Science Fiction: The Short Stuff discussion

Bears Discover Fire is a science fiction short story by American science fiction author Terry Bisson. It concerns aging and evolution in the US South, the dream of wilderness, and community. The premise is that bears have discovered fire, and are having campfires on highway medians.

It was originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in August 1990. As our short story selection this month this really looks good.

Text and audiobook (narrated by Stephan Rudnicki) of Bears Discover Fire short story can be found here:

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...

Thanks for that David. Check out this first sentence: "I was driving with my brother, the preacher, and my nephew, the preacher’s son, on I-65 just north of Bowling Green when we got a flat."

That's all I need to read to know that I'm safe in the hands of someone who writes well and that I will probably enjoy this story. In one sentence he introduces three characters and tells us the situation, They're driving north on an interstate somewhere in the midwest. I don't really know where Bowling Green is, but I know I-65 is a north-south running interstate not too far west of Atlanta-Knoville, which has I-75, which I do know. And the brother is a preacher, so he probably has the gift of gab and might be a bit annoying to the other two, maybe holier-than-thou? And they have a problem to solve: flat tire. Should not be that big a deal, right?

I don't really know where Bowling Green is, but I know I-65 is a north-south running interstate not too far west of Atlanta-Knoville,

Bowling Green is in southern Kentucky, about 67 miles from the Tennessee border and 25 miles south-west from Smiths Grove, where the narrator of the story lives.

I agree with your assessment that Bisson writes well. I haven't read anything else he's written, but am looking forward to.

Terry Bisson passed away last year at the age of 81. I notice he's a month younger than my father, who is still alive.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and give it a solid four stars. It was about bears learning how to tend fires and a beloved mother who lived in a nursing home being at death's door. I note the story was not the least bit science fiction, more fantasy, I would say, perhaps even weird fiction, though the explanations were too complete for that genre really.

Terry Bisson was clearly a highly intelligent, straightforward person of just the right number of words. I really liked his interview, from the link at the end of the story, and found his observation that his story had no suspense and couldn't have that element very interesting. I've never thought about the effect of deliberately avoiding suspense before.

Dan wrote: "I note the story was not the least bit science fiction, more fantasy, I would say, perhaps even weird fiction, though the explanations were too complete for that genre really."

I wondered about this as well when I first read the story, and it seems to me that its science fiction elements lie in a specific type of speculative premise: a sudden, unexplained, and significant evolutionary leap in a species and how this sudden change in a wild animal population disrupts the known natural order and even affects human society, as news channels report on it and people react in various ways (from scientific curiosity to frustration), leading ultimately to the narrator's mother's acceptance of this change and wanting to get close to it. I think it's the same sort of thing that we see in The Chrysalids, Children of Time, and the first part of 2001: A Space Odyssey, for example.

Got around to reading this one today. I enjoyed its semi-conversational tone, makes things a lot more personable and engrossing. And then there's the whole angle with the bears being more accepting of people than some people seem to be of the bears' progression. I guess the point is that, no matter what, there will be those who embrace new things, and others who seek to exert control over change in favor of the status quo (i.e., the hunters, and the mother's death being spun as a result of bear violence).

I wonder how the story would've continued. I do find it odd that Bisson says the story doesn't contain suspense, as I found it suspenseful enough, especially when the mother runs off. It's definitely a more laid back story, but there are still suspenseful moments throughout. Anyway, I liked it. I'll have to check out the full collection sometime.