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Hi there, Papa!

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

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.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Sofawolf

Panther is a new hardcover graphic novel from Drawn & Quarterly: “Brecht Evens, the award-winning author of The Wrong Place and The Making Of, returns with an unsettling graphic novel about a little girl and her imaginary feline companion. Iconoclastic in his cartooning and page layouts, subtle in his plotting, and deft in his capturing of the human experience, Evens has crafted a tangled, dark masterwork. Christine lives in a big house with her father and her cat, Lucy. When Lucy gets sick and dies, Christine is devastated. But alone in her room, something special happens: a panther pops out of her dresser drawer and begins to tell her stories of distant Pantherland, where he is the crown prince. A shape-shifter who tells Christine anything she wants to hear, Panther begins taking over Christine’s life, alienating her from her other toys and friends. As Christine’s world spirals out of control, so does the world Panther has created for her. Panther is a chilling voyage into the shadowy corners of the human psyche. The Drawn & Quarterly edition of Panther is an extended ‘director’s cut’, featuring additional material not included in the original book.” Take a look over at Drawn & Quarterly’s web site for a preview.

image c. 2016 Drawn & Quarterly

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com. 

Free speech victory led by Vermont Furs.

Burlington VT had an antiquated anti-mask law to regulate groups like the KKK.  In the 1960’s, the officials who made the law could never imagine the future-people hobby of fursuiting.  Imagine a fursuit parade colliding with the hooded creeps.  It would be like matter meeting antimatter, with an explosion of rainbows and a fallout of fluff for miles around.  To update the law to better serve it’s spirit, members of the Vermont Furs went in front of the city council, and got the law changed. Now it only bans hiding behind masks to commit crime.  Hugging isn’t a crime yet, so thanks guys for setting a great example nationwide.  Fursonas are free expression!

WE ARE VERMONT FURS! pic.twitter.com/V9jPucqYIe

— Vermont Furs (@VermontFurs) March 8, 2016

There’s video here, and from Vermont Public Radio:

Last year, two men were detained by Burlington Police for violating the ordinance by wearing masks to a political rally. The detention was controversial, and the head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Vermont chapter questioned the constitutionality of the mask ban.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said that incident, paired with pushback from a community of “furries” – people who like to dress up as furry, caricaturized animals – led the city to reexamine its mask ordinance.

The co-moderator of Vermont Furs got the media to call furries “a collection of artists, writers, animators, actors, and our passion is all things cartoon animals.”  (Notice what they don’t call it.)   On Furaffinity, Zander Stealthpaw noticed that the furs helped much more than their own small group:

You guys help contribute to a very good cause, and I’m sure Vermont Comic Con would be just as ecstatic over this change.

“Fursonas” documentary movie gets a national tour, a pile of press, and spirited discussion.

Fursonas has a big feature article here, and the movie director (Dominic, AKA Video the Wolf) told me he was waiting for the movie to catch notice like that.  It sure did!  It’s another one of those Furry Media Events that used to happen very rarely, until 2016 became The Year of Furry.

• Film notes: Documentary about Furries gets Pittsburgh premiere (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Pittsburgh filmmaker talks about his new documentary on furries (Pittsburgh City Paper)
• Documentary Dives Into Complexities Of ‘Furry’ Culture (10 minute interview – 90.5 WESA ‘Essential Pittsburgh’)
• Furries Documentary Premieres In Pittsburgh (90.5 WESA)
• Five things to know on Pi day, and Furries documentary premieres in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Business Times)
• Review: ‘Honey Buddies’ and ‘Fursonas,’ from Slamdance to ArcLight Chicago (Chicago Tribune)
• Fur Example: Director Dominic Rodriguez Confronts His Own Furry Fandom in Fursonas (MovieMaker magazine)

Thanks to Cassidy on Flayrah for noticing and sharing a response article.  “A movie about real furries should be shared with the entire fandom…”

This week, Dominic arrived in California for one of the movie’s limited tour showings.  (See upcoming shows if you’re in Chicago or at Furry Weekend Atlanta.)

Dominic wrote to me with “a crazy idea”… a detour to the SF Bay Area to share it with a few of the Bay Area Furries.  It was supposed to just be a day trip for a living room show, but something more ambitious came together with a few short days notice.

Dominic took a 13 hour bus ride, got hosted to nap for a few hours, and then we took over a San Francisco neighborhood art space and packed it with 40 furries to see the movie.  The fun continued in fursuits on the other side of the neighborhood with a Burning Man party until dawn.  Then Dominic caught a bus back to L.A. for his “real” show.  That’s dedication to spend so much effort on the road with barely a break!

The reception in San Francisco was tremendous. The venue loved the turnout and invited furries back for more events. Audience comments were divided among those critical of censorship, and some understanding about PR concern.

It was reported that posts announcing the show to the PA-Furry  events calendar were taken down as “spam”.  (Not everything was deleted – here’s good discussion about Fursonas on the site.) The movie is critical of Uncle Kage’s role as dominant “furry spokesperson” while excluding “undesirables” like Boomer The Dog.

Boomer brings a sweet presence to the movie that has gotten positive remarks from many (non-furry) reviewers. He reminds me of a beloved figure of San Francisco history – Norton I, Emperor of the United States.  Norton wasn’t mocked for living the title.  They issued money in his name (and honored it when he spent it at local establishments), and named many landmarks after him.

I support Boomer to be what he wants to be- a real dog.  While Zootopia brings a corporate spectre hovering around the edges of what we love, I think he brings good spirit. In other words, Keep Furry Weird. Give the movie a chance before you make up your mind.

“No sex in suits and other facts about Furries.”

The previous topic is celebration, but this is defensiveness.  It involves Debra Soh, a sex researcher who wrote a nice short piece for Dogpatch Press a while ago.  The Toronto Sun has a short report about her research that seems totally unnecessary.  Let her share interesting stories, but the title seems like an answer to an unfairly loaded question (like “did you stop beating your wife yet?”)  A suitable answer is “it’s none of your business what others do in bed, unless you’re into that.” If you do want to yiff, try partial suiting. Taking off the head breaks the magic, but if you get in a furry’s pants, that’s where magic comes from.

