File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2004/postcolonial.0410, message 13


From: "Rashmi K" <rarara-AT-graffiti.net>
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 16:27:25 +0800
Subject: RE: new directions in poco


While we're on the subject of the intersections between postcolonial theory, radical ecology, and the applications it might have in the blurring of boundaries between human and nonhuman, might I suggest that there's a case study of a geeky subculture that embodies many of those issues, in some capacity: furry fandom. Is anyone familiar with it?

I won't write up a detailed introduction to furry fandom here, but there are a number of places to get an idea of what it's like:
The best starting-point would be PeterCat's Furry Info Page: http://www.tigerden.com/~infopage/furry/
Of special interest is Manawolf's furry lifestyle page -- http://www.firstlight.net/~chythar/manawolf/articles/furry.htm -- which does state some of the assumptions behind anthropomorphisation as a tendency in human culture, assumptions which would be of interest to scholars of that boundary between human and nonhuman.

Perhaps the eccentric hobbies of a few obsessive artists and fans isn't as crucual to global wellbeing as eco-criticism, but it's still interesting to witness some of the permutations of the abstract concepts being discussed on lists like this within human culture/s and subculture/s. Playfulness, after all, is also a means of subversion.

-Rashmi
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