway places when, frankly, I kind of needed to leave the place I grew up.
6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved?
Probably Kindred, by Octavia Butler. Think of Outlander meets 12 Years a Slave. It’s a great look into how easily people can be seduced into accepting injustice, and how larger cultural narratives are responsible for shaping villains and victims, and how inescapable that can be. But if you’re asking me for recommendations, boy do I have some. Check out:
- Nexus, by Ramez Naam — a Buddhist cyberpunk posthuman action thriller. (Really!) It’s great, imaginative scifi, and the science in it is something we legitimately could be dealing with in the next 30 years. Plus it’s plain fun.
- The Lives of Tao — This is a super fun book by Wesley Chu, who just won the Campbell award last year. It’s about an everyday schlub who gets a millennia-old alien accidentally implanted into his head and learns how to be a badass secret agent serving in a war between two rival factions of the alien species
- The Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells — I dig this one because it’s about a member of a shapeshifting dragonlike guy meeting the rest of his species for the first time in his life and having to decide whether he’s going to be alone forever or get dragged into their conflict with these nasty monsters that they were born to fight. The world has no “humans” per se, but none of the traditional fantasy races either. I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of this series.
7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?
I love video games, and I’m heavy into indie adventures. I’m also a weightlifter, I play the piano when I need to relax, watch movies and tv with my husband, and I’m getting back into backpacking and camping again. It’s my dream to camp in Patagonia someday.
8. Advice for other writers?
Read what you love and write what you love. And just keep doing it. Most people fail because they’ve bought into this myth that you either have talent or you don’t, and if you don’t get “discovered” after the first few novels or short stories you write, then you don’t have “it.” But it takes a long, long time to get good at writing, and it takes humility to work to get better. Beyond that, writing is so deeply personal. The Internet is full of writing advice that is going to work for some people and not for others. There are a thousand different ways to be an awesome writer. You just have to find yours.
9. Where can readers find your work?
Kind of all over. Most of my books should (at some point) be available on amazon.com, but my publishers would like people to grab stuff off of furplanet.com and sofawolf.com. You could also visit their tables at your local convention.
10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom?
I love that we are probably the most creative fandom out there. We don’t have a show or a book series that we are all fans of like My Little Pony or Star Trek or anime fans. We’re fans of the stuff we create. And we make awesome stuff. The fandom has great writers and great artists and great suitmakers and great musicians — there’s so much art, legitimate art, in the stuff we do. And one of the things that does for us is that it makes us super supportive and welcoming toward each other. Of course you have your bad eggs, but every fandom has those. I think furries get down on themselves so hard, and I wish they wouldn’t. We’re an amazing bunch, and we need to focus on those things that make us a strong community. We see our own problems up close because we’re right next to them, but we should see our strengths, too: our creativity and supportiveness. That’s something to be proud of.
Check out Ryan “Not Tube” Campbell’s member bio here!
In Our Next Thrilling Adventure…
The premier of MULP: Sceptre of the Sun passed us by, but we managed to catch it in time for issue # 2 (of 5). “MULP is an anthropomorphic comic book, a Pulp adventure set in a world of mice, [written] by Matt Gibbs and [illustrated by] Sara Dunkerton. The Sceptre of the Sun follows the exploits of Jack Redpath and Vicky Jones as they attempt to unravel a mystery surrounding an ancient stone tablet unearthed during an archaeological excavation in Egypt. This tablet is the first marker on an adventure that sees them racing around the world in search of a legendary treasure. Joined by their friends Cornelius Field, Prof. Walter Harvest-Scott, and Elisabeth Harvest-Scott, together they must prevent a powerful artifact falling into unscrupulous paws.” Published by Improper Books in full color, you can see a preview over at Matt Gibbs’ web site.
image c. 2016 Improper Books
Culturally F'd: After Dark Introduction
Victernus, by Baumarius – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Victernus, by Baumarius.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, November 2015, hardcover $25.00, trade paperback $14.99 (301 pages), Kindle $1.00.
Here is another grabber beginning.
