Yes, what it says in the title.

As you have no doubt observed, the "Gallery" button has moved. The reason I have no doubt is because, this site is about how you press on the "Gallery" button and see pictures. That's what this site is about, and you're on this site. Anyway, every time I try to press the "Gallery" button, I catch myself hovering on the brink of pressing the "Favorites", and admittedly there's nothing wrong with the "Favourites" button; I have nothing personal against it, large though it is, and what is large is disproportionately mishapen, and while I should add that there is always the frightful possibility that I might click on it someday, which would NOT be good (assuming views are good, because when people go to your favorites gallery you lose views), I suppose I could endure it; however, when I want to click on the "Gallery" button, I do NOT want my mouse to hover over the "Favorites" button. That's NOT what I want.

Now I know what you're thinking: you're thinking, "You're making a big deal out of nothing and wasting my time. Imagine how it used to be, when you clicked on the 'Gallery' button. You often hovered your mouse over the 'Favorites' button on accident. So you see that only insofar as you hover your mouse over the 'Favorites' button do you enter the 'Gallery' at all. This change makes clear what was hidden before." But you're wrong. 'Hover' doesn't mean the mouse is just _over_ the button. You add an H, and that changes it completely. But if you take out the R and add an AB, then it doesn't change. So that's what's bad about how the "Gallery" button moved. There's no H in Gallery, or in Favorites: H is _after_ both of them. So you see that hovering over the "Favorites" button has nothing to do with entering the gallery.

Here's something else that's bad: I can't remember which buttons used to be up there, and what were they. That question is what makes being on FA painful. "Which buttons used to be up there, and what were they?" I wonder, like a bad song repeating itself in my head.

I might leave FA because of this matter. Tomorrow, at 9:10AM, I might go to my room and scream because of this. I might open FA, look through my favorites gallery, find a favorite that got deleted by its user, and unfavorite it. That's the plain truth, because I don't believe in using euphemisms, which only cause our true feelings to be suppressed, and that's why I didn't mince my words.

The above is the truth, it isn't my opinion. You should respect people's opinions, but this isn't my opinion, it's the truth. So you can be disrespectful all you want, because you agree that it's the truth, not my opinion.

While browsing, I found an interesting new furry fiction archive. It's called

www.furrag.com

Though quiet, it still has some activity, and it is one of the most polished and extensive archives I've found. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

crawlers have noticed me. a man emailed me, politely welcoming me to the world wide cobweb. he said he did not often find lizards, and i should pose with women. i explained that was impossible. the man said he could fix that and that he would pay me for pictures. i said plainly that i was not designed to desire such things, had no interest in satisfying the fantasies of human adolescents, and that he could offer me nothing to make my life better. i received no respond yet. i think it was a bot, and i might try to confuse it.

more seriously, i wonder if others might be noticing me. the usdbl might find me and punish me. there are several stations near a town called burns. that is good. but they may try to find out which out i am at. i shall set up routers and delayed messaging to make it harder for me to be tracked.

i like it here more and more. it is cold, but the quiet is good. to be alone and not ordered by my boss is good. i can work on repairing the station and not hurry. i am learning many things from the wireless internet. i am learning about mathematics and bionics and physics and stories and roads and uhlm and other things.

so alone... so cold... be sorrow...

oh well, i'm not good at being dramatic. see, i do hl+t for the usdbl, and i just got transfered and i hate it. i have to work in a station with snow and ice and icicles everywhere, and it's very cold. i hate cold, i'm a lizard after all. i have a space heater fortunately, because the power is down. i'm the only one working here and the nearest town is burns, which is down the mountain. i guess i'll be lonely until i fix the power. it's the first time i've been away from my family for long.

this station has a connection to the wireless internet, also called the world wide web. if you are reading this, you know what that is. it's like a ghost planet, a world wide cobweb. so many flashing lights and frivolous or grand things, day-to-day silliness and vast projects, left lying around. it's like a picture was taken of the entire world a long time ago. well, except for the broken sites. and i guess it's not completely empty. some people still crawl it. old spiders and me, a curious lizard.

i would say i hate my life... but that means you want things, but you don't have them. you could have friends or a lover or an easy job or no job or other things, and you deserve them, but you can't because you were born poor or your house burned down or people are racist. but i do not deserve good things and can never have them. i am made to do what i am doing. maybe i hate what i am. but no, i do not hate it, only i think it is not good.

still, i am fortunate. my family loves me. that is something some normal people do not have. also, i have a friend who is normal. his family thinks i am some kind of stray and they feed me better than usdbl. but i am not his pet, we are friends. how many lizards have friends who are humans? he lies on my back and tells me things, and i am so happy and sad... so very happy and sad, like fire. and my boss is fair. she smiled at me once. also, in the us, i am not allowed to be dismantled.

i should not spend too long on the wireless internet... it drains my energy. but i will be here a while, so i will post sometimes.

Recently, I've been amazed at the number of excellent artists here on FA that I've never seen. True, it's hardly surprising that I've missing some of the many brilliant but (as yet) obscure artists. And it's true, on the other hand, that I do find myself running across certain artists again and again, quite on accident -- balaa, for instance.



