"Time Deer" is a 1974 magic realism short story by

Craig Strete Craig Kee Strete (born 6 May 1950) is an American science fiction writer of Cherokee descent. He is noted for his use of American Indian themes and has had multiple Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science ...

. It was first published in ''Red Planet Earth'', in June 1974, and subsequently republished in '' Worlds of If'', in November 1974.Strete, Craig
in '' The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction''; entry by

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part o ...

; published October 26, 2021; retrieved April 14, 2022

Synopsis

As an elderly Native American resists the efforts of his son — and his son's white wife — to have him institutionalized, he recalls his own childhood, and his interactions with a particular deer... which may still be present.

Reception

"Time Deer" was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1975.Time Deer
at Science Fiction Writers of America; retrieved April 14, 2022 '' The New York Times'' called the story "elegiac",''SCIENCE FICTION''
by Gerard Jonas, in '' The New York Times''; published January 25, 1981; retrieved April 14, 2022 while ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' found it to be a "deft little fable".NEBULA AWARD STORIES ELEVEN
reviewed at ''

''; published February 1, 1976; archived online September 27, 2011; retrieved April 14, 2022 Mike Ashley described it as "jarringly contrast(ing) beautiful Native American imagery alongside prejudice and violence".The History of the Science-fiction Magazine
p.65; by Mike Ashley; published 2000 by Liverpool University Press At '' Black Gate'',

Steven H Silver Steven H Silver (born April 19, 1967) is an American science fiction fan and bibliographer, publisher, author, and editor. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer twelve times and Best Fanzine seven times without winni ...

praised the "understated mysticism" underlying the protagonist's altered experience of time, and noted the ambiguity over whether the deer is actually present, but faulted the story as too brief and lacking sufficient "introspection".Birthday Reviews: Craig Strete’s “Time Deer”
by

, in '' Black Gate''; published May 6, 2018; retrieved April 14, 2022 Literary scholar Kristina Baudemann considered that the story "allude to colonial horrors, but (...) confirm rather than subvert romanticized stereotypes", and observed that it "offer no alternative plots to the vanishment trope", emphasizing that the deer's empathy with the old man "evokes the romanticized stereotype of Indigenous people as spiritual, close to nature, and endangered by white civilization.""I Have Seen the Future and I Won't Go": The Comic Vision of Craig Strete's Science Fiction Stories
by Kristina Baudemann; published in ''Studies in American Indian Literatures'' ( University of Nebraska Press), vol. 29, no. 4 (Winter 2017); p. 76-101

References

External links

*{{Isfdb title, 40865 1974 short stories Native American literature