MEAT SOUNDS! "They're Made Out of Meat" by Terry Bisson
BogiReads brings you the daily speculative reading recommendation of editor Bogi Takács.
Today's recommendation -
Author: Terry Bisson
Title: “They’re Made Out of Meat”
Venue: Omni, 1991
Type: Flash story – 778 words
Themes: First contact, defamiliarization, body horror (kind of??)
Where to read: Author website (via Archive.org), but you should buy the book which collects it, Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories – I read this collection about a decade ago and enjoyed it. (Here are my US Amazon / Bookshop associate links for purchase)
Terry Bisson passed away a few days ago, and he wrote this amazing flash story that periodically goes viral on the internet. I thought that most people knew it, but discovered over the weekend by bringing it up in conversation a few times that a lot of people haven’t read it. So I’m posting it here! I recommend you pick up the collection it appears in, too. I did not know Bisson personally, but enjoyed his writing, and several people I know who did know him appreciated his presence. The best way of keeping his memory alive is by reading his work, so now you get to do that too.
I use this story a lot as an example of defamiliarization.
Take care,
Bogi.