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Study 085 - Bears Discover Fire (Patreon)

Published:
2024-04-04 18:13:20
Imported:
2024-04
Tags:

Content

Weird Bear Month begins with a touching tale by Terry Bisson: Bears Discover Fire!

Special thanks to our reader, Craig Johnson of Chad Vader and Welcome to the Basement!

They're Made out of Meat

Next up: The Command by L. Sprague de Camp

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Comments

Allison Albright

This was such a a good story. One thing about being carried along by others in our society - we can't each know how to do everything, so we all learn some important skills that we can do ourselves, and rely on others for everything else. We're all carrying each other. I used to live in an area with lots of bears and living there, you had to take precautions to keep them out of your trash etc. both for your own safety and for the safety of the bears. One thing that becomes apparent pretty quickly is that bears are really smart. They can open many doors and figure out all kinds of latches and fastenings. They frequently get stuck in cars and garages. You cannot make something bear-proof without also making it mostly human-proof. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they discovered fire.

Jason Thompson

If anyone really wants to be scared by bears, watch the documentary “Grizzly Man”.

Cole Caron

Was Johnny Mnemonic supposed to be a comedy? I definitely laugh the whole way through but I’d hate to think that the cast and crew were in on the joke.

Daniel Restione

What a surprise… and a welcome one! Very touching story, nicely understated in tone and language ( perfectly read btw.)

Doc Singles

I thought for sure you guys covered The Professor's Teddy Bear years ago, but if you did I can't find it. Great story!

Ben Gilbert

SF writer Gordon Dickson has a collection of longer stories about bear-like aliens called The Right to Arm Bears. "The Law-Twister Shorty" is the only short story.

Richard Horsman

I knew you’d love this one! Bisson’s stories were something special, and Bears is the cream of the crop. Looking forward to the rest of OH NO A STRANGE BEAR month.

KateSherrod

I was expecting an animal revenge story, but I got a real heartwarmer instead. What a bunch of lovely characters, and a nice commentary on how precious community is. Always choose to leave some firewood for the bears!

Ben A

Not to be pedantic, but a novelization of Jonny Mnemonic happened long before that movie, since it was a William Gibson short story (and a pretty good one at that!). And while that film took a lot of liberties from the short story, it’s not as far off its source material as, say, Blade Runner or Minority Report. Unrelatedly, so pleased to hear you two cover this story. It’s surprisingly poignant and has long been a favorite alongside They’re Made of Meat.

It's a Ghost.

Great story! Also, newberry has to be a pun, right?

The Spider Incident

Oh man, I love your theme for this month. I can't wait for more bear stories

Alan Ricks

I can’t wait for you to finish the month off with a two-parter on Marian Engel’s 1976 classic “Bear” then an extra credit episode on 2023’s tour-de-force “Cocaine Bear”.

Andronicus

If you guys are prepared to take a pass on your ‘no living authors’ rule, I’d recommend Harry Turtledove’s The Road Not Taken. It’s about a space ship full of quasi-barbarian teddy bears who attempt to conquer the earth only to find out interstellar space flight isn’t the only technological skill tree out there. Hilarious story that deserves more recognition. Thanks for all the great content…keep it coming, fellas!

Matt Shank

Man this one really struck a chord with me. Without going into too much detail, I recently quit my job due to mental health reasons. I live in a city, and for weeks at a time all I would see is shades of gray and brown: pavement, cement, concrete, and metal. Nothing green. Nothing alive or natural. I have felt the longing expressed in this story in my soul. I really do think modern society has lost some primal part of ourselves and that it would do us all a whole lot of good to head the call of the wild more often.

Drix

If you're casting about for another strange bear story, consider "The Terror of Blue John Gap" by Arthur Conan Doyle

It's a Ghost.

This episode reminded me that since drivers ed. in the late 90s, I’ve only ever had to change a tire twice, and one of those times was ten minutes into a 7-hour drive to Bowling Green, Kentucky! . . . On the bright side, I was still able to make it to Bowling Green that day, although later than planned, and on the downside, there were no bears with torches involved.

Allison Albright

I know it might be difficult to find enough stories to do it often, or even to do it again, but I am also very excited about weird bear month!

MonsterTalk

I kept picturing Far-Side bears and when Chad name checked the strip I guffawed. Yeah, I said it. It wasn't a LOL - it was a guffaw.

Steve

The 90s is modern day! Next you'll be saying that 1980 is nearly 50 years ago!

Steve

Bears terrify me too. Mostly because if we saw one, my wife Paula would be right over there to cuddle it.

It's a Ghost.

It seems that you can’t enjoy newberries unless you are close to nature like a bear. If you are a modern human immersed in the modern world, you can’t truly enjoy newberries, even if you want to and want to seek a simpler way of life. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek something simpler and being closer to nature. Bobby’s mother sought it in her final moments, and it seems very clear that that was a good choice. But then again, maybe she did actually enjoy the berries. When Bobby, his mother, and Wallace, Jr. were sitting around the fire with the bears, Bobby said, “The hubcap came around and we all took some newberries. I don’t know about Mother, but I just pretended to eat mine. Wallace Jr. made a face and spit his out.” So the mother, who is ready to die and willing to "break the rules" (e.g. drive a bus as a woman, chew tobacco, escape the Home), may have enjoyed the newberries; Bobby and Wallace, Jr., who follow some rules about where you can stop your car or where you can hunt, sought out the newberries and tried them even though they didn’t like them; and as far as we know, the worldly, rule-oriented, money-seeking Wallace, Sr. never tried the newberries at all.

