Tag Archives: Discovery #1

Discovery #1: GALAXIAS (One-shot) by Ao Hatesaka

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Throughout history, cultures around the world have told and created stories of powerful inhuman creatures. Who were able to assume human form. They were used in the past to explain natural disasters disrupting civilization. Some explained as the ‘wrath’ of the gods or similar entities, showcasing mankind’s complicated relationship with nature. One such story is the manga one-shot GALAXIAS by Ao Hatesaka. The story draws on the shared mythology of dragons—a stand in for natural disasters—that mirrors the broader human challenge of facing nature’s destructive forces. The protagonist struggles to find a reason to keep living after his family were killed by dragons. Through his encounter with a dragon who transforms into a girl, the protagonist begins to rediscover his will to live. Finding healing through his connection to this force of nature. Reflecting the beauty of life that nature reminds us to properly heal.

The story of Galaxias takes place on a fictional island nation, plagued by reoccurring dragon attacks. Following teenager Nereid living on his own collecting scrap on the beaches to sell and tending to a lighthouse to make ends meet. However, he is bitter about his current lot in life. Having what he cared for (both his normal life and family) taken away from him. He even says he’s ‘enduring’ life rather than living it.

These panels below panels showcases in a similar fashion to natural disasters how part of life dragon attacks are. That its something the nations of the world have to prepare and act against when possible. Both its setting and the frequent attacks are most likely inspired by creator’s Ao Hatesaka own personal experiences. As in Japan, tsunamis and earthquakes are fairly common.

Nereid after a day’s work encounters a dragon’s corpse, that soon after transforms into a young girl. Named Jio. Put in charge of caring for Jio, Nereid finds Jio is passive and child-like. Not the aggressive monsters he’s known dragons for. Forced to live with Jio and care for her over a long period of time, she frustrates him beyond belief, BUT its more than he’s felt in a long time. During a one on one conversation with Jio, he finally admits to her that he despises dragons. However, by this point he begins to question himself.

Dragons shown in the manga while being described as aggressive, aren’t shown on ‘screen’ as being so. The first dragon introduced, Jio, brings life back to Nereid. This is most likely again due to creator Ao Hatesaka’s culture, as dragons in East Asia aren’t seen as symbols of destruction. But as a symbol of good fortune and as spiritual guardians. The only instance of a dragon being shown on ‘screen’ in the manga attacking humans, its in response to humans attacking first. Dragons here are very much like natural disasters in that they aren’t inherently malicious. Its in a similar vein to how some wild animals attack humans but don’t do it because they’re evil or cruel.

Nereid learning of this sees past his hate and begins the road to recover, like how many modern humans who undergo natural disasters learn to do. Jio, who in the story is presented as nature being sent to Nereid, reminds him he still has a home on this wonderful earth to go back to.

Discovery #1

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📸: @ManaOfficial- Instagram

The year 1997 marked a huge shift in the career of Mexican rock band, Maná. With the release of their fifth studio album, Sueños Líquidos, the band took a major step toward becoming one of the most successful influences in the world of rock en español. Although track nine titled, “La Sirena”, is the primary focus of my analysis, the album as whole contributes to the larger narrative about love, the feminine, and the natural. “La Sirena” tells the heartbreaking story of a woman who yearns to leave her human world after she experiences love and loss, ultimately transforming into a mermaid and choosing to live at sea. In this song Maná depicts how society treats both the feminine and the natural in a contradictory manner, failing to protect them and then disguising it with love. Exposing the clear link between the dominion of women and the natural world that exists. Revealing how survival, for both women and the natural, often depends on the rejection of systems that claim to care for them. 

“Quería ella escaparse de una isla
She wanted to escape from an island
De la Habana tropical
From tropical Havana”

(mANA 0:25)

Although it’s revealed that the paradise she lives in (prior to her mermaid transformation) is this beautiful tropical Havana…she still flees to a more “raw” form of the natural. I found this detail to be extremely telling of the story because it serves as a reminder that even natural spaces can feel oppressive under systems of ownership and control. Both the feminine and the natural are treated similarly, as a resource only to be valued in society when it is to be admired, commodified, and contained. The human sort of abandons it out of convenience just because she can and then it’s never mentioned again. This could also be in reference to the larger issue of people using verbiage like “sacred” to describe the natural, creating a conditional love for it until it becomes no longer profitable. Regardless, it’s clear from the beginning of the song that this society is built on a system that prioritizes growth.

