They Are Made Out of Meat

They’re Made Out of Meat (analysis) They’re Made Out of Meat is a short story by Terry Bisson. It consists entirely of dialogue between two characters. The beginning of this dialogue seems to be rather strange and incomprehensible; the characters are speaking about meat and it is difficult to understand what this “meat” means in this particular context. But gradually the reader begins to tune in, and soon he finds out that they use the word “meat” to imply human beings. And these two creatures themselves are aliens, sentient beings that are capable of travelling faster than light and their mission is to meet with human beings, to welcome them and to set contacts with them. The fact that they use such words as Orfolei, Weddilei, C space, G445 zone proves that they come from a different planet (from outer space). The speech of the creatures is rather informal. There are a lot of contracted forms, colloquial words and elliptical sentences in their conversation (“They’re made out of meat.”; “That’s impossible.”; “…they’re like…”; …crackpots…, “A dream to meat!”). This fact proves that they know each other well and besides they are absorbed in the topic of their conversation and do not pay much attention to their speech. Judging by the dialogue, it is obvious that one of the creatures is better aware of the way people are organized (“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they’re made out of meat.”). And he tries to explain it to the other one who is skeptical and incredulous (“That’s impossible.”; “That’s ridiculous.”; Thinking meat! You’re asking me to believe in thinking meat!”). The situation is really incredible and at first the second creature does not believe in the story, but a bit later accept this theory as true (“Omigod. You’re serious then. They’re made out of meat.” “Finally, Yes.”). The story represents a critical glance from outside at humans’ behaviour.
The aliens