Ya Know What I Hate? How In Science Fiction If There Are Aliens And Humans, Then The Humans Are Ultra

A preamble to the live reading of Hunter’s Moon/The Foxes of Firstdark by Garry Kilworth

As a work within what I’m going to be calling the mythic subgenre of naturalist animal xenofiction (as coined by YouTube user Cardinal West on his excellent video detailing the history of the genre), mythic NAX for short, one of the primary appeals of a book such as Hunter’s Moon/The Foxes of Firstdark should lie in how the author incorporates real biology and behavior of the animals he’s writing about onto the fictional human-like society he’s constructing.

Thus, before we dive into the live reading on the blog, I thought it’d be good for us all to be more aware of actual fox behavior so that we may better appreciate the bits of real animal behavior incorporated into the text and recognize the artistic liberties taken by the author. I’m writing a short distillation of my preliminary research done on the following four webpages:

https://www.nwf.org/educational-resources/wildlife-guide/mammals/red-fox

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/red-fox

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/understand-fox-behaviour/

https://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/animals/article/red-fox-behaviour-the-social-hierarchy

Obviously, as a Warriors fan, I’m not too demanding about biological accuracy in my mythic NAX novels, but I still expect the authors to incorporate it in some way. The Erin Hunter team’s portrayal of a feral cat colony may not be completely accurate but it shows in places they are at least aware of the basics of how they operate.

I’m also not a biologist nor do I have any particular knowledge of foxes, so I’m doing all this preliminary research from scratch. Obviously, I’m not going to go super in depth or go into super academic sources. This is, afterall, being done for fun.

Distillation of my research unde the cut:

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This guy nails it right on the head.

Check out his content, folks! He does incredible work and it is criminal he has so few subscribers. 

For aspiring writers of Xenofiction, I IMPLORE you, do NOT write like this. Note Cardinal’s SAGE advice, read from the best writers (Subjective of course, but still) and take a leaf out of their books. 

We need more games where you play as animals.

Regular animals.

Cyborg animals.

Alien animals.

I don’t care. Just more animals please.

love stories about monsters are THE BEST because the idea of conceptualizing love in a way that is not human and fundamentally cannot be human and is AN ENTIRELY SEPARATE LEVEL FROM THE HUMAN is so great. 

made better when one half of the relationship is human and suddenly we’re dealing with a) a human learning to love like a monster or b) a monster learning to translate their love into human terms and that’s

the best thing

to me.

which often goes hand in hand with MONSTER TRYING TO HUMANIZE THEMSELVES but that’s.. not necessary, don’t worry monster, you don’t need to do that. your capacity for love does not need to be whittled and softened into a human shape. it’s okay. your heart can be brutal and all consuming. you will learn to cope and you will learn to funnel it, pieces at a time, into something conceivable and measurable to the human mind. 

and i don’t strictly mean monster monsters because there’s room here for divinity (alpha and omega, first and last, holy terror OF THE HEART. apocalypses OF FEELING.) or ghosts, or non-human, non-monster outliers (superheroes, androids, idek), or even human beings who are self-made monsters and whose expression and understanding of love is two steps removed and two shades off. 

but, you know what i mean. 

love stories about monsters.

How I Play and Interpret Kenku

How I Play and Interpret Kenku

The kenku in the Dungeons and Dragons game are fun and interesting. I’ve put a lot of thought in to how the kenku curse manifests and how I play the details of how it works. I haven’t done a lot of research into the background of the characters, this is all personal headcanon. I understand the kenku’s curse not to just be on their ability to literally speak, but to clearly or intentionally…

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kinda tired of “human” apparently being the endgame goal for all non-human entities. why is calling them “human” the highest praise they can receive in fiction. angels, demons, robots, aliens, etc. becoming literally human or being as close to human as possible is always considered the pinnacle of personal emotional achievement or something. it makes me uncomfortable.

why is there so much fiction that claims angels and robots cannot TRULY know what “human” experience is like until they themselves are human?? why do you think non-human entities can’t be passionate about music or art until they’re human. what part of these activities strikes anyone as exclusive to humanity in the first place. literally what the shit is that entire set of tropes and themes 

Ok, so, as most know hobbits LOVE mushrooms, but what if they love ALL mushrooms, even the poisonous ones. What if a hobbit’s body is able to handle more of the poison and it doesn’t affect them at all. And they love it!

I'm still a Believer! for Metropolis Speedway

Hi! I'm trying to write a fic where the main characters, who are normally human, are now animals. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to keep them in character though, since certain things they could do before, they can't now (ie. no hands, can't do certain things humans can, etc.) I'd very much welcome any advice, since I'm close to deciding this story idea is at a dead-end. Thanks!

Is this a fic where humans are suddenly turned into animals and now trying to deal with their new forms? Or is this an AU where the cast just are animals and that’s the world that they live in all the time? I’d write those in very different ways.

If this is an animal AU, and that’s a very doable thing. Just think about animated films. Even though the characters are animals doing very animal things, they also maintain personalities that are familiar to humans. 

If it’s a case of humans being transformed into animals, then they’ll need to spend time (and probably get frustrated) figuring out how to do things in their new bodies. No opposable thumbs means they’ll need to find another way to turn a doorknob, for example. No ability to talk means that they won’t be able to utter passwords for electronic locks. 

I haven’t written this kind of fic before, so I’ll open up the floor to see who else can add thoughts here. This could be a really interesting challenge for you, anon, so I hope you don’t give up!