Fur?

http://www.xlibris.com/BlackFriday

What is this thing, furry, I keep mentioning in the majority of my posts?

Furry is a community of artists (writers, drawings, and collectors), suiters, and role players of anthropomorphic animals.  Furries tend to think of themselves as a particular animal; such as wolves, felines, dragons, etc.  Not Therian which is something different, yet similar.  There are a lot of sexual fetishes involved with a small part of this community of people, but most are pleasant people who simply want to share what they like and see the world a little bit differently than most.

Furries have been in national media lately and viewed as disturbed people who simply cannot live well outside their fursuits or are sex crazed addicts who want to hump anything in sight including some poor innocent animal.  Sadly, some of this is true, but they are the nut cases among thousands.  Every group has a few of these in their midst and they give everyone a bad name.

Furry has crept in unnoticed throughout history.  Everyone has seen it but never really noticed until this community pointed it out.  Now, there are plenty out there who will argue this fact, but it is still classified as being furry.  The ancient Egyptian deities were part animal, Native American deities are talking animals.  Sesame Street and the Muppets are packed full of furries and parents allow it. Almost every classic fairy tale has a talking animal in it.  We have taught our children using talking animals of some kind (I.E. Barney, My Little Pony).  They are all anthropomorphic animals, or simply called furry.  Disney adores the furry set.  Just look at all the animal related children’ movies they’ve made!

But, I am not making this blog into a rant.  It is to define what furry is.  Now that the defining is done, on with the rest.

I am a furry artist.  I have plenty of sketches and pictures in my main galleries at FurAffinity.net and Deviant art.  What is seen is clean and safe for work.  To see anything more mature, there needs to be proof of being an adult and an account at either site.  still, that is what I draw.  This is what I write as well.

I don’t like to write about humans.  They are mundane and pretty much serve as the antagonists when they do appear just from my own personal experiences with people in general from work.  We, as a race, have not treated our world very kindly so I don’t view humans as being all that good.  There are exceptions.  I also do not draw the human face very well, so I draw animals.  I find the muzzle and ears easier to draw than the human mouth and head.  There’s a few examples in both sites mentioned.

Animals lend a bit of mystery to my writing.  How would they react in a human type situation.  They’d have skill sets matched to their genotype; like cat’s having great agility and stealth, dogs have stamina, bears with their strength, so on and so forth.  Trying to imagine how each would react to something is more fun and definitely more engaging.  They can also be made more human-like in how they go through their lives.  I’m sure they’d evolve differently as they learned and grew than we humans would.

These characters can be much more dynamic than the mundane.  Science fiction, fantasy, and fiction in general allow for these to jump out and grab people.  How big of a presence they have in any story depends on the author of the book.  I have read books where the furries have a bare mention and a few pages within a story and others where they all but dominate.  There are plenty which take up the middle grounds where furries and humans are about equal.  They all make for interesting reading.

One of my favorite books from my childhood is ‘Watership Down’.  It is a story about a small group of rabbits that escaped being poisoned and search for an ideal place to make a new warren.  Along the way, they encounter other rabbits and lots of trouble concerning humans and their natural predators.  If you haven’t read it, do so.  They movie stuck pretty close but the book gives more with a lot of imagery to bring it to life in you head.

Another book, actually a series of books, by Clare Bell is in my library now.  The first one I read, ‘On Clan Ground’, stars a young feline named Ratha who discovers the use of fire and tries to introduce it to her people.  At first, she is driven out, but she returns later to battle the chief then takes up the role of leader with fire as her proof of leadership.  This covers about five books what I can tell and I would certainly love to see more one day from Ms Bell.  She created a beautiful world and characters you fall in love with.  They are all normal looking felines except they have conscious thought and work together in various roles.  You have to read it to fully understand.

There’s plenty more out there to read.  Find one you like and enjoy!