“Namara drew the hot cell phone away from his face slowly. Shifting his attention to the television across his bright, clean living room, he watched as a fresh feed streamed in on a live news channel. Soldiers under the new administration broke down the doors to his lab and were streaming into the lobby. He grumbled, ‘Lynn…’ as the reporter said that the research done there was going to be repurposed for the public. A familiar voice emerged from below, and he remembered that he was still talking to his friend. He lifted the phone back up, ‘Mahalia? I have to go. Lynn finally did it. No…meet me at the sanctuary. If all goes well, I’ll be there in a few days.’” (p. 1)
But it goes downhill from there. Namara Galvarros, a Puerto Rican, turns himself on page 7 into the anthropomorphic wolf shown on Whiluna’s cover. From there on, Victernus is a fairly typical s-f novel of a tiny group of freethinking scientific rebels vs. an oppressive reactionary government that wants to seize the scientists’ new technology to control the public and to stay in power. The important difference is that these scientific rebels are led by Namara, first as an intelligent wolf, and later as the wolf-man.
Victernus is appealing if you like comic-book superhero plotting, due to vivid descriptions and the furry goal. Here is the good guys’ hidden sanctuary in the Rocky Mountains in 2038:
“They came into another clearing; a glass, hexagonal platform surrounded by mahogany planks, where they could see the whole sanctuary from above. It was raised, and similar rooms were spread out in the forest below them, connected to each other by bridges and ladders. Each one had a blue light glowing beneath it, providing ample visibility. There were chairs and tables arranged neatly on each one. Silver railings were along the edges, and blue, transparent screens floated in the air just outside of them. All kinds of experimental equipment were lying around on the tables. But, most importantly, the whole structure was covered by dense trees, so very little sunlight came through.” (pgs. 34-35)
Here is Namara transformed from a wolf into a wolf-man:
“Namara held up one of his hands and examined it. Black pads rested on his palm and sharp claws extended from the end of his fingers. Once again, his body was covered in a mix of light and dark grey fur, some areas longer than others. The backs of his ears and his chest were stained crimson, like the wolf before.” (p. 66)
The story unexpectedly jumps a couple of centuries, to after civilization has collapsed:
“The tall skyscrapers that stood there had their windows smashed out and large trees grew into them, their long vines hanging down and twisting around the steel frames. A few beaten up hovercars were sprawled out on the road ahead. Namara picked up his pace, jogging past them to find his way into the city.” (p. 86)
As you can see on Whiluna’s cover, Namara loses his left hand and has it replaced with a robotic claw. He finds a gigantic cavern with palm trees under the ruins of Washington, D.C., and … well, it gets really weird. But vivid.
The Truth by Whiluna
The writing is simplistic. Victernus starts in 2038, twenty-two years in the future, with hoverbikes, stun guns, invisibility cloaks, high-speed pressure trains, both telepathy and transporter (teleportation) devices … Are we likely to have these in just twenty-two years? It reminds me of those flying cars that everyone is going to have Real Soon Now, that have been predicted since the late 1940s. And flying-car technology has actually existed for decades, whereas nobody has yet developed hoverbikes or tube trains that can travel from the East Coast to Colorado in a couple of hours. The U.S. has become an oppressive police state where the Army can kick down people’s doors and shoot them – by 2038?
“‘Everyone in this country has to be microchipped, supposedly to keep out terrorists and illegals. They’re putting up towers everywhere, and there will be few blind spots. They’ll send out drones to anyone who doesn’t have a chip.’” (p. 57)
Namara, as an intelligent wolf (not yet a wolf-man), easily passes as some kind of German Shepherd-like dog.
It’s sometimes confusing. (1) We’re told from the beginning that Namara is searching for a mysterious Koanthanatus, but he can’t describe what Koanthanatus is. A physical object? An abstraction, like a philosophy? Who knows; but it’s important! (2) “She nodded, ‘Ah. I am Mahalia Galvarros, Namara’s mate. We’ve been […]’”. (p. 34) Has ‘mate’ replaced ‘wife’ by 2038? Or are she & Namara non-wedded partners? But she’s using his last name. (3) Life in 2038 America seems futuristic but relatively normal up to page 46, when Mahalia says, “Yeah, and now most of the western states can’t be lived in, not to mention most of Europe, thanks to the war and the droughts.” Wait; what!? (4) “If you want, you guys can get chipped and go underground.” (p. 58) Isn’t it the people who aren’t chipped who can go underground? If you’re chipped, “they” can find you, to send out a drone. (5) What does “His [Namara’s] eyes changed from yellow to a glowing light blue, and they were filled with thin, mechanical rings.” (p. 123) mean?
