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Endtown 3, by Aaron Neathery – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Endtown 3, by Aaron Neathery. Foreword by Carol Lay.
Bellevue, WA, Jarlidium Press, December 2015, trade paperback $25.99 (279 [+ 1] pages).
Endtown is an Internet M-W-F comic strip of the dramatic serialized variety rather than the gag humor sort; a Dick Tracy rather than a Pearls Before Swine. It’s dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction with funny animals. To quote a blurb, “A mutagenic plague followed by a global war fought with disintegration weaponry has left much of the Earth a desert of fine powder and what remains of humanity fragmented into humans, animal-like mutants, and bloodthirsty monstrosities with lots of teeth. The surface, still teeming with the mutagenic virus, has become the domain of the dreaded Topsiders; well-organized, technologically advanced, and heavily armed un-mutated humans sworn to exterminate mutations of any kind in order to clear the way for the eventual resurgence of a new, genetically clean humanity. Faced with annihilation, mutants and “impure” humans have retreated into the depths of the planet to form communities and hope to win, or at least survive, what may prove to be mankind’s final war.”
Endtown is set six years after the global doomsday war. The surface of the world is a lifeless desert. Most humans are dead, either killed in the war or mutated by the plague into mindless, horrific, ravening monsters. The only exceptions are those who were unconscious or asleep when the plague changed them; those became anthropomorphized animals with their minds and memories intact. Six years later, the world is divided between the Topsiders, the remaining humans who live in airtight protective suits and kill anyone else they find as a non-human plague carrier, and the animal-peoples who live underground in hidden towns.
Endtown began on the Internet on January 18, 2009, and is still going.
The book collections have a complex history. Jarlidium Press published Endtown 1 and Endtown 2 in June 2012 as attractive trade paperbacks on high-quality paper at $12.00 each. Endtown 3 and Endtown 4 were published in July 2013 at $15.00 each, but Jarliduim Press announced that their printer had raised its prices so much that even with its price increased to $15, the books would sell at a loss except by Jarlidium Press itself at dealers’ tables at conventions. It promised to republish them in a quality that could be sold on Amazon.com at an affordable price. This happened in December 2014, with larger paperbacks on lower-grade paper. The new Endworld 1 contained both 1 and 2 of the first edition, and cost $24.99. Endworld 2, published at the same time at the same price, similarly contained the older 3 and 4 collections.
Now the book collections have caught up and are moving ahead. The new Endtown 3 contains the strips from October 25, 2012 to July 10, 2015, printed two strips per page of two tiers each, or four rows of two panels each.
Endtown’s protagonists have evolved slowly since the strip began, but the two in this book are Wally Wallechinsky, a cat-man who had spent five years living alone in the Topside wastes before being brought forcibly into underground Endtown, and Holly Hollister, a mouse-woman working as an Endtown waitress. Wally and Holly fall in love, but each has an unrevealed backstory.
Endtown 3 contains two long story arcs. In the first, Endtown is on the verge of falling into civil war between those who want to hold onto their humanity as much as possible, and those who embrace their new animal natures. Holly is one of three animal-women put on trial for “disgusting” animal acts, such as cow-women using their milk to make dairy products, or chicken-women scrambling their eggs to be eaten. Although this is not technically illegal, and a panda bureaucrat promises that there will only be a show trial with the three women embarrassed but not hurt, there are too many signs that the trial is intended to end with the women sentenced to death. Wally and his friends set out to free Holly, and find so much cynicism and factions willing to use their unknowing supporters as martyrs for their causes that Wally and Holly decide to abandon Endtown and take their chances on the surface.
In the second story arc, Wally and Holly meet two Topside humans, Jim and Sarah, who are willing to turn into animals to cure Sarah of cancer. Jim and Sarah become a raccoon and a lizard, but all four are captured and brought to another underground town inhabited entirely by lizard-people. The plot of this arc revolves around a new form of species prejudice, and a new form of apocalypse. Many are killed.
Endtown is grim but fascinating reading; well-drawn with intelligent, taut dialogue. It was an Ursa Major Award finalist in 2011 and 2014 in the Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story category. As with other Internet comic strips, you can read the whole thing for free on the strip’s Archives; but reading the book is so much easier than waiting for each strip to upload. Buy the book, and the odds are that you will become a regular reader of the online comic strip.
