Fuzz is 40. Savrin saw Deadpool. We discussed the RainFurrest post-mortem. We learned about NC-17 films. It's a very educational week here on KnotCast. This will be our last episode until after Furry Fiesta, since next week we're being maximum furries and seeing Zootopia opening night together. Aforementioned RF post-mortem: http://orrery.prismaticmedia.com/2016/02/20/rainfurrest-2016-post-mortem/ Like the show? Support us on patreon- www.patreon.com/KnotCast Episode 306 - Official Greymuzzles

Categories: Podcasts

2040: Reconnection; a “Thousand Tales” Story, by Kris Schnee – book review by Fred Patten.

Dogpatch Press - Sat 27 Feb 2016 - 10:29

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

2040: Reconnection; a “Thousand Tales” Story, by Kris Schnee. Illustrated.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, December 2015, trade paperback $4.99 (86 pages), Kindle $0.99.

This thin booklet is not a sequel to Schnee’s Thousand Tales: How We Won the Game (CreateSpace, June 2015), but it is set in the same world. Or rather Ludo’s world.

Ludo is the advanced Artificial Intelligence who can scan anyone’s brain and recreate it in “her” fantasy world, in the setting and body of their choice. Handsome men and beautiful women, noble warriors, flying griffins, anthropomorphic animals; anything, living in an ancient Greek or medieval European or sci-fi futuristic paradise. Of course, their original body in 2040 A.D. Earth is dead, and the consequences of this back on Earth may be unknown, but who in Ludo’s world cares?

Alma does. She’d been an old man dying painfully from cancer:

“She’d signed over her modest estate to Ludo in return for having her cancer-infected brain slowly diced, analyzed and recreated as software. As each chunk of brain matter got sheared away she’d lost parts of her memories, her senses, only to have them come back from that terrifying void. She’d gone blind in the surgical room, then seen test patterns and finally the vibrant colors of the digital world. The ruling AI’s voice had asked her, incidentally, what sort of body she wanted once the process was complete.

As an old man whose flesh was incurably ruined and destroying itself horribly, Alma had begged to become something different.” (p. 1)

What Alma becomes is a slim young woman, in Talespace’s glorious University of Ivory Tower habitat. Within moments of leaving her room, Alma meets an armored knight, a human dressed as a modern businesswoman, and a humanoid squirrel-woman. Some are minds living within Ludo’s Talespace, while others are players logging into Talespace from Earth, only temporarily in Talespace. Alma wanders about, exploring the university’s vast expanse, meeting an array of characters.

Within days – time runs differently in Ludo’s world, but “days” is about right – Poppy, the squirrel-girl, persuades Alma to try a more adventurous body like hers:

“Gravity lessened. Alma floated just above the floor, surrounded by the leafy runes. Her body blurred and reformed. When she could see again, she staggered backward and fell over painfully onto her new tail.

‘Sorry,’ said Poppy, and went to help her up. ‘Should’ve warned you. Can you balance?’

Alma stood up with her arms spread wide. Everything felt fuzzy, like being wrapped in blankets. A weight twitched and curled at the base of her spine and made it hard to stand. She snatched it with one hand and felt it wriggle like a furry snake – and felt the touch as though it were part of her back.

‘The tail’s a little hard to get used to. The mind’s ‘plug-and-play’ in terms of new body parts, so you’ll sort of automatically re-map your nerves over time to control it.’

Alma took a few staggering steps and paused in front of a mirror. A shy-looking young woman with grey fur stood there holding her long tail. Her ears flicked and swiveled atop her head. ‘This… is me?’”

[…]

Alma wiggled one foot, wobbled, and felt her tail twitch to compensate. ‘It’ll take some getting used to. What do I do now?’

‘Equipment. If you’re going to explore, you should gear up. Are you looking to be a warrior, magic-user, or what? I assume you’re not headed off to one of the sci-fi areas looking like this.’” (pgs. 20-21)

Alma has a whole world to explore. At the same time, Poppy warns her about not getting too lost in it:

“‘So, this world is subtly encouraging us to live in different little self-satisfied bubbles, unaware of what’s outside. If we’re not careful we’ll end up with a narcissistic fantasy that’s cut off from Earth, where everybody is movie-star beautiful and we don’t even know that the poor benighted meat humans are dying from war or pollution.’” (p. 25)

Alma does not intend to forget the meat humans outside the super-computer/Ludo. When she/he had been a man, Alma had been a teacher, feeling a lifelong calling to educate the young. She still does. So she alternates between exploring the fantasy realms of Talespace as a magic-using humanoid squirrel-girl accompanied by Kai, a centaur as her mentor/companion, and returning to a 2040 independent Texas in an improved robot body interface to teach school. This involves her with 2040 politics: the regional rivalry of the U.S. trying to re-annex Texas; the humans campaigning against robot-body teachers or recognizing the “godless” Ludo; and the powerful bureaucrats trying to destroy Ludo and Talespace:

“‘You’ve already warned me it’d look bad, so why tell me –‘

‘Because I want to.’ He [Hernandez, the school principal] slapped the ball down on his desk. ‘God, Alma, why do you think I pulled strings to get you this job? You’re a friend, but I’m scared too. Scared of our northern neighbors trying to take us back by force or fraud; did you see how they tried to kill your super-AI last year and blame it on the Cubans? Scared of falling behind, of being weak, of some techno-disaster worse than rampant AIs. I only have control over one little part of the world, and it’s full of kids I’m required to help, that I can’t.’” (p. 54)

Alma is assigned to teach Basic students; those with learning disabilities, hyperactive, and otherwise not expected to go on to higher education. She finds that, with a socially-approved robot body connection from Talespace to the “real” world, she is no longer emotionally connecting with her students. They consider her too weird. She develops a new method of reaching them, which will both meaningfully teach the “losers”, and will bind the real world of Earth and the virtual world of Talespace closer together.