“Montada en un delfín ella escapó
Riding a dolphin she escaped
Y en la mar ella se hundió
And in the sea she sunk down
Nadando entre corales, caracolas
Swimming among corals, seashells
Y entre peces de colores
And among coloured fish
Jugando con delfines en las olas
Playing with the dolphins on the waves
Empapada en amores
Soaked in love” 

(Mana 1:10)

The imagery of her riding a dolphin as she’s escaping to be part of the sea is not in a childlike naive desire to escape her reality but instead an image of resistance. This mermaid does not wait to be rescued by her male counterpart instead she initiates her own escape. From beginning to end she is the central focus of the entire story, a story that highlights her journey or “transformation” to becoming her own individual very much separate from man. What surprised me the most about this transformation was that it was never rooted in punishment or as a form of sacrifice. This is especially shocking due to the cultural/societal norms/expectations that encourage women to pursue romantic love as it leads to an ultimate sense of fulfillment. This mermaid is not saved or destroyed by a man. She survives by making the choice to become a mermaid not to manipulate, seduce, or enchant anyone but to be free to be herself. Metaphorically speaking she is returning to herself, to her true home (the sea). After the tragic ending of her romance she is described to be alone but not lonely. There is a very clear distinction that is made between both that redefines solitude as a form of agency rather than that of an absence. As we’ve discussed numerous items in class before, the sea is something feared by man as it can not be controlled or manipulated. In the context of her transformation, this is significant because she is not a victim consumed by the sea or drowning in sorrows but instead reclaiming her power through her immersion in the natural. Shoutout Steve Mentz. This reframes the sea as a space of empowerment, not something dangerous or threatening to the human at all. The imagery of the sea, corals, seashells, and colorful fish also plays a significant role in the story. The raw natural is used as a refuge for the mermaid as she seeks life outside a world that demands conformity because it is outside human control. Her embracing her transformation challenges the typical narrative of the feminine and the natural as passive. She is physically making the choice to leave a system that demands her to love (the human world) for one where she finally finds freedom and feels “true love” (the natural world). To her, survival means breaking free from a society that only sees her value when she allows it to objectify or commodify her. Interestingly, her choice of transforming into a mermaid didn’t make her less human for me at all. Honestly, it did quite the opposite for me. Especially because towards the end she is quite literally “soaked in love” which means the story was never about her giving up on love to begin with but rather offering an alternative to what love could look like. In a society that thrives in the detachment from the natural world, “La Sirena” is the epitome of late 90’s music culture that was deeply rooted in resistance.

maybe the link?:https://spotify.link/qy0yldviCXb

Discovery #1

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“File:Edmund Dulac – The Mermaid – The Prince.jpg.” 

PREFACE:

Background on the artist Edmund Dulac, his artwork is featured for The Little Mermaid tale from Stories from Hans Andersen by H. C. Andersen published in 1911. He was born in France during 1882 and passed away in the United Kingdom during 1953. According to Diana Frank from Once Upon a Canvas exhibit, his arrival in London helped cultivate his drawing technique. Additionally, a new mass printing method allowed for Dulac to publish his watercolor paintings and he ventured towards “orientally influenced color palette”(Students). During this century, the European obsession with Orientalism started booming and many artists were entranced by exotic visual traits of the east. Therefore, another layer is added to the artwork considering the oriental influence on the Prince’s attire and the intricate pillar design, seen above. 

For my discovery, this artwork critically engages with the patriarchal subtext of Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’. It presents the Prince as a figure embodying the patriarchy– standing tall and powerful, owning the space and towering over the Little Mermaid. The painting promotes reading the story by paying attention to and how the narrative exposes and perpetuates sexist dynamics. 