Member Spotlight: Lawrence M. Schoen
1. Tell us about your most recent project (written or published). What inspired it?
That would be Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, which was released by Tor Books on December 29th. The elevator pitch for the book was “Dune meets The Sixth Sense, with Elephants.” It’s a story about prophecy, intolerance, loyalty, conspiracy, and friendship. I invented some new subatomic particles for the book, which I combined with theory of how memory works, to create a galaxy in which a rare drug makes it possible to speak with the dead. All of the characters are anthropomorphic — uplifted animals to use the SF term, or as I prefer to call them “raised mammals.”
The origins of the book go back almost 30 years, to when I was a professor at New College in Florida, and legendary furry author and editor Watts Martin was the roommate of one of my students. Watts invited me to participate in an RPG based on Steve Gallacci’s Erma Felna: EDF, and despite the preeminence of felines in the story, I got it into my head that I wanted to RP an elephant character and started riffing on what their world was like. We never did play that game, but I began writing a novel and Watts even published the first two chapters in the pages of Mythagoras.
2. What’s your writing process like? Are you a “pantser,” an outliner, or something in between?
Like a lot of authors I started out as a pantser, but nowadays I’m a born-again outliner. Back in 2010 I participated in Walter Jon Williams’s master class, the Taos Toolbox. Walter teaches a technique called “novel breaking” in which you basically tear a book apart and rebuild it, scene by scene. When you’re done, you not only know how each scene advances the plot, informs characterization, serves the story (or possibly combinations of two of these, or even all three), but you can see how the scenes interconnect and support one another and serve the narrative engine driving the novel. I like to think of it as creating the completely articulated skeleton of a novel. Everything is there, and it all hangs together, and all you have left to do is add the flesh (words) to it.
When I have a completed set of novel “bones” like this, I can sit down and pick up any scene and I know exactly what’s going to happen there, who’s going to do it, and what it’s going to tell me. It’s a very nicely defined task. How I choose to arrange the words to make all of that happen is the fun part!
3. What’s your favorite kind of story to write?
One that teaches me how to do something I didn’t know how to do.
This may mean I’m stretching my range by trying something new — like writing in a subgenre I’ve never tried before — or perhaps pushing myself to get better at an area where I’m weak — like taking on the task of creating more complex plot and pacing.
I don’t think you ever finish learning how to be a writer. I’m always striving to be a little bit better. Some stories allow me to grow more than others, but when I can see clear improvement in my own style and process, that’s incredibly satisfying to me.
4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why?
The main protagonist of Barsk is a Lox, an uplifted African elephant (Loxodonta africana) named Jorl. He’s an academic, an historian who really just wants to stay home and do his research and write books and articles. He doesn’t get to.
There’s a long tradition of reluctant heroes who really have no interest in going off and having adventures or shaping the future or defeating evil. They enjoy their routines and they don’t want to be bothered and don’t tend to think of themselves as possessing the kind of agency necessary to do things.
There’s an awful lot of me in Jorl (and likely vice versa).
5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?
My earliest influences were authors like Burroughs and Heinlein and Le Guin and Zelazny. They’re among the first authors I discovered and devoured. Nowadays I look elsewhere for influence and inspiration. Writers like China Mieville, and Daniel Abraham, and Karl Schroeder. They dazzle me with their abilities to tell stories, to present rich and compelling ideas, to engage the reader’s interest and emotions.
6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved?
That would probably be Charles E. Gannon’s Raising Caine, which is the third book in an ongoing series. The first two were very enjoyable (and both received Nebula Award nominations), but in this third one we’re starting to see all the pieces coming together and it’s deliciously compelling. I know Chuck, and every time I run into him at a convention I demand to know where he is with book four; I’m hungry to learn what happens next! You’d think that as a friend he’d hook me up as a beta-reader or something.
7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?
Does anyone ever answer this question without laughing? Free time? Seriously?
Writing and reading are both pretty sedentary activities. For reasons of health, I’m trying to find ways to move more, and in the past year that’s taken the form of geo-caching. Sometimes this has me wandering around in urban settings and sometimes along nature trails or out in the country. It gets me hiking and exposes me to sunshine, and fresh air (and last summer, a brutal case of poison ivy) all while searching for tiny containers with random bits of silly swag. It’s fun and good for me, and often while I’m tromping around I’ll get ideas for new fiction or work through particular scenes that I’ve been writing. I highly recommend geo-caching for authors.
8. Advice for other writers?
Think in different time frames. You plan differently when writing a short story than when writing a novel, and you need to apply that same process to planning a career. We all want immediate satisfaction, but it’s important to have long term and far ranging goals.
