Furry Writers' Guild Forum

Even Furries Hate Nazis

​Thurston Howl Publications is now accepting submissions for its furry anthology, Even Furries Hate Nazi. This anthology is edited by Kate Watts.

Deadline: February 15, 2019
Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable

All too often, furries are dismissed as hypersexual fetishists or children who just never grew up. Yet like any other group, the fandom is incredibly diverse–and like any other group, we vote. Unsurprisingly, then, with the rise of “alt-furs,” many in the fandom have marshaled active resistance to pro-Nazi sentiments both within and beyond the fandom. Furries attending Anthrocon 2018 wore badges telling Nazi furs to f*ck off; furries on Twitter proudly declare themselves anti-Nazi; Dogpatch Press has called out any hate group that disgraces the fandom. The cultural moment is ripe for a principled stand against fascism–and the time is now to offer furries a creative venue for their anti-Nazi views to flourish. We welcome all genres of fiction for this anthology, from science fiction to historical fiction to fantasy, horror, and romance. It is perfectly fine but not required if submissions are NSFW. However, again, adult stories are by no means required for acceptance. All story submissions must be “furry” in nature.

We will NOT accept:
Racism, sexism, or discrimination presented in a positive light.
Pedophilia or sex with characters under the age of 18 presented in a positive light.
Rape, torture, dubious consent, forced seduction presented in a positive light.
Snuff or Necrophilia presented in a positive light
Bestiality presented in a positive light
If you are in doubt, ASK. Better to ask then to get a straight up rejection! If you are unsure, just shoot me an email at kate.thurstonhowlpub@gmail.com. (restrictions borrowed from Voice: https://t.co/MWykJ6RY36)

You can submit up to three stories, but we will only accept one per author (if any).
Reprints are fine, but you have to own full permission of the work in order for us to consider it.
We will not accept simultaneous submissions.
Payment: Authors will receive a free copy of the print book.
Send submissions in .doc or .docx format to kate.thurstonhowlpub@gmail.com.
Title your email with “EVEN FURRIES HATE NAZIS.” If you are sending more than one submission, send multiple emails instead of putting them all in one.
We will inform all authors regarding decisions within a week or two after the deadline.
Book will likely be released in the spring.

I hope to contribute. I’d love to be part of this.

I do not know if I will contribute, but you shall enjoy my full support.

Sounds like an interesting submission call! Will you take stories about heroic opposition to socialism, “national” or otherwise?

Hell to the no. THP loves socialism. :slight_smile:

I’m puzzled; perhaps that reply was a joke? Are you for or against people following the ideology of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party? Surely you know that “fascism” refers to the state ideology of WWII Italy rather than Germany, so by using the term you must have meant to refer to totalitarian ideologies that involve absolute State power in general, right? It might help us writers for you to clarify.

Some scholars would argue that Nazism is a related, but different thing than fascism, however in the public consciousness the terms are often used interchangeably. In addition, Howl would not be the only publisher in the fandom to include Nazi Germany as a fascist country. The same definition was used in Werewolves Versus Fascism, which printed stories against Nazis and included the product name of NaziChomper in the link. Where I have seen both terms used separately is in “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder who often in the book included the words “fascism” and “Nazism” next to each other in the text for clarity on his meaning.

Were the Nazis socialists? That appears to have been a disinformation tactic used to attract people. Snopes has a good write up on this question you may wish to read. (They also refer to Nazi Germany as fascist.) Even if you disagree and believe Nazis are socialists, THP is a left leaning press, and I know that editor for the anthology does not believe that.

I’d like to point out that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is not Democratic, nor a Republic, nor for the people. Names can falsely indicate ideological buzzwords that absolutely don’t align with the true political ideology of the group.

I’m going to step in here at this point.

The history of “Nazism” vs. “Socialism” is long and deep and, frankly, pretty well-known at this point. Whatever one thinks of socialism, nazis were not socialists; in Hitler’s own words,

So let’s dispense with the pretense that this man’s political worldview was more or less in line with Marx’s, all right?

And, bluntly, I use the word pretense advisedly, because the argument that “nazi = national socialist = socialist” is well-established as ahistorical nonsense, and as much as I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt, it is extremely hard to believe that “why, if you want to publish stories about fighting nazis, you must surely be interested in publishing stories about fighting socialists” was posed in good faith rather than being a thrown verbal bomb intended to start a political squabble.

So let’s defuse the bomb. The makers of Castle Wolfenstein are not obligated to put in shock troops led by Bernie Sanders, people who make memes with that Hitler bunker clip from “Downfall” are not obligated to go find a ranting clip of Fidel Castro in the interest of making it all fair and balanced, and Thurston Howl is not obligated to include stories about how socialism can also lead to dystopia in an anthology about fighting nazis. In part because nazis are not socialists, and in part because it’s his damn anthology.

Further discussion about how noted socialist George Orwell was actually an alt-right agitator should be taken elsewhere.

