Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture
By Joe Strike
“Here is a vital and encyclopedic resource for all who are interested in the anthropomorphic fandom. Encompassing its beginnings and providing a comprehensive overview to the present day, it immediately attains the status of required reading…among all species.”
— Bill Holbrook, author of Kevin & Kell
“Joe Strike has been in furry fandom for over 25 years, and he knows it in depth. I am glad he has taken the time to get the history of furry right in Furry Nation.”
— Fred Patten, a founding father of furry fandom
“As an outsider of this community, I was entertained and enlightened by Furry Nation. Thanks to Strike’s years of dedication and reporting, I came to better understand and appreciate the depth and breadth of this artistic and creative community. Furs will be thrilled with an accurate, positive portrayal of their subculture by one of their own and regular humanoids like me will be treated to a colorful history of a community unlike any other.”
—Nicole Guappone, sex writer and essayist previously published by The Rumpus, Glamour, and others
Like herding cats, gathering the history of furry fandom has been called impossible. Furries love impossible things, so this is long overdue. I’m happy to say it was worth the wait. Joe Strike puts solid ground under the legs of the Furry Nation – genre, subculture, and yes, even kink – with his experience of watching it grow. This book is for original 1980’s fans, new ones looking back, and outsiders drawn to the weird coolness of talking animals. There’s many ways to get into it, but this is a unique view of how furries are breaking out.
— Dogpatch Press
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ABOUT FURRY NATION: THE TRUE STORY OF AMERICA’S MOST MISUNDERSTOOD SUBCULTURE
Furry fandom is a recent phenomenon, but anthropomorphism is an instinct hard-wired into the human mind: the desire to see animals on an equal footing with people. It’s existed since the beginning of time in prehistoric cave paintings, ancient gods, and tribal rituals. It lives on today—not just in the sports mascots and cartoon characters we see everywhere, but in stage plays, art galleries, serious literature, performance art—and among furry fans who bring their make-believe characters to life digitally, on paper, or in the carefully crafted fursuits they wear to become the animals of their imagination.
In Furry Nation, author Joe Strike shares the very human story of the people who created furry fandom, the many forms it takes—from the joyfully public to the deeply personal— and how Furry transformed his own life.
Joe Strike has written articles on film, TV, animation and related topics that have appeared in a variety of publications including the New York Daily News, Newsday, and the New York Press. He has been a regular contributor to the entertainment industry website Animation World Network since 2000 and has interviewed countless cartoon luminaries including Hayao Miyazaki, John Lasseter, Brad Bird, and Lauren Faust, creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Joe served as a writer/producer of on-air promotional campaigns for Bravo and the Sci-Fi Channel, where he worked with talents like Stan Lee, Ralph Bakshi and the cast of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. He has scripted the Nick Jr. TV series Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! and is the author of the kids’ comedy/adventure novel The Incredible Hare.
Learn more about Joe at http://www.joestrike.com/
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Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture
by Joe Strike
Cleis Press • October 10, 2017 • Price: $17.95 Trade Paperback Original • 288 pages
ISBN: 978-1627782326
http://cleispress.com
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For more information or to schedule an interview with Joe Strike, please contact:
–Allyson Fields at afields@cleispress.com or 212.989.0100
–Jenn Do at do@start-publishing.com or 201.815.1375
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An Excerpt from Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture
“It was a talking animal that got us into all this trouble.
If only that snake had kept its mouth shut, if only Eve hadn’t listened, we’d still be living in that peaceable kingdom known as Eden, our arms around our fellow creatures in a comradely hug: lions and tigers and bears— oh boy!
We’re animals too, in case you’ve forgotten. Want proof? Check your pulse; if you don’t have one you’re either a vegetable or a mineral. But we’ve got it all compared to other animals, don’t we? Where are their mega-malls, SUVs, Internet, all those material things that make our
lives worth living?
On the other hand, there’s a definite shortage of crooked politicians, greedy CEOs and financial swindlers in the animal world. They’re living la vida loca, the primal, sensual life we’ve traded in for a big brain and a thumb. There they are, naked and unashamed, screwing and shitting (and when they’re predators, killing) without a second thought, free of the neurotic baggage, social inhibitions and technological trinkets that weigh us down. ‘
Who wouldn’t envy that?
Way back when, the hard-and-fast line between people and animals wasn’t so hard or fast. It was natural to feel a kinship with your cattle if something out there in the dark would just as soon eat you as it would eat them.
Shamans spoke with animals and even turned into them on occasion. It was easy to imbue animals with powers far beyond those of mortal men, or imagine them as strange visitors from another world: turtles who carry the Earth on their backs, jackals who ferry the dead to the afterlife.
At the same time, people living eye-to-eye with animals saw them as behaving like people: sly foxes, stubborn mules, deceitful serpents, regal lions and loyal dogs. We’re doing it to this day. We can’t help it—it’s hard-wired into our brains. There’s a word for it, giving animals human qualities: anthropomorphism.”
Furry Times 