Posted by Atticus on September 14, 2004, at 21:28:27
In reply to fiction...The Secret, posted by malthus on September 14, 2004, at 17:39:16
Hi Malthus,
Besides all the dozens of gorgeous bits of imagery in this watery down-the-rabbit-hole fable, such as the weeping mermaids under the gray snails and the octopi entangling their tentacles in the ship's rigging, I'm struck by the telling details such as water-logged sand on a sea bottom that holds no footprints. But I'm also taken by something more, a metaphor for being lost, and perhaps even for one's mental state. The crew think they're on an endless plain of dry land, when actually they're deep beneath the surface of the ocean. Their collective disorientation and their mistaken perception of where they are strikes me as a possible metaphor for depression -- to be so low that you find yourself in alarming alien territory, yet at the same time to be unaware of how deeply you have sunk. This sense of suddenly being swept by a maelstrom into an abyss, albeit a magical (yet vaguely menacing) one in this case, leads me to bring a psychological subtext to this story. Whether that was intentional on your part or not, I have no idea. But I perceive a thread of dark allegory in what at first seems to be a light-hearted adventure. All the great fairy tales have this quality. I can't wait for the next part. ;) Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:390754
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20040828/msgs/390842.html