Sunday 15 October 2000

Pic of the day: Hundreds of years ago, a mysterious meteor crashed down here, creating this circular lake. The extraterrestrial rays from the meteor influenced the local wildlife, making the animals walk on two legs and talk ... OK, so I just made that up. One can always dream! :) But the small lake is surprising circular in shape, so who knows how it came into being ...

Furries and fantasy fiction

I have enjoyed this last day. Yesterday I found a funny website, another programmer guy who has been writing science fantasy for a while. "Fox Cutter" is writing a first-person story about a guy hopping around the multiverse, getting into trouble and associating with various morphs, which in this context means animals looking almost like people, or the other way around.

I guess I should not be surprised, but I am. Through reading a couple online comics, I have chanced upon a partly hidden community of people who take an interest in "furries". Furries being anthropomorphic animals. These are a mainstay of comics and related genres, and range from Lion King (where only the voice and thought is human) through Winnie the Pooh (?) to Mickey Mouse and his ilk, who dress and walk and behave like people, just not quite looking it. Not naming anyone in particular, some of the furries art makes me suspect that there is a bit of perverse lust out there too. But that would be a topic for another entry, I guess. An entry of a different color, as it were.

Whatever the background for this (blame comics and cartoons, I guess), there are quite a few people interested in furries, and feathers, and transformations. (Werewolves, wereboars, werecats etc.) I guess this makes sense in a Jungian psychological way - we all have a bit of animal nature that isn't always so easy to handle; and earlier societies often had totem animals, animal-headed gods etc. It may be something deep in the human psyche that recognizes the connection between us and our furry allies and foes in nature.

***

Whatever the theory, the fact remains that the Fox Cutter stories are cool fiction for nerds. There isn't a lot of subtle romance, at least as far as I have read yet, and the undercurrent of perverse animal lust seems rather subdued. (Again, as far as I have read yet.) And the fact remains that it is freeee! :)

I've deliberately limited my reading of this story, though, so as to not overwhelm my own newborn fiction arc. As I mentioned ten days ago, I have had some pressure from a couple of fictional characters who insist on being realized. One of them even had a lengthy exposition about the nature of their universe(s), but I deleted that after reading it. It may be nice for me to know, but right now it is way too much information. I want my characters to be reasonably normal for the first few chapters. Just a little tinge of something unusual. Something mystic. Something dangerous.

It's not like I have more than the vaguest of plots. Still, it's interesting while it lasts. Since my fads fade pretty fast, I'll probably never know the end ot the story, though. Then again, that's life ...

***

I've taken advantage of the weekend to add a couple hours of sleep each day. I still get up at the normal time, as my throat is pretty much clogged with goo after 4-6 hours of sleep. But after I've cleared it out and pottered around for a while, I go back to catch up on sleep. It feels delicious. I'm practically purring with pleasure as I rub my head against the pillow ...

And a rather chaste pleasure it is, too. I'm not as excitable as I use to be around full moon. Rather I have found myself singing hymns and spiritual songs. Most probably someone is praying for me again. Or I may be growing old. Time will show.