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Comment, broken links reports and suggestions to
rangifer@mailhaven.com.
This is the place where I keep links and documents
about the most theoretical aspects of the furry movement. It is
something I found myself very interested into after the years I
have passed dealing with the fandom so far, and something which
I find extremely neglected at the same. The purpose of this section
is to offer an overview of sites and texts which I belive are essential
to fully understand the meaning and especially the unexploited potentials
of the furry movement, as well as links to opinion pieces on hot
issues about drawing and writing. I'm using the term "movement"
here, along with of the usual "fandom", for it much better
expresses my feeling towards the concept of furry. I firmly think
furry might be much, much more than a mere commercial phenomenon...
if not a true cultural movement, certainly a movement which might
bring and develop many new ideas in the fields of art and literature,
if only enough people would realize its potential and the strength
of certain concepts it introduces. A "fandom" tends to
be just a world apart from the "mainstream" world rather
than attempting to influence it -- something which furry'd instead
have all the tools to do. I'm getting the impression instead that
a lot of effort is put in stating why one considers himself a furry
(like there's any need to justify one's interests!) or in justifying/accusing
various behaviours, while very little is done in the attempt to
create masterpieces of whatever theme or alignment, art or
writing any furry would be proud to be associated with for
its quality, besides of its content. For example, look at the recent
evolution of genetic engineering and biology. The furry movement
is obviously anticipating ideas and events which will have
a serious impact on the human society one day, so why they're not
taken seriously, not even by furries themselves? Just take this
page as an invitation to reflect.
NOTE 1: The site is permanently under construction,
and so far I haven't found that much material on the issues, so
If you want to suggest an inherent site or article, don't be
afraid, you're welcome any time. :-)
NOTE 2: I am putting here exclusively what
I think are useful pages and expression of constructive
behaviour and ideas, i.e. no ranting against singles, no furry
politics, and no bashing of whatever group. Please don't submit
such things.
IMPORTANT
NOTE: If you agree
with the point of view I am expressing on this page, please link
directly to http://www.furholt.net/~scale/resources.html, even
if you don't want to link to the main page. One more link does
make the difference on the net.
1.
Introduction to the Furry Movement
Frequently Asked questions
about furries. What is a furry, how the movement was
born, furries on the web, important things to know.
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2.
Essential Essays
I don't like the world "essential"
used this way, but those essays really stand
out too much to put them among the others...
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On Furries, part
one and especially
part two by Kaijima - Two essays I dare to
call a milestone for the furry fandom. I beg you
to read this even if the rest of my page doesn't interest
you. This is simply THE definitive statement of the core
self-limitation problem of the furry movement, the first
furry essay I've seen so far which really aims high. For
further insight on the same topic, other essays by the same
author might be of some interest, especially The 10+1 laws
of Therianthropy and Guilt by association.
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3.
Selected Sites
Sites dedicated to articles
and essays on the theoretical aspects of furry and the
evolution of the furry scene.
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- Fuzzy
Logic - An e-zine hosting furry fiction,
critique and opinion pieces. Sadly has not been updated
in a long time. Highligths:
- Fan
Writing - On the poor average quality
of furry stories. Writing in fact tends to be a bit
undervalued in respect to drawing.
- Escapism
vs. Embracism by M.C.A. Hogart -
Short, direct, and very effective. Sitting upon stereotypes
and forgetting logic against true creative behaviour.
- Last
of the Non-Instantaneous Generation by
Melissa Drake - Overview of the advanteges and the
disadvantages brought to the movement by the Internet.
A very relevant concept emerges here: the lack of
quality material can be a powerful source of inspiration,
with which I completely agree.
- Pressed
Fur - Collection of various resources, keeps track
of the media coverage of furry and groups critical of the
movement. It's an absolutely essential topic, and they were
the first people to realize it and react properly, appearently.
This is one of the few attempts so far to cover both light
and dark sides of the movement and present different points
of view, with many articles, essays, and reports. Besides
of any other consideration, definitely worth reading. Highligths:
- Sitting On the Third Side of the Fence by
Hannah Kincaid ("Essays" section)
- A thought-provoking disenchanted essay taking a firm
point against the belief that furry should be reduced
to mere unquestioned hobby. Gives a very personal point
of view upon a possible "third way" among
furries, pointing out the importance of creative
thinking above imposition or spite of rules.
- Furry Define Thyself: An Essay on the Word and
the Fandom by Xepher ("Essays" section)
- Trust me, this is one to read and meditate about carefully.
The concept is clear, and the problem described here
is something I've been noticing myself lately, and something
I'm often affected by as well. :-P Furries fear to
talk about their interest outside of the fandom.
It's something which happens for good reasons at times,
but most of the times it happens for no actual reason.
Overall it's so harmful that I'm coming to think most
of the problems experienced by our community descend
from this one, one way or the other...
- Flayrah.com
- A portal for furry news and information. In addition to
general info regarding conventions and furry comics/books,
also some very interesting news are reported, such as animal-related
scientific discoveries, news from zoo parks, and even furry-realted
oddities (not only those based on the web, which is pretty
rare indeed). The mission statement of offering a source
of informations better than the newsgroups is IMHO being
pretty fulfilled.