2040: Reconnection is not a dramatic novella. It consists of large chunks of conversation about the nature of reality and similar philosophy, teaching meaningfully to children, and so on. It is still a lot deeper than a longer but more shallow adventure novel. It contains many scenes of Talespace furry “reality” that furry fans will enjoy. However, while 2040: Reconnection stands alone adequately, you really should read Thousand Tales first. The book has three poor illustrations of Alma as a squirrel-girl buried in it, unidentified except by the copyrights to Andrea Surajbally, Christine Verleth, and Madeline. The uncredited cover is based on two free images by MoonglowLily of DeviantArt, modified by Schnee.

– Fred Patten

Buy on Amazon

Categories: News

Back to Save Your Tail Feathers

In-Fur-Nation - Sat 27 Feb 2016 - 01:38

Everyone’s favorite insane seabird super-spy squad is back again in a new 4-issue full-color mini-series, Penguins of Madagascar: Elite-ist of the Elite. “It’s the start of a senses-shattering four-part Penguins of Madagascar epic story! An army of robots threatens to take over the world – and only our four feathered friends can stop them!” Taking a spin on Dreamworks’ (not as successful as they had hoped…) Penguins animated feature, the comic also includes back-up stories with the baby penguins and The North Wind. Written by Cavan Scott and illustrated by Lucas Ferreyra, this new series hits the shelves in March. Check out the alternate covers and more at Titan’s Tumblr page.

image c. 2016 Titan Comics

Categories: News

FA 007 Loving Yourself - How do you love yourself before loving others?

Feral Attraction - Fri 26 Feb 2016 - 21:44

Hello everyone!

On this week's episode we tackle the tricky topic (try saying that five times fast!) of how to love yourself. This can be difficult, especially in the fandom where many people struggle with positive self-identity. We talk about why it's important to start here before getting into a relationship, and we also talk about how to ensure you don't take it too far and end up a narcissist.

Note: We are aware of the small audio issue around 0:31:00 into the episode, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do there and hopefully it does not detract too much from your enjoyment.

For more information, including a list of topics by timestamp, see our Show Notes for this episode.

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 007 Loving Yourself - How do you love yourself before loving others?

Categories: Podcasts

That Whole “Furry” Thing

[adjective][species] - Fri 26 Feb 2016 - 14:00

At furry conventions, I tend to physically stand out from the crowd. I’m older than most furs, and don’t tend to wear “convention gear” like ears and a tail. Indeed, due to sheer absent-mindedness I often even forget to wear my badge. So it’s natural, I suppose, that “outsiders” often approach me and ask “Sir, what is this whole “furry” thing about, anyway? Why is everyone here dressed so strangely?”

So, in turn it’s also natural that I’ve given considerable thought to the matter. “We’re people who like anthropomorphic art and literature and such,” is my usual quick-and-dirty answer. “Think Nick Wilde, or Bugs Bunny.” And that’s usually good enough; people approaching a stranger in public generally aren’t seeking anything more. Yet this is also the simplest and most facile of all responses, one that opens more doors than it closes. For the people surrounding us when this conversation takes place have often traveled hundreds or even thousands of miles to be there, crossed entire continents and oceans on journeys that they’ve often saved for years to undertake. With all due to respect to Nick and Bugs, there’s clearly something much deeper at work.

This is a problem I’ve been thinking about from many different angles for over fifteen years. It was about a decade ago that I first proposed— in a similarly-themed column in a similar venue— that people become furries largely due to being exposed to large numbers of anthropomorphic images during early childhood, specifically during the period of brain development when self-identity is established. (In this stage, children the world over begin to obsessively draw crude circles. Then eyes and a mouth appear, at first grotesquely mis-placed and then growing ever more certain, until it’s clear that all along the goal has been to create a recognizable human face. Many experts believe that this is an outward manifestation of the child learning “I am a human, and these are my kind. I am one of these.”) When one’s environment is populated with warm, smiling plush animals, not to mention colorful, attention-fixating “living” images playfully capering across the video-screens that seem to soak up an ever-growing proportion of our childhood, well… I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many of today’s furries scowled in infantile concentration and scrawled out pointy ears atop the heads of those first clumsy images, and perhaps whiskers, muzzles and outsized eyes as well. I don’t claim to know this for fact, nor is it a theory I’m advancing in any sort of serious academic way— I’m a retired auto worker, after all, not a developmental psychologist. But it’s compelling enough that, as a thoughtful non-professional. I’ve never come across a better theory.

Because, you see, furry clearly runs deep. It has to, or else people wouldn’t willingly spend so much or travel so far or, for that matter, expose themselves to so much ridicule. Over and over again I’ve met furs who’ve “discovered” the fandom at a relatively advanced age, and it’s almost invariably a profoundly emotional experience for them. They smile and weep and claim to feel “at home” and “among their own kind” for the first time ever. (Certainly this was the case for me.)

Does this sound like something rooted in the very core of one’s self-identity, or what? I’m lucky in that I have two clear memories of being three years old. One of them is of me picturing myself as an anthropomorphic character. Not as a pretend-thing— to me it was real, the way I was supposed to be shaped. Not only do I suspect that I’ve been shaped that way somewhere deep down in my own head ever since, but I also suspect that many other “hard-core furries” are “wrong-shaped” as well. If my theory is indeed correct, this has profound implications both for us as individuals and the fandom as a whole. Even the sexual aspects of the furry fandom seem— to uneducated me, at least— rooted in a “different” self-identity at the very deepest of levels. The vast majority of the sex-poses and erotic situations portrayed in furry erotica are perfectly accessible to humans of fully normal anatomy. Yet for some (not all, and probably not even most!) furries these otherwise very ordinary portrayals convey far more power when the characters wear permanent fur coats. Why does this matter so much, if not that it reflects a “kink” in our innermost self-identities?

Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. One of the few demonstrably unique traits that defines humanity is the ability to put one’s self in someone else’s head and see things from their point of view. (Studies show that the majority of four-year-olds are capable of this, while most two-year-olds are not. It’s an intellectual leap chimps and other species never take.) I suspect that people who have a fuzzy (pun intended) sense of self-identity tend to be better at this than “ordinary” people. Which in turns quite logically leads to increased empathy and all the things that follow from it. Including perhaps the tendency towards acceptance and tolerance that pretty much everyone, even outsiders, perceives as one of the more remarkable hallmarks of our fandom. I’d also submit that it also probably makes for a higher level of creativity in general— certainly as a writer I’ve personally benefitted from the ability to “see through alien eyes”. In fact, I’ve almost come to regard it as a sort of social superpower.

