by writingrooster

What is the earliest story you remember ever being told? Was it Little Red Riding Hood? Maybe Alice in Wonderland? Whether you loved Goldilocks and The Three Bears or hated The Three Little Pigs, animal fiction is not only one of our first introductions to stories, but one of the oldest forms of storytelling in human history. Anthropomorphic fiction is, as far as we can tell, as old as humankind, with animal deities and characters gracing cave walls as far back as 40,000 years ago. Nearly every culture's creation myth involves animals: the Serpent in Eden, the Raven in Native American cultures, the Sumerian story of Bird and Fish. So even if our stories didn't originally involve animals, we decided to integrate animals into the story of our origins.

And animal stories don't stop with childhood. Almost every teenager knows the animals in The Chronicles of Narnia and The Golden Compass, and many boys have fallen in love with reading after discovering the Redwall series or the classic Watership Down. Then there are the animal stories written for adults that we might never recommend for children: the social commentary Ishmael, the brutal graphic novel Maus, Kafka's absurdist short Metamorphosis.

40,000 years on, anthropomorphic stories still stand the test of time. We're still reading them, we're still writing them, and above all, we're still enjoying them.

Some readers may think animal fiction always takes place in a forest or a farm. That's where animals live, right? But talking animal stories take place in realistic settings recognizable to us (Watership Down, Charlotte's Web), or in fantastical locales (Eragon, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). These tales exist in historical context (Black Beauty), alternative history (His Majesty's Dragon), or in sci-fi settings like deep space (The Cat from Outer Space). They can even go into microcosmic spaces, like The Bees by Laline Paull. Time is just as flexible, with stories taking place in the past, present, future, or parallel universes.

What's your favorite genre? Thriller? Mystery? Sci-fi? No matter what your tastes, chances are there's an anthropomorphic story in your most beloved genre. Stories with central animal characters range from action adventure to thriller to mystery to space opera. But many classic animal stories share a common theme no matter their genre: empathy. The ability to identify and empathize with other creatures figures heavily in animal fantasy, which is perhaps why many authors choose this format to deal with class conflict (Animal Farm), race (Maus), or simply compassion and corporate morality (The Plague Dogs, Fuzzy Nation). Animal stories are never really, at their core, about animals. They're about us, the human animal.

Which brings us to one of the cornerstones of any story: character. If you've ever had a pet, you'll know that no two animals are the same. Like humans, they all have their own idiosyncrasies, their unique fears, their pet peeves (pun intended). Characters in animal fiction range from the fluffy innocence of Thumper, to the booze loving fighter bear Iorik Bernison. They can be telepathic dragons, cowardly lions, or even genetically enhanced genius rats. The most memorable ones are probably those that have all the complexities of any well rounded human character, but who offer us a whole different world view from their "animal" perspective. Flora 717 is hard working, capable, and curious, but relegated to a demeaning sanitation worker role due to a strict hierarchy where you are born into your station, and never change. Sound like a story about a janitor in a dystopian future? Of course it does, and that might also be an interesting novel-but Flora 717 is a worker bee in the novel The Bees, and her hierarchy is the strict caste like system within the hive.

See how that animal perspective gives the story a new bent? One you don't get with a human protagonist? The world looks different when you're only a quarter inch high, or if you've got four legs.

There are plenty of classics in the genre, including some designated required reading in school (Watership Down, Black Beauty etc). But there are plenty of other series to discover. There's Firebringer, or the Warriors series, which was recently optioned for a film adaptation. There's also The Sight, about wolves, and One For Sorrow, Two For Joy, about a land of birds and the magpies who persecute them. For me, one of the most beautifully written novels that just happens to be anthropomorphic, is Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn. If you haven't read it, stop reading this and go read that.

Animal fiction is a very specific genre, one that no literary agent would recommend you enter, I'd bet. So why do I write it?

I remember reading Animal Farm and being blown away by the idea that so much could be expressed so simply, and via animals. Orwell's novel shattered my preconceptions that animal stories were just for children. They had the power to tackle subject matters too painful or complex to examine through human protagonists.

Writing from an animal's point of view gives a certain freedom. Because an animal story can hide, even more than regular fiction can, behind the façade of being make believe, you can explore many truly uncomfortable topics from a supposedly safe space. That said, this assumption of safety can also be a double-edged sword. Many people come to animal fiction believing it will be cuddly, bright, and have a happy ending. But the best animal fiction, the stuff that stays with me long after the last page, is edgy, dark, and holds a mirror up to humanity's good and bad.