When you know you’re going to be in this profession for the duration, it changes the way you look at the daily pieces.
9. Where can readers find your work?
In a perfect world, you’ll all rush out and pick up a copy of Barsk at your local bookstore. Here’s a quick Amazon link for your use: http://j.mp/BARSK-HCamz
Both of the Amazing Conroy novels are out of print, but are still available in ebook form. Quite a few of the stories from that universe are being offered for free under a Creative Commons license at Moozvine.com, which is a new publishing option that’s part CC license and part crowdfunding; a very fresh idea and one that I was happy to get in on the ground floor of, I hope you’ll check it out.
10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom?
Unfortunately, I haven’t been exposed to much of it, but I’ll be changing that in the coming months. It’s going to be tricky because my schedule for this year is jammed, but I’m trying to squeeze in trips to a couple furry conventions. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about furry fans, and it’s past time for me to experience them directly. I just hope they like elephants.
Check out Lawrence M. Schoen’s member bio here!
The Mickey Mysteries
Papercutz (home, once again, of Geronimo Stilton and family) have a new series of three Disney Graphic Novels coming to bookshelves later this month. Volume 1 is based on the world of Disney’s Planes (which is based on the world of Pixar’s Cars, of course). Volume 3 is called Minnie and Daisy: Best Friends Forever, which probably speaks for itself. Most unusual perhaps is Volume 2, entitled X-Mickey. “It’s a supernatural Disney adventure as Mickey Mouse meets Pipwolf, a werewolf who bears more than a passing resemblance to Goofy! X-Mickey is a fun Disney series that introduces everyone’s favorite mouse to another dimension full of spooks, ghosts, goblins and more. Accompanied by Pipwolf and an albino mouse named Manny, Mickey must do everything he can to keep Mouseton safe and keep these creatures locked up where they belong.”
image c. 2016 Papercutz
TigerTails Radio Season 9 Episode 35
Episode -45 - The UnFurled shark is a total nerd.
Syrians, Zootopians, and all the love in the media – NEWSDUMP (3-15-16)
Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com. Thanks to Dronon for editing help!
Furry Media Events have never been so frequent!
Big stories come in clusters. A blog reports something, more blogs catch on, and the story trades up to syndicated news. In Furry fandom, that used to happen maybe once a year… and that could be predictable stories about Anthrocon.
Dogpatch Press is only 2 years old, but there’s been a noticeable spike. There was the chlorine attack at MFF. #TonyTigerGate hit the “weird news” section. Not 6 weeks later, there’s THREE in the same week – Zootopia marketing to Furries; Syrian refugees at VancouFur; and notices for the Fursonas documentary.
It’s so much that you get two Newsdumps this week. Soon: “all the controversy in the media”. The pace makes it hard to keep up with the Year Of Furry!
Zootopia marketing to Furries – (Look for another article about this soon.)
It blew up with a Buzzfeed column full of fetish-snark: Proof Disney Is Actually Marketing “Zootopia” To Furries.
- Zootopia on WikiFur: Media notice and controversy about marketing to furries.
- Is Disney Marketing New Movie ‘Zootopia’ to Furries? (Inquisitr)
- Disney Seems to Be Embracing Its “Furry” Fan Base (Vanity Fair)
- Disney’s ‘Zootopia’ and furries: a match made in marketing heaven? (The Oregonian)
- Is Disney targeting its Zootopia marketing strategy toward Furries? (National Post; Canada’s right-wing newspaper)
- How The Marketing Of ‘Zootopia’ Won Big By Getting Weird (Forbes; disable ad-blockers)
- Disney is marketing ‘Zootopia’ to furries because it would be crazy not to (The Daily Dot)
How Disney Influenced Furry Fandom – (Look for another article about this soon, too.)
Furry artist Joe Rosales posted a retrospective about how Disney influenced the Californian side of Furry Fandom in its formative years, including early fursuiting.
(Patch comments:) Good, but it doesn’t give enough credit for sci fi fandom, and misses early fursuiters like Robert Hill who were not professional (and not G-rated, either.) The unnamed animator must be Shawn Keller, maker of the notorious Furry Fans flash animation and comic… if he didn’t want to be named, he shouldn’t have published “Shawn Keller’s Horrifying Look at The Furries.”
