Setting Free the Bears
E225156
Setting Free the Bears is John Irving’s debut novel, a darkly comic and politically charged coming-of-age story set in postwar Austria that follows two young men plotting to liberate the animals from the Vienna Zoo.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Setting Free the Bears canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2021238 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Setting Free the Bears Context triple: [John Irving, notableWork, Setting Free the Bears]
-
A.
The Nine Bears
The Nine Bears is a crime novel by British writer Edgar Wallace, featuring one of his characteristic fast-paced mystery plots involving high-stakes intrigue and investigation.
-
B.
Monkey & Bear
"Monkey & Bear" is a song by the American indie folk musician Joanna Newsom, known for its intricate storytelling and harp-driven composition.
-
C.
Go the Gorilla
Go the Gorilla is the energetic and acrobatic official mascot of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, known for his high-flying dunks and comedic performances during games.
-
D.
Be Free
"Be Free" is a song by the Black Eyed Peas featured on their debut studio album "Behind the Front."
-
E.
Born Free
"Born Free" is a country rock song and album by American musician Kid Rock that blends heartland rock influences with themes of freedom and Americana.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Setting Free the Bears Target entity description: Setting Free the Bears is John Irving’s debut novel, a darkly comic and politically charged coming-of-age story set in postwar Austria that follows two young men plotting to liberate the animals from the Vienna Zoo.
-
A.
The Nine Bears
The Nine Bears is a crime novel by British writer Edgar Wallace, featuring one of his characteristic fast-paced mystery plots involving high-stakes intrigue and investigation.
-
B.
Monkey & Bear
"Monkey & Bear" is a song by the American indie folk musician Joanna Newsom, known for its intricate storytelling and harp-driven composition.
-
C.
Go the Gorilla
Go the Gorilla is the energetic and acrobatic official mascot of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, known for his high-flying dunks and comedic performances during games.
-
D.
Be Free
"Be Free" is a song by the Black Eyed Peas featured on their debut studio album "Behind the Front."
-
E.
Born Free
"Born Free" is a country rock song and album by American musician Kid Rock that blends heartland rock influences with themes of freedom and Americana.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
debut novel
ⓘ
novel ⓘ |
| author | John Irving ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| followedBy | The Water-Method Man ⓘ |
| follows | two young men plotting to liberate the animals from the Vienna Zoo ⓘ |
| genre |
black comedy
ⓘ
coming-of-age novel ⓘ picaresque novel ⓘ political fiction ⓘ |
| hasISBN | 9780345417985 ⓘ |
| hasLiteraryStyle |
darkly comic tone
ⓘ
nonlinear narrative elements ⓘ |
| hasMainCharacter |
Hannes Graff
ⓘ
Siegfried Javotnik ⓘ |
| hasMotif |
animals
ⓘ
escape ⓘ political resistance ⓘ zoos ⓘ |
| hasPageCountApprox | 400 ⓘ |
| hasPart | "The Notebook" section about Siegfried Javotnik’s family history ⓘ |
| hasPlaceInFiction | Vienna Zoo animal-liberation plot ⓘ |
| hasTargetAudience | adult readers ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
Austrian history
ⓘ
coming of age ⓘ freedom ⓘ friendship ⓘ idealism vs. reality ⓘ memory of World War II ⓘ political unrest ⓘ rebellion ⓘ |
| languageStyle | English prose with comic and tragic elements ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | 20th-century literature ⓘ |
| narrativeForm | prose ⓘ |
| notableFor | being John Irving’s first published novel ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| partOf |
John Irving
ⓘ
surface form:
John Irving bibliography
|
| publicationYear | 1968 ⓘ |
| publisher | Random House ⓘ |
| setting |
Austria
ⓘ
Vienna ⓘ Schönbrunn Zoo ⓘ
surface form:
Vienna Zoo
postwar Austria ⓘ |
| timePeriodDepicted |
1950s
ⓘ
1960s ⓘ post–World War II era ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Setting Free the Bears Description of subject: Setting Free the Bears is John Irving’s debut novel, a darkly comic and politically charged coming-of-age story set in postwar Austria that follows two young men plotting to liberate the animals from the Vienna Zoo.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.