“In Defense of Furries.” Defensiveness about Zootopia on Gizmodo.

Furry on @midnight. (Tip: Torrle.) Mockery about zootopia porn, from Monday, March 7.

Tonight's FTW gets furrylicious. We're both sorry we said that word and think you'll enjoy the nightmarish results. Check it out...

We're back again and today on this glorious St Patrick's day to talk about more microsoft shenanigans, a guy on tinder dressing up like a lady, and hulk hogan! Episode -44 - Gwaaaaaaaaaaaar!

This article is an updated version of a piece published on [adjective][species] in March 2012.

Animal Farm is George Orwell’s 1945 classic novel.

Orwell is considered to be one of the great authors and Animal Farm, along with Nineteen Eighty-Four, is considered to be one of his masterpieces. Animal Farm follows the story of anthropomorphic animals that overthrow their human farmer master and run the farm on their own terms.

I re-read Animal Farm with the idea that I would review it for [adjective][species]. I was planning to conclude that it’s a great book, and a great furry book, that all furries should read it, and it’s an easy book to recommend to the [adjective][species] Furry Canon.

I have re-read Animal Farm, but I’m not recommending to the Furry Canon. Read something else.

I simply don’t think that Animal Farm is a furry book. Which got me thinking about what constitutes a furry book.

I’ll try to define what a furry book is later, but let’s look at Animal Farm first. It has many qualities that might make it attractive to a furry audience:

• Animal Farm is not complex or difficult to read. Its full title is “Animal Farm: A Fairy Story“, and it’s written in a very deliberate children’s storybook style. The writing is magical in its clarity, akin to Dr Seuss, J.K. Rowling or Philip K. Dick.
• Animal Farm is short: you can start and finish it in a single sitting. It took me a couple of hours.
• The animal characters are fully realized and easy to empathize with.
• Many furry readers will appreciate that the only romance in the book is homosexual, between Benjamin the donkey and Boxer the horse. In line with the writing style, the relationship is chaste and friendly, and would perhaps be better described as homosocial, a bit like Bert and Ernie of Sesame Street. Still, Benjamin and Boxer are devoted to one another and are inseparable to the point that they plan to retire together.

And yet I don’t think it’s a furry book.

Why? For starters, I think that furry is escapist by nature.

Furry books tend to embrace an alternate universe. Makyo touched on this is some detail in her Layers of Fantasy post. She pointed out that furry art tends to exist in this context:

It is a sort of stacking of different layers of fantasy, with our focus on anthropomorphic animals being layered atop science fiction or fantasy elements.

Makyo goes on to point out that this isn’t a rule that applies to all furry art, and that the alternate-universe concept falls over when we furries socialize in the real world. But I think that furry does necessarily involve some disconnection from the real world, if only to accommodate our self-images as animal people. I understand that this point is arguable (and please do comment away).

I think that a real-life furry gathering is always different from a non-furry group. The alternate names; the blasé acceptance of ears and tails and fursuits; the non-traditional treatment of sexuality, and;- most importantly – the implicit acceptance that each of us are the being that we feel we are on the inside. I’m an anthropomorphic horse; RandomWolf is in a funny mood because there is a full moon; Bob is just a friendly human who likes Thundercats.

I think that furry books reflect the furry community, in that the community is disconnected from the real world. As furries, we want to escape—however marginally—from the real world. We create our own reality.

Animal Farm, despite its talking animals, exists firmly within the real world. It is allegorical, not fantastical. I wouldn’t recommend Bulgakov’s The Master & Margarita as a furry book either.

Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution. It retells the story of Russia and the USSR from around World War I through to the last years of World War II. The primary porcine protagonists—Major, Napoleon and Snowball—are respective literal analogs for Marx, Stalin and Trotsky. Animal Farm is no fairytale: there is no redemption, no success. The farm, following revolutionary overthrow of the despotic Farmer Jones, charts a course back to corrupt dictatorship as straight as an arrow.

The children’s storybook language is key to the book’s power and testament to Orwell’s genius. The language primes us to expect and hope that our farm animals will earn themselves a better life through hope and struggle: we’ve read storybooks before. We expect conflict and dark times, but we also expect redemption or at least an engaging Brothers-Grimm-style grotesque coda. But there is no hope for our animals. They are as doomed under the pigs as they were under Farmer Jones.

As well as escapism, a furry book will often employ a literary device where species is shorthand for behaviour. (Cheetahs are fast; foxes are vain; bulls are strong.) This does occur in Animal Farm to an extent—for example we have a strong horse, a lazy cat, and a grumpy donkey—however like the characterization of the pigs, this is meant allegorically. That is, Orwell explores the fates of the Russian people against their (respectively for my three examples) loyalty, work ethic, and cynicism.

To put it more directly: Animal Farm doesn’t explore speciation as a philosophical idea in the way that a furry book does.

I wrote about Gulliver’s Travels (in an article which will also be adapted in the context of the [a][s] Furry Canon project), using this as the key “furry” idea. Swift’s rational horses and animalistic humans and are intended to disconnect our rational nature from our atavistic selves. In doing so, he asks us to consider what it means to be human, a question close to the heart of many furries (and, of course, [adjective][species]). I’d recommend Gulliver’s Travels to any furry interested in exploring the idea of identity.

Another example: The First Book of Lapism by [a][s] contributor Phil Geusz deals with the philosophical aspects of identity and species. Geusz imagines a world where people voluntarily transform themselves into bunny-people in the hope of creating a pacifist and highly-socialized race. Guesz’s books explore the consequences of this new race in an accessible alternate-universe manner. Speculative fiction isn’t personally my cup of furry tea, but Guesz’s works are well written and beloved by many.

Animal Farm is a work of genius and was a very important book when it was published in 1945. History is important, but the Russian Revolution is less relevant in our post cold-war world. And if a version of Animal Farm were published today as an allegory for conflict between the Western and Islamic worlds, I still wouldn’t recommend it as a furry book.

Follow this link to explore everything we have published on the [adjective][species] Furry Canon project.