- The
Funny Animals Liberation Front - And I get angry.
Really really angry. Why in the heck initiatives like this
old site, attempts to point out all the crap that is strangling
the furry scene, end up this way? I haven't written anything
new here, that's the disturbing thing. Four years after
this site has been abandoned (1998), every single essay
therein still applies perfectly to the furry scene.
Highlights:
- R
= X by M.C.A. Hogarth - Explaining why,
contrary to a misconception widespread thorough the
furry community, nudity doesn't equal sexuality and
porn. My comics are also an attempt to prove this fact.
- When
Money Talks, yet no one listens by John
Boulton - Short and direct, but it's a good insight
on the lack of quality in the furry fandom, and still
applies today. The thesis is that as far as furries
work with "the fandom" itself in mind as a
target, only learning from the fandom (a big merit of
Yerf is that of hosting a lot of people who do
actually learn from other artists and sources as well)
there's no hope their work will ever be noticed outside.
I fully agree... it's nearly unbelivable somebody still
thinks that people outside of the fandom would pay half
a penny for a furry version of Star Wars, Star Trek,
or The Lord of the Rings.
- "...this
represents everything that's wrong..."
by WM - Or, why FurryMUCK is the last place in the
world where to look for criticism.
- Fandom,
Furries and Standards by WM - Another
silly behaviour which deserved to be denounced. The
technical quality of a picture has nothing to do with
its conten, minimum required quality doesn't mean censorship.
While it is good to have environments open to every
skill level (everybody has to start somewhere!), I'm
getting to think that some quality control, at least
on the most representative archives, might be a positive
fact. Furry archives are not the place for stuff which
isn't accepted anywhere else, simply. They are if we're
talking of provocative content, but they are not if
we're talking of aesthetic (IMHO, that is). A person
who actually cares expressing through art should also
be motivated into getting better, and that's something
the furry community is unable to do at the moment, since
honest and competent critique is hard to find, and the
only rewarded achievement seems to be the thickness
of the artist's commissions schedule and prints portfolio.
Furry artists with good ideas I've ofteen seen progressing
very slowly on the technical side, because their work
isn't "popular" and doesn't get the praise
empty pin-ups are submerged with. But we do need
raw technical skill to be combined with good ideas,
desperately. I might be wrong, but I think people complain
so loudly about the presence of fetishism and kinks
in furry art just because it happens to be poor quality
stuff - the artists aren't motivated into becoming better,
since the content is judged "unworthy" anyway.
So I'm all for making it clear that content and technical
execution of a picture are very different things.
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4.
Articles and Essays
Other opinion pieces about
furry (and sometimes related topics) not included in
the sites above.
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- Something
Amiss In The Fandom by Simion Lonewolf -
Still pretty readable for a "rant", I've included
it here because of a couple hot topics it quickly touches:
rip-offs and easy selling. The issue is put in the terms
of furry drawings being a source of fame and money much
more than stories, resulting in an invitation to rip-offs
and sitting on the same worn schemes. I don't completely
agree with this piece but some of the mentioned problems
are undeniably real...
- The
Uncanny Valley by Dave Bryant - Why are
monster-movie zombies so horrifying and talking animals
so fascinating? The author exposes an interesting theory
upon the topic of human feelings against antropomorphic
creatures, pointing out how, if we consider different degrees
of similarity as an axis of a graph, there is a point before
which (and shortly after which) the feeling is good and
the interest high, but at which the similarity makes
most people uneasy for some reason. These observations may
be of more than some interest for those willing to study
the mechanics beyond art and fiction.
- Furverts
and their Critics by Bill - I wonder how
it is possible that still today there are people hoping
to see the furry scene ridden of sex and "pervert"
stuff. I mean, come on! After over 20 years of endless flames
and initiatives which led to absolutely no result,
perhaps it's the time to ask ourselves if sensuality and
sex (they're very different things) are't an essential
component of furry art, instead, which thus cannot be separated
from it. Absurd? Not quite, not quite. This article just
enforces my belief that sensuality is the true power and
originality of the concept of furry, and that it's just
because of massive brainwashing of the immense value of
sensuality in our lives that even many furries are afraid
to admit it openly. But it's a fact. Of course furry deals
a lot with nudity and sex: it was about time to discover
again the importance of the senses after a few centuries
of oblivion.
-
Of
Furries and Hoomans by JD - Excellent essay
about the most annoying slang/commonplace somewhat widespread
among furries. Nothing pisses me off more than this "Furries
Are Better Than Humans" attitude. Why such ideas? Specism
against one's own species isn't any bit better than the
specism against furries that is so exploited in furry fiction.
- Furry
Sociology - One thing furries are in bad need of
are observations based on actual numbers, and collected
with some method. Here's an interesting attempt at this,
dealing with an issue often plagued by commonplaces. Not
fully agreeable, yet it shows motivation, and I'd like to
see more initiatives like this one...
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5. Good Ideas!