(Dronon comments:) Not only Robert Hill, also Ed Kline. Unnamed animator is undoubtedly Shawn Keller, he was the first fandom fursuiter. Skunk was not his first suit; that was actually Chip and Dale – one suit, but easy to change the costume to be one or the other because they looked so much alike. I heard a rumor from Robert King that an anatomically-correct canine fursuit wandering openly at CF6 or 7 (which I saw) might have also been Keller to deliberately piss people off, just a few years before his attack comics and flash animations. Rosales also skips over the huge influence of the Disney weekday afternoon cartoons in the late 80s through the mid-90s, plus The Lion King movie in 1994. That was a gigantic thing in the fandom. A number of animators were briefly in Vootie and Rowrbrazzle, usually just a page or two here and there. Tim Fay can rattle off a whole bunch of names.
Rod O’Riley preparing another “Art of Furry Fandom” gallery show in Southern California.
Rod is one of the founders of furry fandom, and co-host of the Prancing Skiltaire meet. Previous shows were written up for Flayrah.
Once again we are hosting an Art of Furry Fandom display at a Gallery in Santa Ana (CA) through the month of May. We are seeking out framed art to show, but we need to receive it by the middle of April. If you’re interested, we would love to have you be a part of this! Please let me know if you can.
Syrian refugees meet fursuiters at Vancoufur.
Vancoufur’s 5th convention happened over March 3-6, 2016 and got some local media coverage. But what really attracted international attention was this:
- These Images Show What Happens When Furries Welcome Syrian Refugees With Open Paws (News.Mic)
- Syrian refugees in Canada got housed in same hotel as VancouFur furry convention and the children loved it (The Independent)
- Syrian refugee children dance with furries after being placed in same hotel as VancouFur convention (New York Daily News)
- A Furry Convention Welcomed Syrian Refugee Families to Canada (Vice)
- Syrian children met a load of furries in a hotel and it was brilliant (Metro, UK)
- VancouFur Bear Hugs Syrian Refugees (The Australian Huffington Post)
- Migrants Settled in Hotel Hosting Furry Convention (Breitbart)
- Syrian refugees greeted with furry culture shock at VancouFur convention in Canada (International Business Times)
- Syrian refugees placed in hotel hosting a furry convention (BoingBoing)
- Awww! Furry Conference-Goers Comfort Syrian Child Refugees (Unicorn Booty)
- Conspicuously absent – the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Culture shock much? Some Syrian newcomers are staying at a hotel where the #VancouFur furry convention is going on. pic.twitter.com/rPi6HN72Lz
— Ziya Tong (@ziyatong) March 8, 2016
Kyell Gold summarizes the fandom in Uncanny Magazine.
If you’re looking for a way to introduce the fandom to people who are fans of science-fiction and fantasy, furry novelist Kyell Gold has written an excellent description of some of the basics.
Tempe O’Kun reports from Brazil.
Abando, Brazil’s first furry convention, will not be continuing. Still, there’s a nice little con report by Tempe O’Kun. To replace Abando, the organizers of the local bowling meet intend to start a new convention called Brasil FurFest.
Disney’s DuckTales will be coming back!
We have our first look at an image made for the revival of Disney’s DuckTales cartoon, which should be premiering in 2017!
This Tiger. Put together just in time for Texas Furry Fiesta:
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AMAZING FURRY NEWS COMING SOON – Obama Declares National Furry Day In #7!
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The Furry Gang Menace: Are Your Teens Being Pressured To Draw Cartoons And Give Hugs?
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 6, 20156-2-1-ADPITHT Rule For Con Hygiene: 6 Hours Sleep, 2 Meals, 1 Shower, And Don't Poop In The Hot Tub
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 6, 2015Amazing Secrets For Using Club Soda And Ordinary Household Ingredients To Make Crusty Fursuits New Again
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 3, 2015Gay Trekkie Clown Feels Plain And Boring At Furry Convention
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 6, 2015Urban Legend: Boll Weevils Will Not Infest Your Tail If You Share Seats With a Bunny
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 7, 2015Furry Tries To Convince Club Doorman He's Over 21 In Dog Years
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 13, 2015Try Everything: From Movies To Comics
As of this writing, Disney Animation’s Zootopia remains number one at the box office in the USA and several other countries, breaking records left and right for an animated film — Disney or otherwise. Now Joe Books (no, we don’t know who they are either) bring Zootopia to their Cinestory series of comic book adaptation. Telling the story of plucky bunny cop Judy Hopps and “articulate” fox Nick Wilde in the all-mammal city of Zootopia, using full-color stills from the movie in comic form. Diamond Distributors have more information about it.
image c. 2016 Joe Books, Inc.