The Furry Canon, recommended, at the time of publication:
Redwall

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Hunters Unlucky, by Abigail Hilton. Illustrated by Sarah Cloutier. Maps by Jeff McDowall.
Winter Park, FL, Pavonine Books, July 2014, trade paperback $19.99 ([9 +] 672 pages), Kindle $9.99.

“He walked in darkness. How long he’d been there, he could not say. Occasionally, he distinguished the silhouettes of rocks or faint light reflecting off pools of water. He stayed well away from the water. Sometimes he heard noises – rustling, the rattle of pebbles, a soft sigh like fur over stone.

I will not run.

But he walked faster. He was looking for something … something he did not think he would find. He heard dripping, and that was normal, but then he heard a sharp patter, like an animal shaking water from its fur. Another swish, closer this time.

I will not break. I will not run.

Somewhere in the darkness, something began to laugh. ‘Hello, Arcove.’

Then he ran.” (p. 112)

Hunters Unlucky is a collection of Hilton’s five separate novels in that series; Storm, Arcove, Keesha, Teek, and Treace. They were also broadcast on her podcast beginning on November 10, 2014 and serialized two episodes per week through July 2, 2015. But they flow together smoothly into a single novel. Arcove, for instance, ends with a real cliffhanger. Get them all together in one handy book.

Hunters Unlucky has been compared favorably by many reviewers with Watership Down, The Jungle Book, the Warrior Cats series by “Erin Hunter”, and practically every dramatic natural talking-animal fantasy. It is different in being devoted (at first) to two groups of fictitious animals on the large island of Lidian; the ferryshaft, basically intelligent omnivorous furry deer or llamas, and the lion-like creasia cats. Other intelligent animals include the large foxlike curb, the eaglelike fly-ary, the telshee and the lishty, both sea mammals roughly analogous to furry sea lions. There are also many dumb prey animals such as sheep, rabbits, frogs, and turtles, which are sometimes eaten as well as grass by the omnivorous ferryshaft.

The story is an excellent example of the term “action-packed”. The first chapter of Storm is a battle to the death between several ferryshaft and creasia. Storm, the ferryshaft protagonist, is born in Chapter 2, twelve years later, on the same night his father is killed; licking blood rather than suckling milk as his first drink. Storm is the tale of his youth. He grows up as a runt whom his herd expects to die. Only his mother So-fet and a wise elder, Pathar, pay any attention to him. Storm gets his own first associates when he joins a small clique of other youngsters who are all outcasts together; a few other males and one female. Their relationship is a combination of intelligence and instinct:

“However, he [Storm] did speak more frequently to Tollee. As the summer wound down, they developed a genuine friendship.

This provoked a certain amount of teasing from Tracer and Leep, especially as the fall season brought mating to the front of everyone’s minds. ‘Better watch out,’ said Tracer. ‘You’ll be fighting Mylo for her.’

Mylo did, indeed, fight off three male foals who challenged him over Tollee’s status, and the entire clique helped fight off two adults. Storm knew that, had she been alone, she would have dealt with constant harassment. Mylo’s status as clique leader entitled her not only to his protection, but to the protection of his entire clique. […]” (p. 73)

Storm is not only the story of Storm’s growing up. It introduces the reader to the social dynamics of ferryshaft herd life, and to the fatal subservience of the ferryshaft to the creasia cats. It concludes with Storm’s first act of what can be called leadership.

Arcove is both the title of the second part, and the name of the leader of the creasia cats; the ferryshaft’s enemies. Treace, the title of part five, appears here as another creasia cat; Arcove’s rival. Arcove is a “noble adversary”; Treace is ruthless. (The cover by Sarah Cloutier shows Storm being circled by Arcove and Arcove’s second-in-command, Roup. Pay attention to the round blue stone around Storm’s neck. It’s important.) Storm can respect and work with Arcove; Treace can’t be trusted. Arcove introduces the reader to the creasia cats’ social structure. It also brings another of Lidian’s species into the story; the curbs, in particular the young curb warrior Eyal.

Storm’s exploits are so harrowing that it’s almost a spoiler to reveal that he keeps escaping and surviving. There are two phrases to remember here: the book’s blurb, “He’s not bigger. He’s not faster. He’s not meaner. So he’d better be smarter.” And the proverb, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  But Storm needs to do more than trick the furryshafts’ enemies into fighting each other. He needs to win the ferryshafts some real allies.

These are the first two parts of five. Although Storm remains the main protagonist, important characters emerge among the other intelligent species of Lidian: Arcove, Roup, and Treace among the creasia cats; Keesha and Shaw among the telshee; still others. The story becomes complex, with major surprises for Storm and for the reader. Hunters Unlucky is well-enough written that, even at 672 pages, you’ll be reluctant to put it down until you’ve finished it. Definitely recommended!

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

Yes, still, it’s sometimes best to just let the creators explain their own work. So, here’s the tag for new graphic novel Little Dee and the Penguin: “When Little Dee meets a motley crew of animals deep in the forest, she knows she’s found the perfect set of new friends. Between the bossy vulture, the slightly dim dog, the nurturing bear, and the happy-go-lucky penguin, this mismatched group of big personalities doesn’t always get along—but they’re a family.  And they’re on the run. A pair of hungry polar bears are after the penguin, and the rest of the team are determined to protect her. They’re not interested in adopting a tiny human. But Dee loves them—especially Ted the bear—and she won’t let them go. Instead, she hops on their getaway plane and joins them on an around-the-world adventure.” Written and illustrated by Christopher Baldwin, it’s based on his continuing web comic of the same name. And now it’s available in full-color from Dial Books, coming this April in hardcover and trade paperback.

image c. 2016 Dial Press

Roo and Tugs are joined by Lyrick as they discuss everyone's favorite topic to avoid - grief, loss, and death. How do these huge changes affect us? What makes loss unique in the fandom? What do we have in common with society at large when it comes to grief? And why is Roo talking like Ira Glass? We answer these questions, and more, during this episode, which was inspired by our listener - Syd! We also play a THE GAME, bring you a new Get Psyched! with Dr. Nuka, Space News, and more!



NOW LISTEN!

