Curt Guyette Guyette is a longtime journalist who received a bachelor's degree in English writing from the University of Pittsburgh. In this essay, Guyette discusses Bisson's use of satire as a literary device employed to draw attention to serious issues.

In his short story "The Toxic Donut," science fiction writer Terry Bisson effectively draws attention to a variety of important issues by employing the literary device of satire, which can be defined as using humor to ridicule vices, stupidities, or abuses. With remarkably spare prose, the author's sharp wit and pointed barbs are directed at the shallow nature of popular culture, secretive corporate control, the primitive bloodlust that shadows even the most technologically advanced societies, and, most signi ficantly, a lifestyle of consumerism and waste that threatens the future of the entire planet.

"The Toxic Donut" is a deceptively simply story that must be read more than...