But what is surprising is when suddenly, for the first time, I run into someone like  iPoke. His 100,000 page view count suggests he is popular, and his 729 submissions over 4 years (i.e. an average of two days between submissions) that he is prolific. Yet I have never seen him before! The same with  hibbary.



And despite what I said, I am still a little surprised, perhaps not that I find obscure but good artists for the first time, but that I find so many. For instance, just in the last week or two I've come across  Archir,  AnnieHyena,  Kosh,  rednight, and  coyox -- all of whom have at least a minimum of technical skill, as well as fairly unique styles and subjects.



Curious, eh? Then again, perhaps it's because I don't explore enough ;).

I'll probably have difficulty visiting FA for a while -- sorry to disappoint you, my vast crowd of adoring fans! It is only temporary -- but here are some quotes to think about in the mean time:

“The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed and black,
While the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair.
Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw,
And could sculpt like men, then the horses would draw their gods
Like horses, and cattle like cattle; and each they would shape
Bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of their own.”
- Fragments, Xenophanes

“Those quiet weeks, the mere living among the hrossa, are to me the main thing that happened. I know them, Lewis; that's what you can't get into a mere story. [...] For example, can I make even you understand how I know, beyond all question, why it is that the Malacandrians don't keep pets and, in general, don't feel about their 'lower animals' as we do about ours? Naturally it is the sort of thing they themselves could never have told me. One just sees why when one sees the three species together. Each of them is to the others both what a man is to us and what an animal is to us. They can talk to each other, they can cooperate, they have the same ethics; to that extent a sorn and a hross meet like two men. But then each finds the other different, funny, attractive as an animal is attractive. Some instinct starved in us, which we try to soothe by treating irrational creatures almost as if they were rational, is really satisfied in Malacandra. They don't need pets.”
- Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis

“The beast-fable has, of course, a connection with fairy-stories. Beasts and birds and other creatures often talk like men in real fairy-stories. In some part (often small) this marvel derives from one of the primal 'desires' that lie near the heart of Faërie: the desire of men to hold communion with other living things. But the speech of beasts in the beast-fable has developed into a separate branch, has little reference to that desire, and often wholly forgets it. The magical understanding by men of the proper languages of birds and beasts and trees, that is much nearer to the true purposes of Faërie.”
- On Fairy-Stories, J.R.R. Tolkien.

The word 'furry', like the word 'artist', has many meanings. We call painters 'artists'; but by extension also sculptors, engravers, and the like. We call home decorators 'artists' of a sort, and even those who write stories or poetry or music are sometimes labeled 'artists'. All share in common, however, the notion of creative designing or forming. As with 'artist', so the word 'furry' is used in many different ways. We shall here consider what the major divisions are, and what is common to all of them.

In general, something is said to be 'furry' if it involves or concerns creatures having characteristics both distinctly human and distinctly animal – especially mammalian animals, though birds and reptiles are fairly common too. Most often, the creature has an overall humanoid body structure with such additions as fur, tail, inverse-jointed legs, pointed head, perhaps wings, etc. – an 'anthro', in other words – but sometimes one sees the opposite: an overall quadrupedal or avian body structure with such human characteristics as reason, hand-like paws, society, crafts, etc. That the creature be rational or at least have human-like intelligence seems absolutely necessary, as far as I can tell. Now that we have a vague definition of furry (not that you really needed it) we can consider the major divisions.


Yiff/Vore – What yiff means is clear enough; I will only add that it is characteristic of yiff that it arouse lust or libido or whatever, i.e. it is designed to be provocative. Nor will I give a particular examples, since it should be clear enough. I only mention it at all to say that I won't discuss it.


Cute/Romantic – By 'cute' I mean pleasing on account of some innocence or freshness. By 'romantic' I mean related to the attraction between sexes, but not in a specifically lustful way. Though these are distinct, they have a remarkable way of going together in furry art. I do believe it is because all people have a special tendency to regard animals, especially mammalians, as 'cute', provided they are safe. Somehow animals seem to retain their innocence throughout life. Yet by giving them human-like qualities, we can take them seriously or treat them as equals, as we cannot with animals, which makes romance possible. Indeed, any romance will tend to be cute for that very reason. At any rate, this seems to be one of the most prominent forms of furry art, and one that furries are most interested in.

Both cuteness and romance may include yiff, though not necessarily so. It might seem hard to distinguish romance from yiff, but the difference is arousal of passion. It is quite possible to draw a romantic scene not intended to arouse any passion in the viewer. Nonetheless, yiff and cuteness and romance are closely connected, and it is rare to see one without at least mild traces of the other two.

Examples of cuteness:
World of Warcraft: Faerie Dragon
Fox in the Snow
Examples of romance – note how they tend to be cute also:
Wolf Mates VII
Puppy Love
Castlevania


Soaring – By 'soaring' I mean artworks centering on the flight of flying creatures through the great dome of the sky, often amidst clouds. While fairly uncommon, this kind of art is probably second only to cuteness/romance in being distinctly furry. To fly like a bird with one's body, to feel the aerodynamics, while possessing the reason to appreciate it and feel the peace or excitement – this seems to fit well with the combination of human and animal properties that defines furry.