Show Notes

Special Thanks

Lyrick, our guest!
Syd, for inspiring our episode topic!
Timid Grizzly, for today's ident!
Maverick Collie
Commander Wolfe
Spark the Dragon
Zeke Raccoon

Music

Opening Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller– Cloud Fields (Radio Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Get Psyched Music: Fredrik Miller – Universe, USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Closing Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Headnodic Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)

Next episode: We're going to Salt Lake Comic Con's FanXperience! Check out our mini site at fanx.furwhatitsworth.com. S5 Episode 12 – The Last Goodbye (Grief and Loss) - Roo and Tugs are joined by Lyrick as they discuss everyone's favorite topic to avoid - grief, loss, and death. How do these huge changes affect us? What makes loss unique in the fandom? What do we have i

Fuzz and Savrin fall out of a time portal from the future. It's grim, but hey it was the 20th anniversary of Furry Fiesta in their timeline! We talk about the con, Zootopia, read some con reports from Vancoufer, Zootopia, set aside the longest wall of text we've ever gotten, more Zootopia, grim advice for someone whose relationship is on the skids.. and some Zootopia. Zootopia. Like the show and want to toss some support our way? We have a Patreon - www.patreon.com/knotcast Episode 307 - TFF 2029

​Hey Papa Bear! I've written to you a couple times when I was younger and I've gotten good advice from you that has helped me get through some things in life. Thank you very much for what you've been doing in the community. 

It's been a good 5 years since I last wrote you, and I can gladly say that my life has been going in the direction I've always wanted it to and I'm pursuing a dream I've had since I was in 7th grade. I got admitted into my a college at the end of my senior year in high school and I've been a student at Purdue University since August so I can study to become a Materials (Science) Engineer. I also have a boyfriend who I met through a mutual friend of ours (we were actually set up by said friend, who is more than overjoyed that we're together. It was a funny realization that he went through all that trouble for us.) 

But just because my life is all and well doesn't mean it's that way for everyone. Before I met my current boyfriend, I was with a different guy. I'm going to call him "Jamie" for the sake of his privacy instead of his real name. When I was 16, I met him, we became friends and we started dating. I met him through the fandom and was kind, respectful and loving to me. At the time, it was like a dream come true since the last few boyfriends I've had weren't so great and I ended up with a broken heart and with more than a few tears being shed. So, back to Jamie. He fell as hard for me as I did for him. Everything seemed fine; we went about our lives in relative happiness despite the 5 year age gap between us and his social and economic situation in his life. Even though the guy went through hell and remained a stable, kind person, we weren't really right for each other. The first red flag came to me two months after we started dating. After only 2 months, he asked me to marry him. Being young and stupid as well as love drunk, I said yes. Jamie was happy at my answer and we stayed together. I didn't tell my parents, obviously. I did tell some friends o mine and they said that it was too early, and that the age gap was concerning and that my parents would flip their shit if they found out. I ignored them because I truly loved Jamie and I believed we could have a future together. When I was admitted into college and began to plan for my future career, I began to realize how difficult it would be for us to be together. His "history" would make it extremely hard for him to find a job, leaving all the pressure on me to pay bills and taxes and what not. Even though engineers get a pretty good pay and that I was going to be C-OP'ing later in college, I wasn't going to be rich and I'd have to work a lot. Also, I was having mental issues since I had depression and I knew it would strain us because of the pain it would cause me and Jamie would be powerless to help me significantly. 

Jamie and I sort of broke off while I was still in high school but the relationship never officially ended until my first semester in college. 

Ever since I broke off completely from him, he's been a wreck. I can see it in the way he talks to me and in the FA journals he posts. He's in a deep depression along with trying to find a job to support himself and his mother (who is handicapped, I'm not sure how, I just know that she is. I never asked about it.) It hurts me to see him suffering and I know I can't help him. I don't have a whole lot of money to my name that is truly mine. My parents have paid for my college fees and I've paid for text books and other necessary things myself. I can't send him money. I also can't get back together with him. I broke up with him already and I fear for unhappiness for both of us if I stayed with him and I'm very happy with my current boyfriend. I have no clue how I can help him, let alone talk to him without seeing his heart break right before my eyes. Seeing it threatens triggering a depression relapse for me, which has happened twice already and I really want my mental health to be stable, at least for a while. (I've always had a hard time dealing others' emotions because if I could perceive them, I felt them too.) 

I'm not sure how to help him or if I should. At this point I'm not sure what to even say to him. It also doesn't help that I'm in a different state currently because of college. I'm just struggling to decide if I should just cut off from him completely or if I should try harder to help him or make him happy. I still do love Jamie, just not in the same way that I did when I was 16. It's hard not to care for him still.

Dawnstar
 
* * *
 
Dear Dawnstar,
 
I’m so happy for you! Finding a great guy in your life and pursuing your education at a prestigious university! Kudos!
 
But Papabear understands your feelings and wanting to help Jamie, and although that is a noble sentiment, it is a misguided one.
 
We cannot help everyone on the planet who needs help. Imagine for a moment that you and Jamie didn’t have this history together and he was just a passing acquaintance. Would you contemplate giving him money and spending days or months or years emotionally supporting him? Probably not.
 
There are, literally, billions of people on this planet who are having some kind of struggle in their lives. While they can, and should, find people in their lives they can hold on to for support, ultimately the only person who is responsible for their lives and happiness is themselves. (You’re not too specific about his past, but I’m guessing he might have gotten into some trouble with the law?)
 
You and Jamie didn’t work out for logical reasons, and you’ve found that by leaving him you were able to find a new person in your life who was better for you, which really proves you made the right decision for you. There’s nothing stopping Jamie from doing something similar and finding a new girlfriend, which would certainly be a healthier pursuit than trying to get back together with you. He needs to move on and you need to stop looking backward and feeling guilty about his life when it’s not your responsibility.
 
Saying that, it doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk or cut him out completely. You can be friends and listen when he wants to talk, even offer advice (NOT money!) if you can, but just be sure that it’s clear that the two of you will never be a couple in a romantic sense. Again, his life, his choices, and his troubles are not your responsibility. You have enough on your plate with school and being a good girlfriend—oh! and don’t feel guilty that you are happy! That’s a good thing!
 
