Drabblecast 230 - Bears Discover Fire

[StalinSays]

Feature: Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson
Drabble: Sheep by Phenopath



Thursday, January 26, 20112
We stayed on the path. The light seemed to drip down from the canopy of the woods like rain.  The going was easy, especially if we didn't try to look at the path but let our feet find their own way.Then through the trees I saw their fire..

Closing Music Johnny Corndog
Art by Matt Wasiela

[tbaker2500]

I enjoyed listening to this episode. The production was great, and engaging. I just have one question: What the heck was the story about?

Great drabble pheno. It took me a couple of beats to get it, well done!

[ROU Killing Time]

Whatever happened to the Pheno-man? He get a job or sumthin? (Was that drabble from the way-back machine? I seem to recall chuckling over it somewhere in the midsts of my memory.)

[strawman]

Unlike Tom, when I like a story without understanding it, I like to wait around until the discussion reveals what I was missing.

It appears that there must be a more-than-coincidental connection between Mom's dying and the bears showing up. That seems more likely than a connection between her dying and the flat tire.

At the risk of revealing my niscience, both possibilities strike me as kind of "post-modern". (I will explain what I mean by that when Bisson explains himself.)

Or...

I'm thinking that there "ought" to be connections, because planets are connected by gravity to the Sun. Orbits are like Newton's Law of the comprehensible nature of stories. But in a universe with different physical laws, say "the quantum perspective", heavenly bodies are not connected, but are governed by Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. From this perspective, my and Tom's search for connections and understanding is destined to fail. Indeed, what could better illustrate absolute randomness than 1) a flat tire 2) Mom's death, and 3) bears discovering fire?

Well, if I've got this wrong, it's possibly a better explanation than Bisson's anyway.

[Dolohov]

A great story, well-read -- just the reason I tune in to the Drabblecast. Nicely done.

[Christi]

Like Strawman, I have reserved comment until I felt more certain of the meaning. I still don’t really understand.
I enjoyed the feeling of home as perceived by Wallace Jnr (home is where your comic books are?) And as always it was so well told that the story absorbed me.
Was the whole thing not about change? Its happening all around you, all the time whether or not you partake in it.
Conventional tyres become defunct, old people pass away and nature evolves before our very eyes by giving bears the gift of fire. We may not like the taste of it, but the world is changing all the time.

[tehmedus]

I really liked this story. I like a lot of the Drabblecast's stories but this is the first that made me want to join the forums to talk about. I tend to ramble and get off track on things. So BEAR with me.

I thought this story was read very well and, while a little hard to get the meaning, a fun story from beginning to end.

I think the story pretty much boils down to how different people accept and react to life and the world changing. The bears with the fire could have been anything. The internet, moving pictures, war, a giant squid monster teleporting into the middle of New York, etc... The narrator (can't remember if his name was mentioned), Wallace Jr. and the mother all take the world changing event in a different way. None the ways wrong.

I would really like to hear ideas on the connection between the mother and the bears. Is there a deep meaningful connection or did the mom just think, that might be a neat thing to do before I die?

[ROU Killing Time]

I tend to ramble and get off track on things. So BEAR with me.

Not all who ramble drive AMC's. Welcome to the forums, sir.

[Christi]

I really liked this story. I like a lot of the Drabblecast's stories but this is the first that made me want to join the forums to talk about. I tend to ramble and get off track on things. So BEAR with me.

I thought this story was read very well and, while a little hard to get the meaning, a fun story from beginning to end.

I think the story pretty much boils down to how different people accept and react to life and the world changing. The bears with the fire could have been anything. The internet, moving pictures, war, a giant squid monster teleporting into the middle of New York, etc... The narrator (can't remember if his name was mentioned), Wallace Jr. and the mother all take the world changing event in a different way. None the ways wrong.

I would really like to hear ideas on the connection between the mother and the bears. Is there a deep meaningful connection or did the mom just think, that might be a neat thing to do before I die?

