For this post I will be focusing on the introduction of The Penguin Book of Mermaids. It is very intriguing to me because I took an ECL 220 class on monster theory and how monsters reflect our anxieties, and we learned from last week’s discussion that mermaids in general (not just medieval or contemporary) are quite literally a part of monster theory.

The introduction to the Penguin Book of Mermaids presents us with some interesting info about aquatic creatures and how they reflect our cultural anxieties. What stood out to me in the “Their Bodies, Our Anxieties” section is the uncanniness that we experience when we combine a being with non-human traits with humans; Bacchilega and Brown use aquatic humanoids as an example (xi). Jeffery Jerome Cohen’s seven monster theses can be seen at play here; keywords such as “thresholds” and “anxieties” and how mermaids are described here has me thinking about them. Here is how I would connect merpeople and aquatic humanoids in general to some of Cohen’s theses, specifically I, III, VI:

Thesis I: The monster’s body is a cultural body

This thesis is referenced in the text itself: “In contemporary cultural theory, we are reminded that ‘a construct and projection, the monster exists only to be read; the monstrum is etymologically ‘That which reveals,’ ‘That which warns.”” (xii) Monsters reflect our culture’s “fear, desire, fantasy, and fantasy,” (Cohen 4) and aquatic human-creature hybrids are no exception to the monster spectrum. Merpeople are sometimes featured in maritime fantasy/fiction novels, and they are usually depicted as humans with a giant tail instead of a pair of legs. Although they could be considered human, their monstrosity stems from the fact that they live in a largely-unknown uninhabitable environment outside of human society. Because their bodies reflect our desires to explore more of the ocean and our fear of not knowing what lies there, it therefore fits Cohen’s first thesis.

Thesis III: The monster is the harbinger of category crisis

Merpeople are usually part-human and part-fish, and some portrayals give them the ability to switch between human and fish at will. Because they exist between two categories, it is difficult to categorize them into either human or fish. Their in-between existence, therefore, “questions binary thinking and introduces a crisis” (Cohen 6).

Thesis VI: Fear of the monster is really a kind of desire

The text basically says it: “Our ambivalence toward mermaids and other water spirits finds its representation in their bodies, which are often alluring, but can also be frightening.” (xii) For instance, the siren is a fearsome type of mermaid that sings a beautiful song that lures sailors to their doom. She flips the gender binary by depicting the woman as the one in power, enticing men into falling for her song and compelling them into doing what she wants. Since we live in a patriarchal society, this power, then, is what women desire most.

I think it’s interesting to see what I’ve learned from my previous ECL classes make an appearance in the readings for this class. Here’s my question: how would you apply Cohen’s monster theses to a monster that you’ve encountered/yet to encounter? It doesn’t have to be mermaids, but it’d be intriguing to see his theses applied to merpeople in particular.