Terry Bisson 1942-2024

January 10, 2024 3:17 PM

Terry Bisson, award winning SFF author of short stories such as Bears Discover Fire and They're Made Out of Meat (video) has passed away.

Beyond these works, Bisson was also outspoken in his politics, being a member of John Brown anti Klan Committee and writing the novella Fire On the Mountain, a utopian (his description) novel about John Brown's Harper's Ferry raid succeeding and the resultant world it would create.

Locus obituary

posted by Hactar (57 comments total)

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posted by Wobbuffet at 3:29 PM on January 10

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posted by /\/\/\/ at 3:30 PM on January 10

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They're Made Out Of Meat is one of the greatest.
posted by AzraelBrown at 3:39 PM on January 10 [28 favorites]

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posted by knapah at 3:44 PM on January 10

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posted by Mister Moofoo at 3:54 PM on January 10

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dream deep, dreaming meat
posted by nightcoast at 3:56 PM on January 10 [6 favorites]

Just had to reread They're made out of meat. Its so good.


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posted by supermedusa at 4:00 PM on January 10 [3 favorites]

He stayed at our house years ago when he was here to give a talk at a Minneapolis radical event. A really good guy.
posted by Frowner at 4:31 PM on January 10 [11 favorites]

Bears Discover Fire is one of my all time favorite stories.

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posted by mygothlaundry at 4:32 PM on January 10 [8 favorites]

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posted by monotreme at 4:41 PM on January 10

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posted by The Great Big Mulp at 4:42 PM on January 10

Oh man, that's a real loss.

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posted by tavella at 4:44 PM on January 10

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posted by Faint of Butt at 5:01 PM on January 10

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posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 5:06 PM on January 10

Bears discover fire is incredible.
posted by q*ben at 5:17 PM on January 10 [3 favorites]

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posted by jabo at 5:17 PM on January 10

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posted by rhiannonstone at 5:22 PM on January 10

His very short story "Smoother" has stayed with me for decades.

(Collected in In the Upper Room: And Other Likely Stories and other places)
posted by straight at 5:24 PM on January 10 [1 favorite]

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posted by smirkette at 5:30 PM on January 10

What a loss.

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posted by doctornemo at 5:50 PM on January 10

they're born meat, and they die meat. some of us are made out of sadder, lonelier meat tonight
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posted by adekllny at 5:55 PM on January 10 [4 favorites]

What is this odd American alternate history novel?
posted by ovvl at 5:59 PM on January 10

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I took a writing class from him many years ago as part of the Locus Awards weekend here in Seattle. "Bears Discover Fire" is a fantastic story.
posted by skycrashesdown at 6:50 PM on January 10 [2 favorites]

"Maybe they're like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."

"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?"

posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:53 PM on January 10 [3 favorites]

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posted by gwint at 7:02 PM on January 10

A wonderful adaptation of "They're Made out of Meat".
posted by jontyw at 7:06 PM on January 10 [2 favorites]

That short film version of They're Made Out of Meat that had a profound impact on me many years ago. I encountered Fire on the Mountain years later, and it was fantastic.

I don't know what to say other than that he was a great talent and will be missed.
posted by The Manwich Horror at 7:09 PM on January 10

"They're Made Out of Meat" is one of those stories I rediscover every few years. Love when I get a chance to go "oh yeah, right"
posted by drewbage1847 at 7:10 PM on January 10 [3 favorites]

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posted by Freen at 7:40 PM on January 10

Oh no! :(

I never met him, but I loved his stories.

What a loss to us all.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:49 PM on January 10

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posted by Halloween Jack at 8:15 PM on January 10

Fire on the Mountain is such a superlative work.

And his interviews are a staple in the PM Press Outspoken Authors series and I will miss those.

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posted by brainwane at 8:18 PM on January 10

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posted by col_pogo at 8:39 PM on January 10

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posted by MrBadExample at 8:40 PM on January 10

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posted by Spike Glee at 8:52 PM on January 10

Meat
+Fire
= great stories
posted by librosegretti at 9:26 PM on January 10

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posted by Archer25 at 9:31 PM on January 10

When my older son was in 2nd grade we read A LOT of really unbelievably crappy Star Wars novelizations because he adored them. Then we got to one called "Crossfire" about Boba Fett as a kid and it was way better than it needed to be. It was good enough that I googled it and holy shit! It was by the guy who wrote "They're Made of Meat"! Terry Bisson was awesome and he will be missed.

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posted by selfmedicating at 9:31 PM on January 10 [1 favorite]

Just loved Fire On the Mountain, and Talking Man has really stuck with me. <3
posted by latkes at 10:24 PM on January 10

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posted by Kattullus at 11:16 PM on January 10

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posted by BlueHorse at 3:06 AM on January 11

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posted by dragonplayer at 4:15 AM on January 11

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posted by suetanvil at 6:54 AM on January 11

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posted by Token Meme at 7:38 AM on January 11

Jo Walton on Talking Man
posted by latkes at 9:11 AM on January 11

Bisson also edited the 1969 horror / science fiction comic magazine WEB OF HORROR. He contributed a foreword to an upcoming collected edition of the magazine.
posted by marxchivist at 10:25 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

Oh no! I exchanged a few emails with Terry years ago (eighteen years ago, it turns out), when I linked to "They're Made Out of Meat" on my blog. He seemed like a great guy, and he had a very interesting perspective on the world.

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posted by Hot Pastrami! at 11:06 AM on January 11

the tor link asked "for privacy reasons" if I am between 13-15 years old???? can someone explain this please?
posted by supermedusa at 11:40 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

differing state and country laws require different levels of tracking consent and data collection usually right around the age of 13.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:55 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

The universe just got a tiny little bit colder, but it remains bearable because we had a meeting of meat.
posted by labberdasher at 12:40 PM on January 11 [1 favorite]

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posted by kyrademon at 1:45 PM on January 11

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posted by bouvin at 2:45 PM on January 12

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posted by gudrun at 12:53 PM on January 13

Terry Bisson’s History of the Future

In 2002, after a few more novels, Bisson and Jensen left New York for San Francisco. He started a reading series there—SF in SF—and began writing “This Month in History.” In 2012, he published one last novel, “Any Day Now,” an alternative history of the last days of the Beats, which Robinson described to me as “the great novel of the sixties.” Otherwise, he has concentrated entirely on his future headlines. “I asked about what else he was writing,” Liza Trombi, the editor-in-chief of Locus, told me. “He said to me, ‘Ly-zuh’—you know, in that accent—‘Don’t you see? I’m done.’ ”


posted by mecran01 at 4:19 AM on January 18 [1 favorite]

“ On his Web site, Bisson once quoted the Surrealist and communist Paul Eluard: “There is another world, but it is in this one.” When asked about it, he said, gently, “That’s the world I want to be in.”
posted by mecran01 at 4:29 AM on January 18 [3 favorites]

Oh yeah I forgot I read Any Day Now.. it's very weird.. it's like this pretty straight ahead fictionalization of your SDS-flavored white radical journey from alternative lifestyle to bomb making New York underground cell to back-to-the-land in the Southwest but then inexplicably halfway through just becomes an alternative history that is different from our reality but not like, an insane dystopia (or utopia) just mostly different. Very odd. Readable.
posted by latkes at 3:53 PM on January 18

I am certain “They’re Made of Meat” was the first thing by him I read; I recall sitting in the branch library a few blocks from my place in Toronto leading through… Omni? I found it just exactly as droll as it needed to be. Often humour in sf is a tough balance to strike but this was perfect.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:03 PM on February 2