Well now, Welcome Welcome, I personally enjoyed your feedback because it validated My thoughts and I like when other people agree with me…it makes me feel real smart like!!!
I think the ol lady going down to join the bears was significant in that, it was acceptance of the old die and the world keeps on moving...

[tbaker2500]

And often, the old accept change better than the pretending-not-to-be-old.

[strawman]

And often, the old accept change better than the pretending-not-to-be-old.

Except on the Housewives of Beverly Hills.

[ROU Killing Time]

And often, the old accept change better than the pretending-not-to-be-old.

Except on the Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Doesn't Housewives of Beverly Hills pretty much imply being part of the latter category?

[strawman]

Yes, I misunerstooderated.
I know which category I belong to.

[Unblinking]

This story was okay. I think I'd heard it somewhere else a while back (StarShipSofa?), but it had passed from my memory so thoroughly that I had no recollection of it other than the catchy title. It was an interesting idea, but... I don't know, it seemed overwrought or something, like it was trying so hard to be profound but didn't really feel profound. I'm not exactly sure why, but for me it missed the mark it seemed to be aiming for.

How's that for useless criticism?

[tbaker2500]

This story was okay. I think I'd heard it somewhere else a while back (StarShipSofa?), but it had passed from my memory so thoroughly that I had no recollection of it other than the catchy title. It was an interesting idea, but... I don't know, it seemed overwrought or something, like it was trying so hard to be profound but didn't really feel profound. I'm not exactly sure why, but for me it missed the mark it seemed to be aiming for.

How's that for useless criticism?

Er, when is criticism useful?

[Unblinking]

This story was okay. I think I'd heard it somewhere else a while back (StarShipSofa?), but it had passed from my memory so thoroughly that I had no recollection of it other than the catchy title. It was an interesting idea, but... I don't know, it seemed overwrought or something, like it was trying so hard to be profound but didn't really feel profound. I'm not exactly sure why, but for me it missed the mark it seemed to be aiming for.

How's that for useless criticism?

Er, when is criticism useful?

It can certainly be useful in some contexts, though probably not this one. When I started writing a spent a lot of time on Baen's Bar giving and receiving story criticism, and learned much more in a few months about how I wanted to write then I had for the 18 months I'd gone solo before that.

Even in this context, thoughtful criticism could be useful for a writer who wants to know what kinds of things people tend to like and people tend not to like and decide for themselves how their own views compare.

But generally it's not much use for this kind of thing unless there are more specifics.

[tbaker2500]

It depends so much on tone, and your specific definition of criticism. I've always found it to be much more effective to suggest to someone how to do something better, than tell them what I think they did wrong. People don't dig their heels in as much and resent you.

[Unblinking]

It depends so much on tone, and your specific definition of criticism. I've always found it to be much more effective to suggest to someone how to do something better, than tell them what I think they did wrong. People don't dig their heels in as much and resent you.

Really? Maybe I'm strange, but I prefer exactly the opposite. I prefer criticism to be more open-ended, so that it does not imply a solution. I'd rather be told what didn't work for someone and be allowed to figure out a solution that works for me, because usually whatever solution is proposed by someone else is not one that I like, it doesn't feel like my style. Taken to an extreme, I've had people rewrite scenes for my story which drives me nuts--they never work well with the original, and although I know I should give the benefit of the doubt about the intentions, it always comes off as arrogant to me when someone does so.

[tbaker2500]

Within the realm of writing, I understand what you are saying. I was not referring to writing.

BTW, you and Mr. Tweedy would get along real well. Are you sure you aren't his sock puppet?

That being said, nothing gets my goad like someone presenting critique when it was not asked for. If somebody is looking to improve, ask for constructive criticism. But criticism unbidden just makes the critic seem self important. Sometimes people just want to present something they are proud of, even if it could be better.

There was a great article on it a while ago, "Why didn't you ask ME?" or something close to that floating around the interweb.

[strawman]

One assumes that in Drabble, Short Story, and Twabble posts, requests for criticism are implied, right?
I mean, otherwise, a lot of us...