# Animal fantasy vs Furry: What's the difference?



## Treecat (Jul 2, 2020)

A question for those who write and seek to be published, as well as for those who read stories with animal protagonists. 

When I think of stories featuring talking animals, the ones I think of are the animal fantasy books of my youth--Warriors, Redwall, Tailchaser's Song, Firebringer, etc. However, there is clearly a wealth of furry fiction that I have yet to find, written by indie writers. 

My question becomes, what makes something furry as opposed to packaging something as a middle grade animal fantasy and selling it that way? Is furry fiction simply animal fantasy aged up?


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## Bluefiremark II (Jul 2, 2020)

The only difference is that furries are percieved as a weird fandom group while other stuff is just what it is. Animal mascots furry. Old cartoons like.. looney toons? Furry. Ancient cultures such as Egyptians? Furry. They're just not grouped into what society thinks is furry- this specific group of people. Yet the whole world is technically furry. We consistently anthropomorphize animals. Don't even have to be considered furry.


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## Stray Cat Terry (Jul 2, 2020)

Bluefiremark II said:


> The only difference is that furries are percieved as a weird fandom group while other stuff is just what it is. Animal mascots furry. Old cartoons like.. looney toons? Furry. Ancient cultures such as Egyptians? Furry. They're just not grouped into what society thinks is furry- this specific group of people. Yet the whole world is technically furry. We consistently anthropomorphize animals. Don't even have to be considered furry.



It's only that the ones who are called Furries make one of the most detailed fursuits, unlike most of the conventional cartoon animal characters' suits. (which is 'not Furry' in public's perspective)

Edit: 
In my humble opinion, those like Warrior Cats, which features talking animals, are not anthropomorphic thus are not furries. But we can like what we like, whether it's furry or not.


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## Kit H. Ruppell (Jul 2, 2020)

It's only "furry" if it's created by furries.


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## Punji (Jul 2, 2020)

I think when it comes to works like the Warriors series the cats are more cat-like than anthros.

They're more like cats with a human-like intelligence and conciseness than humans with cat-like features. In my opinion this is where the distinction lies.

Another example is Watership Down. In the same sense to me it seems more like feral rabbits given human consciousness. Bugs Bunny on the other hand is a full-blown anthro. He's a person in the shape and character of a rabbit.


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## BlackDragonAJ89 (Jul 2, 2020)

This may help explain some things: Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism - TV Tropes

Reminder: "Furry" is technically an adjective being forced into a noun because people on the internet aren't the brightest of bulbs (and "furry" rolls of the tounge better than "anthropomorphic" or  "anthro" could).


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## Mambi (Jul 3, 2020)

Treecat said:


> A question for those who write and seek to be published, as well as for those who read stories with animal protagonists.
> 
> When I think of stories featuring talking animals, the ones I think of are the animal fantasy books of my youth--Warriors, Redwall, Tailchaser's Song, Firebringer, etc. However, there is clearly a wealth of furry fiction that I have yet to find, written by indie writers.
> 
> My question becomes, what makes something furry as opposed to packaging something as a middle grade animal fantasy and selling it that way? Is furry fiction simply animal fantasy aged up?



Just my opinion, but I look at it as how they build their society. 

If the talking animals are just animals that happen to talk or be intelligent, then it's "animal fantasy"...no different than if a human character has a talking animal companion who's clearly still in the role of "animal"
But if the talking animals are living culture with their own world and inventions and their own society and agency and just happen to be animals, then it's furry. 

Does that make any sense to anyone?


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## hara-surya (Jul 4, 2020)

Animal fantasy the animals are more or less... well... animals. Furry fiction they're basically humans who look like animals and have some odd animal-focused abilities/flaws.


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## PercyD (Jul 4, 2020)

Yea, it's like the difference between "White Fang" and like... "Julie and the Wolves"-- both of which were my j.a.m back in the day.

Any sort of animal thats been given human sensibilities is anthropromorphic. White Fang was literally the perspective of a male wolf as told by a (i believe) British author.

Julie and the Wolves is about a young Inuit girl coming of age in a society that does not respect her. She flees, and survives with wolves- learning the way wolves live and being accepted into the pack. She has to adjust to their way of live, and their way of life is very much 'non-human'. 

I think the difference is the perspective and how the animals behave and communicate. There is always gonna be a degree of anthropromorphism, though, because the story has to be for (human) consumption.