Noticing an obvious difference between the Prince and The Little Mermaid is the attire. The Prince has oriental royal garments compared to The Little Mermaid’s seaweed-like scraps barely covering her body. Despite them both coming from royal backgrounds, he is heavily clothed with barely any skin being shown and donning a head piece. The Little Mermaid doesn’t have any physical evidence that she is from Mediterranean sea royalty, so it was easy for the Prince to assume he is above her in status. But, also note that in the artwork, the Little Mermaid is lower and cowered inwards while sitting on the steps of the palace. Meanwhile, the Prince is standing with a relaxed stance leaning. He is touching the pillar and his demeanor seems confident and comfortable. He is making a clear connection to his environment. With the following quote, it helps solidify the Prince with a dominant role throughout the story, “She was now dressed in costly robes of silk and muslin, and was the most beautiful of all the inmates of the palace; but she was dumb, and could neither sing nor speak”(Bacchilega, 124). The Little Mermaid isn’t a guest in his palace, she’s a prisoner who is trapped there. She can’t entertain him, and for that very reason she isn’t highly valued in the eyes of the Prince. The Prince assumes The Little Mermaid’s lack of intelligence based on her disability of having no voice is accurate and none can rebuttal that, especially her, since she sacrificed her voice to be on land. Nobody would dare be against the Prince on his domain. 

Revisiting the postures comparison in the artwork and it being a visual representation of the patriarchal hierarchy going on the entire time! This became more solidified with the following quote, “The prince declared that he would never part with her, and she obtained leave to sleep on a velvet cushion before his door”(Bacchilega, 124). The Prince had The Little Mermaid sleeping on the floor by his door, like an animal. It’s clear that the Prince sees her as a disposable toy that has his attention for now. The degrading nature of having her, a mute disabled young girl, sleep without basic human respect. 

In conclusion, The prince is a man at the end of the day, he will become a king, he is a prince. He is gonna look out for himself and make his life easier and benefitting him. The prince is a spitting image of the patriarchy and speaks volumes to what men think of women. That is why this fairytale is timeless.

Works Cited:

Bacchilega, Cristina and Marie Alohalani Brown. The Penguin Book of Mermaids. Penguin Books, 2019.

“File:Edmund Dulac – The Mermaid – The Prince.jpg.” Wikimedia Commons. 20 Aug 2025, 12:27 UTC. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edmund_Dulac_-_The_Mermaid_-_The_Prince.jpg&oldid=1075432655> 19 Oct 2025, 03:20.

Students in the German Studies course Grimm Reckonings: The Development of the German Fairy Tales (Professor Elio Brancaforte). “Once Upon a Canvas: Exploring Fairy Tale Illustrations from 1870-1942.” Tulane University Libraries , 19 Apr. 2013, exhibits.tulane.edu/exhibit/fairy_tales/. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025. 

Discovery 1: Hybrid Bodies and Betrayal in Melusine

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In The Romance of the Faery Melusine, one moment within the story that I would like to closely analyze is Melusine’s serpent transformation and how it is not framed as a decent into monstrosity but rather as a moment of revelation. Instead of describing her as a grotesque creature, the text instead describes her transformation as that of being radiant, imagery more akin to divinity than horror. Through this luminous description and natural symbolism, the passage portrays her hybrid body as powerful, sacred, and deeply connected to the environment. This aesthetic refreshing shifts the meaning of her transformation where the conflict from this scene is not of Melusine’s difference but rather Raymondin’s failure to accept it. Melusine’s revelation as a beautiful hybrid being is contrasted with the unsettling reaction is produces by revealing that the true threat lies not in the feminine wilderness, but in the patriarchal instinct to reject whatever resists containment.

The language surrounding Melusine’s revealed body is deliberately reverential. Rather than dwelling on minute details such as her scales or deformity, the scene is enveloped in a radiant “pale light” which fills the room as she emerges from the bath and her arms “shone like liquid gold” (Lebey 124) while she reached upwards toward the moon. Even her serpent form is transfigured as an extension of the natural world, shimmering like water. This description elevates her body into an elemental spectacle, treating her transformation as a moment of holy communion which aligns with the principle that view the feminine and natural world as two sides of the same coin. Feared because they are incredibly powerful, not becase they are inherently evil. Melusine’s hybridity is presented not as demonic but as ecological: she embodies both human intimacy and nonhuman fluidity.