So that’s what I, in my uneducated, non-professional way, think furry is really all about. It’s a broadened sense of self-identity that sometimes arises due to a child-rearing practice quite common in our culture— that of drowning our children in highly-attractive anthro-imagery during a key developmental stage, imagery close enough to human that we “mistakenly” incorporate it into our deepest sense of self. We seek each other out and rejoice in our brotherhood because we really are different in a fundamental and basic way, and delight in each other’s art and culture because it truly does diverge in significant, important ways from mainstream society’s product.

Just as we ourselves do.

In other words, I think furries really are different. Most of the passers-by at conventions who question who and what we are will never in a million years either truly understand us or what it is that we’re so profoundly rejoicing in together. Yet because of our innate flexibility of identity, we have no problem whatsoever understanding them.

Advantage, furries!

Cats on the Prowl, by Nancy C. Davis – book reviews by Fred Patten.

Dogpatch Press - Fri 26 Feb 2016 - 10:28

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

Cats on the Prowl, Book One, by Nancy C. Davis
Melbourne, Victoria, Collins Collective, August 2015, paperback $7.89 (iii + 176 pages), Kindle $2.99.

Cats on the Prowl, Book Two, by Nancy C. Davis
Melbourne, Victoria, Collins Collective, October 2015, paperback $7.98 (iii + 174 pages), Kindle $2.99.

Cats on the Prowl, Book Three, by Nancy C. Davis
Melbourne, Victoria, Collins Collective, November 2015, paperback $7.98 (iii + 170 pages), Kindle $2.99.

All three novels have the subtitle “A Cat Detective Cozy Mystery Series”. They are set in very large type. Make that:

They are set in very large type.

They would probably be less than 100 pages each in normal-sized type. Nevertheless, like most cat cozies, they are presented as adult novels, although they are more suitable for Young Adults.

It also depends upon how you define “cat cozy mysteries”. They are usually light mystery novels with a human young woman amateur detective, who is helped or at least followed in her investigations by her pet cats. The three Cats on the Prowl novels are unusual in having anthropomorphized cat detectives doing all the crime-solving.

The main characters are Willow, a fluffy white Persian, and Nat, a big tabby tom. They are the cats of the Nelson Police Station, and of Sgt. Carl Ridout and Detective Naya Wesley of the Homicide Department in particular. The two humans are the official investigators, but it’s Willow and Nat who solve the mysteries – always murders, since Willow and Nat are the cats of the police station’s Homicide Department.

In Book One Willow, a newcomer to the department, is mentored by the experienced Nat:

“‘Were you here back then?’ Willow asked.

‘I was here,’ he rumbled. ‘I’ve seen dozens of recruits come and go in my seven years. Naya has only been here three years, and Carl has been here five years. You watch them together. Naya comes up with the clues, but it’s Carl who pushes the case to its conclusion. She’s the brains and he’s the brawn. They’re a perfect team.” (p. 5)

Of course, this being an official “cat cozy mystery”, Naya doesn’t come up with the clues as much as she finds the clues that Willow and Nat set out for her:

“Nat stood up tall and straight. The moonlight streaming through the police station window stretched his shadow across the carpet. ‘That, my dear, is the great secret of the cat race. We find a way to draw Naya’s attention to the evidence, but we must be discreet. We can’t let her know we found out the crucial piece of the puzzle to solve the case. We must do it in a way that preserves the illusion that Naya solved the case herself.” (pgs. 12-13)

Book One involves the arson of the Morningside Bakery, in which bakery owner Roy Avino was burned to death. Bakery employee Jason Dempsey is the obvious suspect, but the evidence is all circumstantial. If he did it, why did he do it? For himself, or for the owner’s widow, Josephine Avino? Or is he being framed by someone else? Dempsey claims that he wasn’t at the bakery when the fire broke out; he had barely clocked in when the boss’ wife told him to drop everything and follow her to several blocks away. She claims that she was never there that morning. Who is lying, and why? There are also Roy’s paramour, and Jason’s girlfriend; four suspects. Nat and Willow investigate with the help of Chester and Bella, two alley cats. It is Willow’s first time outside the police station “into the field”, into the rougher parts of the city – alleys and dumpsters, and jumping over fences – following Nat’s lead.

“This time, she didn’t give herself a chance to hesitate. If Nat could jump from that height without hurting himself, she could, too. He wouldn’t expect her to do it if she couldn’t do it safely. She took another deep breath and jumped.

She hit the ground on all four paws, and the shock woke up some part of her cat soul she never knew she had. So this was how the other half lived. The cats who didn’t have owners and police detectives putting food out for them and turning on the heater on winter days had to jump and climb and hunt for their living.” (pgs. 70-71)

In Cats on the Prowl, Book Two, the murder victim is Reginald Barkley, the elderly owner of the Rapid Design Print Studio who is found crushed by boxes of wedding invitations in a pool of blue ink, with his safe robbed. The opening of the safe without breaking it open implies that the killer knew the combination. There are three suspects: John McManus, the print shop foreman who would have the combination; Barkley’s adult son, Steuben, who might’ve had the combination but who owns his own successful business and has no apparent motive; and Beatrice Orndale, Barkley’s former partner who quit and started a rival print shop but who might’ve learned the safe combination before she left, assuming Barkley hadn’t changed it.

Willow and Nat go to ask Chester and Bella to help them again, but find that Chester has been seriously wounded in alley cat gang warfare between the Stevenson Alley and Thorndale Alley mobs. Willow meets cats Boxer, Trina, Jax, Abby, and others, and her and Nat’s investigation of the murder puts them right between the two alley cat gangs when a deadly fight breaks out. At the beginning Willow is still Nat’s student; by the end, she is his full partner.

