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

The Cockroaches of Stay More, by Donald Harington.
San Diego, CA, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, March 1989, hardcover $19.95 (337 pages).

“One time not too long ago on a beginning of night in the latter part of May, a middle-aged gent was walking homeward along the forest path from Roamin Road to the village of Carlott, behind Holy House in the valley of Stainmoor or Stay More. The six gitalongs that carried him were rickety, and there was a meandering to his gait that gave a whole new meaning to the word Periplaneta. This wanderer gave a smart nod, as if in agreement to a command, though no one had spoken to him yet. His wings were not folded neatly across his back and were neither tidy nor black but flowzy and brownish. Presently he was met by a plump parson whose wings were very black and long and trim like the tails of a coat, and who was humming a hymn, ‘The Old Shiny Pin.’

‘Morsel, Reverend,’ said the flowzy gent, and spat, marking his space.” (pg. 1)

Donald Harington was a prize-winning regional author who built his literary career on writing about the backwoods Ozark area of Arkansas. He specialized in the small rural communities that were never large to start with, and that have dwindled since to ghost towns; one of his best-known books is the non-fiction travelogue Let Us Build a City: Eleven Lost Towns (1986). He set more than ten novels in the fictional village of Stay More, Arkansas, chronicling its rise and decline over a hundred-and-fifty-year period. All except this one have featured Stay More’s human inhabitants. In The Cockroaches of Stay More, it has become a complete ghost town except for two human recluses – and hundreds of cockroaches.

“’Tilt up yore jaws thataway, Squire, and let me look at yore face. Yes, that’s the Ingledew touchers and sniffwhips, I’d bet on ‘em, a little adulterated, ye might say, no harm meant, please sir. Why, you’re descended from ole Squire Jacob Ingledew hisself, the first roosterroach to set gitalong in this valley.’” (pg. 3)

Harington’s dialogue is rich in the dialect and slang of the Ozarks. His cockroaches have adopted the names of the humans who used to live in Stay More. The Ingledews were the social leaders, while the Dingletoons, Whittiers and others were the commoners. In this novel, the Ingledew cockroaches live in “Partheeny”, the Parthenon, the town’s former general store. The Dingletoons and others live in Carlott, a slum of bugs in the weeds and discarded human trash (including a stripped old Ford Fairlane) in the yard beside and behind what the roaches call “Holy House”. This old house where one of the two humans left in Stay More lives is a social halfway house between Carlott and the Parthenon; a popular spot with the roaches for its spilled food and beer, despite the danger of getting shot when the drunkard who lives there notices them:

“The bullets which Man fired to rapture the chosen Crustians always pierced the floor as well, the wall, the ceiling, a door, or a windowpane of the house, which was called Holy House because of all these holes. Each new hole created a new entrance for more roosterroaches, but it was not permissible for any ‘furrin’ roosterroaches to enter Holy House. Each hole also created drafts, and this past winter had been terrible, causing even Man Himself to take to stronger drink than beer. […] Our Man of Holy House, by contrast, bestowed upon the multitudes a great continuous feast of crusts and crumbs, to say nothing of the countless dregs of beer that kept most Holy Housers nearly as intoxicated as Man Himself. Brother Tichborne was old enough to observe that Man’s use of beer, and of the more poisonous bourbon, was increasing.” (pgs. 12-13)

The Cockroaches of Stay More is a bawdy novel; a combination of hillbilly human social customs and insect instincts. Roach dances and similar social events may start off decorously, but they invariably turn into orgies once the irresistible sex pheromones start filling the air. Despite the hellfire and brimstone sermonizing of Brother Chidioch Tichborne, Stay More’s self-appointed and only preacher, when males and females grab their nearest partners the result is likely to be incest. But almost all that any of the bugs are interested in is food and sex:

“The whole world was changed. The night was twelve shades of blue now, and thirteen shades of ultraviolet, and the air was beginning to fill with lightning bugs. Within range of Jack’s sniffwhips and eyes a lady lightning bug was perched upon the end of a blade of grass, testing and fine-tuning her lantern. Jack paid her no mind although his ocelli twitched at each neon flash of her summons. Choral groups of katydids were serenading in four-part harmony; here and there a cricket could be heard warming up his instrument of challenge, and in the distance sounded a background of countless Hylae peeping and piping.”