Example of Anthropomorphic Fantasy on Wattpad:
THEO AND THE FORBIDDEN LANGUAGE
by writingrooster

Synopsis:

"Theo and the Forbidden Language" follows a rabbit with the secret ability to read and write, who teams with an axe-wielding bear to save animal-kind from being farmed. A cross between "Watership Down" and "Lord of the Rings," "Theo and the Forbidden Language" is a tale of adventure, courage, and the power of the written word.

Want to read more "Theo and the Forbidden Language"? Visit the author Melanie Ansley's website, at www.melanieansley.com, or read the tie-in novella, "The Queen and the Dagger", on Wattpad.

Excerpt:

The two travelers had been cautious, avoiding any settlements. Bears and rabbits rarely mixed, which was why the sight of the hulking male and his constant companion, a rabbit doe, drew side glances from the odd traveler they encountered.

The bear was young. Though some of his lighter cub fur remained, most of him had darkened to a mature black, the thick hairs like slivers of ebony. He peered into every shadow and bared his teeth menacingly at anyone who stared too long.

His companion wore a rough cowl to conceal her tapered white ears and the intricate blue tattoos that gave away her identity.

As they penetrated the forest's heart, they hadn't encountered another soul.

The bear was the first to sense something amiss. His upright hackles brought his companion to a halt behind him.

"Kuno?"

The bear rose onto his stout hind legs, sniffing the air to sort out the various smells of pine, moss, and damp wood rot.

"Something's not right," Kuno growled. He flicked his small round ears back and forth.

The rabbit could find no sign of danger in the surrounding foliage. Nevertheless, she drew her sword, the blade whispering as it left its scabbard.

For a moment neither moved. They stood, listening to the wind slither through the canopy of leaves above. A crow snapped his wings in flight somewhere close by.

"Let's head back and skirt the creek," the rabbit said.

As she turned, the forest floor rippled and erupted into a wall of armed warriors, leaves and dirt falling from them like sloughed skins. They were tall, two legged, their furless bodies protected by coats of stiff leather armor.

Urzoks. Though they called themselves "man," after the land of Mankahar, they were better known by the ancient word for "disbeliever."

The rabbit turned instinctively towards Kuno and saw that they were surrounded. She counted at least twenty warriors. A vulture settled on the branches above, his eyes alight with blood lust.

The Urzoks loosed a war cry. Weapons drawn, they descended on the pair.

Kuno roared his response, towering over the Urzoks on his hind legs. His paw carved through the first two attackers like a fish carves through water. A third swung his sword at Kuno's arm, but the bear sent him sprawling, pulverizing the attacker's jaw.

The rabbit fended off the assailants with her sword, their assumed superiority allowing her to catch them off guard. A bearded one lunged forward, arm raised and shoulder chink open. The rabbit drove her blade home into the gap. The man howled in surprise as much as pain, blood streaming from the wound, and crumpled to the ground.

She threw off her hood and prepared to dispatch the next two descending on her, when she felt herself swept up in Kuno's paws. With a bellow that reverberated off the surrounding trees, the bear smashed through the enemy line. She heard the snap of wood, the bite of swords into flesh, but could see nothing. His vice-like paw crushed her face to his chest, his fur so thick against her that she could scarcely breathe.

The impact of the ground jolted her bones as Kuno ran the best he could, his thick legs pounding the forest floor, hurtling through branches and dead wood. His breath was a gurgling rasp, as if his mouth was filled with water, and his heartbeat hammered through her body.

Just as suddenly as he had swept her up, he dropped her. Years of training made her roll and regain her hind paws, while the shouts of their pursuers grew louder.

"Run, Princess!"

The jagged ends of four arrows protruded from his shoulder, and his fur stood stiff and dark with blood.

"I cannot leave you here, Kuno!"

"Yes you can," the bear said through gritted teeth. "I will hold them, and throw them off your trail. Go now!"

"No, I won't leave-"

"I said run, Princess!" The bear's roar left no room for disobedience. "For once in your life, do as I say!"

Her breath snagged, tight and hot in her throat. With a final, fearful look at Kuno's pain clouded face, she turned and ran, the yawning black forest swallowing her white form.

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