I presume the call is for stories that stand against white supremacists, people who are okay with genocide, and political views that advocate exploitation of races they arbitrarily deem inferior. That is what the Nazis stood for. It’s a sign of the times that this needs to be clarified.

Let’s get a clarification from the person running the anthology. What exactly do you want to see in the submitted stories? Opposition to racism? Or people dumb enough to use swastikas as their symbol? If that’s what you mean, say it. See, Chipotle, the original call for submissions says:

we vote... The cultural moment is ripe for a principled stand against fascism...
And there have been repeated violent attacks by black-clad gangs beating people up and setting things on fire on the grounds that people they disagree with are "fascists" and violence is morally okay against them. The people getting attacked have in fact [i]not[/i] generally been advocates of racism or killing anybody, so the definition of that word has apparently expanded and become so vague that a large share of the US is now in danger of being labeled that way. Publishing a book that pushes this meme is fanning the flames.

We have here a publisher who calls for stories about “fascism”, specifically says it’s an especially important topic right now, and talks about voting, to connect in-fandom stuff with larger political disputes. You can play “no true Scotsman” about these ideologies if you like, and insist that your preferred version has absolutely nothing to do with those Bad People over there. Fine. But let’s get the publisher to give us a specific definition of what kind of immoral ideas the collection is supposed to be about. Thurston Howl, would you perhaps like to specify you want material opposing racism or one particular flavor of totalitarian government, or particular symbols, or something else?

Otherwise, I’m pretty sure the book’s going to be full of stories implying that roughly half the US consists of evil fascist Nazi monsters, and I’m getting sick of hearing that. (Or do you really not plan to run anything with a positive portrayal of “Antifa” or the like? I’d be pleasantly surprised.) Since that concept is already getting people violently attacked, it’s not a great idea to publish a book like that if you’re trying to oppose hatred and violence.

fascism - https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fascism

Nazi - https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nazi

Submit a story that speaks against these things, and you meet the stated requirements.

I still do not understand why people are obsessed with Antifa but not the KKK or neo-Nazis, both of whom have harmed far, far more people over the previous century than Antifa allegedly has. If this collection is full of people making a stand against extreme racism (in all its forms) and oppressive dictatorship (in all its forms), that can only be a good thing.

You are suggesting people on the American left are conflating average American conservatives with Nazis. A decade ago, that would probably be fair! But in 2018, we have actual real neo-Nazis in American political life. When people say “Nazi” today, I tend to give them a generous reading and assume that they do not mean people who voted for Jeb Bush and disapprove of ObamaCare. Instead, I assume they mean actual goddamn Nazis. Again, I would prefer not to litigate this point in this thread, because I don’t really want this to descend into a political shouting match. But if we don’t want people to assume we are nefariously hiding a horrible agenda, we must not assume the same of others. (Also, I don’t want this to become a pile-on. I think the majority of folks here are likely to agree that by “Nazi” they really mean “Nazi,” and they may get rather vocal about it if they feel like you’re insisting that’s not really what they mean.)

Maybe a “do the ends justify the means” story about an Antifa-like group might be fine for this anthology; not my call. But at the end of the day, do you truly want to be arguing that the desired goal of ending fascism needs some kind of counterbalance? As I recall, there was a group leading a violent resistance to fascism during World War II. Back then, though, they weren’t called “Antifa.” They were called the Allies.

I’ll let Thurston Howl have a last word if he wants to (but do keep it civil, please–while this thread has been strident, it’s mostly avoided getting personal, and I’d like to keep it that way). But if this gets any more acrimonious, I will put on my admin hat.

I’m saying there are violent thugs physically attacking people and destroying property while shouting that everyone who opposes them are “fascists” and “Nazis”, and that violence against anybody they choose to hit with that odd and a-historical label is OK. No, the hostility is not being confined to actual members of a National Socialist Workers’ Party, German or otherwise. Nor are the people casting their net dangerously wide just some tiny fringe movement, and we seem to have even a disagreement about whether groups like “Antifa” are in fact trying to end “fascism” or impose it under another name. So, I have to wonder if this is a book about people we’d all agree are Bad People, or if it’ll end up smearing innocents. Perhaps even promoting violence against them.

In this case the publisher has used a vague and overused label about who he wants stories to criticize, while mentioning voting so that outside-the-fandom politics got dragged in.

So, let’s get a specific statement assuring us that this isn’t a pro-Antifa thug book or one smearing, say, anybody who opposes illegal immigration. I would love to be surprised and learn that the book is really only looking for something narrower than the way these epithets are getting thrown around in the real world.

Hi, Kris. If you are confused, I would respectfully suggest that maybe you don’t need to submit anything to this anthology, and then you don’t have to worry about it. Alternately, as with any anthology, you can make your best guess as to what the theme means, submit your story, and let the editor decide if it’s suitable. Chipotle has already asked that we stop the political discussion in this thread, so that’s all I’m going to say on the matter.