South Afrifur Pawdcast, 13 March 2016 - FoxT
Deep Shit: Politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor …
this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor wax politics, both the current race, conflicting left & right philosophies, and exactly what is behind it all. Deep Shit: Politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor …
Deep Sh!t: politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor wax politics, both the current race, conflictin...
Deep Sh!t: politics! - this is an in-between-a-sode! Xander and Draggor wax politics, both the current race, conflictin...
FC-230 Man Scout Cookies - Oh man how are we going to top this? An awesome guest plus an awesome interview plus some not so awesome chest pain from laughing so hard. Oh and a Zootopia review (spoiler warning.) Enjoy.
Oh man how are we going to top this? An awesome guest plus an awesome interview plus some not so awesome chest pain from laughing so hard. Oh and a Zootopia review (spoiler warning.) Enjoy.
Watch Video Discovered Media:- “I love your howl” – Cheetapaws Art
- “So you really like zootopia” on Medium
- Cute British Fox Steals Golfers Wallet
- New Species Of Fish-Eating Spider Discovered in Australia
- Australian dad finds venomous spider in shoe left outside
- Fangcon to move to new city and state
- Schoolgirl sent home for looking too attractive in school uniform
- Twinks For Trump
- Hot Convict actually follows internet prayers and becomes model
- Australia’s Ugly Animals Attract Less Study
- Naked Man Walks Into Stranger’s Home, Says ‘Hi,’ Falls Off Cliff
Geoffrey Thomas’s “The Wayward Astronomer” – A Dreamkeepers Story
Kickstarter — Deviantart — Dreamkeepers Website
Emails:- Zanda – “Furries in the Classroom”
- Bicker – “Get Rid of Marriage?”
FC-230 Man Scout Cookies - Oh man how are we going to top this? An awesome guest plus an awesome interview plus some not so awesome chest pain from laughing so hard. Oh and a Zootopia review (spoiler warning.) Enjoy.
Oh man how are we going to top this? An awesome guest plus an awesome interview plus some not so awesome chest pain from laughing so hard. Oh and a Zootopia review (spoiler warning.) Enjoy.
Watch Video Discovered Media:- “I love your howl” – Cheetapaws Art
- “So you really like zootopia” on Medium
- Cute British Fox Steals Golfers Wallet
- New Species Of Fish-Eating Spider Discovered in Australia
- Australian dad finds venomous spider in shoe left outside
- Fangcon to move to new city and state
- Schoolgirl sent home for looking too attractive in school uniform
- Twinks For Trump
- Hot Convict actually follows internet prayers and becomes model
- Australia’s Ugly Animals Attract Less Study
- Naked Man Walks Into Stranger’s Home, Says ‘Hi,’ Falls Off Cliff
Geoffrey Thomas’s “The Wayward Astronomer” – A Dreamkeepers Story
Kickstarter — Deviantart — Dreamkeepers Website
Emails:- Zanda – “Furries in the Classroom”
- Bicker – “Get Rid of Marriage?”
[Live] Man Scout Cookies - Oh man how are we going to top this? An awesome guest plus an awesome interview plus some not so awesome chest pain from laughing so hard. Oh and a Zootopia review (spoiler warning.) Enjoy.
Oh man how are we going to top this? An awesome guest plus an awesome interview plus some not so awesome chest pain from laughing so hard. Oh and a Zootopia review (spoiler warning.) Enjoy.
Watch Video Discovered Media:- “I love your howl” – Cheetapaws Art
- “So you really like zootopia” on Medium
- Cute British Fox Steals Golfers Wallet
- New Species Of Fish-Eating Spider Discovered in Australia
- Australian dad finds venomous spider in shoe left outside
- Fangcon to move to new city and state
- Schoolgirl sent home for looking too attractive in school uniform
- Twinks For Trump
- Hot Convict actually follows internet prayers and becomes model
- Australia’s Ugly Animals Attract Less Study
- Naked Man Walks Into Stranger’s Home, Says ‘Hi,’ Falls Off Cliff
Geoffrey Thomas’s “The Wayward Astronomer” – A Dreamkeepers Story
Kickstarter — Deviantart — Dreamkeepers Website
Emails:- Zanda – “Furries in the Classroom”
- Bicker – “Get Rid of Marriage?”
Ep 62 – Furry Niche - This week we talk about the niche we write in: furry. The “bubble” that surrounds our niche among others, how to push out, how to look in. Are we really as different and unique as we think we are? How do others see us? Send us your
This week we talk about the niche we write in: furry. The “bubble” that surrounds our niche among others, how to push out, how to look in. Are we really as different and unique as we think we are? How do others see us?
Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints:
@FangsAndFonts
Facebook.com/FangsAndFonts
Fangs and Fonts
Click below to Listen http://www.fangsandfonts.com/FnF/Episodes/Ep62-Furry_Niche.mp3Download here | Open Player in New Window
Ep 62 – Furry Niche - This week we talk about the niche we write in: furry. The “bubble” that surrounds our niche among others, how to push out, how to look in. Are we really as different and unique as we think we are? How do others see us? Send us your feedback, [...]We Wish You Wouldn’t Imagine That
Creature Entertainment (home of Bubba the Redneck Werewolf) has a new full-color comic book mini-series called Tommy: Cereal Killer. “What can you do when you find out your imaginary friend, who happens to also to be your pet rabbit, is a serial killer, and you’re the only one who knows? Oh, and you’re seven years-old… and nobody believes you? That’s Tommy’s reality – but now he means to change it! In the premiere issue of this 4-part mini-series, we are introduced to the cast of Tommy’s world, including the joyless Principal Crabtree, his woozy mother Sharon, and his ‘pet’ rabbit Jack, a mean-spirited and relentless taskmaster who is ruining the boy’s life while trying to ‘fix’ it.” Written by John Ulloa and Al Bondiga, with art by Juan Navarro, the first issue of Tommy is on the shelves now — and at Creature’s web site.
image c. 2016 Creature Entertainment
This Is an Important Column about Life
I have a few friends at school and on FurAffinity. They like me and I like them. School is mildly hard, but my parents help me through it and push. My parents are getting a divorce, but for some reason I have not been affected by this very much. I love them both and they each help me in their own ways.
But there is one other thing that I struggle with. I always feel as if I have to keep pushing myself, always, and I have to let go of some things that I value such as kindness in order to "man up" for the real world, and if I don't do it right now I will never be completely successful. But if I do keep pushing myself and going through life that is always moderately challenging, I will lose some kindness. Is this normal? And what should I do? Thank you, "high paws."
NickHusky (age 19)
* * *
Hi, Nick,
You speak in generalities, so I will as well. You are at a critical time in your life that will, indeed, do a lot for molding who you will become as an adult. And you are undergoing the kind of family and social pressures that our society deems fit for a male; that is, you should be “tough,” “man up,” hide your emotions, be strong, etc. etc. In other words, as with almost everyone else in the mundane world, you are being asked to put that mask on and hide who you really are inside. The threat here is that if you don’t do this you will be, as you say, unsuccessful, which means things like have a high-paying job, acquire lots of material possessions, breed, pay taxes, and die quietly without troubling society or rocking the boat.
Papabear says, “Poppycock.” The brave man (or woman) isn’t the one who hides emotions but the one who is emotionally honest, who cares about the world and feels compassion for others. Success--real success—in life is not about wealth, fame, or power. These are the things that give mundanes (pardon me for saying this) boners because the majority of people are shallow, self-centered, and materialistic.
And you know what else they are? Unhappy!
This skewed viewpoint causes people (and you are in danger of this right now) to do things for the wrong reasons. They get college degrees because they want a high-paying job. They select a career because they want to make a lot of money doing it. They even choose a spouse because they are “the right people.”
Here’s my challenge to you: go to school because you love learning; get a job because it is something you love to do (if you have a job you love, you will never work a day in your life, as they say, because your job will be fun and fulfilling); choose a mate—whether it is someone similar to you or not—because you see into their heart and fall in love.
You love your parents and they are trying to help you. That’s a wonderful thing. Although I don’t know your parents, I suspect they are like most parents: they are scared for you, they don’t want you to be poor, and they want you to be accepted by society. But Papabear can tell you something here: he gets more letters from unhappy people because they are too busy trying to please their parents or someone else instead of themselves. Consequently, they don’t learn who they really are, and so they go through the motions of life without really living.
Let you in on a very secret secret, Nick: the truly happy person doesn’t define success by money and material things but, rather, by his or her ability to discover who they truly are as a person and to search for, and even discover, what life is really about for them. Each person must find his or her own path. While I can’t define that path for you because it is a personal journey, I can tell you that if you seek a pot of gold at the end of the journey you will have wasted your life.
Your job, Nick, is not to “grow up,” or “man up,” but to discover who you are. I have high hopes for you because I can see you value kindness. Please, I beg you, don’t sacrifice your heart just to be part of the swarms of mundane society. Be a kind person and you will find more happiness than you ever imagined.