[…]

“The music of the night had its ominous overtones and also its discordant noises: somewhere nearby a huge nightcrawler worm was laboring noisily uphill with many shiftings of gears, backfirings, and faulty rumblings in its transmission. It was sending out signals: ‘BREAKER ONE OH. DO YOU READ? HOWBOUTCHA, BIG MAMA? UP THIS HUMP HUNTIN FOR BEAVER LOOKIN FOR A NAP TRAP AND GOTTA LOG SOME Z’S.’” (pgs 5-6)

“But instead, as very ill luck would have it, a centipede suddenly appeared, Scutigeria forceps, scooting forcibly up the trail in search of prey. This centipede, or Santa Fe, as they call it in the Ozarks, had only twenty-eight gitalongs, not a hundred, but its fangs were already dripping with the deadly poison that kills roosterroaches in an instant.” (pg. 8)

Brother Tichborne has invented the roach community’s Crustian religion, centered around the two human hermits who have come to the abandoned town. The Man who inhabits Holy House is their main deity. He feeds them, but He also raptures them with His gun whenever He feels like it. The Woman who lives in the Parthenon is a more mysterious figure, because the only cockroaches who share her home are the upper-class Ingledews, who do not invite other roaches in. Brother Tichborne is an aggressive sermonizer who hopes to convert most of the roosterroaches who have colonized the Holy House and will not let the riffraff of Carlott enter to share their bounty. Tichborne’s real goal is to become the social leader of Stay More, and to use his congregation to take over the imagined paradise of the Parthenon.

There are several main characters besides Brother Tichborne: Jack Dingletoon, an amiable drunkard whom Brother Tichborne schemes to use as a pawn to get himself into the Parthenon; Tish Dingletoon, Jack’s innocent daughter who is romantically attracted to both Squire Sam Ingledew and Brother Tichborne’s son Archy; Sam Ingledew, the shy last scion of a prestigious family who is handsome but almost totally deaf; and Doc Swain, the community’s physician, a diehard agnostic. Over the course of the novel the reader will realize who the Man and the Woman really are.

The first half of the novel sets up the roosterroaches’ social community. When the Man, in a drunken frenzy of rapturing the roaches crawling around his spilled food, accidentally shoots himself; and it is learned that the Woman is a health fanatic who kills roaches on sight, there is a crisis of faith that shakes up and revolutionizes Stay More’s roaches. Harington gets overly cute in the last half with too many extreme changes, including the introduction of Hoimon, the Great White Mouse (an albino lab rat with a thick Brooklyn accent); and having the roaches try to communicate with other humans to summon medical help for the Man. But all in all, The Cockroaches of Stay More is an imaginative and clever tale with a unique anthropomorphic viewpoint. You will learn more about how cockroaches have sex than you ever wanted to know.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

In case you haven’t been keeping up with Marvel’s Guardian’s of the Galaxy (as in the comics) lately… Last year Peter Quill gave up his duties as Star Lord to become the Emperor of Spartax. Leaving the Guardians in the paws of… none other than fan favorite furry, Rocket Raccoon! So Rocket assembled a team that included not only his old buddy Groot and his new-buddy Drax but also (among others) Kitty Pryde of the X-Men and none other than Ben Grimm, the Thing from Fantastic 4! Just in time too, as dangerous new threats have swung into this part of the galaxy… and some old friends may not be trustworthy.  Big shock. Now Marvel Comics has assembled Volume 1 (i.e. issues 1 thru 5) of Guardians of the Galaxy: New Order into a full-color hardcover collection, written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Valerio Schiti. Take a look over at Goodreads.

image c. 2016 Marvel Comics

Here at [adjective][species] we are just starting to get to grips with the wealth of data collected in the 2015 Furry Survey. We collected valid responses from more than 11,000 furries last year. This collection, including responses from annual surveys dating back to 2009, represents an unprecedented insight into furry.

We recently shared our entire dataset with Nuka (aka Courtney Plante PhD, aka Dr. Cat), who is one of the scientists behind (and co-founder of) the International Anthropomorphic Research Project. He performed an analysis for us, looking at how different factors affect the furry experience, which is presented below.

This is a little bit different from the way we normally present data here on [a][s] – it’s the difference between professional and amateur analysis. As you can see, the professional statistical analysis is comprehensive but can teeter towards incomprehensibility. Happily, Dr. Cat provides some interpretation rather than merely the dry facts.

(For the stats-savvy, the data were analyzed as a series of linear regressions. It’s worth noting that in a sample of 30,000 people, even the most minuscule effects can be “statistically significant” (e.g., p<.05). For the purpose of this analysis, Dr. Cat instead used interpreted standardized beta weights for their “practical significance”.)

