Strange Horizons Discussion Forum: Bears, by Leah Bobet

In an effort to comment on stories I enjoyed:

This story is great. It was direct yet playful and funny yet topical. I do wonder if the ending really says what it seems to be trying to about problems in the real world as compared to fictional problems - anthropomorphized bears are just a bit too cute to carry that weight for me. Though I suppose the point there - and throughout - is that bears are really not cute at all.

Still, I've known people like these characters. Critical theorists jokingly obsessed with bears, even. Details like the girls wearing one pair of pajamas between them carry so much info about setting and characters in a single line. And the notion of being a "fundie for the other fundamentalism" (never stated quite that way), and reconciling that with idealist impulses, has always troubled me.

A successful story in my book. Narrative bears are awesome.

edit: Oh, and a wonderful opening paragraph/section, of course.

Edited by Crash Launching (Fri Nov 09 2007 01:43 PM)