Thematic Summary of \'They\'re Made of Meat\' PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Thematic Summary of 'They're Made of Meat' PDF

Description

A Thematic Summary of ‘They're Made out of Meat’ Terry Bisson’s short story "They're Made Out of Meat" takes place in a diner on earth, where the main characters are a pair of aliens in disguise. The story is rather interesting because it has no narration, only dialogue between the 2 aliens, on their disbelief on how people could be made of ‘meat’. It portrays an interesting perspective on our fear of the unknown, our attitude towards the strange, and how we would be perceived by more advanced species, should they decide to visit us one day. The aliens refuse to accept the fact that the ‘meat’ can communicate and do things. Unable to reach a logical conclusion as to how the meat operates, the aliens proceed to depart Earth and pretend they never visited. It paints a portrait on how through history, humanity has always feared the unexplainable and has tried to avoid rather than understand it, due to a lack of knowledge. The fact is that no one person has all the knowledge of the world, and blatant assumptions based on our own knowledge may not always correct. Given that the aliens have just arrived on an unknown planet far away from home, they cannot simply deem human existence as impossible without at least doing some further investigation. Instead of further researching human biology, the aliens attempt to rationalize their observations with their own beliefs - that ‘meat’ cannot be sentient. Their actions would be a commentary on the irrationality of humans. Throughout history, humans had various superstitions and beliefs about the world we inhabit. People in the middle ages who found dinosaur bones strongly believed they were the remains of dragons that their ancestors slew. These beliefs were then implied to be true all over the world. People tend to commit the same mistake as the aliens in the story –fixating reality solely based on pre-established ideas and avoiding further investigation which could help them to better understand. The aliens’ lack of understanding of human biology combined with their fear of the strange encompasses what most people might feel when thrown into a foreign environment or exposed to

new discoveries they thought impossible. Perhaps on their home world, animals are not carbonbased, and ‘meat’ is something that grows on trees. Imagine if one day, you removed a pickle from a jar, and it started reciting quantum physics. You would no doubt be startled, afraid even. There are so already many diverse cultures and occurrences on earth, some of which would be completely astonishing to the average man. Factor in that earth is only but a tiny phytoplankton floating within the vast ocean that is the universe, and you can see why the aliens, who may reside countless lightyears away from us, are stunned and fearful of humans. Planet of the Apes (1968) 1 conveys this idea in both directions –Chris Hansen’s character, an astronaut from our earth, arrives on one where apes are the hyper intelligent species, while humans fill the role of the dumb, mute animal. He is in utter disbelief at the fact that the tables have turned. On the other hand, the apes, believing that all humans are incapable of speech or thought, are absolutely astounded when the astronaut speaks. Culture shock also leads to cultural supremacy. The aliens intend to pretend they had never visited earth, scoffing at the idea that anyone would ever want to meet ‘meat’. In addition, after probing several humans, they believe the humans would think their encounter was just a dream, and that it is befitting that the ‘meat’ dreams of aliens. Just like how humans are viewed lowly by the aliens, we humans tend to find some cultures being better than others, due to differences in behaviour, ideologies and perhaps most significantly, appearance. The aliens reject the idea of trying to communicate with humans simply because they are biologically different, rather than further learn about them. This represents a glaring issue with human behaviour, as not unlike the aliens, people across the world ostracize and reject others due to differences, some of which cannot be changed. People in such cases tend to have negative impressions of others as a result, and often want nothing to do with them, or in the worst case, viewing them as mongrels that should be cleansed from this world. The aliens’ impression of humans as is truly a reflection of how we may view other people as lowly beings, and as a result, want nothing to do with them.

1 Referenced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Apes_(1968_film)

Considering their idea of supremacy, the aliens’ decision to abort their mission to earth is something I find odd. While Teran life may seem very unsettling to the aliens, it is unlikely that they would want to escape it, if the aliens are as superior as they claim. Humans are already intelligent enough to exploit the less advanced – Europeans crossed the seas to collect resources from the Americas, Africa and Asia, often exploiting the locals as slaves or labourers, and occasionally, committing genocide on entire tribes, like the Native Americans. Fleeing from opportunity is not something an intelligent species would do; despite the barriers or dangers they may face. Zim from Invader Zim2 plots to conquer earth daily, even though he finds humans vile and is allergic to many of earth’s common substances. If the aliens in the story do indeed exist, they would no doubt work towards enslaving humanity, or at the very least, try to get something out from earth. The aliens’ fear of humanity and their reluctance to further explore earth overall attempts to paint of portrait of aliens having the same irrationality and fear of the unknown as some people. But the way aliens are depicted may not be how aliens would truly behave towards us, should they one day decide to pay us a visit. Given our limited knowledge of worlds beyond our solar system, we would never really know just how beings living lightyears away would react to our existence.

2 Work referenced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_Zim...