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They're made out of meat (1991)

terrybisson.com

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Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#121

Post by teapot7 »

chrisweekly wrote: post #113
GMoromisato wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loved this story when I first read it. I made me feel wistful, like a world was dying and simultaneously being born. I can't explain it, but the idea of bears using fire has stayed with me ever since.

I'm reminded of an excellent surreal novel, "The Bear Comes Home" by Rafi Zabor, about an ursine jazz saxophonist.

Ok - bear mode activated: I'll add 'The Star Bear' by Michael Swanwick, where a man's series of encounters with a bear in Paris echo his feelings about being a Russian emigre.

https://reactormag.com/the-star-bear-michael-swanwick/

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#122

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

joezydeco wrote: post #101
fridder wrote: post #6

The short film someone made is pretty great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6JFTmQCFHg

It's a good visualization but they skipped the punchline , which was the entire purpose of the story.

Yeah, I found this was definitely a case of "the book was much better than the movie", especially odd since most of the dialog was word-for-word, yet they skipped over the small parts that gave the story its lesson and relatability. Like the whole "officially or unofficially" part is one of my favorite parts of the original story, as it makes it seem like these intergalactic beings have to deal with the same concerns as Bob in corporate HR.

I think it highlights why the original text was uniquely brilliant and why it makes it reliably makes it to the top of HN every year or so.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#123

Post by squigz »

Aperocky wrote: post #73

This is fun to read but any such galactic intelligence would probably recognize that its predecessor were meat, probably kept the original meat safe in a corner of the galaxy too.. The universe were quite uniform in character. Galaxies, stars, they are very predictable and essentially the same everywhere, across billions of years (both time and distance), can't see why that doesn't apply to life too in a general sens…

Things like star and galaxy formation/interactions are (relatively) straightforward, with fairly simple processes/mechanics at the heart of it. It's easier to predict on such a large-scale what's going to happen.

Things are far more complex on a biological level, which makes it harder to make generalized predictions. I see no reason to infer that life would only consistently evolve into organic life as we know it.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#124

Post by emmelaich »

haritha-j wrote: post #36
grumpopotamus wrote: post #25

Also by Terry Bisson and one of my favorite stories is Bears Discover Fire 1990 https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/bears-discover-fi...

I didn't really get it to be honest. I feel like something went over my head.

Same, I thought the newberries were going to be some sort of intelligence enhancer.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#125

Post by emmelaich »

the_af wrote: post #44
bigbuppo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They only look like meat to blend in. It's the only way to figure out if they're made out of meat.

In the story, the very idea of permanently meat-based beings appals them, and in fact one of them doesn't entirely believe it. So why would they look like meat to "blend in", a priori, if one of them doesn't even fathom the idea? "Blend in" with what? One of them doesn't believe what it's dealing with! Like a sibling comment mentions, they talk about "meat sounds"... using meat sounds! Why would they find it surprisi…

It's partly for dramatic purposes, to slow the realisation of the audience that they are aliens talking about people.

And, ofc, in-drama logic; the beings (of silicon or whatever) are/were blending in with humans to study them.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#127

Post by apostata »

tomhow wrote: post #9

Previously... They're Made Out of Meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43994603 - May 2025 (3 comments) They're Made Out of Meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38420111 - Nov 2023 (168 comments) They're made out of meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31965062 - July 2022 (151 comments) They're Made Out of Meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24737993 - Oct 202…

[flagged]

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#128

Post by epistasis »

apostata wrote: post #127
tomhow wrote: post #9

Previously... They're Made Out of Meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43994603 - May 2025 (3 comments) They're Made Out of Meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38420111 - Nov 2023 (168 comments) They're made out of meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31965062 - July 2022 (151 comments) They're Made Out of Meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24737993 - Oct 202…

[flagged]

It's not a reproach, there are no negative words in the comment.

It's a gathering of information so that people can get more comments.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#129

Post by tomhow »

apostata wrote: post #127
tomhow wrote: post #9

Previously... They're Made Out of Meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43994603 - May 2025 (3 comments) They're Made Out of Meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38420111 - Nov 2023 (168 comments) They're made out of meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31965062 - July 2022 (151 comments) They're Made Out of Meat (1991) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24737993 - Oct 202…

[flagged]

It's not a reproach at all! We do this all the time when something has appeared before on HN, so that people can look at older threads if they're interested. It's significant signal that a particular post has appeared repeatedly on HN over the nearly two decades we've existed. It's also interesting to see how the style of discussion about the topic may have changed over time.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#130

Post by nofunsir »

tomhow wrote: post #129
apostata wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's not a reproach at all! We do this all the time when something has appeared before on HN, so that people can look at older threads if they're interested. It's significant signal that a particular post has appeared repeatedly on HN over the nearly two decades we've existed. It's also interesting to see how the style of discussion about the topic may have changed over time.

It's already a feature (click the link domain).
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