Monsters

[poliphilo]

Almost every large body of water in the world has a monster. Nessie is only the most famous.

Evidence comes in by dribs and drabs. Plenty of sightings, but the photographs are always teasingly ambiguous (or faked.)

And then there are the sea monsters.

What are these things? I want them to be plesiosaurs, but the weight of probability is against it. Loren Coleman (and he's the man) suggests that they're a rare breed of long necked seal. That really does cut them down to size.

I have been fascinated by them all my life. When I was a very small kid I has scared of paddling out into the sea in case a monster came swimming by.

Actually, that fear has never gone away.

I was never scared of sharks or jelly-fish or things like that- real things that posed a real threat. Only of these hypothetical things that posed a hypothetical threat.

There are no cases on record- not recent cases anyway- of lake or sea monsters hurting anyone. The threat is purely metaphysical. I'm afraid of them (and love them) because they're uncanny.

Things half seen, of indeterminate size and shape, slip-sliding through the dark.

What do they symbolise? Is it something to do with sex? Is it something to do with God?

I can't quite grasp it.

There's a chap about to go down into Loch Ness with a state of the art submarine. Perhaps he'll come back with a long-necked seal on a leash.

I so hope he does.

I so hope he doesn't.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

LOL.

Am I right in thinking that nothing lives in the Dead Sea?

How sad.

[silent-mouse.livejournal.com]

Its water doesn't feel nice, to tell you the truth. It has that oily touch. (Not to mention that it stings you wherever it can.) So I wouldn't be surprised to learn that monsters moved out of it long time ago - to Scotland, maybe?

(Oops, I have just ruined a lot of tourism potential, haven't I?)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've seen pictures of bathers floating in the Dead Sea. They sort of lie on the surface; it's weird. Apparently it's almost impossible to sink.

Oily and stinging- yuk!

[silent-mouse.livejournal.com]

It's even more weird when you do it. :) It seems impossible and scary at first, and then you find yourself lying on the surface and still feeling very weird. But worth a try nevertheless, if only to tell people afterwards that you did it. :)

Apparently some bacteria do live in the Dead Sea. But they are not very monster-ish. I'm disappointed.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hooray for the bacteria! We should take heart from their tenacity. Life is so wonderfully bloody-minded; it will establish itself anywhere.