I watched my father as he read the synopsis for my debut book, A Portrait For Tomorrow. “Gerald Waller is a… is a lion…”
He read this and there was the subtlest furrow of confusion on his brow. The question never came up. The one I’d been banking on getting. Yet I recognized the confusion in dad’s eyes and sensed the question, ‘Wait, they’re animals?’
Obviously, the cover is a bit of a giveaway that this is indeed a work featuring anthropomorphic characters (or furries), but some may have questions about the world and its rules and I figured I’d take a moment to shed some light on it for those who aren’t familiar with this kind of story (of which, there are many others by very, very talented people).
A Portrait For Tomorrow features animal characters with human qualities, this is very much loud and clear. Humans don’t exist in this world. The best way I can explain it is that it’s Disney’s Zootopia with an adult story and contemporary setting. There is no magic. The setting is a fictionalized version of my home town, West Palm Beach, but it is very much grounded in reality.
In terms of the walks of life in this world, I’ve settled on a wide spectrum of furry mammals. Foxes, lions, bears, raccoons, possums, badgers, wolves, coyotes, boars. These are just a few that I can come up with that I’ve decided walk and talk. Insects, avians, aquatic mammals, and certain livestock unfortunately have not evolved past what we here in the real world are used to.
But what about this world’s history? Surely, if it’s set in the United States, has many musical and art references, the history mirrors our own world, right? And here is where I’ve taken a step back and decided to let you, dear reader, interpret yourself. Did women have suffrage in this world? Was there a civil rights movement based on species? Does racism exist? Did both World Wars happen? I think about these questions and have some answers to, but they’re not important to the work and I figure it could make for a fun conversation for others to have.
The big question some of you might have could probably be summed with one word: Why?
Why make them animals at all? While I would rather just say, ‘Because I felt like it,’ I feel there’s another aspect to making the characters this way. First, in a way, there’s an emotional edge to it that I personally found intensified the narrative. I remember writing a fox protagonist for an unpublished children’s book years ago, but swapped him out for a human. My husband remarked, on reading it both ways, that, “Something got lost when the fox was taken out.” There’s something about animals that make me care a little more about them when they have human qualities. When they speak, have wants and fears, and succeed, I’m endeared to them on some deeper level.
There’s also a sort of Aesop Fable slant to it. With animal characters, you can play around with their characteristics. Turn them on their head. Dress them up in clothes they otherwise wouldn’t wear. Gerald has aspects of a sort of cowardly lion, and his insecurities become the core conflict of his hero’s journey. Michael is very much a curious and bright fox, but there’s a sincerity to him that isn’t nefarious or sneaky.
But really, I did it because I wanted to. Because it was fun. I know many will decry me trying to justify my creative decisions, but ultimately I just wanted to share my perspective and state of mind when writing this thing.
I’m not the first to have written this concept, nor will I be the last. Indeed, there is a plethora of furry literature whose spectrum ranges from cute fable to the adult, not-safe-for-work genre. Portrait is a story that, while anyone can read, it has adult protagonists with adult problems, adult language, but suggestive of sex and not explicit.
For some readers, this concept is nothing new. But for those in my personal life who have scratched their heads over the content, I hope this post clears up any confusion or answers the question, “Why are they animals?”
Leave a Reply