Foster's Freeze?

[athelind]

Okay, there's something I've long heard in the Rumor Mill, but I haven't really been able to find even peripheral documentation.



Alan Dean Foster is possibly one of the most "furry" mainstream SF writer out there -- or perhaps he's the most mainstream Furry writer out there. Like many writers of his era, his SF books have anthropomorphic animals presented as "aliens", though even more prevalent than in the works of Larry Niven or C.J. Cherryh. His Spellsinger series of fantasy novels are even closer to the "Furry" genre, presenting a fantasy world populated not merely with cat-like and lizard-like aliens, but actual anthropomorphic turtles, tigers, otters and so forth.

In 1995, Mr. Foster was Guest of Honor at Conference 6 in Irvine.

I have heard that he was so horrified by his exposure to the fandom as represented by ConFurence's notoriously over-the-top attendees that he vowed never to associate himself with that particular subset of the lunatic fringe again.

I first heard this as an offhand explanation of why we'd never see Foster as the GoH of Further Confusion, despite his work.

I'm just asking for endless flame wars in my LJ, aren't I? First, I ask for OS recommendations; then, I ask about something that, true or not, is almost certainly a majro controversy in fandom.

Comments

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

I was at CF6, in fact it was my second con ever, and I remember attending the panel that Alan Dean Foster was at, we talked about Quozl and a bunch of his other books. He didn't look like someone who was 'horrified'. Maybe afterwards he just said "Enh, it's not for me" or something, but I don't think he actually ran screaming.

Furry cons are really no more shocking than any other fannish convention.

As for controversy, I think this one's a cold, dead issue, hell CF6 was nine years ago. Bill Holbrook is another GoH who was at Anthrocon this year, and I've seen him around at multiple cons, maybe he's cool with it, while ADF isn't?

[baxil.livejournal.com]

All I can offer is that I've heard a very similar rumor about Mike Kazaleh -- which appears, with a quick Web search, to be false, seeing as how he was a GoH for ConFurence 12, long after he supposedly was driven away. (Unless my rumor mill had the date wrong ...?)

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

This is a very old rumor, and there's some support for this from Mark Merlino himself. We talked about it some after that CF. I did run into Mr. Foster in the art show at that con, and had a short convo with him. He seemed out of his depth, but that was just my impression of the moment. Being out of one's depth hardly equates to a lifetime grudge.

-- ArchTeryx

[jakebe.livejournal.com]

I've heard variances of this rumor for a little bit now, though this is the most concrete version I've heard so far. :) I'm not really sure of it's verity, though if it *is* true I'd be quite bummed; A.D. Foster was my favorite writer as a teenager and indirectly responsible for bringing me into furry in the first place. He still has a high place on my bookshelf for this. ;)

Which reminds me, I should complete my Spellsinger collection...

-J