Victernus can safely be described as amateurish, too, since the author’s online biography (http://www.baumarius.com/), says that, “Baumarius, also known as Luke Gonzalez, is an 18-year-old Puerto Rican artist who lives in Connecticut.” He’s only 18 years old, and he’s published this novel? How long has he been writing? In addition to the above, he consistently uses “lied” for “lay”. “Mahalia lied down beside beside him […]” “Namara lied back down […]” “[H]e could tell that it was Jordan by the pattern of their breathing.” Pattern of his breathing. (Hmmm. Baumarius is Puerto Rican and he lives in Connecticut. Namara Galvarros is Puerto Rican and his laboratory is in Connecticut. A bit of Mary Sue here?) He’s an author, artist, animator, and musician who has composed a CD full orchestral soundtrack to go along with this novel, available for $7.
Victernus’ cast is totally human except for Namara’s turning himself into a wolf-man. Why? “‘I made myself this way to find out what may be one of the most innocent things within all of humanity’s existence.’” (p. 188) Nobody understands him. Neither do I, except that it has something to do with Koanthanatus.
Victernus is Edge of Awareness, Book 1. Book 2, Ephemeron, “should be published by this fall (2016).”
“Koanthanatus is calling.”
Cóyotl Awards – Last week for nominations!
A reminder to FWG members (writers and associates) that there’s just a week left to submit your nominations for the 2015 Cóyotl Awards.
The nomination form can be found at:
http://coyotlawards.org/nominate/
If you need a refresher on works published in 2015, see the 2015 Recommended Reading thread in the forums.
Nominations for the 2015 awards are open through Thursday, March 31.
FA 011 Online and Long Distance Relationships - How can you maintain a virtual relationship in a real world?
Hello Everyone!
Online Relationships and Long Distance Relationships (LDRs) have become a staple of the fandom due to our massive presence online. Most furries will, at one point or another, enter into some kind of a relationship that is non-local.
How do you begin such a relationship, or maintain it once it is underway? What is the difference between an Online Relationship and a Long Distance Relationship? How do you set reasonable expectations for the relationship? What is the best way to keep intimacy regular when you might be continents apart?
We also answer the question of whether you need a primary partner in order to be polyamorous.
For more information, including a list of topics by timestamp, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
FA 011 Online and Long Distance Relationships - How can you maintain a virtual relationship in a real world?Posh Catholic School Could Squash the Artist in Her
Before we'd begin, I'd like to apologize in advance if someone before me has already asked this question: as a furry, how do I go about making friends in a society that is presumably intolerable to my hobby?
I am about to go to high school, one that's religious and strict and uniformed. There's no way out of it. My parents have made up their minds. They figure that since my older sister (who attended there previously) took a liking to the school, that I would as well. But frankly, I'm the opposite of my sister. Analytical, logical, judging, academically intelligent? No. Think imaginative, idealistic, perceptive, emotionally in-tune. Ballet, AP classes, student leadership with friends? Nah. Try art, meditation, and hiking through nature alone. We have the super intelligent, friendly, and funny computer science nerd, and the overly-artistic and weirdly antisocial "hippie" furry girl. And this girl's being sent to a strict, dare I say it, posh Catholic school with high expectations and low tolerance for anything that is considered "weird."
I know that people aren't always going to be as accepting and open-minded as I am, but I am currently being plunged into a strict world with strict, uptight, unaccepting people. I remember once bringing up a conversation with one of my potential future classmates and sprinkling in some of my hobbies and interests (excluding furry). And just from that, they were appalled. As were the other students I tried to connect with. They didn't even have to speak necessarily; I could tell from their body language and facial expressions that they were very uncomfortable, maybe even freaked out that I do things like meditate instead of shop at the mall, and draw and write stories instead of doing sports or extra academic classes. Granted, these were not art students. But then even when I spoke with more artsy students like me, they thought my ideas were far too weird, and that my creative and pondering imagination had no off-switch. I suppose that's true, but I never really wanted to hit an off-switch. I like my imagination. And yes, I tried very hard to appeal to their better nature and to make a connection, but nothing really worked. Either I'm too weird for them, or they're too sophisticated for me. I don't know.
Needless to say, I didn't dare bring up furry.
So I was wondering if you had any tips or pointers to reaching out to these frankly intimidating people. Usually I'm able to connect with most people in an instant, whether or not they like me. I have this weird ability to tell what people are like when I meet them from the way they move, talk, behave, etc. I get vibes from them. I call it my "Spidey-Sense." But I am embarrassed to admit that I was unable to connect with any of these people. When I spoke to them, all I could see and hear and feel was pretty generic. I couldn't really detect much personality in these people, no offense to them. They just didn't seem to really care, you know?