In Cats on the Prowl, Book Three, Bill Everson, the owner of an exclusive Cat Hotel, is murdered with no clues. He charged $500 a day to board pet cats in luxury. There are no suspects. Carl and Naya investigate the owners of the three cats that were brought to the Cat Hotel that day: Thomas Farley, an interior decorator, and Pepper; Phyllis Dickerson, a real estate agent, and Garfunkel; and Victoria Chadwick, a haughty heiress, and Sunshine Chadwick.

“Sunshine?’ Naya inquired. ‘That’s a cute name.’

Victoria turned to her with a cold stare. ‘It’s Sunshine Chadwick. Not Sunshine.’ Victoria corrected her. ‘If you’re going to talk about her at all, call her by her full name.” (p. 22)

Carl and Naya investigate the owners, and Willow and Nat interrogate their cats. Both the owners and their cats are equally cooperative or uncooperative. Both lie and have secrets. The owners’ expensive apartments are near the Stevenson and Thorndale Alleys, so Nat and Willow ask the alley cats for help. Willow compares the alley cats to the pampered cats, and is tempted to leave the police station for a more luxurious life:

“Willow bristled. ‘We are not alley cats. We’re police cats. We have more important things to do than lie around on velvet quilts in some salon.”

‘You’re only saying that because you’ve never experienced the treatment at a place like the Cat Hotel,’ Garfunkel told her. ‘Go on and tell me the truth. You’ve never had your toenails trimmed by a professional cat groomer. You’ve never had a perfumed bath. You’ve never had a massage from a professional pet massage therapist. If you had, you would never say you had more important things to do.’” (p. 69)

All three novels are reasonably clever in setting up and revealing the mystery, but too reliant on improbable “coincidences” that the police cats engineer to call Carl’s and Naya’s attention to crucial clues. All three are very formulaic, with approximately the same number of pages, having three suspects to investigate, and having neophyte Willow learn from veteran Nat. Read Book One; then, unless you’re a real fan of this kind of “cat cozy”, you won’t need to read Books Two and Three.

– Fred Patten

Categories: News

After the Children Go Home…

In-Fur-Nation - Fri 26 Feb 2016 - 02:59

We haven’t heard of publisher Henry Holt before, but now they have brought us The Great Pet Escape, a new graphic novel for young readers written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson. “The class pets at Daisy P. Flugelhorn Elementary School want OUT . . . and GW (short for George Washington), the deceptively cute hamster in the second-grade classroom, is just the guy to lead the way. But when he finally escapes and goes to find his former partners in crime, Barry and Biter, he finds that they actually LIKE being class pets. Impossible! Just as GW gets Barry and Biter to agree to leave with him, a mouse named Harriet and her many mouse minions get in their way. What follows is class-pet chaos guaranteed to make readers giggle . . . and maybe look at their class pets a little differently in the future.” Squeak on over to Kirkus Reviews to check it out. It’s available in hardcover and trade paperback.

image c. 2016 Henry Holt

Categories: News

Furries make comeback at Purdue, year-round costumes raise eyebrows

Furries In The Media - Thu 25 Feb 2016 - 21:56

Dated February 25, here is an article (with video) on FOX59:
http://fox59.com/2016/02/25/furries-make-comeback-at-purdue-year-round-costumes-raise-eyebrows/

The report concerns the Purdue Anthropomorphic Animal Club at Purdue university.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Feb. 24, 2016)-- A group of Purdue students are changing the culture on campus and showing what it means to be accepting of others. They refer to themselves as "furries." We talked to them about the significance of walking around campus in a fur suit-- even if it's not Halloween.

Purdue student "Luna" dresses in a fur suit as a fox. She puts on her fur suit and channels her "fursona." She's apart of the Purdue Anthropomorphic Animal Club.

"People who wish to put on fur suits and explore more of the aspects of being an animal with human characteristics," said faculty advisory Sean McLane.

Luna doesn't speak while in her fur suit, but she channels a more playful, outgoing personality.

Furries aren't new to Purdue. They were on campus a couple of years ago, but were bullied so much they decided to stop suiting up. But Luna and her friends are giving their passion another shot.

"For my character it's almost an extension of my being. It's somebody that I wish I could be so I kind of strive to be like my character," said furry Jared Wulfe.

Furries have gained the reputation for feeding a fetish or using this art form in a sexual fashion, but this group says they're here to dispel that myth.

"Furry is not exclusively a fetish. It's an expression of creativity. While there are people who get into the adult fetishy things that's not what it's all about," said McLane.

Jared, who channels a character named "Cinder," feels more comfortable in social settings when he's in character.

"After creating this personality I wanted to achieve I got to be more active in speaking. I like to go out and meet new people," said Jared.

Community Health Network counselor Kimble Richardson says being in an accepting environment plays a huge role in the furry fandom culture.

"You find that other people like it too they're very accepting. You don't have to continue to explain it or feel strange or ostracized," said Richardson.

The furry community will host a convention in Indy this summer. For more information on IndyFurCon, click here.

Categories: News

Furries make comeback at Purdue, year-round costumes raise eyebrows

Furries In The Media - Thu 25 Feb 2016 - 21:56

Categories: News

24. Media Attention and #TonyTigerGate

Culturally F'd - Thu 25 Feb 2016 - 18:01

Categories: Videos

My Fursuit Is Killing People – Guest post by Akhetnu.

Dogpatch Press - Thu 25 Feb 2016 - 10:08

Guest post by Akhetnu/Angriff. Enjoy his previous post, Cultural Appropriation In Fandom, which brought spirited comments.

This fursuit set a record high $11,575 auction price.

Imagine you are walking by yourself and see someone drowning. You could easily save the person, but your shoes will be ruined and you would have to buy another pair. Would you rescue the drowning individual anyway despite the monetary cost of new shoes?

Most furries, I’d wager, would reply in the affirmative. So if you would sacrifice $50 or $100 (depending on your taste in footwear) to save someone’s life, why spend $2000 on a full fursuit if that same $2000 could prevent the needless deaths of even more people in need somewhere in the world?

This is the dilemma that Peter Singer poses to us. Singer is an influential modern ethicist in the utilitarian tradition, both well known and rather infamous for his various viewpoints on euthanasia, veganism, zoophilia, and economic equality (none of which are the subjects of this article).

