Rick Bass Wildness Symposium

I attended Rick Bass's speaking on Sunday night. First of all, I liked his personality and the way he presented himself, he came off very reserved and thoughtful. The first short story he read to us was about a couple that can't avoid hitting an owl with their car, and eventually stops at a local diner to eat, only to find the owl had gotten caught in the canoe on top of their car. They go into the diner and feel like outsiders as the locals all pay attention to them when they enter. The focus of the story then shifts to the husband who we find out to be quite gluttonous. He orders plate after plate of food and the locals take notice, in either fascination or respect, of how much he eats. The waitress informs the man that he depleted their entire stock of eggs. While they are eating their meal the newcomers and the locals watch the owl as it tries explores the new area it finds itself in. I'm not sure if there was some sort of underlying message to this story but it was definitely entertaining, which is the most important thing to me when it comes to a story. The second story was about a young boy's family vacation on a beach. There is a phenomenon that happens where the story takes place that causes freshwater and saltwater to mix, effectively stunning all of the fish in the area. The locals call this even "Jubilee". When the jubilee happens the boy brings his family to the beach to witness the event along with a small amount of other people. They all gather as many fish as they can. There is a boy who lives there who hates seeing the tourists taking all the fish for themselves.