"The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction" (pensive ramble)
Bless my mother. She's been on the tail of this "furry" thing ever since I went to "visit friends" in Pittsburgh back in July '07. Before she knew what it was, she actually suspected that I was involved in the Were community, since she had learned about that through her fascination of the Vampire: The Masquerade thing. I'll say she's been very "supportive" about it, although it's certainly not the thing I need support for; I think she's just very interested in subcultures, and having a "furry" son is an excellent opportunity for learning and observation.
When I say supportive, I mean that she called me one night at my apartment to tell me that the Furry CSI episode was on and that it was "hilarious", and more generally, making jokes and remarks about this completely interest her son has. The thing that really caught me off-guard, though, was when I received for Christmas this really cheesy-looking book called "Furry! The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction". It was kind of embarrassing, being blindsided aboutit in front of my whole family, but we laughed it off and I put it aside with the rest of my gifts, and it eventually found its home on my bookshelf.
The book had remained there until last night. I wanted to get back into reading fiction, and I figured short stories are a good place to start. I read the foreword and the introduction and everything, and this book mostly contains works from ancient fanzines, by writers I've never heard of. At first, this was a bit of a turn-off, but I'm looking at it as more of an "Art History" lesson than anything. According to the introduction, the furry fandom was born out of a clique in the science fiction fandom which had a particular interest in aliens or other fantastic beings which resembled anthropomorphic animals. This being the case, a lot of older furry fiction revolved around "Furries and Humans", with the "furries" being alien or otherwise otherworldly characters. This sort of scenario seems rather unusual for me, because I hardly associate furry with science fiction, and these days the fandom is so adamant about fursonas that the concept of "Furries and Humans" is largely left unexplored.
But I digress. I cracked the book and read the first short story before going to sleep. The story is titled "To The Magic Born" and the author is one Brian W. Antoine. It is a very whimsical story about a human man and his 6-year-old fox "son" sitting out in the backyard talking about this and that, eventually leading to his son asking him to teach him to be a mage just like his father. He teaches him a bit of magic and the story ends with some heartfelt family fun. Sounds pretty simple, and perhaps a little "boring", but this is exactly the type of fiction I love to read: mundane and lovable scenarios as simple as two people sitting in the backyard and talking. Overall, it was an excellent experience for me. I could feel my emotions welling up a couple times while I read the story. I had a very interesting dream that night. I cannot be bothered to recount it here, but I assure you that it was influenced by the work I had read prior to my slumber. Even the next day, sitting at the lunch table, taking a shower, and other moments of daydreamery, I found my thoughts drifting back to this story, and it was great. I could feel the love and "good vibes". I guess this story really got to me.
In any case, that first short story did an excellent job of "selling" this anthology for me, so I'm going to read one story every night. I'm certain all the stories are not going to be as pleasant as the first one, but it'll be fun to see where these stories and my thoughts take me.
---
The story "To The Magic Born" can be found here: http://www.nas-kan.org/stories/mageborn.html If anyone is interested, I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think. Apparently this story is just one little blip in Antoine's saga, but it can certainly be enjoyed as is. I may check out the rest of his stuff at some point.
And of course, I'm certain I'll be making more recommendations as I make my way through this anthology.
Once again, thank you for taking an interest in my personal experiences and feelings~
When I say supportive, I mean that she called me one night at my apartment to tell me that the Furry CSI episode was on and that it was "hilarious", and more generally, making jokes and remarks about this completely interest her son has. The thing that really caught me off-guard, though, was when I received for Christmas this really cheesy-looking book called "Furry! The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction". It was kind of embarrassing, being blindsided aboutit in front of my whole family, but we laughed it off and I put it aside with the rest of my gifts, and it eventually found its home on my bookshelf.
The book had remained there until last night. I wanted to get back into reading fiction, and I figured short stories are a good place to start. I read the foreword and the introduction and everything, and this book mostly contains works from ancient fanzines, by writers I've never heard of. At first, this was a bit of a turn-off, but I'm looking at it as more of an "Art History" lesson than anything. According to the introduction, the furry fandom was born out of a clique in the science fiction fandom which had a particular interest in aliens or other fantastic beings which resembled anthropomorphic animals. This being the case, a lot of older furry fiction revolved around "Furries and Humans", with the "furries" being alien or otherwise otherworldly characters. This sort of scenario seems rather unusual for me, because I hardly associate furry with science fiction, and these days the fandom is so adamant about fursonas that the concept of "Furries and Humans" is largely left unexplored.
But I digress. I cracked the book and read the first short story before going to sleep. The story is titled "To The Magic Born" and the author is one Brian W. Antoine. It is a very whimsical story about a human man and his 6-year-old fox "son" sitting out in the backyard talking about this and that, eventually leading to his son asking him to teach him to be a mage just like his father. He teaches him a bit of magic and the story ends with some heartfelt family fun. Sounds pretty simple, and perhaps a little "boring", but this is exactly the type of fiction I love to read: mundane and lovable scenarios as simple as two people sitting in the backyard and talking. Overall, it was an excellent experience for me. I could feel my emotions welling up a couple times while I read the story. I had a very interesting dream that night. I cannot be bothered to recount it here, but I assure you that it was influenced by the work I had read prior to my slumber. Even the next day, sitting at the lunch table, taking a shower, and other moments of daydreamery, I found my thoughts drifting back to this story, and it was great. I could feel the love and "good vibes". I guess this story really got to me.
In any case, that first short story did an excellent job of "selling" this anthology for me, so I'm going to read one story every night. I'm certain all the stories are not going to be as pleasant as the first one, but it'll be fun to see where these stories and my thoughts take me.
---
The story "To The Magic Born" can be found here: http://www.nas-kan.org/stories/mageborn.html If anyone is interested, I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think. Apparently this story is just one little blip in Antoine's saga, but it can certainly be enjoyed as is. I may check out the rest of his stuff at some point.
And of course, I'm certain I'll be making more recommendations as I make my way through this anthology.
Once again, thank you for taking an interest in my personal experiences and feelings~