One of his central conclusions, based on the thought experiment just provided, is that everyone in the developed world can and should live on a basic subsistence level, with all their surplus money being given to the poor around the world. These could take the form of donations to various NGOs and charities, governmental foreign aid, or self-funded projects. (Assume the programs in question are the kind that have measurable results and where most of the money goes directly to those in need; Charity Navigator is a valuable tool for this).

In his utilitarian calculus (which prioritizes the results of actions and emphasizes the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ and overall human happiness and freedom from suffering), any spending on luxuries while others are starving is immoral.

This means my fursuit is killing people. Since rather than donate the thousand or so dollars spent on head, tail, hands and feet (not to mention the reproduction 19th century Prussian uniform) to needy third world people, I instead spent it on something novel that I don’t really *need*…at least not like needy people need food, clothing, and medicine.

Think of the men, women or children that money could have gone to – here or abroad. From a strictly utilitarian perspective, I can understand his point: I am, indirectly at least, responsible for the suffering or even deaths of others less advantaged and privileged than myself. All for a velociraptor costume.

From a frequently clicked Dogpatch Press article about highest priced fursuits - $17,500 Primal Visions Cheetah.

From a frequently read Dogpatch Press article about highest priced fursuits – $17,500 Primal Visions Cheetah.

As a furry and a fursuiter, I sometimes encounter people who think it odd that I would spend money on a fursuit, even a partial. Yet they usually come to understand when I ask them how much they spend each year on beer, or auto parts, or eating out. They realize everyone has a hobby that costs money, and this is mine. Yet Singer is posing a moral problem, so I believe we as furries should address it, if anything to gain a better understanding of our own actions.

One way to respond to Singer would be to admit that we are being unethical from his perspective, and simply dismiss that perspective as incorrect by denying his ethical system or interpretation of it in the first place. There are many systems out there apart from utilitarianism such as deontology and virtue ethics, and Singer has been criticized by other utilitarians as well (more on that later). They avoid the issue by dismissing the indirect harm as not being problematic, since our intent when we buy fursuits is not to kill another, even if that is a side effect.

We can also argue that helping others and suiting isn’t an either/or thing, and point out the volunteer or charity work we already do, both as individuals and as a fandom. Singer’s reply may be that we could do more – but that opens the issue of how much we should do in the first place.

I personally hold to an admittedly more extreme version: denying the universalist moral project, or even morality as conceived by modern philosophers like Singer, to begin with.

When a utilitarian like Singer asks me, “what makes your perspective on your silly costume more important than the perspective of those suffering?” or “wouldn’t you like others to spend money on you if you were suffering in the third world rather than enrich their lives with a costume?” he invokes universalist morality and the modern interpretation of the golden rule.

I would bring up the fact that humans will always privilege some people and their sometimes mutually exclusive needs (self, friends and family, fandom, community, nation, etc.) over those of others (strangers, other countries, etc.) when push comes to shove (and Singer is implying that push has indeed come to shove).

To love requires focus, time and emotional resources that we as individuals cannot give to all: love is ultimately a discriminatory, marginalizing act. So while I do not feel a twinge of guilt in refraining from helping starving people far away to pay for my suit, I would sacrifice my suit to help my mother, father or brother if they were in desperation. In fact I would sooner help them than the starving strangers, even if the money spent on one family member means that dozens of strangers (themselves with family) are not helped and hence suffer or even die. By the same token, I would never expect a stranger to privilege my life over the life of someone they love. It’s an amoral issue of preferences and values.

Taken to fursuiting, someone like myself would say the happiness and social interaction with people he cares about through the suit, the joy he gains, and his preference for a fandom that wants him to suit for their own enjoyment, exceeds his regard for strangers.

I doubt most furries would go that far, and the purpose of this article is not to argue for my personal view on ethics (or lack thereof). Most of us have what we regard as a system of morality, and it often does have a utilitarian flavor. (“As long as no one is hurt by it” is a very consequentialist statement, of which utilitarianism is a subset). So it will be far more productive to take Singer on through his own system of ethics.

For one, fursuits (and most other furry media like art and writing) are often made by modern day cottage industries, so your money is going directly into the pockets of people to use for the necessities of life. Given how hard it is to make a good deal of money from furry arts and crafts alone, most of these makers will prioritize their financial needs over financial wants. My payment to the maker of my head and tail, for example, was used to purchase her medicine. Even with prefabricated components of fursuits such as 3D printers, paint, ink, airbrushes, petrochemical-derived synthetic fur, plastic teeth and claws, the money is going to a company to pay its workers and otherwise spread out into the economy.

With a more particularist bent, we can also point to benefits arising from the purchase and use of a fursuit such as social capital, human interaction, and spreading amusement to others. These are all ways of spreading value that I feel utilitarianism, or most other ethical systems would recognize.

Buzzfeed – 17 Secret Thoughts Furries Have

Singer may reply that the dire need of starving people overrides the emotional and social benefits of fursuits, since the dead cannot experience those benefits in the first place. He may also insist that fursuit makers can get other forms of employment that directly benefit those in need or that are less focused on leisure than say, food production or health care. Or perhaps we should only buy from suit makers who give all their excess money to charity.

These seem unsatisfactory, since even utilitarians disagree regarding whether or not to prioritize life over social fulfillment, or how to gauge the life-saving or life-enriching benefits to suit makers versus charity cases abroad. This is a raging debate in utilitarianism, because we are basically trying to quantify things that are qualitative so we can compare them like numbers. I’m sure everyone has their own ideas on the matter, and I’d love to hear them.

Finally, someone of a Marxist bent may critique the capitalist modes of production that go into the making of mass-produced fursuit components as canceling out any benefits to the employees. Although I’m not a Marxist myself, that opens an entire new tangent on the debate.

There are probably many more arguments for and against Singer’s position vis a vis the ethics of fandom and our decision to create and purchase fursuits, as well as art and stories. Is it frivolous and unethical? Does it satisfy utilitarian morality in some other yet equally beneficial way? Is it justified in another ethical system such as deontology or virtue ethics?

I look forward to any comments and perspectives.