Specific ideas and concepts
which I find to be an exceptional example of how the
crafting of an antropomorphic animal should be accurate.
Furry stories and comics I find really exceptional will
also be signaled here.
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- Tuber
With a Tie by M.C.A. Hogarth (on Fuzzy Logic,
see above) - An example of logic applied to furry crafting:
hints and ideas about language and communication.
- Through
Alien Eyes 1: "How to Build a Wolf" by J. Woodman
(on Fuzzy Logic, see above) - Describing a wolven civilization.
Remarkable is the attention to the world's characters and
the influences on the wolves's evolution.
- More
Than Just Cut and Paste by Brendan Dunn (on Fuzzy
Logic, see above) - A hint, still more than enough convincing,
at why Genetic Engineering isn't just a Jack-of-all-trades
allowing to flank any problem and add any feature...
- An
Introduction to Chakats by Bernard Doove -
Most furries know what a "chakat" is, but how
many people actually red carefully this full introduction
by their creator? This is a little jewel of detail, planning,
and thinking of all aspects of a furry species. Of course
not every creature is as peculiar as a chakat, nor requires
a lot of anathomy details added to its description, still
this is a good sample of how no aspect of a creature should
be left untouched or overlooked as "obvious" -
though Doove still makes the error of willingly ignoring
the ethical issues involved in Genetic Engineering, presenting
a rather positivistic vision of its employment. My main
critic (besides of the fact the scientific name isn't correct
latin) is that nobody seems to care touching the issue of
casualties and failed experiments which would be unavoidable
in order to create something like the Chakats. Note that
this problem is present in many other furry settings and
stories... Well worth reading and reflecting upon anyway.
- The
Otter's Mom di Chris Wayan - The best furry
comic I've seen so far. This one is a single panel with
many interesting graphical ideas telling a serious
story. Original, visionary and thought-provoking.
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6. Furry Critic
- from the inside
AT LAST!! Incredible... attempts
to start up Methodic Furry Critic? Criticizing quality
and sense of the reviewed stuff rather than plainly
wishing for censorship? Woah! Just a shy beginning,
but since I think furries badly need something like
that, here it is. Keep an eye on this sort of initiatives...
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- The
Furry Critic - For now it hosts mostly reviews of
furry comics (also has sections for 'zines and games). Seems
quite promising, and eventually tells exactly what
needs to be told about the quality of plots and graphics.
It's looking for staff and contributors. Only bad note:
he gave thumbs down to "Lilo and Stitch"! :-P
Which I found to be a Disney movie much above the average
for the surprisingly sticky issues it dealt with...
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7. Furry Critic
- from the outside
"We're Persecuted"??
Sorry, I'm way tired of hearing people complain about
how much furries are persecuted, misunderstood, unaccepted
and such crap. I see a lot of self-isolation, rather.
Non-furry people do happen to say things which
make sense too, and I'm gathering some here. When somebody
states he doesn't like furry stuff and provides a reason
for it, it's the occasion to learn something about potential
audience. I do find sincerely constructive reading what
people have to say against furry.
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- Anthro
VS Furry... FIGHT! thread on the "Microcosm"
comic strip's forum - A very intelligent note on an
actual problem of the furry scene, by a person who doesn't
consider himself a furry. And this fact itself is the problem,
actually. It's one less talented person for the furry movement,
and one more person who thinks that most furries don't care
about originality. The fact he appreciates Chris Goodwin's
talent only makes the situation more absurd.
- An
Impassioned Plea Against Furry Art by Max L.
- Despite the title, this one points out very real problems.
Quote: "Furry art (or a furry artist) is usually
typified as drawing ONLY furry art, or ONLY commenting on
other furry art, or ONLY accepting cute pencil drawings
of fuzzy critters as 'art' (along with, perhaps, some classics
or if they are truly progressive, more modern paintings).
The scope of 'furry art' is what truly annoys me - cute
furry animals, drawn freehand or with a computer. Sculpture,
photographs, or perhaps even more interesting and original
ideas are RIGHT OUT - this even generalizes more specifically
to unacceptance of these media outside the tiny little world
of 'furry art'. This is why I propose that 'furry art' be
referred to in a slightly more derogatory and true form
as 'furry genre illustration'." Is she completely
wrong?
- To
be or not to be? by "Klawzie" - I'm including
this as an example of how the concept of "furry"
can be treated as a silly label. Most furries say they hate
labels and stereotyping, but then why does this sort of
things happen? On one side there are some people who don't
care about anything that isn't openly labeled "furry"
and worship anything that is (IMHO it's also the only reason
for which most furry comics are still in business, and I
think I have all the right to say so as a reader); on the
other, people who feel the "furry" label is suffocating
and hints at all sort of silly fanboy-ish behaviour. Only
result: more isolation for the former, more isolation for
the latter... geez.
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8. Texts by
me
Regarding some of the mentioned
topics.
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- My two cents on some Furry
Themes - IMHO there is an incredible lot of serious
issues which can be discussed interestingly and thoroughly
with the tools the concept of furry provides than they could
be by any other mean or genre. Here are some appearently
not obvious examples.
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