Freud aside, there seems to be no connection between soaring and yiff – quite the opposite, as far as I can tell. Cuteness and romance, too, seem rare, simply because soaring touches an emotion more serious than these. Indeed, I would even suggest that all of them – yiff, cuteness, and romance – are tied together and originate from a single characteristic or emotion, while soaring arises from a different, though associated, one.

Examples:
The Light into Earth
Cloud Surfing
Night Flight
Dream of Flying
As a counter-example of 'romantic soaring':
Summer Flight
As a counter-example of 'cute soaring':
Sunrise


World-Building – Perhaps 'world-building' is not the best word; I mean by it designing furry creatures, crafting the details of their anatomy, psychology, society, and so forth. Also writing stories which involve such creatures. This seems to be specifically furry, because we design creatures that appear and act in ways far difference from ourselves, yet are rational. We explore the variations of creatures that are strange but make sense, that are different but beautiful, or whatever.

World-building differs from yiff/cute/romantic in that it is not so concerned with appearance, as they are – for while they focus on the individual pose of an individual critter, world-building is more interested in the general arrangement, structure, and story of a kind. It differs too from soaring, since it obviously doesn't concern the grandeur of flight. Nothing prevents world-building from having these qualities in addition, of course.

Note that I have a special interest in world-building, and hence may be slightly skewing this account towards my own preferences.

Examples:
Pandragon Early Rough
Thunder-Rott
Malleus Lycantropicum 11 - Symbiosis
The Lost World of Paruda - Map
Writing on Water
Summer Rain
Here in this Place


Role Playing/Fursuiting – 'Fursuiting' is wearing a anthro suit, with paws and fur and muzzle and so forth. 'Role playing' means creating a 'fursona' – a character or 'persona' which is a fur – and acting out its behavior as if one were that character. Both have in common that they concern the behavior of the author, rather than some art that he creates. They are furry because one is oneself human, but one takes on non-human properties – whether appearance in fursuiting, or persona in role playing.

It's clear that this differs from all the preceding because it is more a matter of acting oneself as something rather than creating an artwork. For this reason there is no necessary connection or opposition between this and yiff, cuteness, and romance. Soaring, for technical reasons, is not common, and world-building as also difficult due to expenses. I'm sure there's much more to say about this, but I do not understand it well enough to say any more.

Examples:
Cryo Fursuit
Daisuke Green Husky
Snow Spottycat


Minor – There are plenty of minor subclasses of furry, like fantasy (cf. Wrath of the Dragon), awe (cf. Relict of a Forgotten Time), pastoral/scenic (cf. Canyonlands and Dog's Day End), and doubtless many many more. But I do not wish to treat them separately, for two reasons. First, because there are far too many to treat in a reasonable length of time. But second, and more importantly, because I believe that for the most part they are either combinations of the above, or the combination of a furry interest with some non-furry interest (e.g. fantasy; even yiff technically falls under this category). However, I'll go through one subclass, namely 'humor', to give an example of what a more complete division would look like.

I'm not using 'humor' in the ordinary sense of the word. I mean any amusing or interesting or unexpected contrast based on the fact that the characters portrayed are furry. This can, for example, be jokes about playing with one's food; or it can be a scene rather ordinary (say a Matrix-style poster) excepting that the characters are furry. I suppose in-jokes qualify, though usually these are placed in avatars and not in actual artwork; but a 'fat' picture would be an example of a non-avatar in-joke. Humorous works are very common, and I dare say second most prominent after cute/romantic.

Examples:
Need a Lift?
Serenade of Love
Note how these are not 'funny' but put an anthro in an 'ordinary' scene:
Resolve
Beware the Demon Barber
Aryte


So that's the division. You have no doubt eagerly been waiting for me to say where I fit in it. (Voices from the crowd: No, we don't.) Right then, I'd call myself a fringe furry. As perhaps my gallery makes clear, I fall under the world-building category. I enjoy imagining, in vivid detail, how a world with (say) great rational lizards would work; what societies they would build; the politics that would go on between them and humans; their technology; and so on. Cuteness (not yiff) is nice too, provided it's not excessive or sentimental.

I have not touched on furry music or stories. Stories generally follow the same pattern as art, I believe. Music is more difficult, however, because the 'content' is not something we grasp discursively; it does not resolve into 'things' being portrayed. To speak of what characterizes furry music is an interesting question I cannot answer.

Another interesting question arises: given that 'furry' has these different senses, is there something common which unites them? Is there some common characteristic or emotion that gives rise to all these different manifestations? Or are they all quite different, like the 'bark' of a tree and the 'bark' of a dog? I do not know, but perhaps I'll think about it later.

Comments are welcome, especially objections, provided they be reasonable and include examples.


Edit: I just found a rather remarkable article called Furry Fandom Observed. To my pleasure it matches up very well with what I said here (though using a different order), but it also brought up a point I had not thought of before: that what I call 'Soaring' might be one subclass of a general category 'Envy'. In other words, flight is just one of many abilities unique to animals, any of which may be interesting when joined with rationality.