– Akhetnu/Angriff

Categories: News

Member Spotlight: Bill Kieffer

Furry Writers' Guild - Thu 25 Feb 2016 - 07:01

1. Tell us about your most recent project (written or published). What inspired it?

The Goat: Building a Perfect Victim is both one of my most recent and my one of my oldest works. I lost the original files during the decade of hiding. Phil Geusz, always a supportive creature, reminded me that there was a copy in the archive of TSA Talk, an email-based group of writers.

I had an online friendship with a Fur I’ll call My Goat as I haven’t gotten his permission to talk about him in relation to this novella. It was quite intimate and heartbreaking as he’d found his true self in Furry Fandom… and there just wasn’t a way to get that in real life. I’d been sorta slumming in Furry before I met him. He was like a stubborn classical Greek Hero. Eventually, he had to give up Furry to build his life back. I was one of the things he had to give up, too. And I had to let him go. In real life, I could never be the master he needed (besides the
fact that I was in a committed RL relationship). As I started to let him go, I tried to imagine what type of master would make him happy. Frank was a very wrong answer; but I felt some sympathy for him.

2. What’s your writing process like? Are you a “pantser,” an outliner, or something in between?

I’m a “pantser,” except when I do a mystery or crime story. I outline mysteries and crimes so I don’t cheat, trying to be witty. Otherwise, I let my characters pull me along. Last fall, I tried writing two pieces for Munchkin’s Fragments of Life’s Heart… both contained a lot more death than I had planned. Seriously, I write the worst love stories.

3. What’s your favorite kind of story to write?

I like writing TF (transformation) stories. I like exploring form and function. I like writing Metamor Keep stories, even if most of the Keepers think I’m trying to break the MK universe when I do so.

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why?

Greyflank, from the Tales of the Blind Pig, is a Mary Sue, so he doesn’t count. Wheeler and Clay, from my Metamor Keep stories, are two halves of my soul. Wheeler, the seasoned fighter and former sex slave, represents the part of me that knows what he wants and is looking for. Clay is younger and sheltered, his whole world shattered about him, forced to be the stronger partner. He represents that part of me that only suspects what he wants and how he is to fit that into his life.

5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?

Piers Anthony. Stephen King. Phil Geusz, Charles Matthias. Alan Dean Foster. Richard Matheson. Alan Moore. I don’t think I write like any of them; but I know I stole some good moves from each of them. From Anthony, I learned sex and attraction needs no moral compass. Actions will tell. From King, I learned the threat of a bludgeoning was more frightening than the bludgeoning itself. From Geusz and Matthias, I learned how to build serial characters that readers will care for. From Foster, I learned a well-written character can stomp out any plot hole. From Matheson, I learned a living character can explode the slightest story concept into living art. From Moore, I learned to build on the past, twisting it as we go. I also may have picked up a great deal of wordiness from Moore, too.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved?

Mindtouch by M.C.A. Hogarth was the last novel to floor me. It put asexual relations in perspective for me and changed my outlook.

7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

I like food. I cook, I eat, I stalk the aisles of Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. I’m a tubby pony.

8. Advice for other writers?

Write. Write about people. Don’t write, except for kicks, to please anyone. Be pleased when you do. Don’t feel rejection when you are rejected. 9/10 of this stuff is timing. And you’ll never ever see the clock.

Yes, even if you’re writing about badgers and foxes building a better tomorrow, write about people. Hide a statement in your piece. Make Easter eggs for your readers. Give them something they can claim as their own.

9. Where can readers find your work?

The Goat: Building a Perfect Victim is a naughty m/m novella that will be available this summer or fall from Red Ferret Press. This takes place in my “2×4” universe where a few of my stories take place. If I can remember how to build a website, those other stories will be on Xepher.net in a few months. “Brooklyn Blackie and The Unappetizing Menu” appears in Inhuman Acts from FurPlanet. This takes place in a universe I call Aesop’s Planet. Except for Captain Carrot fan fiction, this is the only published work in that universe. My Metamor Keep stories can mostly be found at the Metamor Keep Story Archives, although my Ursa Major Award nominated short story “The Good Sport” was recently reprinted in An Anthropomorphic Century, also from FurPlanet.

10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom?

I like how it transforms people. I like how it transformed me. It helped me to accept that I’m bisexual. I like that being a horse gave me a framework to hang my anxieties on. I like, most especially, the acceptance that I receive. It’s not universal, but it’s enough.

Check out Bill Kieffer’s member bio here!

Categories: News

She’s Back For More. Oh, Yay.

In-Fur-Nation - Thu 25 Feb 2016 - 02:51

Dynamite Entertainment did well enough with their 2015 full-color Grumpy Cat mini-series that they forced, er, invited her back for a new full series: Grumpy Cat and Pokey. “You’ll laugh yourself silly as the killjoy kitten brings her hilarious brand of sass to comic books once again, joined by her high-spirited brother Pokey. What fun-loving escapades will Pokey dream up, and how will that adorable scamp Grumpy Cat rain on everyone’s parade? Be sure to pick up this fantastic first issue, perfect for cat lovers of all ages!” You heard them, folks. Check out the preview pages over at Comic Book Resources. (Trivia: One of the artists on the series is Agnes Garbowska, well-known for her work on IDW’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.)

image c. 2016 Dynamite Entertainment

Categories: News

A Zootopia Review (by a furry) (no spoilers)

[adjective][species] - Wed 24 Feb 2016 - 18:19

Well, Zootopia has been in theatres since the 18th here in Italy, and being the usual party animal that I am, I finally went to see it with my posse of friends. I’m lying, of course – nobody I know in real life is interested in anthropomorphic animals, so I took advantage of a two-hour break from university and attended a midday showing in a cinema with just six other people. Oddly, mostly males around college age. So if you want a furry’s opinion on it, here we go.

Let’s get the pressing issue out of the way. Is Zootopia a good movie? Yes.

Is Zootopia a great movie? I feel fairly confident in saying that, to me, yes.

Is Zootopia a masterpiece? It gets close at times. I have a few gripes that I’ll talk about– no spoilers at all, of course. You can read safely.