Raymondin’s response to all this, however, fractures this sublimity. Where the narration illuminates Melusine’s with awe and wonder, his language is riddle with instability and uncertainty. He imagines, “implacable doors” and wonders whether he is “even in the true way to Melusine’s” (Lebey 123). His anxiety arises not from witnessing evil but witnessing something that he cannot categorize. The passage emphasizes his fear of ambiguity where his first instinct is not of compassion or curiosity but that of intrusion. The moment he spies on her, violating her trust and request for secrecy, is when the tragedy of the story truly begins. It is not Melusine’s serpent form that is an act of treachery, Raymondin’s gaze is. He cannot love that he cannot define and in this way, the scene dramatizes a broader ecofeminist critique where patriarchal consciousness recoils when confronted with beings who resist binary classification. In this case woman or monster.

Understanding this passage through this lens allows it to speak not only about gender perception but also environmental ethics. Melusine is punished for being a hybrid: a state of coexistence between human and nonhuman. Her rejection by her loved one reflect the cultural rejection of things that do not conform to human management. Like nature itself, she is cherished when useful, romanticized when passive, but feared when autonomous and unable to be tamed by man. Her serpent body can be seen as a form of resistance as she will not sever herself from the wild to appease a man who is terrified of boundaries. This passage mirrors the societal relationships the environment and teaches that ecological destruction begins with the refusal to recognize kinship across differences.

In the end, the betrayal is not Melusine’s but Raymondin’s. Her transformation teaches that the monster was not her hybridity but rather the impulse to sever ourselves from nature in order to feel a false sense of security. By portraying her serpent body as sacred, the passage advances an early ecofeminist principle: environmental and feminine autonomy are not threats to be subdued or domesticated, but ways that demand open mindedness and reverence.

Melusine: the Mermaids, the Marginalized, the Merry

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Dion Jones

Prof J. Pressman

ECL 305; Literature and the Environment

18 October 2025

Melusine: the Mermaids, the Marginalized, the Merry

“Then hear my request. It is that you must by all sacraments you hold holy as a Chrisitian that on each Saturday, from sundown till dawn on the following day, never—and I will say it again so there is no doubt about it—never must you try to see me in any way whatever, nor seek to know where I am.” Andre LeBey The Romance of the Faery Melusine (27).This quote gives invaluable insight into the social environments in which Melusine was concocted. The titular character offers to be both a powerful ally and resource to a man seeking power and legitimacy. This single stipulation is all-but-guaranteed to be violated. I believe that the inclusion of this quote sets up the story as a critique of the powerful and its eventual overexertion of its resources—human and otherwise.

 She Was a Faery; She Was a Hybrid. A Hybrid of What; of Who?

Following our class’s themes of mermaids and other nature/human hybrids, I seek to explore the hybridity of Melusine as part insider, part other/outsider. I accomplish this by reading Melusine as a woman of Jewish ethnic and cultural heritage and as a natural resource. The traditional Hebrew Sabbath day—day of rest and worship—is on Saturday, as opposed to its daughter faith’s Sunday. While Melusine’s Sabbath lasts only half as long, and bridges the late hours of Saturday to Sunday rather than Friday through Saturday, it strikes a parallel. Days of worship suggest the practice of rituals either public or private, allowing Melusine to adhere to her Sabbath without the prying eyes of her Christian partner—Raymondin. 

The natural world is an invaluable resource that makes life possible for itself and for those who make use of it whether they understand themselves as extensions of it or not. Melusine may act as a metaphorical representation of the natural environment, her request for the strict adherence to her personal Sabbath and boundaries may reflect the fact that wildlife, air, and water systems tend to need time to repopulate/replenish unimpeded in order to avoid the tragedy of the commons: a problem/condition where a person(s) is encouraged to act in their self-interest, depleting a shared and limited resource to the detriment of the common good of all.

How Does this Relate to Power?

The legends that inform LeBey’s story were in circulation well after the Edict of Expulsion by the English King Edward I—which expelled his Jewish subjects from the lands—and even longer after the Norman conquest of England. According to George Hare Leonard‘s The Expulsion of the Jews by Edward I. An Essay in Explanation of the Exodus, A.D. 1290, Jewish people were used by the wealthy and powerful—especially English Kings—as a source of revenue from their banking/money lending businesses due in part by non-Christians being barred from Christian guilds which controlled most other professions (104). Further, Christians were essentially barred from banking and money lending businesses due to scriptures—or assumption of surrounding them—not shared with their mother faith, creating a niche that could only be filled by members of outsider groups (Leonard 106).

