January 12, today as I write this, is the birthday of Terry Bisson (1942-2024). We lost Terry last month.
He was a critically acclaimed writer. I hate to say that I’ve not read much of his work. Maybe a few short stories over the years.
If any of you have read much of his work, what would you suggest I read?
To be honest I wasn’t a big fan of his. I don’t like saying that because he died recently, but I was not. A lot of his stories were satirical and I have problems with satire. (The only satire I really like is South Park that is because it usually seems on point.) A lot of other people liked him though.
I’m not big on satire, either.
The only stuff of his that I have read are the “THIS MONTH IN HISTORY” bits scattered around the pages of Locus magazine. Silly and funny- like this from the August 2007 issue:
“August 5, 2019, Sasquatch road kill. A 7-foot, 310-pound, hairy female hominid corpse is found on I-5 near Yreka CA, an apparent hit-and-run victim. Remains are held in the Klamath County morgue pending settlement of conflicting claims by the Klamath Chamber of Commerce, the Smithsonian, and the Native American Ancestry Council.”
I don’t know how long he continued that work because I dropped my subscription years ago. Geez that rag went full-blown woke after Charlie Brown died. A real shame, too.
I check the headlines at the Locus website, but I haven’t bought a copy in years.