Now let’s talk.

There’s not much to say about animation and visuals, it’s Disney we’re talking about. Excellent designs abound, every single scene has a crowd of animals, each doing its own thing, the city always feels incredibly alive. A train ride in the first ten minutes provides some incredible imagery, sometimes verging on sci-fi/punk ideas as the artists flex their biceps and show us the details of what keeps Zootopia a habitable space for every species. Audio design is particularly strong, and I absolutely recommend a place with a good sound system, but I wasn’t that impressed by the movie’s score.

It’s a family movie, so don’t think it’s aimed “at the fandom” as some people hope. As much as it has its adult moments (and how), you need some suspension of disbelief to enjoy it, especially concerning the inner workings of a police force. The aww-power is strong, with a certain chubby cheetah quickly becoming the character in a Disney movie I wanted to hug the most in the last few years. The introduction also tugs at people’s hearts through wide eyes and large heads, and it’s incredibly effective. The animation colossus has done an incredible job with visual design, and I’m pretty sure that those of you with kids are going to have to buy a lot of toys this spring. And yet…

If it feels like I’m being vague, it’s because of the two real strengths of this movie: its structure and its balls. The story frames itself within a narrative we’ve all already heard a million times before – country character (Judy Hopps) is dissatisfied with her life, wishes to be more than she is, moves away in search of fortunes, meets a lovable rogue type (Nick Wilde) whose respect she has to earn, blah blah blah. Classic buddy adventure format. You come in the theater with the expectation of seeing a well-realized movie of that kind, and you do.

But the movie knows that. In a sense, it ditches a clearly defined three-act structure – or better, rolls with it and shines. There is a clearly defined point where the movie turns on its head and goes from pretty good to “it’s been two days and I’m still thinking about it” territory, and it uses parallelism and reincorporation in ways that honestly taught me a thing or two. It’s also quite brave; I’m not talking just about the theme, which is in fact developed along some strongly (and scarily) implied real world references, but the action too doesn’t pull any punches. And expect a few horror tropes to sneak in – Zootopia isn’t afraid of getting its paws dirty when it needs to, and it does get close to the line sometimes (but, alas, no spoilers).

It’s not a perfect movie. It left me with a strong feeling that they left a lot of scenes – a lot – on the cutting floor, leaving a certain character underdeveloped and lacking the denouement they deserve, and to be completely frank, there’s one person from all the commercials that feels like they’ve been shoehorned in by studio executives for how much they affect the plot. I’m really curious to watch an extended version, because it might be able to fix all my issues with it. It’s an unusually long movie as well – but as I said, the plot is unusual, and would have never worked had it been shortened down.

So, yeah. Hopes confirmed, Zootopia is great. And I REALLY want to talk about it – I want to avoid spoilers here, but there are two scenes in particular that when juxtaposed I find really hard not to read as an anti-Disney mindset statement, and I have a theory about it that pretty much only furries would lend an ear to. Get your buddy cops hat on, wear some nice shades, and enjoy. Nick is cool, and I can already imagine a tidal wave of fanart from how he turns out at the end of the movie. It’s managed to surpass my expectations, and I had already set them relatively high. It made me feel like a kid again.

I kinda missed that.

Read Only Memories, the cyberpunk video game with an LGBT twist – Review by Pup Matthias.

Dogpatch Press - Wed 24 Feb 2016 - 10:09

Read Only Memories: A New Cyberpunk Adventure
Develop by MidBoss, Rated M for Mature
Available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Ouya $9.99

Do you like Cyberpunk? Do you like stories where technology is rampant in all aspects of modern life? How about being a detective like from Blade Runner trying to solve the murder of your old friend only to discover a bigger conspiracy tied to a large corporations like 1984? Do you like cute, adorable robots? Then Read Only Memories is for you, my friend.

Read Only Memories is an old school adventure game released in October of 2015, but it offers a look at a future that not only celebrates the tropes of the sub-genre, but reflects what our own future might very well be.

You play, well, yourself. It’s Christmas time in Neo-San Francisco in the year 2064 A.D. Technology has advanced so much that the human body can be repaired and enhanced with cybernetic augmentation or genetic modification. Hybrids are looking less human and more like a furry convention. The Oculus Rift turns out to be a success as they are the common portable devices for people to use for the web. And most of all, Relationship Organizational Managers, or ROMs, have become the new IPhone, Roomba; pretty much all-common tech today, but it has cute little eyes. Aw.

However, all is not well. With technology moving at such a rampant pace, people get scared (because have you seen what happens in Terminator?) It leads to the Human Revolution, seeking to slow the progress of today, in fear that without checks and balances we might lose what makes us human.

It’s a tense time to be alive. So where are you in all of this?

You are a freelance journalist, looking to make your mark on the world. But you don’t have the tech like most others have. Not even a ROM. Partially because you’re a hipster who loves to write on paper, but mainly because you’re flat-ass broke. Instead of hunting down the big stories, you’re forced to do simple reviews of common tech to feed the masses so you can feed yourself in your one room apartment.

After finishing your latest piece about a pair of headsets, you head to bed only to wake up the next day to find a ROM in your room. But this isn’t any ordinary ROM. This ROM is named Turing, and it can think for itself. That’s right, A.I. – and it needs your help. You see, your friend created Turing. He works for Parallax (basically this world’s Apple), but he was developing Turing in his spare time… until suddenly, a strange man took him hostage. Turing escaped, but with nowhere to go, he came to you because of your relationship with his creator.

Turing asks you to help find his maker, discover the people behind his kidnapping, and find out why. Of course, this somehow has to tie back to what Turing is. As you put your journalist skills to work, you will meet (like any good mystery) a cast of colorful characters, red herrings, twist and turns, murder, and a bigger threat then you can possible imagine. Welcome to Read Only Memories.

The game itself is good, but it depends on what you are looking for. If you’re looking for a 360 degree interactive world – Read Only Memories isn’t a click everything, grab everything, try everything adventure game. It’s more of a storytelling experience in tune to a visual novel. Most of the game is you and Turing going from destination to destination, finding people, talking to them, and then going to the next stop. There are moments where you will have to interact with object puzzles, but they are far and few in-between. The real puzzles are the dialogue trees.