I apologize. I sometimes have trouble describing what I mean. It would be so much easier for me to communicate if my heart and mind would speak for my mouth.
Anyways, I'm just not sure what to do. I'm already a weird person, with or without the furry hobby. I had so much trouble just speaking with these students and staff, I have no idea how I'm going to try to make friends. Please, if you have any tips or pointers or suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. I'm open to any ideas.
Thank you.
Turquoise
* * *
Hi, Turquoise,
Let’s set aside the whole furry thing for a moment because what we are talking about here is bigger than just your interest in things furry: it is about the conflict between our need to be accepted by others and our need to be our true selves.
A wise man named Henry David Thoreau said, “Be yourself—not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.” Human beings strive to assimilate because they are social creatures who find strength and comfort from being part of a group. Unfortunately, when that group’s standards differ from one’s own, an inner conflict arises—a dissonance in the soul that makes us deeply unhappy. This is what you are going through right now.
The problem starts because your parents are treating you like your sister, even though the two of you are very different individuals. A good place to start, then, would be to approach your parents and ask them if they would consider sending you to a different school. Explain to them that you feel your sister’s school, while it might be quite excellent academically, is more designed toward mathy, sciency types, but you are more artistic and would like to go to a school that is more geared toward the arts. I don’t know how open your parents are to talking to their children, but I’m wondering if you have even considered letting them know how you feel about this school? Perhaps, if they are open minded, they will listen and, not knowing before how you felt, will try and find something else for you. If so, then perhaps problem solved.
If not, and they make you go to this school anyway, then I suggest you look at the broad picture: it is more important to be who you are than it is to assimilate (unless you are a Borg, who are such charming people, yes?), even if that means you will be friendless. Going back to Thoreau, he once said he would rather sit alone on a pumpkin than sit with a lot of people on a velvet cushion. It’s better to reject the materialistic trappings of society and be an individual.
The number one reason I hear from furries as to why they are unhappy is that they are not allowed to be themselves. Being a furry is just one facet of your unique personality. Ultimately, however, the only person who can make you be or not be yourself is … you. When you think of it, who are the people considered most admirable in our world? It’s people like Benjamin Franklin, Rosa Parks, Nikola Tesla, Allen Ginsburg, Jackson Pollock, people who went against the norm and fiercely, courageously insisted on themselves. And the people who epitomize what society supposedly wants? The rich and famous like movie, music, and sports stars? Have you ever noticed how much American society likes to trash these people? And when you ask them, they often say that they were at their most unhappy when they were the richest and most famous (great example is the Beatles).
We only have one life. How many of us lead lives of “quiet desperation” (Thoreau again). People frantically try to gain approval and worry about obtaining things that society deems valuable (houses, cars, money) and die having wasted their talent, their hearts, their souls.
Turquoise, thank you for writing ol’ Papabear and giving me this opportunity to address youngsters like yourself who are standing on that precipice in their teens years. You have a choice here of accepting what others say you should be and do, stepping forward, and falling into the abyss—OR! You can give yourself the power to grow wings and fly safely above the expanse.
Keep it in perspective, hon. We are here to find ourselves, to grow, and to love. All else is vanity. That is my advice to you.
Hugs,
Papabear
Rat’s Reputation, by Michael H. Payne – Book Review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Cover by Louvelex
Rat’s Reputation, by Michael H. Payne. Illustrated by Louvelex.
St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, July 2015, trade paperback $19.95 (viii + 359 pages).
To pat myself on the back, when I edited the first anthology of anthropomorphic short fiction from pioneering furry fanzines of the late 1980s and 1990s (2003), the earliest story that I chose was Michael H. Payne’s “Rat’s Reputation” from FurVersion #16, May 1989. Rat’s Reputation the novel is Payne’s fixup and expansion of his “Around About Ottersgate” short fiction featuring Rat and his neighbors of the animal community of Ottersgate and environs. It’s his second novel in the “Around About Ottersgate” world, following The Blood Jaguar (Tor Books, December 1998; reprinted Sofawolf Press, June 2012).
“The rustling grew louder, seemed to come closer, and Alphonse [a gypsy squirrel] stopped as the ground started to shake.