Jewish people—especially the money lenders and bankers—were brought from Normandy—France—to the British Aisles by William the Conqueror as a protected class for the express purposes of enriching him and his line. Through the alienating nature of their relationship to power and the masses, antisemitism festered over the centuries, became weaponized by the powers that exploited them, and were ultimately harmed by and expelled by the non-Norman rulers who, again, benefitted from moneylending. 

I argue that this same relationship between power and the exploited is the core of The Romance of the Faery Melusine whether or not we read Melusine as an insider/outsider hybrid or as a human/nature hybrid. . Those who are powerful will form social and political contracts with more vulnerable people and extract whatever value they can. When receiving value, Christian sacraments may bind a noble, but their greed likely won’t be stopped. Melusine can give Raymondin the world, but he will always thirst for that which he cannot have. If timber builds chips and palaces, a noble will have every last tree fell if it will maintain his seat or aid in robbing another of their own. 

 Works Cited

LeBey, Andre. The Romance of the Faery Melusine. Pearson Professional Development, 2011.

Leonard, George Hare. “The Expulsion of the Jews by Edward I. An Essay in Explanation of the Exodus, A.D. 1290.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 5, 1891, pp.  103–46. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3678048. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.

An Insightful tale on Environmentalism; Disguised as an Action Film

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With modern films now being remakes of remakes and original stories getting neglected by major studios, this leaves films and novels to re-invent certain legendary tales. One of these relatively “modern” films is the 1995 film Waterworld. While this film’s core message displays the consequences of tampering with nature and the unknown, it also questions what it is to be human as well as demonstrates how society has progressed from shunning down diversity, to now appreciating the unique traits all beings carry.

The mid-90s film Waterworld tells the tale of a dystopian future where the Earth’s polar ice caps have completely melted, then leading to high sea levels covering every continent and leaving little to no dry land. This catastrophe then results in a form of “Darwinism” to occur where only the fittest and most innovative humans survive by building ships/boats and creating mechanisms enabling them to continue to live in essentially an aquatic desert. The main protagonist is known as “The Mariner” portrayed by Kevin Costner and excluding the evident “stereotypical virile hero archetype” he plays, the character does have depth and is in many ways an example of adaptation and assimilation in a society that is not diverse and not accepting of the unfamiliar.

Similar to previous readings involving aquatic-hybrid life and the seas, The Mariner is also misunderstood and misjudged by humans that treat him as a threat rather than as an ally with the sole motive for this unfair treatment being the fact that The Mariner has a genetic mutation. This very mutation being a pair of gills that allows him to respire underwater for long periods of time. Despite this legitimately being an advantage in a world completely submerged by the seas, as humanity tends to repeat not only in fiction but in reality as well, communities reject him and his abilities causing him to travel independently suffering countless moments of ridicule and criticism. The Mariner in instances like these can very well be a modern take on merfolk due to the hybrid attributes (e.g. fin-like phalanges and gills behind ears) he has which are subtle but impactful, but also because he is shunned from both human and and sea-life communities; not truly fitting in to either societies. Instead of uniting with a being that is accustomed to the ocean and embracing said being which will only benefit all parties involved, the survivors instead show signs of prejudice towards The Mariner displaying the societies inability to adapt themselves in an environment that is divergent from the earth they have known to live in; an anthropocentric earth.

This anti-progressive or “conservative” mentality that the survivors posses is an entitled opinion of which they have no right to believe in since the world is changing both socially and geologically which then leads one to pose a question, are humans the ones that should distinguish the normal from the abnormal when such diverse organisms exist? It is only when humans begin to understand the beauty of being unique and that adaptation is advantageous to all that we will progress as a society which is showcased in Waterworld. This ego-centrism from the survivors however slowly but surely starts to fade away with them realizing that they (the humans) are the odd ones out and that those who have begun to respect and admire the formidable power of the sea, as well as accept that society is changing just as much as the oceans currents are in perpetual motion, now have a better chance to live peacefully and blissfully, a way of thinking that all should encompass and practice in their lives to be in accordance with nature.