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

Based on this sample of 38,387 (collapsed across years of the survey), it seems that younger furries are significantly more likely to be “single” in the fandom. To put it another way, older furries are more likely to be in some kind of relationship.

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

Based on this sample of 39,193 (collapsed across years of the survey), it seems that age is basically unrelated to “how furry” a furry feels. To put it another way, there are older AND younger furries who are “just barely furry”, and older and younger furries who are “ridiculously furry”.

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

These results speak to the ones above; Based on this sample of 38,873 (collapsed across years of the survey), it seems that “how furry” you are also has nothing to do with how long you’ve been in the fandom. Newer furries can be just as “ridiculously furry” as furries who’ve been furry for a long time.

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

Based on this sample of 27,410 (collapsed across years of the survey), it seems that age has nothing to do with how many furries you know. Older furries seem to know about as many furries, on average, as younger furries do.

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

In conjunction with the above findings, based on this sample of 27,938 (collapsed across years of the survey), it also doesn’t seem to matter how long you’ve been a furry. Furries who’ve been around for just a year or two seem to know about as many furries as furries who’ve been in the fandom for a long time (suggesting either that furries make furry friends really quick OR that furries start to lose the furry friends they initially met as they spend more time in the fandom).

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

You’d think that, as you came to know more furries, you’d “come out” more as a furry, or vice-versa. And yet, based on this sample of 39,226 (collapsed across years of the survey), this doesn’t seem to be the case. How “out” you are as a furry is unrelated to how many furries you happen to know.

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

Knowing more furries doesn’t seem to help furries “come out” as furry, but, based on this sample of 39,362 (collapsed across years of the survey), it does seem to be the case that older furries are “more out” than younger furries are. Whether this is because older people are more secure with who they are, fear social judgment less, or are in a position where they don’t have to fear social judgment, remains to be seen.

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

Interestingly, while age was somewhat related with “coming out”, the extent to which someone is a furry is HUGELY predictive of how “out” they are, based on this sample of 39,971 (collapsed across years of the survey). Maybe it’s because furries who are REALLY furry find it hard to keep it under wraps, or maybe it’s because being “out” as a furry helps furries to feel “more furry”. Either way, the relationship is particularly strong.

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

Based on this sample of 33,452 (collapsed across years of the survey), the extent to which furries see the average “non-furry” as having positive attitudes towards furries predicts how “out” they, themselves are. In other words, how “out” a furry is seems to be based, in part, on how positive they think non-furries around them are. This could be because furries who perceive hostility from the world around them feel they have a reason to keep it to themselves, OR it could be because furries who have “come out” have been pleasantly surprised by the acceptance of others.

… What am I looking at, Dr. Cat?

I created a composite variable of “fandom participation” which includes a variety of activities (participating on furry forums, going to cons, going to meet-ups, etc.). I then pitted three different predictors of fandom participation against one another – age, how many years a person has been a furry, and how furry a person is – to see which most strongly predicts participation. Based on this sample of 37,806 (collapsed across years of the survey), it seems that how many years a person has been a furry has next to no effect on how actively they participate in the fandom. Age, on the other hand, does seem to predict participation, with older furs being more active participants in the fandom. Most strong of all, however, is how furry a person considers themselves to be furry (by a LONG shot).

In other words, the most active furries are also the ones who most strongly identify as furries, not necessarily the ones who’ve been around in the fandom the longest (although older furries are more active; this may owe to the fact that they have more disposable income than younger furries, and are more able to, say, make it to conventions).

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

Birdsong: A Story in Pictures, by James Sturm. Illustrated.
NYC, TOON Books, April 2016, hardcover $12.95 (60 pages).

This is my first furry book review of a little wordless picture book (9” x 6”) for pre-schoolers. Two thoughtless young children are playing warriors in a forest. The boy attacks a red bird singing in a tree. Wounded, the bird slowly flies up into a mountain, slowly enough that the children can follow it. They climb until the reach a cave inhabited by an angry hermit. The hermit magically transforms their bodies into monkeys. The children are captured and become a circus marvel: “They Read! They Write! Chimps Or Children?” Eventually (the implication is that several months pass) the circus owner gives them their freedom. They build a house in the trees. When they see another red bird, they do not disturb it.

This is a shallow but fine transformation story for beginning readers. Two children are transformed into monkeys (with long tails who live in trees, so they definitely aren’t chimps), and they are never turned back. This story is only 52 pages of art; there is an 8-page epilogue for parents “About Kamishibai”. This story is a modern picture-book version of the 1920s to 1950s kamishibai (paper theater) Japanese storytellers who would go about into neighborhoods, gather the children, and tell them short stories and myths that they would illustrate on a tiny screen. Many of the stories were based on Buddhist folklore, including stories of reincarnation and transformation. This book continues that tradition.