An earthquake? He’d been through a couple when the caravan traveled out west, but here?
The shaking grew more violent with each passing second, and he was huddling down, glad he was out in the woods where nothing could really fall on him, when with a crash like a landslide, something tore out of the ground ahead, molten rock fountaining all fire-red and ash-black up over his head to smash into the trees, cracking and falling in a perfect circle around the pit of lava that yawned open, a sudden sulfurous stink plastering Alphonse’s face.
Then everything froze, Alphonse blinking to clear his eyes, a lumpy mass of darkness rising from the pit, its vast golden eyes swinging around to fix on Alphonse. The silence went on and on until a voice spoke, soft and rough as a step into sandy soil: ‘I reckon you know who I am, son.’
Alphonse could only nod.” (p. 7)
When the High Ones call you, you come. When the High Ones give you a duty, you do that duty. Alphonse’s duty is to find the baby rat on the streambank and raise him up. Except that the rat isn’t a baby; he’s four years old.
The story skips to when Rat is an adolescent. He’s miserable. He doesn’t have a name; the gypsy squirrels consider him unique enough among them that Rat is sufficient. He can’t talk High Sciurid properly; his mouth is shaped wrong:
“He tried to say ‘beautiful,’ but as usual his tongue got in the way of his teeth, making him cringe with sudden pain.” (p. 17)
He gets blamed for everything. Mostly it’s prejudice due to the bad reputation that rats have always had:
“She gave a sniff. ‘Rats are nothing but pirates and thieves; my daddy and all my storybooks say so.’” (p. 33)
Illustrated by Louvelex
Rat’s Reputation covers most of Rat’s very confused growing up. Since he’s an orphan raised at different times by squirrels and mice, is he a squirrel, or a mouse, or a rat, or none of the above; in which case, what is he? Since nobody likes him. why did a High One save him? Those who have read The Blood Jaguar know that Rat does make three close friends – well, two friends and an acquaintance – Fisher, Skink, and Bobcat. This tells how he meets them.
Rat’s Reputation is variously a religious experience, a psychological exploration, a romance, a murder mystery, a tragicomedy, a coming of age narrative, and a travelogue. Payne’s writing is in the mystic tradition of Kenneth Grahame’ The Wind in the Willows. Is the animal cast wearing clothes or in their natural fur, feathers, and scales? Do they live in urban-style buildings or in burrows and nests? The combination comes across as less of an inconsistency than as a rich and exotic blend.
In one of the novel’s longer passages, “Roaming” (pages 131 to 239), Rat goes into a seven-year self-imposed exile from Ottersgate; a walkabout that takes him throughout the world. This review is being written less than a month before the release of Disney’s Zootopia, and there is considerable speculation in furry fandom of what a large city designed for all species of animals will look like. Rat’s Reputation presents a whole WORLD designed for all species of animals.
“Rat thanked her, tied the pouch around his neck, and left by the back door. A block and a half brought him to a second-hand shop, and he spent most of the coins on two vests – one black and the other green plaid – three faded bandannas, and an oilskin backpack.
Cover by Louvelex
They helped him blend in, but … more than just these strange new rats, there were more different sorts of folks here than he had ever seen in one place before in his life. Skiffs and lighters sliding in and out of the docks; buildings of wood and brick and stone packed along the waterfront walk and every side street; fish and spices and the massed exhalations of so many lungs: it all made him a little dizzy. If he hadn’t been heading somewhere, he might’ve stopped, but …” (p. 195)
“Even at double speed it took two days to cross the place, but at last the pampas began to give way, sandy soil here and there, spreading, taking over, the wagons emerging into the desert. Cheering, the haulers let their chant fly, the ramparts of the Dyhari mountains growing from nubs to spikes to full-fledged peaks over the next few hours, the walls and towers of Kazirazif nestled against the foothills.
Meerkats with capes, hats, and spears stopped them at the city’s south gate, checked their paperwork, and guided the wagons through the narrow streets to the marketplace in the square outside the caliph’s palace. ‘Right, then!’ AlTrent [the fox wagonmaster] yelled. ‘Tayo, the ropes!’” (pgs. 225-226)
Rat’s Reputation has a wraparound cover and ten full-page interior illustrations by Louvelex, who also did the art for the Sofawolf Press edition of Payne’s The Blood Jaguar. The two books make an attractive matched pair. Both are among the very best of anthropomorphic literature.