My mother always told me, “Guilt is the most worthless of emotions.” She’s wise.
 
Be happy. Live your life. Be kind, but don’t be a tool or someone’s rug to step on.
 
Hugs,
Papabear

We call this the "Age of Communication" and yet it seems to this bear that all of our emails, texts, blogs, etc. have made communicating to one another worse, not better. It has always been my intention to make this column a tool to help heal those who visit here, yet it seems that my recent column has hurt a furry named Toasty, and for that I apologize. 

When we communicate via text, we lose a good chunk of how humans communicate. One's tone of voice, facial, and body expressions convey much more than we give them credit for. When we remove those and leave only written words, we lose a lot. When I was studying English literature in college, especially schools of criticism, we see how this comes into play. Ten people can read the same novel and come up with ten different interpretations for it.

The same is true in emails and blogs. Apparently, I was not attentive enough about this and hurt poor Toasty's feelings. Guess it just proves that I'm certainly not perfect. I got a bit upset about some words used in emails toward me (I've become a bit oversensitive, I admit, because I have been attacked several times), but I recognize now that, in this case, no harm was meant.

Perhaps, if I can no longer write a column that is constructive (and this probably has a lot to do with the pain I'm still going through) it is time to stop.

Sincere apologies,
​Grubbs Grizzly

Huscoon and BCBreakaway join us again to discuss whether or not fursuits are becoming mainstream as well as the differences between fursuiting and performing as a mascot.

Metadata and Credits Fursuits and Mascots (w/ Huscoon and BCBreakaway)

Runtime: 32:44m

Cast: Wolfin, Levi, Huscoon, BCBreakaway

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. Podcast thumbnail by @Exkhaniber, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Fursuits and Mascots (w/ Huscoon and BCBreakaway) - Huscoon and BCBreakaway join us again to discuss whether or not fursuits are becoming mainstream as well as the differences between fursuiting and performing as a mascot.

Rocket Raccoon (even with Groot in tow) might not seem the most likely candidate for a young readers’ novel. But that’s just what Tom Angleberger brings us in his new hardcover book, Rocket and Groot: Stranded on Planet Strip Mall. “After battling deadly space piranhas in Sector 7 of the Cosmos, Rocket and Groot crash-land on a planet made up of strip malls, maniacal robots bent on customer service, and killer toilets – yes, killer toilets! Told through the eyes of Rocket, Rocket and Groot will feature simple black-and-white drawing throughout, as Rocket uses a space stylus to express his adventures, visually, while Veronica, their space recording companion, lays out the adventure in text! Granted, the drawings are done by a space raccoon with a bad attitude, but what would happen if he gave Groot a shot to draw an adventure they had been on? What would we get? We’ll find out in the final chapter!” You have been warned. The book is available now from Marvel Press.

image c. 2016 Marvel Press

Article by Toledo (@toledothehorse). To the furry community, Toledo has mainly been an amateur artist. But since he can’t stop his brain from analyzing furry things, he has decided to put his hoof to the keyboard more often.

I’ve been around the fandom in some fashion for fifteen years. Even longer have I had fleshspace friends who sang Brian Jacques’s praises. But before this week, I had never read anything Redwall. Somehow I’d avoided reading about all those medieval mice and rabbits and otters. Of course, part of that is explicable: before I encountered the furry fandom, the only animals in which I’d had any interest were dinosaurs and dragons. Little woodland creatures put me right off. I also had little interest in anything medieval until around the same time1. Between these two apathies, I’d missed the prime years for Redwall fandom.

Essentially, I am evaluating whether Redwall deserves to be a part of the [adjective][species] Furry Canon without a hint of nostalgia. I do not present this as a claim of objectivity, of course, but only that of an outsider looking in—and to make clear my relationship with the text.

As a preliminary note: I have been told that Redwall, Brian Jacques’s first installment in the series, is not the best of the lot. Mossflower and The Pearls of Lutra have been nominated to me for that title. Not having the time to read all 20+ Redwall novels to adjudicate the representativeness of Redwall, however, I’m left with the fact that it is the first. It is our first glimpse of Jacques’s world, from imagery to narrative style to characterization. It is the threshold of Redwall Abbey.2

Beginning the book, I was immediately put off by a quantity of exclamation points rivalling a Jeb! Bush rally. A Chekhov’s infodump followed on only the third page: the Abbot of Redwall Abbey explains to Matthias, our main character, something he already knows. That is, he goes on for a page about how Martin the Warrior, a mouse knight of ages past, defended the Mossflower (the land surrounding Redwall) against all enemies with his terrible sword but–of course–those days are past, having given way to peace and prosperity at the Abbey for all mouse-, otter-, badger-, hedgehog-, and squirrel-kind. One need not be an especially perceptive reader to chart out the rest of the book in rough strokes after this first chapter: the time of peace is coming to an end and Matthias must find and wield Martin’s sword to defend Redwall. Two pages later: cue the horde of enemies, Cluny the rat and his mangy rodent army, careening toward Redwall. The stage is set.

Characterization is not Jacques’s strong suit. At first, Matthias’s only traits are tripping over excessively large sandals and his fascination with warrior legends: he is the archetypical hero in embryo, a more competent Luke Skywalker. Most other characters fare little better. Particularly painful is Cornflower, (if I recall correctly) the only female abbey mouse to get a name, whose traits are “cooking well” and “being attractive enough that everyone comments about it”; it is no spoiler that she is practically assigned to be Matthias’s romantic partner3. The only character development in the novel occurs when an enemy, threatened with death, swears to do no harm–and immediately becomes a friend. And when it comes to revealing character traits, “show, don’t tell” is a rule Jacques breaks as a matter of course. If he does not explicate one character’s moral status and habits of thought through another character’s words, he does it himself in the narration.

One major criticism of Redwall I had already encountered is relevant here: in this book, species could easily double as a shorthand for personality. Rats, ferrets, stoats, weasels, and foxes are, to a man (animal?), conniving, treacherous, ambitious, and devoid of compassion. On the flipside, the inhabitants of Redwall are valorous and honorable. Shrews self-identify as shrewish.