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## hara-surya (Jul 4, 2020)

Ohh.... Julie and the Wolves. I loved Jean Craighead George when I was younger.

We read _My Side of the Mountain_ in like 1989-90 in the fifth grade and I loved it. I have never know, until this day, that the author was a woman.

T'is wonderful. It appears she lived the life she wrote about.

So many of the young adult books of her era (1970s and 80s) were amazing compared to today. Real people with real problems, no matter how unusual the setting. One of my favorite stories at that age was _But We Are Not of Earth_ by  Jean E. Karl. And Betsy Beyers was another I loved. Both are all but unknown of today.

OK, now I feel old...


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## PercyD (Jul 4, 2020)

hara-surya said:


> Ohh.... Julie and the Wolves. I loved Jean Craighead George when I was younger.
> 
> We read _My Side of the Mountain_ in like 1989-90 in the fifth grade and I loved it. I have never know, until this day, that the author was a woman.
> 
> ...


Lol, sokay. You just had access to good books fresh off the presses when you were younger.

I am finally on a very much needed vacation. I haven't been able to read any thing leisurely in so long, I might try some of these this week.

I'd love to disconnect and acutally pick up a paper book, but I might go for some of these on the Internet Archive.


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## hara-surya (Jul 4, 2020)

PercyD said:


> Lol, sokay. You just had access to good books fresh off the presses when you were younger.
> 
> I am finally on a very much needed vacation. I haven't been able to read any thing leisurely in so long, I might try some of these this week.
> 
> I'd love to disconnect and acutally pick up a paper book, but I might go for some of these on the Internet Archive.



I swear I'm not old...

Also, I've been mourning just now because I learned the author of my favorite kid's books when I was in the fourth grade - about subjects like domestic violence (Cracker Jackson), child neglect (The Night Swimmers) and divorce (The 2,000 Pound Goldfish) and the newest of which is from the first-half of the Reagan Administration (some date back to Carter) - died recently and I was unaware of it. (Her name was Betsy Byars and she died at 91yo.)


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## PercyD (Jul 4, 2020)

hara-surya said:


> I swear I'm not old...
> 
> Also, I've been mourning just now because I learned the author of my favorite kid's books when I was in the fourth grade - about subjects like domestic violence (Cracker Jackson), child neglect (The Night Swimmers) and divorce (The 2,000 Pound Goldfish) and the newest of which is from the first-half of the Reagan Administration (some date back to Carter) - died recently and I was unaware of it. (Her name was Betsy Byars and she died at 91yo.)


I'm sorry to hear that~. It sounds like her stories still may have a lot of great impact for years to come. c:


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## hara-surya (Jul 4, 2020)

PercyD said:


> I'm sorry to hear that~. It sounds like her stories still may have a lot of great impact for years to come. c:



You'd be surprised how much being opened to those topics at an early age change a kid who had a good life.

My favorite author these days is Charles de Lint who writes similar stories without the veneer of being a kid's book and they're ugly. _Widershins_ might be the best book I've ever read, but it was the hardest too. It as about a middle aged woman, who was sexually abused as a child, being pulled - magically and physically - into her own subconscious where her abuser held the godlike power she gave him as a little girl. It is brutally ugly, and I had to take pauses and read other things because it triggered me, but worth reading.


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## PercyD (Jul 4, 2020)

hara-surya said:


> You'd be surprised how much being opened to those topics at an early age change a kid who had a good life.
> 
> My favorite author these days is Charles de Lint who writes similar stories without the veneer of being a kid's book and they're ugly. _Widershins_ might be the best book I've ever read, but it was the hardest too. It as about a middle aged woman, who was sexually abused as a child, being pulled - magically and physically - into her own subconscious where her abuser held the godlike power she gave him as a little girl. It is brutally ugly, and I had to take pauses and read other things because it triggered me, but worth reading.


I feel like these sorts of stories, especially when done correctly, help us to become more empathetic and understanding. And we could always use more of that in the world~.

Though, I'm more an escapist these days, myself.


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## hara-surya (Jul 4, 2020)

PercyD said:


> I feel like these sorts of stories, especially when done correctly, help us to become more empathetic and understanding. And we could always use more of that in the world~.
> 
> Though, I'm more an escapist these days, myself.



That's all I have to say about that. It's derailing from the original post.


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