Thursday, March 1, 2012

A quick note/update.

I want to go ahead and make a quick comment here as an addition to my apparently outraging previous entry on here regarding "furries" and FurryMUCK. The entry that all the "furries" out there still using my name to push their group want to bury someplace and forget.

In response to the avalanche of email (how the heck DO you "furries" keep getting my most private email addresses, anyway?!) regarding it: first off, I meant every word that I said, and I still do. Despite any claims any of you "furries" made and continue to make, I have not, never have been, and never will be a "furry" and/or in your group. Since I myself am the one writing about the matter, I would think you'd all be inclined to believe it. But frankly, I've lost track of how many times I've had the subject brought up and my having to answer each and every single time that the answer is NO. You "furries" who insist on saying and believing otherwise need to seriously go have a long, long talk with a mental health professional. My message also clearly states that I never once "sought you all out" and in fact never even knew you people had existed; you dragged me in, again contrary to what you "furries" say.

Another thing that I wish to comment on: while using a search engine to check on my pages' "search" status, I accidentally saw that my name had been used yet again in connection with the whole "furry" bit. The post itself is over here and was written by someone calling themselves "m_estrugo". The mention says in its entirety (so I don't get accused of deliberately chopping anything out):

"Back in 1995, furry art was much more different than it is now. Cartoony stuff, like the one I draw, was much more appreciated than it is now and people didn't take furry art so seriously. Of course, there was porn and the stuff by then already, but in a much smaller proportion. And there was a bigger proportion of talented artists, like Bob Guthrie, Taral Wayne, Craig Carrington, Daphne Lage, and many others were active and on the heyday of their popularity within furry fandom. Furry fandom was a much more attractive place to be."

Where to begin... okay, sir or madame, whichever the case may be, please keep in mind that I'm trying to be polite in my response to the above here and not being in any way attacking or sarcastic. And I certainly don't mean to knock you or your obviously well-intentioned compliment on my work. But I must ask you, honestly: since when had I ever been active within "furry fandom"? I release two sections of a story in a book series for professional publication, and was pestered by some magazine or other to share a couple of pages of something, and that was it. I have never been a "furry", much less ever been to any of those "furry" things. So I'm asking in all seriousness, when was I ever "active" in it? I have not, was not, and never was. You can see my point, I'm sure. Or maybe I'm misreading your comment and maybe what you really meant to say was "many cartoon artists like these people were active during that time, and the furries happened to really like them", as I see your message can be taken that way as well. I personally would prefer to assume it's the latter. And believe you me, I never once had a "heyday" of my "popularity" within "furry fandom"; not unless you count my persistently being attacked and harassed during that awful decade from weirdos who made it clear they didn't care for what I myself was doing, but for what they wanted to get me to do for them. I am certainly not aware of any "heyday of popularity". As far as I know, my "heyday" of popularity was back during the eighties in my teenage years home in the Bay Area, and that was with local friends with whom I have an appreciative audience. No offense meant in my reply to you, I just wanted to point that out.

This seems like a good enough time to briefly bring up the "furries"' "you're a furry now" syndrome. I was shocked when I eventually found out that back in the nineties the second I got my work first published at all, I, as well as three other friends of mine (nothing will induce me to tell you who they are), had all been insta-assigned "furry" status. We were all suddenly being called "furries" and our work "furry art", and none of us have ever wanted to be connected with or be associated with the group anyway. I don't know what delusions the "furries" have here, but they seem to make anyone whom they consider good an automatic "furry" whether or not they want to be one.