I’ll admit: I found the first third of the book to be a slog, in part due to lack of interest in the characters. My boredom did not stem from lack of exquisitely described action, however. The book features battle scenes worthy of Peter Jackson4. I did not anticipate so much of what the MPAA calls “fantasy violence”: this is a bloody, sometimes brutal book, with characters slain left and right and blatant displays of apathy and malice. (At one point, a ferret is sliced in half!) And when the book is not following Matthias’s quest for Martin’s sword, it consists of rats and their allies plotting, and setting into action their plots, against the Abbey; meanwhile, the Abbey plots and carries out its own counterattacks. If tactics and fights are your cup of tea—they’re not mine—you will likely love this book.

Why did the book get better for me after the first third, then? Not from anything Jacques did, though Matthias’s search—complete with ancient riddles and daring journeys to the roof and a nearby farm—was a welcome respite from battles. Instead, I realized that I needed to read the book as if it were being performed out loud. While exclamation points, flat characterization, and blatant foreshadowing feel out of place on the page, they truly belong around a campfire. When told with exaggerated intonation and facial expressions, I suspect Redwall would entrance. While this did not fix the book’s flaws, it justified them more than sufficiently. Jacques is an effective oral storyteller disadvantaged when competing against works in a different genre. In that light, the reader begins to see glimmers of genius in description and diction outside the mouth-watering descriptions of Redwall’s feasts.

Many of those hints of genius are found in characters who, as the sole members of their species presented, can stand alone. While their personalities are known types, they are less archetypical, and thereby much more charming. Who can help but love the slightly off-kilter, distracted but dependable British-inflected battle-veteran hare? How about the melancholy aristocrat cat who has sworn off red meat? Or the shrew clan, a mixture of left-wing militia and Lord of the Flies that turns out to be silly and harmless? Even the dissensions and backbiting in Cluny’s horde can be engaging. While all these might be overdone, it is because they are eminently likable. They function as indispensable seasoning for Redwall’s main course. Without Matthias, there would be no Redwall; without the likes of Basil the hare or Constance the badger, I doubt there would be a Redwall phenomenon.

So, does Redwall belong in the [a][s] Furry Canon? Despite its faults and my misgivings—which lead me to shrug at the opportunity to read more from the series—I’d have to answer a strong yes. Here’s why.

First, in the thirty years5 since its first publication, Redwall and its sequels may have achieved greater penetration of mainstream culture than any anthropomorphic work produced in the same time period, save feature films and television shows.6 My edition of the book proclaims on its cover that 20 million copies had been sold by its printing in 2002–no mean feat, and one that cannot be justly overlooked. One fifth grade teacher who noticed me reading Redwall related that it was one of her and her students’ favorite read-aloud books7. And I cannot count the number of my non-furry friends who have loved Redwall; I can only imagine the effect it would have on a young, impressionable proto-furry mind.

Why this incredible success? I would hypothesize that Redwall bridges supposedly “juvenile” talking animals with “adult” fantasy’s battles and legendaria. Just as aliens allowed Star Trek to address racism in the 1960s, woodland critters classify epic adventures—with “damns” and “hells” to boot!—as children’s stories. Redwall renders nearly irrelevant publishing’s fanatical silos of age, opening up a larger readership. What is more, the generic nature of the characters and storylines also makes Redwall more broadly accessible.

Second, due to its deep penetration of young reader culture, Redwall provides many children with their first impressions of certain species that are otherwise under- or un-represented in popular culture8. Here the consistency of characterization by species, otherwise a narrative weakness, is a memetic strength: it can help readers come to associate species with certain traits, giving them a new symbolic language. These symbolic structures are steady foundations upon which a reader can construct a personal identification with a particular species.

Third, Redwall is almost the epitome of the furry aesthetic: bipedal (if not humanoid) talking animals, often dressed in clothes, living in buildings9 and tending agricultural duties, going about their daily lives and having adventures from time to time. The setting—medieval legend—is the nerd’s escapist retreat par excellence, and the stark divide between good and evil can provide a similar respite from everyday moral ambiguity. Unsurprisingly, Redwall has inspired or otherwise influenced innumerable furry productions of which I am aware, including the excellently written and beautifully illustrated online graphic novel Beyond the Western Deep.

Redwall might not be a masterpiece, but it earns its place in the furry canon several times over through its broad fanbase, its longevity, its furry ethos, and influence on the furry fandom itself.

1 Patricia C. Wrede’s Dealing with Dragons, with its civilized, sympathetic dragons, led me to seek out images of dragons online and was the indirect cause of my finding furry media on Yerf and in webcomics. It also opened me to the (faux) medieval aesthetic and works in that vein in which I’d had no previous interest, such as The Hobbit–with its own intelligent dragon!–and The Lord of the Rings.

2 Redwall is also the one I picked up from a book bank for free several years ago, and this year one of my goals is to focus on reading books I own. In this case, my choice of reading material propitiously coincided with the beginning of the [a][s] Furry Canon project.

3  Thank goodness that other female characters, including the sparrows Warbeak and Dunwing, the squirrel Jess, the badger Constance, and the fox Sela get more varied treatment. Cornflower gets a heroic moment herself, though it is by accident.

4 His Lord of the Rings, of course, along the lines of a Helm’s Deep; being “worthy” of his Hobbit films is a circle in my personal hell.

5 It occurs to me that Redwall is as old as furry—the fandom—is itself.

6 Redwall has itself been given the television treatment at least once.

7 Concurrently corroborating my thesis about Redwall’s value as an oral story.

8 There are no ferret, otter, or badger main characters in Disney, for instance.

9 One major snag in my reading experience was that I could never understand the relative scale of the buildings, the woods, and the animals. Nearly every other page I was revising my mental image of something or other. It was terribly distracting.

Follow this link to explore everything we have published on the [adjective][species] Furry Canon project.

 

Dear Papabear:

Apologies in advance for the inevitable disorder of this letter, I struggle to get my thoughts onto paper in a well-structured way. Here goes...