Stan

The next step in bear month progression should be reading The Wind from a Burning Woman by Greg Bear

Anne Ominous

Any thoughts on why the bears occupy the medians? Has to be something there... Maybe it's the slow space between our busy go-go-go lives? Maybe it's that forgotten space in plain sight that we tune out... there is generally great risk to arriving at the median. So why does all the good parts of the story happen there?

Runninghead

Did anyone else after the statement "So, looks like bears discovered fire." immediately picture the protagonist as Ron Swanson from Parks & Rec? I'd pay good money to see Nick Offerman in a movie based on this story!

Terrence Edwards

I just heard Chad mention they were having trouble find bear stories, and immediately popped over to let them know about RA Lafferty's Snuffles. It's a great weird story that involves a bear. I first caught it over at the Alzabo Soup podcast, and a crossover would be killer.

Jim Cannon

So here's a weird coincidence. Just listened to the episode on my way home from work, and not fifteen minutes ago as I neared home a black bear ran across the street in front of the car ahead of me, just as Junior and Bobby approached the bear camp looking for Grandma. But I have a better bear story. In warmer months, I take an evening walk around the neighborhood and listen to the podcast. No sidewalks, but the area is mostly quiet as far as traffic goes, except the street where my development is located. One night as I was coming back to the house, walking up the hill in the bike lane, I approached the turn into the parking lot. A good portion of the turn is obscured by brush, so I was not prepared for the sight I saw as I cleared the bushes and started to turn into the lot. There was a big black bear standing about 25-30 feet away from me, a boar I think from the size. He was pointed away from me, but his head swung in my direction as I appeared, though he must have known I was coming. Now black bears are notorious cowards, but this guy outweighed me by about 150 lbs and I'm not that adventurous, so I froze, backed away slowly so that I was hidden by the bushes again and waited a couple minutes. When I ventured around the corner again, the bear was gone, but my neck swiveled around quite a bit as I passed other houses on the way to my front door, sort of half expecting him to make another appearance out of the dark. But he never did. So I'm not terrified of bears, leastways not the type that live in my area. But there's no sense in looking for trouble, either.

Ketus

I found this story to be very touching- I had to wipe away a tear or two while on break, this is why I will always love strange fiction. Never know what kind of curve balls you'll get! From a comedic story about a lady dracula sexbot being released onto the town she lived in, while her WereSkeleton master gets thrown under the horse and carriage (buses didnt exist then I think) by his butler accidentally to the villagers. Or a touching tale about intelligent bears allowing a family to be part of a silent fire ceremony to be together with a loved one as they passed on.

Aaron La Vene

A wholesome story about bears who learned how to use fire. This could be the first step to world peace.

Ziggy Bartdust

As a Native of Louisville Kentucky, when I heard the opening lines of "on I-65 just north of Bowling Green" I had assumed I had put on the wrong podcast (despite hearing the intro and scream), then looked down and then assumed my Podcatcher was messed up. Then got really excited when I heard Chad say "Uh Oh" meaning I was getting to hear a strange story that takes place near my Biker Uncles off grid house lmao I was very happy this story turned out as sweet and beautiful as it is. After so many episodes with so many emotions (mostly some horror and disgust) honestly it was suprising to have a story with such a beautiful human ending And let's be clear, even though they were bears, the humanity they showed eachother was legitimately touching, and you guys are right, more humans would do good to learn from these bears to know how much we depend on eachother Thank you for this story guys

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

One summer - when I was a university student - I took a father and son out on their first backbacking trip up and down the Rockys of Colorado. We arrived at our campground rather later than I would have liked as my companions didn't make the sort of time I was used to. I got the tents set up quickly, pulled out what we needed for dinner and found a tree next to a cliff. Needed that tree to attach a length of rope to - the other end of the rope attached to our food supplies in a sack. Bears. That night we all slept well. In the morning I opened the tent flap first and found the unmistakable paw prints all 'round camp. Our food was undisturbed. And I was so glad that we'd not had any food in the tent - meaning we, too, were undisturbed. I elected not to point out the paw prints.

Robert Curtin

Super late to the comment party, but my favorite bear encounter I had was just a few years ago. I went on a kayak trip down Clark Fork River in Montana with some friends. We were passing between a few houses that were built right on the water line, and letting the water carry us past a few deer that were lazing in the creek. The deer suddenly split, and we were watching them run away when- *CRASH* a bear came TEARING down the hill through some bushes and passed through the river about 10 feet from the nose of my kayak. I doubt he was chasing the deer, or even knew we were there, but we didn't care, and were back-paddling like crazy to avoid a bear crash. He(she?) was gorgeous, but too close for comfort. We hung back for a minute or two before continuing on. I haven't been kayaking since, but not cause of the bears.

James Duffy

Just catching up on episodes so a bit late. There's a pretty awesome bear in a more recent sci-fi called Dogs of War and its sequel, but you're unlikely to cover it due to the author being alive. I recommend reading them though.

Ryan Thomas

The staff and residents of the dementia ward at the Tampa V.A. called our grandpa "Red", which remained his nickname despite his hair turning white decades ago. The woman's escape from the Home in Bears Discover Fire reminded me of how Red and one of his dementia ward buddies had the where-with-all to plot their own escape involving a laundry cart. I don't recall either of them getting into it, but I do know they got as far as taking the elevator to the Lobby floor before being caught. Golly, I sure do miss that cantankerous and funny man. One more Red story: During one of the grandparents' annual visits north to see us in Michigan, a waitress asked Grandpa if there was anything else she could get for us. His response was, "No, but you can sit on my lap if you want."