Birdsong: A Story in Pictures may be too simplistic for the adult furry fan, but it is an excellent first book for their children, or for any furry fans having children.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

WE'RE BACK!! Great live episode, and a special announcement at the end! ep 114 - Fur Squared 2016 LIVE!!! - WE'RE BACK!! Great live episode, and a special a…

Great episode!!! Plus, a special announcement at the end! I honestly don't know if this will work, but please remember that we have it working over at: www.thedraggetshow.com I'll get all of this Ironed out soon! Podomatic is being a butt. ep. 114 - Fur Squared 2016 LIVE!!! - Great episode!!! Plus, a special announcement at the end! I honestly don't know if this will ...

Great episode!!! Plus, a special announcement at the end! I honestly don't know if this will work, but please remember that we have it working over at: www.thedraggetshow.com I'll get all of this Ironed out soon! Podomatic is being a butt. ep. 114 - Fur Squared 2016 LIVE!!! - Great episode!!! Plus, a special announcement at the end! I honestly don't know if this will ...

Unfurled is back with a FULL CAST! Tonight we discuss Vermont joining the ranks of legal pot sellers, men cuddling children by accident, and a man who pretended to be a doctor for a long time. Come and enjoy the discussion with your sound holes. Episode -47 - And thus they were whole

Dear Papabear,

I'm transgender, FTM, and struggling to tell my family. My mom, formerly dad (MTF herself, I do use male pronouns/say dad when around strangers) knows and is very accepting of me. My stepmom is also MTF and supports me as well. I'm planning on starting testosterone soon, but my mom and sisters are very transphobic, completely cutting off my mom (MTF) from their lives. To them, my mom doesn't exist anymore, while I still talk to her daily. I would love for my other mom and sisters to see me as a son/brother but am terrified they'll want nothing to do with me. If they want me out of their lives, then I'm also going to lose touch with my two year old nephew who I just adore. I can't stand to keep pretending to be someone I'm not around my family, but I can't stand losing them either. Any advice on how I can start coming out?

Ryvis
 
* * *

Dear Ryvis,
 
First of all, count your blessings that your mom and stepmom are in the same boat and supportive of you. It’s vital that you have at least some people on your side as you transition. As for the rest of your family, rejection is very common in life because many people are brainwashed about social standards of “right” and “wrong” that they don’t use the one measuring stick that is the only thing that matters: love.

Whether it is being trans, bi, gay, furry, or even simply a different race or religion, people the world over are faced with rejection simply for being who they really are. This is why almost all of us wear masks that we present to the world, hiding the true us. It’s a sad fact of the human condition.

Some people will go through their entire lives being who they are not. Others, the brave ones, choose to be themselves.

When you choose to be brave, the implication is always that some sacrifice is involved; otherwise, it would not be a brave act. It is brave for a soldier to face enemy bullets, knowing he or she might be seriously injured or killed. Likewise, it is brave for people to admit who they are to a judgmental family, even if they stand the risk of losing people they love such as your nephew (in my case, it was losing my wife to divorce, though we are, thankfully, still friends).

As with the soldier comparison, the best way to face the future is preparation. Really, choosing to march into the battlefield is not longer a choice because you have already decided you are going to start hormone therapy. Once that starts kicking in, there’s no way you’re going to be able to conceal what’s going on. Therefore, be prepared.

There are a few things you can do. First, do some research in the library and the Internet on being transgender, the process, and living your life; there is material out there on how to talk about this, too. Second, sit down and write out your thoughts. This will help you organize your thinking and make it easier to talk about. Third (and you have a little knowledge of this already because of your moms), play out the arguments in your head as to what your family might say and how you would respond. In fact, it could help to do this with your moms. Do some role playing, rehearse.

The best, last hope of getting acceptance from your family is to educate them about transgender people. This by no means guarantees success because, like religion and politics, people usually have their minds made up and are not easily swayed, even when faced with cold, hard facts. That’s people; they can be stubborn to the point of stupidity.

In the end, the most important person for you to please is yourself. If you sincerely believe to the marrow of your bone that this is what you must do, then you have no choice but to do it. Yes, there might be some sacrifice involved, but the alternative is far worse: sacrificing yourself.