I'm, apparently, a wonderful person, according to a few people. I wouldn't categorize myself anywhere near that because I am in fact distant and a little hostile in most situations. I'm told I'm a great listener, and I give great advice, and I have many traits of an empath (that's one thing I can agree on). Since getting involved in the fandom these things have been made very apparent through my interactions with the people I've met.

Sometimes I just ... have to help. Often it doesn't even feel like it's me doing it. I'd compare it to a deep spiritual urge. For quite a long time now I've been the shoulder to cry on, the adviser, the helper etc. etc. Which is fine, I guess. But if that is who I am, why does it feel like something that's been forced on me?

This is hard for me to admit, even with anonymity, but this urge to help has cost me over £3000 of my own money, from helping a total of 5 furs who were in dire situations. On top of that are many hours of advice, counseling, emotional support, and being on hand almost 24/7 in case emergencies arose. I should add that these people were complete strangers to me when I first assisted them.

So, I've established my compulsion has cost me a lot of money, but considering that one of these people erased all trace of their situation after receiving my help (presumably to cover the whole thing up), one of them proceeded to credit two of their friends with a big sentimental journal, while staying deathly quiet about my many contributions, and one of them managed to indirectly tank my relationship, then lead me on as a dating backup afterwards, I've also lost a lot of time, happiness, and emotional well-being. I daresay I've even lost emotional stability. It all messed me up pretty good.

Nonetheless, after all these things passed I continued to do my thing, albeit not on such a grand scale. A helping hand here and there, slightly stressful but manageable.

But lately, I've been experiencing a shift in perspective, and it frightens me. Reflecting on all these things I've done, and what people have come to know me for, I began to observe the way a lot of my friends interacted with me, and the way I interacted with them. 

And I realized, things are very one-sided. Not just with one or two people...I'm talking about most of them. I can see that a lot of my friends don’t love me, they love what I do/did. I notice I'm the one they come to when there’s a problem, but not the one to enjoy everyday fun with. People start conversations with me to launch straight into tirades about their problems, people hint at their financial worries hoping my empathy will kick in and I'll be forced to help them, they talk extensively about their passions and interests and who they are but you know what? Not one of them know the same things about me, because they never ask, and they never care. It has become apparent they just need a dumping ground for their mental and spiritual detritus, and clearly I am that dumping ground. Nobody knows or cares what I am outside of the benevolence that they benefit from. Nobody looks into me how I look into them.

When I'm vulnerable I get to thinking of all I've done, and how nobody will do the same for me should I ever need it. And it scares me. Don't get me wrong, I don’t give with the expectation of return. What scares me is how unknowingly willing I've been to put myself at risk for the sake of others. Literally this whole thing is a hole I've dug myself into.

So, I guess the rambling has to end and it's time for the questions.

Is unbridled generosity good? Is benevolence necessarily a good thing? Did I do good things, or misguided things? Would it be wrong to blow these people off? To hurt them even?

I'm sorry if it's difficult to make sense of this, like I said I struggle to get my thoughts onto paper, and there is a LOT here I had to leave out for the sake of length. Feel free to bin this one if its a bit too tricky, just a shot in the dark really. An outside perspective may be all I need.

-Manul (age 23, UK)
 
* * *
 
Hi, Manul,
 
If you’re looking for “an outside perspective” you’ve come to the wrong place because this bear has been EXACTLY where you are—in spades. We are both empaths and we are both people pleasers. I, too, have lost many thousands of dollars helping people. All told, I would say we’re talking $35,000 to $40,000. During that time, I have been used, insulted, and even had a lawyer sic’d on me with possibilities of a lawsuit, and one furry accused me of being a secret police officer who was trying to get him locked up in a nuthouse. Seriously. Sometimes, apparently, such people don’t even realize they are being butt munches. I recently had a writer tell me that my belief that I was an empath was “silly” and he had no clue he had just insulted me. All this for trying to help people. As they say, “No good deed goes unpunished,” right?
 
So, I guess ol’ Papabear beats you when it comes to feeling like a fool. But, really, it is a matter of learning how to control your empathic abilities and also to learn how not to be a tool while still enjoying helping others. Actually, one powerful device I use is this column. Here, I am free to help and give advice, and because I don’t know the people who write to me, I do not expect their friendship, compensation, or even gratitude (although it’s wonderful to get a thank you letter), and I don’t feel compelled to help them with money or other material assistance. It is, so to speak, a buffer. I get amazing satisfaction from writing “Ask Papabear.” Not sure how you might feel about it, but hey, you could try writing a column or blog, too. Since you’re in the UK, you could have a more British/European perspective that would make your column unique.
 
Be that as it may, another thing you need to learn is when to say “no” and that it is okay to decline helping someone—especially when that involves someone asking you for money or other material gains at your expense. That’s pretty challenging for people like you and me to do because we want to help others, but the first rule of helping others is that you have to be healthy and happy yourself, and that means being kind to yourself before you are kind to others. For example, you may have noticed I haven’t been writing this column as much lately, and the reason for that is because I only write it when I am not feeling under the weather from my grief over losing Jim. Some days, like today, are good, some are bad and I don’t write on those days.
 
Here is some good advice on being an empath that includes learning how to shield yourself and cleanse yourself: http://paganandproudofit.com/empath.html.
 
The other thing to learn is which people are friends and which are not. Don’t expect everyone who asks for your advice to become your friend and, therefore, don’t be disappointed when you learn they just wanted your advice. I dearly hope that at least a few people you know are true friends. A true friend is someone who is there for you as much as you are there for them.
 
If you learn to do these things in your twenties, you will be about twenty years ahead of yours truly and will be blessed. Being an empath is a gift, and if you learn to be one properly you will no longer resent it (like you’re kind of doing now) and learn to realize that this makes you a special person who is a rarity among human beings, most of whom suffer from tunnel vision and selfishness.
 
I hope this helps.
 
Blessed Be,
Papabear
 ​

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

How Disney Influenced Furry Fandom is an artist’s thoughts shared in this week’s Newsdump.

