Month: November 2015

as originally posted on adjectivespecies.com

Guest post by C.W.Euwyn. Euwyn is a relatively young member of the fandom, writer, and is currently studying for a degree in philosophy. He enjoys writing anthropomorphic fiction, reading it, and has a passion for philosophical debate. Currently, he is most influenced by the likes of the Stoics, Hegel, Hiedegger, and Kierkegaard, though he enjoys reading everything in between. He can be found on twitter as @CWEuwyn. His previous article, on furries and Epicurus, can be found here.

In 1974, the philosopher Thomas Nagel first asked “What is it like to be a bat?”[1] Whilst originally an essay concerning the interaction between mind and body (and something highly worth reading for anybody with even a passing interest in the philosophy of mind), Nagel may have unintentionally left something important for the furry community to consider.

In his essay, Nagel wonders what it would be like to be a bat; what it would be like to see, hear, and experience the world from the subjective point of view that bats posses. He concludes that, as much as we may know about the brains of bats, about how echo location is supposed to work, and how they live day-to-day, we will never be able to understand exactly “what it is like to be a bat.” Despite our knowledge of echo-location, for example, without directly experiencing it, we can only imagine how it would feel to use it, and what we imagine would be conjured in relation to our experiences, not a bat’s. There is therefore an “aboutness” to being anything, a “how it feels to be X”, to everything conscious. This would hold true for every non-human creature, (as any bat furries may be pleased to hear). Therefore, when we identify as an animal, it can never be said that we have the “full picture” of it; only what we can observe, vis. You may identify as a wolf, but you are only identifying as the observable behaviours of wolves, and any inferences made from those, not as what a wolf actually experiences or thinks.

Now, consider “anthropomorphics.” Across multiple dictionaries, the consensus of the definition is “to ascribe human properties to something non-human”[2,3,4]. For example, we would be anthropomorphising the wind if we were to say “the wind is angry”; anger is a human emotion, but we are prescribing it to something inanimate. Similarly, when we attach human traits to animals, we are anthropomorphising them, such as when we imagine that a raven is cunning, or a pig is lazy.

What we must remember is that the pig is not actually lazy; we are merely taking what we call “laziness” in humans, and prescribing them to the pig. For all we know, from the pig’s point of view, it may be working very hard at whatever it is that it’s doing.

What I’ve said hitherto may seem like common sense, and, hopefully, it has. But consider what a person does when they create a furry character or fursona. Ordinarily, people believe that they are taking the animal and applying human features to it (anthropomorphising). However, it’s worth taking a look at the process of choosing.

Some choose an animal they like for an aesthetic reason, for example, “foxes look cool” (Result from the 2013 Furry Survey). Whilst others make their decision based upon perceived traits that an animal has: “Foxes are clever, and dignified” (Result from the 2013 Furry Survey), and “Real canines repay all the love and hate they receive in droves, which I admire, and represent the frank, sometimes ill-informed, honesty and loyalty that I exude” (Result from the 2013 Furry Survey).

The two attitudes can be categorised as either “aesthetic” or “personal”, the former being born from taking pleasure in the way an animal looks, the latter being formed by identifying with the subjective understanding of the already anthropomorphic traits the animal has.

In the case of the aesthetic, we can safely say that they have anthropomorphised; they have looked at an animal, and applied human features to it.

But in the “personal” category, something much more complex has happened. A person has taken the already anthropomorphic traits ascribed to an animal and used that as their “base”. For example, a person may have chosen a coyote due to the animal typically being thought of as “cunning”. What has happened here is not about the animal at all, but the representation, vis. the traits applied to it (which it does not intrinsically posses). The identity is with the “cunning” attached to the coyote – a purely human notion. Afterwards, due to it’s association, the coyote becomes a representation of “cunning”; it is used as a symbol to convey human thought, having nothing to do with actual coyotes. We cannot know “what it is like to be a coyote”, thus, we cannot say we identify as them on any level other than the one of which we understand them.