I wish you luck and happiness,
Papabear

Just in time for the full North American release of  Mamoru Hosoda’s latest anime feature, The Boy and the Beast (on the same weekend as Zootopia’s release, grumble grumble…), Yen Press have published Mr. Hosoda’s black & white manga of the same title. “Fleeing tragedy and mistreatment, a young boy named Ren hides among the crowds in Tokyo’s busy Shibuya ward. His efforts to run away are more successful than he realizes when he ends up in the world of the beasts! A rough-living bear named Kumatetsu gives Ren a new life and a new name–Kyuta–but is Kumatetsu really up to the job of being a mentor?” Find out! And check it out over at Yen’s web site.

image c. 2016 Yen Press

Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.

Download MP3

Watch Video Discovered Media:

• Religion Tree
• Wolf Hybrid saved from being on the street
• The Mermaid – Steven Chow Film
• Girl Meets Wolf

News:

• RainFurrest 2016 Post-Mortem
• Why Can’t Some People Feel Pleasure?
• Horses Can Read Our Facial Expressions
• The Color Blue Is Trending Worldwide
• Paperclip-Sized Brain Implant Could Lead To Thought-Controlled Exoskeletons
• Man Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed Until He Won An Award
• Runaway ‘Unicorn’ Leads Police On A 4-Hour Chase
• Florida Teen Poses as Doctor
• Teen Poses as US Senator

Emails:

• Yori – “Narration Tips? Best microphone for cheap?”
• Crazzywolf – “I did sum thing bad !”
• Uva – “Species and group identity”
• Anon – “Wanting to say thanks.”
• Mizu – (no subject)

FC-228 A Drama of Furries - Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.

Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.

Download MP3

Watch Video Discovered Media:

• Religion Tree
• Wolf Hybrid saved from being on the street
• The Mermaid – Steven Chow Film
• Girl Meets Wolf

News:

• RainFurrest 2016 Post-Mortem
• Why Can’t Some People Feel Pleasure?
• Horses Can Read Our Facial Expressions
• The Color Blue Is Trending Worldwide
• Paperclip-Sized Brain Implant Could Lead To Thought-Controlled Exoskeletons
• Man Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed Until He Won An Award
• Runaway ‘Unicorn’ Leads Police On A 4-Hour Chase
• Florida Teen Poses as Doctor
• Teen Poses as US Senator

Emails:

• Yori – “Narration Tips? Best microphone for cheap?”
• Crazzywolf – “I did sum thing bad !”
• Uva – “Species and group identity”
• Anon – “Wanting to say thanks.”
• Mizu – (no subject)

FC-228 A Drama of Furries - Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.

Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.

Download MP3

Watch Video Discovered Media:

• Religion Tree
• Wolf Hybrid saved from being on the street
• The Mermaid – Steven Chow Film
• Girl Meets Wolf

News:

• RainFurrest 2016 Post-Mortem
• Why Can’t Some People Feel Pleasure?
• Horses Can Read Our Facial Expressions
• The Color Blue Is Trending Worldwide
• Paperclip-Sized Brain Implant Could Lead To Thought-Controlled Exoskeletons
• Man Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed Until He Won An Award
• Runaway ‘Unicorn’ Leads Police On A 4-Hour Chase
• Florida Teen Poses as Doctor
• Teen Poses as US Senator

Emails:

• Yori – “Narration Tips? Best microphone for cheap?”
• Crazzywolf – “I did sum thing bad !”
• Uva – “Species and group identity”
• Anon – “Wanting to say thanks.”
• Mizu – (no subject)

[Live] A Drama of Furries - Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.

Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.

Download MP3

Watch Video Discovered Media:

• Religion Tree
• Wolf Hybrid saved from being on the street
• The Mermaid – Steven Chow Film
• Girl Meets Wolf

News:

• RainFurrest 2016 Post-Mortem
• Why Can’t Some People Feel Pleasure?
• Horses Can Read Our Facial Expressions
• The Color Blue Is Trending Worldwide
• Paperclip-Sized Brain Implant Could Lead To Thought-Controlled Exoskeletons
• Man Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed Until He Won An Award
• Runaway ‘Unicorn’ Leads Police On A 4-Hour Chase
• Florida Teen Poses as Doctor
• Teen Poses as US Senator

Emails:

• Yori – “Narration Tips? Best microphone for cheap?”
• Crazzywolf – “I did sum thing bad !”
• Uva – “Species and group identity”
• Anon – “Wanting to say thanks.”
• Mizu – (no subject)

FC-228 A Drama of Furries - Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.

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

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

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

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?