Thank you for your letter.
Hugs,
Papabear
Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, by Lawrence M. Schoen – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, by Lawrence M. Schoen
NYC, A Tim Doherty Associates Book/Tor Books, December 2015, hardcover $25.99 (384 pages), Kindle $12.99.
In the very far future, civilization has spread throughout the galaxy, but there are no longer any humans. Humanity has been replaced by the descendants of uplifted animals.
Chapter One, “A Death Detoured”, features Rüsul, an elderly Fant, alone and naked, on a raft six days at sea. He is on his death journey, the traditional final rite of passage of every Fant on the world of Barsk. Rüsul expects to sail alone until he dies. He does not expect to be picked up by a spaceship of Cans (canines; Dogs) commanded by a Cheetah, Nonyx-Captain Selishta. She tells her Cans, “‘Maybe this one will know something useful about whatever shrubs and leaves the drug comes from. Hold him here a moment while the rest of the crew secures his flotsam, and then put him below in one of the vacant isolation cells.’” (p. 19)
The importance of Barsk’s drug, koph, is explained in Chapter Four, “Solutions in Memory”, in this description of Lirlowil the Otter and her ability to talk with the dead:
“Beautiful by Otter standards, she’d spent the last few years enjoying the peaks of privilege earned not by any acts of her own, but by the random chance that gifted her with being able to both read minds and talk with the dead. Unless you had the misfortune to be one of those disgusting Fant on Barsk, you could go your entire life without encountering a Speaker. The drug that triggered the ability was fiendishly expensive, and rarely worked the first few times. Alliance science had yet to determine what genetic markers resulted in the talent. Off Barsk, Speakers were unlikely, though hardly uncommon. True telepaths though, people who could effortlessly slip inside the mind of other beings and sample their memories and knowledge as easily as flipping the pages of a book, were orders of magnitude more rare.
The number of individuals with both sets of abilities would make for a very small dinner party indeed. Lirlowil’s mental gifts emerged with puberty and elevated her social status a thousand-fold. The discovery that her talents included Speaking occurred a couple of years later when she’d sampled some koph at a party and began seeing nefshons over the next hour’s time.” (pgs. 42-43)
Nefshons are the “shimmering subatomic particles of memory”, the relics of personality that constitute what is left of the dead. Taking koph enables those with the genetic ability to become a Speaker to pull together those nefshons from the dead and talk with them. Speakers are very sought after in galactic society by all who want to contact the dead: relatives who want to speak to loved ones, law enforcement officers who need to speak with the fatal victims of crimes, historians who want to interview illustrious deceased notables.
Speakers are notable themselves, and they can charge almost anything for their talents. They need koph to energize those talents. Therefore koph is “fiendishly expensive”. And it is found only on Barsk, which is inhabited by the disgusting Fant, who are disgusting because of their enormous size, because of their ugly, wrinkled, furless skin (furlessness alone is enough to render anyone hideously ugly in this galactic society), and because of those horrible long, prehensile noses and great, flapping ears that only the Fant have.
Everyone wants koph, and since only the despised Fant can deliver it, some among the galaxy’s Bears, Elk, Yak, Prairie Dogs, Cats, and other peoples (all furred) will do anything to get it. Nonyx-Captain Selishta, the Cheetah, is one who will fly down to proscribed Barsk to kidnap Fant and try to force them to reveal the origins of koph – which none of her victims know. Lirlowil the Otter, a pampered Speaker, is grabbed by galactic bureaucracy and made to use her Speaker talent to call up the nefshons of deceased Fant that may know how koph is made, so it can be manufactured for the benefit of society. And on Barsk, the Fant Speaker Jorl and the crippled Fant child Pizlo each tries in his own way to unlock the secrets of koph, nefshons, and the dead.
For the furry fan, it’s a vast and colorful galactic society:
“Jorl’s head turned so quickly toward this voice that his trunk nearly slapped the third Dog in front of him, causing that one to flinch, duck, and fall onto his ass. Jorl frowned. Cans were fiercely loyal and disciplined; they made up the bulk of the Patrol, but they were almost never in charge. Standing now in the gate, the source of the responding question, was a Cheetah. Unlike the Dogs, she wore neither hood nor mask. The blue of her gear proclaimed her officer status, and the molded insignia at her elbows, distinct to the initiated but easily missed if you didn’t know to look, marked her rank.” (p. 130)
Barsk is unusual in being an interstellar novel from a major science-fiction publisher, Tor Books, that began as two stories in a furry fanzine 26 years ago. “Of Storm and Furry: Peals and Vents” in Mythagoras #2, Summer 1990, and “Of Storm and Furry: Contemporary Past” in Mythagoras #3, Autumn 1990. From two short stories in a minor fanzine to a handsome hardcover book (with an attractive cover by Victo Ngai) is an impressive step; and Barsk is an impressive book. Don’t miss it.