The term “zoomorphic”, generally, means “to use an animal symbolically”[5,6,7]. I believe that in the case of the “personal” category of choosing an animal character, this term is superior to “anthropomorphic”, for there is nothing to be made human; there is an identity with what is already human represented through an animal. The animal is symbolic; used to show something human, as opposed to existing independently of human perception, and having human traits applied to it.

This can be furthered through fictional entities, which can be argued to exist as embodiments of human concepts and ideas. A dragon, for example, does not exist independently of human imagination; it is a creature created as pure symbolism, although it may be representing different things across different times and cultures. Dragons, and other fictional entities, are human symbols, embodying various traits. To bring us back to earlier, there is no “what is it like to be a dragon.” It is impossible to apply human traits to something that already exists as human traits and say you have created an anthropomorphic dragon; the creature was already human, you have merely changed what it represented.

Where does this leave us? Personally, I feel that the clarification is more than just applying the appropriate term. It helps us to understand what we are doing, and what our characters mean, as well as what those around us are trying to achieve. If nothing else, I hope that this article has given you something to consider the next time you create an animal character, and what it really means.

[1]T. Nagel, What is is it like to be a bat? “The Philosophical Review LXXXIII, 4 (October 1974)”, Pp. 435­50.] http://organizations.utep.edu/portals/1475/nagel_bat.pdf

[2]Merriman and Webster Dictionary: http://www.merriam­webster.com/dictionary/anthropomorphic

[3]The Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/anthropomorphic

[4]The Dictionary Online: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anthropomorphic

[5] Merriman and Webster Dictionary: http://www.merriam­webster.com/dictionary/zoomorphic

[6]The Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/zoomorphic

[7]The Dictionary Online: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/zoomorphic

This article released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license

I am not saying sharing a expensive hotel room at a cut rate price is wrong. I am very well aware of this is the norm at most conventions. But there are a few things you should aware of if your doing this for the very 1st time. Privacy is very limited at best, reason being someone might be sleeping in the bathtub in your room. Not that where they landed up after drinking too much, in fact that is the space they paid for. I have heard some rooms have been has held as many as 11 people. Speaking of which Your Space, depending on the circumstances could be a space on the floor. This is very common, as to where you store your stuff…could be in the middle of piled up suitcases. I have heard that some fursuiters had to change in the public restroom because they hadn’t the space to do so in their room.

Parties and heavy drinking are common, so don’t expect to get much sleep. But I encourage everyone with problems at Rainfurrest and Oklacon, which have caused those cons to such down FOREVER. Behave yourself, I know your there to have fun, but really do you want to be known for the ones killing your favorite cons. Ask the couple that were making out during the Opening Ceremonies of Rainfurrest. Who have since been banned from all US Fur Cons for the next 3 years. Or the ones who had to split the cost of the more than $7,000 in damages to the hotel. They all got permabanned.

Rumor had it when one showed up at Anthrocon The staff asked them to leave or the police would be called.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Despite everything I said, you will have fun, furcons are very fun, as well as a great place to hang out. But respect not only yourself, but the con.

First of all the reason there is so few posts today is because of events in Paris.

But to me it was an expectedly happy night for me, was when I decided to revive a local furmeet. That faded this past April due to ISSUES RE: FURRY DRAMA. So being a guy who has no issues I hope with no one. I along with another local furry, revived a once popular furmeet at a local Panera Bread. It turned out Utterly Fantastic, we literally got more that 3 people to drop by and a majority of them stayed.

To be totally honest, my biggest fear was no one would show up. Interesting enough some who stayed had previous issues with furries. But I am happy to say despite all of this, any Furry Drama they had, was forgiven.

I decided to make it a monthly furmeet, and see how it goes from there.

Lastly The Cup, you see the post below. Do I have to say any more. It’s just a paper cup. If you don’t like the lack of design bring your own pen?!!

To why Starbucks took the Christmas designs off. I thought that was simple, not everyone celebrates Christmas. Besides have people forgot Starbucks is in business to make money from the most people and way offend anyone.

Ever Heard of bringing your own cup?!!! They are plenty of Christmas Travel Mugs out there online. If you don’t like the red cup buy your own travel mug.