(Patch:)  Furry artist Joe Rosales focuses on California fandom in its formative years, including fursuiting.  It concludes that Disney should get major credit.  I liked it, but it doesn’t give enough credit for sci fi fandom, and misses early fursuiters like Robert Hill who were not professional (and not G-rated, either.)  The unnamed animator must be Shawn Keller, maker of the notorious Furry Fans flash animation and comic.  (If he didn’t want to be named, he shouldn’t have published “Shawn Keller’s Horrifying Look at The Furries.“)

I sent it to Fred Patten and asked for his thoughts.  In between, a similar media article happened on a psychic wavelength:

VICE: Furries Love Zootopia.

Here’s what Fred wrote in response to the first one.

(Fred:) This is very good, but you’re giving Disney credit for too much influence.

First, define early furry fandom. 1980 to … 1983? 1985? 1990? Don’t forget, by 1980 and for the next decade, Walt Disney and the Disney Studio were pretty much Old History. Carl Barks was retired. In comics, Marvel’s Howard the Duck (Steve Gerber), DC’s Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! (Scott Shaw!), and Pacific Comics’ Destroyer Duck (Jack Kirby) were the New Wave; the new influences. In underground comix, there were Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton. In independent comics, there were Steve Leialoha and Michael Gilbert in Quack!.  … (Fred, what about the great Bucky O’Hare comic? – Patch)

For those who championed the old comic books and strips, there were George Herriman’s Krazy Kat and Walt Kelly’s Pogo, and DC’s Sheldon Mayer with The Three Mouseketeers, Dizzy Dog, Doodles Duck, and their pals. (Mayer’s Amster the Hamster, a W. C. Fields imitation, was my favorite.) Japanese animation and manga fandom were brand-new in America, and we were being blown away by the funny-animal manga of Osamu Tezuka and Shotaro Ishimori/Ishinomori.

Dizzy Dog

In animation, Don Bluth was the new wunderkind, who we anticipated reviving the art form with Banjo, the Woodpile Cat, The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go to Heaven.   Early furry fandom’s overlap with anime fandom meant the animation of Osamu Tezuka; TV animation like Kimba the White Lion and The Amazing 3, theatrical characters like Pincho (acknowledged as a tribute to Disney’s Pinocchio), Crack, and Pooks in Phoenix 2772, and the TV movie Baghi, the Monster of Mighty Nature. Disney was still present with The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company theatrically, and doing slightly better with such TV cartoons as Adventures of the Gummi Bears and DuckTales, but mostly the studio was washed up as far as being an influence.

Disney was still respected for its comic books by Carl Barks, and its animated characters like Dumbo, Bongo, the Wind in the Willows cast (Ichabod and Mr. Toad), The 101 Dalmations, the mice in The Rescuers, etc., and of course the 1973 Robin Hood, but all this was in the past. It wasn’t the influence that the current 1980s funny animals were. Disney’s impressive new work with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and the TV TaleSpin and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers were all 1990s products, after furry fandom was established. (If you want a real influence, how about the Russian cultists who worship Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Ranger’s Gadget Hackwrench as a goddess?)

Yes, furry fandom was massively molded by Mark Merlino & Rod O’Riley during the 1980s. But they were promoting Merlino’s edit of the two Animalympics TV Specials into a movie (before the release of the authorized movie), and videos of Osamu Tezuka’s animation, more than Disney fare. Merlino was a correspondent of Ken Sample in NYC, so he can be said to be a seminal influence on furry fandom of both coasts. But in fan art, Merlino & Sample were spreading Merlino’s skiltaires – otterlike aliens with antennae – not Disney characters. Other artistic influences from within 1980s furry fandom were Steve Gallacci’s Erma Felna cat-woman, Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, Mike Kazaleh’s Captain Jack cast, Fantagraphics’ Critters comic book, Reed Waller’s “Omaha”, the Cat Dancer, Eastman & Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all their imitations … not Disney stuff.

This cites Disney creators and animation presented at the ConFurence conventions of the 1990s. Too late to be major influences, and overshadowed by such Warner Bros. TV cartoons and their characters as Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. An ongoing feature of the 1990s ConFurences was the romance between fan cartoonist Mitch Beiro and WB.’s Minerva Mink from Animaniacs.

“This all changed one year, 1993 or 1994, when an animator – whose name I will omit, since I’m sure he wants no part of this post […] – showed up in the first fursuit; a fully realized Pepe Le Pew costume.”

I’ll name names; it was Shawn Keller.   He was a Disney animator who had animated Ursula’s two hench-eels in The Little Mermaid, among other things. But Pepe Le Pew wasn’t his first costume. He had made an excellent Kimba the White Lion costume in the 1980s. At the 1990 San Diego Comic-Con, he appeared as Charlie B. Barkin, the German Shepherd from Don Bluth’s All Dogs Go To Heaven in a costume so much like the animated cartoon character that it looked at first like a professional promotional costume – until you looked at the groin and saw that it was anatomically explicit.

But Keller’s Pepe Le Pew costume at the 1993 or 1994 ConFurence was hardly the first fursuit. The term “fursuit” was first used at the 1993 ConFurence by Robert C. King; they were already common by that time. Note that I call them “costumes”, not “fursuits”. There are no hard & fast definitions, but in most furry fans’ vocabularies, a “costume” is a depiction of a particular, well-known character (usually copyrighted), while a “fursuit” is an original furry character, usually created by the wearer. Keller’s Pepe Le Pew suit may well have been fabricated with the help of Disney park costumers (unofficially, surely, since it was Disney personnel making a costume of a Warner Bros. character). But as a costume of a specific copyrighted character, it had almost no influence on fans’ original-character fursuits – although it was inspirational in showing fans what could be accomplished in costume-making.

So was Disney a specific and major influence in the creation of furry fandom? I don’t think so – speaking as one who was there.

– Fred Patten

(Patch:)  Crediting Disney for fursuiting does seem a little overgenerous.  It’s great to read about how it contributed to the leap in craft of fursuit-making that kept going until it’s an awe-inspiring cottage industry now… but wasn’t costuming only a minor thing that already existed in sci-fi, while furries came together around art and fiction?

Fred has a lot of good stuff to say about all the super fertile stuff that was happening while Disney was in a very unproductive period between the late 70’s and late 80’s.  But even if it’s older, many furry awakenings still come from this hot fox. – Patch

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