Meanwhile, He Followed HER Home…
Another animator, another graphic novel: Bob Scott is well-known for having worked on projects as wide-ranging as Warner Brothers Bugs Bunny cartoons to Pixar films like The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Meanwhile, he’s been writing and illustrating an on-line comic strip, Molly and the Bear. “It can be tough on a family when someone new has moved in, especially if it’s a 900-pound scaredy-bear so terrified of wilderness life that he’s fled to the burbs. Fortunately Bear was found by Molly, a fearlessly optimistic 11-year-old can-doer who has taken him firmly in hand, devoted to seeing her hirsute BFF cope with modern life. Molly’s Mom is happy with the new sibling — Bear’s an excellent conversationalist and loves her homemade cookies. But Dad is having a harder time, his role as center of the universe now shared with an ursine behemoth who, unfortunately, adores him.” Now Cameron & Company have released the first collection of full-color Molly and the Bear comics in hardcover. It’s available over at Barnes & Noble.
image c. 2016 Cameron & Company
Introducing The Furry Canon
There is a long and rich tradition of furries in fiction. From the classics of Aesop’s Fables to the latest and greatest in sci-fi/fantasy novels, comics and movies, we’ve seen countless stories featuring anthropomorphic creatures. Many of those stories are fine for what they are—morality tales or pieces of fizzy entertainment that allow us to escape into a different world for a time. Some of them, however, touch us so deeply, that they become landmarks for our personal development. When we find ourselves in the company of like-minded individuals, we find that many of us share the same landmarks; entire communities have developed on the backs of this shared connection.
JM (editor horse-in-chief of [a][s]) and I were talking about Fred Patten’s article “What The Well-Read Furry Should Read,” which features what Fred considers to be the top ten classics of the fandom. It’s not a bad list, but we had a number of questions. How on Earth did he manage to narrow down hundreds of years of furry fiction down to a ten best list? What was the criteria to make something truly great? How did Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Animal Farm make the list, but Maus and The Wind in the Willows did not?
I know how subjective terms like “greatest” can turn an innocuous list into a flashpoint of debate, and we here at [a][s] love our opinions and classifications as much as the next data-wonk. So we thought—why not create our own list of novels and stories that we believe serve as cultural touchstones for the furry community? If you wanted to give someone a list of four or five novels that explained the furry aesthetic and the community’s fundamental love of anthropomorphic animals, what would you include?
Thus, the idea for “The Furry Canon” was born. We’d like to introduce an ongoing, occasional set of articles that digs into a book or set of stories, reviews them on their own merits and then determines whether they should be added to a list of stories we feel represent the “idea/aesthetic” of furry as a whole.
This is a delicate operation. Who the hell are we to determine what gets added and what doesn’t? Well, we’re enthusiastic readers, just like you. To hold ourselves to an objective (or at least transparent) standard, we thought we’d make a list of criteria that would help determine whether or not a work should be added to the list.
QUALITY. Obviously, we wouldn’t add just any book or story to the Furry Canon. If we’re going to suggest these works the curious or uninitiated, at the very least they should be excellent books to read. Is the work strong enough that, even without the elements we’re most interested in, we’d be inclined to read it?
LONGEVITY. This is a little trickier, but there are a lot of stories that set the world on fire for a year or two, then mysteriously and suddenly fade away. Does the work still hold up, even across the gulf of time and the changes society has undergone since it was published? Is it a perfect encapsulation of a point in time of the furry community or the broader world? Is there something in the work that’s still relevant and vital?
RELEVANCY. Does the story capture a central aesthetic, idea or emotion that’s quintessentially furry? Does it serve as a cultural signpost for the community, something that we can know and understand? What is it about the work that serves as an excellent representation for our fandom?
Obviously, our decisions on what gets included and what does not won’t work for everyone—but we’re hoping that over time, we can cultivate a list of our own that works well as a literary representation of our community.
So, what do you think, [a][s] readers? What novels or collections would you put forward as candidates?