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

[thewayupward.livejournal.com]

I used to be quite convinced, as a child, that one day I would go to Scotland and come back having seen the Loch Ness monster. It all seemed so rational to me! Didn't make sense for the dinosaurs to all have been wiped out, and I liked diplodoci best so I used to imagine a big diplodocus just wading about in the Loch Ness quite happily, and poking its head out to breathe or peek at tourists.

I like the way the Nessie legend evolved into the urban legend about a crocodile grown enormous from living on rubbish thrown down the drain, living in the sewers. Isn't it nifty?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I just think water monsters are so much cooler and creepier than land monsters. I love plesiosaurs with their long snaky necks. And then there's Lipleurodon- the biggest predator ever on land or sea- much bigger than little ol' T Rex.

Did you see the BBC documentary Walking with Dinosaurs? My favourite moment was when we saw this big raptor stalking its prey along the shoreline and suddenly a huge Lipleurodon reared its head out of the water and gulped it down.

[aint2nuts.livejournal.com]

I saw that documentary just recently. It was on here about a week ago. The kids and I watched it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Pretty good, eh? There have been various sequels.

[thewayupward.livejournal.com]

Deep down inside I'm still a little kid and like Maiasauras best. They looked so friendly in the pictures! Then I liked the Ankylosaurus, 'cause they had lumpy grumpy tails. Okay, this is ridiculous. When I was five I wanted to be an archaeologist so I could see dinosaurs. Anyway I kind of pretended Lipleurodon didn't exist ;_; 'cause I was a big wimp.

Yes, I did see Walking with Dinosaurs! I loved it! I particularly liked the Parasaurolophus (sp? Parasaurus?). Their funny honking noise!!!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If I had my life to live again I'd be an archaeologist. Archaeologists are way cool. It's the only profession in which you're positively obliged to dress like a hippy or a punk!