Sanderson holds a masters of fine arts degree in fiction writing and is an independent writer. In this essay, Sanderson examines how Jason Brown uses the behavior of the animals in the nature videos, appearing in his short story, to explore the behavior of the story's characters.

One of the unique things about Jason Brown's "Animal Stories" is the inclusion of animal and nature videos, watched by Jamie's mother and others in her hospital room. The videos provide a bit of comic relief in the story of Jamie's mother's impending death, as well as something Mom can react to. She is continually fiddling with the remote, changing the videos, and responding to their content. The action in the videos gives the other characters—the doctor, Sharon, and Jamie—a moment's distraction from the oppressive atmosphere of the hospital. In fact, commenting on the story in...