The Bear Came Over the Mountain - Alice Munro Lecture (Patreon)

Today we're conducting a deep reading of another masterpiece of short imaginative literature with Alice Munro's 'The Bear Came Over the Mountain.'

We are discussing sparks of life, ageing, memory, love, loyalty, infidelity, change, subtext, and much more.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 on pain within the mundane
• 1:00 why read such sad stories?
• 2:00 ‘The Bear Came Over the Mountain’
• 3:00 beginning with the story’s title
• 4:00 themes of cognitive degeneration
• 6:00 narrative style & point of view
• 8:00 specificity cadence in literature
• 10:00 meeting the characters in the story
• 12:00 ‘she had the spark of life’
• 13:00 our expectations from the outset
• 14:00 Munro’s handling of subtext
• 16:00 how stories teach us to see
• 17:00 ‘I’m just losing my mind’
• 18:00 being told a sad nursery rhyme
• 20:00 psychologically complex characters
• 22:00 meaning emerges from nonsense
• 23:00 Munro’s ironic juxtaposition
• 24:00 denial and the stages of grief
• 26:00 on youthful tones of voice
• 29:00 delayed character revelation
• 33:00 on the unreliability of memory
• 35:00 infidelity, loyalty & love
• 36:00 mourning for the other self
• 37:00 hopeless lover or guilty husband?
• 40:00 ‘remember she may not —’
• 42:00 ‘does she even know who I am?’
• 43:00 on becoming a memory of oneself
• 45:00 bargaining and making amends
• 50:00 no point in mentioning marriage
• 54:00 appreciating the end of the story
• 55:00 your thoughts on this story

Questions for You:

1) What was your interpretation of 'The Bear Came Over the Mountain'?

2) How would you characterise Alice Munro’s writing style?

3) How does this story compare with the other ones?

And please do let us know which parts of this short story most resonated with you. It would be wonderful to share some of our favourite lines and passages.

Happy reading, folks!