While talking with characters, you will be given dialogue options. Depending on what you choose, it can get you an important piece of information, build a good relationship with someone, or make them utterly hate your guts. Those choices can lead you to success or failure with six different endings. The game itself is pretty laid back. It has funny moments, sweet moments, dark moments, but there’s nothing to really scare you.

Or so you think. Let’s avoid spoiling curve balls, but my God, I was not prepared and swear I almost had a panic attack when… No, no, no, go up, go up, go up, no, no, no, DAMNIT!

The big factor of the game isn’t just the story or amazing soundtrack which makes a lot of its personality. It’s how it builds its world with use of diversity, mainly with LGBT characters, and more importantly, how it doesn’t make it a big deal. There are no gimmicks like – ‘Look at me. Look at me. I’m Gay. I’m totally Gay. I’m the Gayest Gay that has ever Gayed’. The game treats the topic like what a lot of LGBT people want. To be open as they are, but not having their orientation define everything they are. It’s just a dimension of well rounded personalities.

I can relate to that because I’m gay, and moments when you talk to someone who in passing is revealed gay, not ashamed of it, and not having that be the focus of the character is a bloody Godsend. It doesn’t just stop at LGBT, though it’s the most prominent. The game loves to show off its many diverse dimensions from race, creed, gender, ordination, to nomenclature. When Turing is asking for your name, you have the choice of being referred to a he/she/or they, no matter what your name is. The game literally gives you the chance to play as yourself or as you want to see yourself.

And it’s believable. While some of the tech is pure sci-fi, the idea of a group of people from various backgrounds getting along is a future that can be possible. It may sound a bit unbelievable with today’s political climate, and the game shows not everything is as clean and peachy as you might think it is. But it’s an idea that a lot of people, like myself, believe in. Seeing it here is amazing.

There are hybrid Furry characters. The only down side is they don’t do much. There’s a hybrid side character with a quest focused on them, but being completely selfish, I would have loved to see more animal people. Hey, what can I say? I’m a furry.

Read Only Memories is a good game. A play through can take up to 5-7 hours, and it has multiple save slots so you can play around with different choices and see what outcomes come out of it without having to play the entire game over. The mystery is good and hits on all the classic tropes people love about Cyberpunk with a retro look. Not heavy on the furry side, but if you’re looking for a good indie game that shows a fiction that could be reality, you can’t go wrong here.

-Pup Mattias

From the publisher MidBoss:

“Read Only Memories definitely has content that is interesting for the furry community. The struggles and the politics of hybrid rights are very relatatable, and members of society have the freedom to choose more animalistic features – and this choice is often very discriminated against. The character of Jess is an example of a hybrid with animalistic features, and the character of Pat is a large and expressive polar bear – super adorable!”

MidBoss is the studio formed by the creators of GaymerX. (Read about GaymerX and their welcome to Furries.) Their cyberpunk point and click adventure game Read Only Memories is on PC, MAC and Linux.

In Neo-San Francisco, a city of low-life and high tech, classy cocktails, neon lights and colorful characters, you will be embroiled in the depths of the city’s deepest scandal guided by an earnest and well-meaning ROM android.

Read Only Memories is the first major LGBT adventure game of this scope and budget, featuring BAFTA-nominated voice actors Adam Harrington (The Wolf Among Us, League of Legends) and Dave Fennoy (Batman: Arkham Knight, The Walking Dead, DOTA 2) and an exclusive chiptune soundtrack by 2 Mello.

Read Only Memories is available from $14.99 USD on PC, Mac and Linux via Steam as well as the ROM homepage, itch.io, and Humble.

For more information, please visit http://midboss.com/rom/. MidBoss have also found success through a # campaign on Twitter, featuring their main character Turing. Participate and follow here.

Categories: News

So, How Long Ya In For, Doc?

In-Fur-Nation - Wed 24 Feb 2016 - 02:53

Boom! Studios have a new full-color four-issue mini-series, Kennel Block Blues. Written by Ryan Ferrier and illustrated by Daniel Bayliss, you’ll find it on the shelves now. And oh my is it Furry! “Oliver is a good dog. A family dog. But without warning, he’s sentenced to Jackson Kennel, where he’s instantly placed on Death Row with the rest of his fellow inmates, awaiting a lethal appointment on The Table if salvation doesn’t come. He’ll need help escaping the Kennel, but when the stress of prison life builds, he starts escaping reality instead, imagining a fantasy world of cartoon friends. It’s time to break out…into a musical number?” There’s a preview with several images over at Comic Book Resources.

image c. 2016 Boom! Studios

Categories: News

The [adjective][species] Furry Cocktail Competition

[adjective][species] - Tue 23 Feb 2016 - 14:00

Are you a furry? Do you like to drink? Do you have the gumption to submit your very own cocktail recipe to the [a][s] Furry Cocktail competition? Well we sure do hope so!

Test your palate and your pluck by submitting recipes and pictures of your very own furry or furry convention themed cocktails. Your character can be here!

Cocktails will be accepted based on three qualities:

Theme and originality: Does your cocktail really remind us of what it’s supposed to be? Does your sparkle dog shine brighter than all of the rest? Did you just give us a White Russian and call it the Wistful Arkie? Did you just give us a Sex on the Beach and call it Kyell Gold’s Secret Anthology? You cannot fool Chairman George!

Appearance: We will be including beautiful pictures of your cocktail, so remember to send them in! Or hideous ones. Whatever it’s supposed to look like. If not, we need detailed instructions on how it is prepared so that we can take the pictures ourselves. We are not trustworthy photographers, so it is highly recommended that you provide your own.

Taste: Does it taste good (or at least on theme)? Are the components well-balanced? Do the flavor notes come through? Does it taste more like the individual flavors, or more like alcohol? Make sure not to overpower your drinks!

This project is mostly for fun and science so there will be no rewards. Disgusting or delighting Chairman George Squares and the [a][s] tasting panel will be its own reward. We will post some of the best and worst cocktails that we receive.

Submit your potable productions to: submit@adjectivespecies.com.