Last night, before bed, I revisited one of my favorite stories in the so-called "Humanity, F* Yeah" subgenre. But my waking realization this morning, helped along by the note someone else left on it, was that many of the traits we admire and would like to imagine being known for among other species are the ones we share with dogs - loyalty, resilience, fierce protectiveness, selfless love, etc.

So really, "DFY".

By extension. this gives me the amusing notion of humanity also becoming famous throughout the galaxy for its willingness, nay eagerness, to eat as much as possible of basically anything.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I can definitely see that, yes.

>By extension. this gives me the amusing notion of humanity also
>becoming famous throughout the galaxy for its willingness, nay
>eagerness, to eat as much as possible of basically anything.
>

So, we're stereotyped as Anthony Bourdain?

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

>So, we're stereotyped as Anthony Bourdain?

I would think more like Sgt. Schlock.

Michael
McFortner
Maxim 37: There is no such thing as "overkill".
There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".

I mean, that makes sense-- humanity deliberately bred those traits into dogs specifically because they are so highly valued.

-dbrandon

>many of the traits we admire and would like to imagine being known for
>among other species are the ones we share with dogs - loyalty,
>resilience, fierce protectiveness, selfless love, etc.

Could really fit in with two related but separate tropes I've seen in different pieces of scifi literature. The first is the "humans are guard dogs" trope, the idea that we're the product of some ancient civilization's efforts to create an offshoot that are just bred for (and thus excellent at) war. The second is the "humans are peacemakers" trope that says that centuries of constant fighting (including a possible Third World War) has left humanity uniquely suited to negotiating peace even among factions that have been at war for ages.

Actually reminds me of one of my favorite vignettes from the 80s revival of The Twilight Zone called "A Small Talent for War."

I've always kind of liked the concept of being *so* 'good' at war, that eventually a species has to stop or else they'll wipe themselves out, and becoming effective pacifists as a culture.

(I'm also a fan of them then being pushed into fighting and just utterly steamrolling everything with the racial bonuses 'War Economy' and 'Hold My Beer')

I'm co-writer of a setting where there was a continuous global war that went on so long that nobody even knows how long, or how many people died, and when it was over the entire population kind of just went 'yeah, I think that's out of our system now.' and there's barely been a border skirmish since.

My particular favorite entry in the HFY genre is a little story called "Pencils down, Death rays up."

It's a crossover between Mass Effect...

And the original Word of Darkness games (mostly Mage).

MFY?

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10239811/1/Pencils-down-Death-rays-up

One scene in chapter 12 has a very UF vibe.