Hansen, Mykle. HELP! A Bear Is Eating Me! Portland: Eraserhead Press, 2008. 132 pp. $10.95. ISBN 1933929693.

On the cover of what seems like a ridiculous premise, and an even more laughable cover art, Mykle Hansen sets up a brilliant critique of the evolved human specimen. HELP! A Bear is Eating Me! is a wonderful example of the most recent works of Bizarro fiction coming from Eraserhead Press. Put in a position of inscrutable power, man will exalt himself to godhead and fear nothing. Try to take him down off of his pedestal, and he will respond like a child who has his toy taken away. Hansen explores the theme of pride and fall in the human genus.

Marv is a typical corporate swine who believes that nature impedes on civilization. He is part of the cynical and pompous yet hollow disposition characteristic of 21st century yuppie scum; the world bows down before him, man and animal alike (or else they get fired). Marv becomes trapped under his SUV in Alaska; he’s helpless and must find a way to survive.

The problem here lies in the fact that with the advent of technology and consumerism, our instinct for predatory survival has diminished. We’ve become too comfortable, living snug and cosy lives devoid of any threat to personal safety. American architect and writer, Frank Lloyd Wright, wrote: “If it (automation) keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger” (The New York Times, 1955). The structure of civilization has taken away the resilience and vigor in our lives—the drive to endure.

With man’s rise to godhead, animals become “lesser beings.” We deliver unto them a passive diminutiveness. Hansen uses Marv’s predicament to create an ironic paradigm. Marv is pinned down by the very same thing which exalted him to power, leaving him powerless. With the persistence of technological advancement, we see a new, monstrous creation within ourselves. This monster responds with anger, vanity, pride, desperation, panic, vindictiveness, with only a touch of humility.

Hansen paints a dismal portrait of the human spirit when placed in a seat of unscrupulous influence and authority, corrupt and rotten to the core. When there is nothing left to fear, people will become indecent and impious. Hansen warns us that uninhibited pride leads to ultimate ruin.

—Richard Nicol