Exactly What it Says on the Tin

Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories. Terry Bisson. 1993.

Bisson is an odd one. I mean that as a compliment - who wants to read a sci-fi author who’s predictable? Nobody. Every story in this volume is a little like an old Twilight Zone episode, but they never go quite where you think they will. I like them all for that.

The title story is a beauty, just a lovely little diamond of short fiction. You hear the title, and it tells you the premise, and from that you think you know the tone and the direction. You don’t - “Bears Discover Fire” isn’t frightening, really. The bears aren’t a threat, at least not in any way that’s immediately apparent. They don’t want to get us - probably. If there’s any fear, it’s from the fact that we don’t know why or how they’re doing what they’re doing. That’s the point of the story, I think - we don’t know anything about the world we live in, or about each other, or about ourselves. Maybe the bears just want to enjoy a nice campfire. Maybe it’s more than that. This is a story about loss, about missing people before they’re gone, about the way the world changes around you without you knowing why. It’s as perfect as short stories get.

My favorite story in this collection is “Next,” and it’s another one that didn’t go where I thought. A story about a future America where non-interracial marriage is illegal - I thought it would be some anodyne message about prejudice but reversed (again, in a dumb Twilight Zone way). Instead I got a bracingly cynical look at the material basis of anti-Black racism and how it functions. It’s not aimless prejudice that might go towards anything unfamiliar, but a deliberate system of plunder that positions Black Americans as primarily a natural resource, owned by the nation rather than by themselves. It’s dark and sad, and hilarious: exactly what political science fiction should be.

Terry Bisson, man. He should be placed alongside the greats like Asimov and Ellison and Dick. Sometimes there’s not much to say except you’d like him if you read him, I promise you.