It's Why I List "Creative Biology" As An Interest

[bloodyrosemccoy]

So Discovery aired a kind of sequel to Mermaids: The Body Found last week, and just like when the first one came out last year, and with that dragon one some years back, it raises an important and intriguing question:

Dude, am I the only one who thought it was just a really fun sci-fi mockumentary?

The only opinions I've really seen are "OMG I'M CONVINCED MERMAIDS R TOTALLY REAL AND THE GOVERNMENT IS COVERING IT UP" and "TRICKERY! This is naught but a HOAX you fools! It is trashy TV to ensnare unwary minds!" It's like for this particular series people forget that speculative fiction is a thing. Admittedly the documentary format is more prone to being misunderstood than your standard SyFy Original or blockbuster,* but c'mon. They are not trying to tell us The Truth, or to confuse the masses with falsehood. They are being creative and playing with science and story.

Anyway, I was kind of disappointed with the follow-up. I really liked the first one--I'm a total sucker for grain-of-science mockumentaries like that. And given that my school biology notes were covered with speculative attempts to design biologically viable, evolutionarily plausible mammalian mermaids (who are going to show up in OGYAFE 2: Electric Boogaloo), or fungal Mushroom People (y'know, the Super Mario ones), or plant-based fairies (like, say, Terwu'arie from Scatterstone), I would say that shouldn't be a surprise. I love making up critters. Hell, the game Spore was just an extension of what I've been doing all along. Only I do it more thoroughly.

But I am also a sucker for speculative anthropology.** So while the ~*~mysteeeerious mystery*~* of cryptozoology was fun, and I do rather enjoy creepy "found" footage, I would have preferred more of a staight-up metafictional study of their evolution and culture. As long as this IS fiction, I do wish they'd carry the story further. Public discovery, contact, language, all that shit that people think doesn't work as entertainment--I would watch the HELL out of that. ("Since making contact with the merfolk, Dr. Dirk Squarejaw has been living on his boat in the open ocean, studying their lifestyle. He filmed the whole thing. Here are some of the highlights." I WOULD WATCH THAT. I might even skip watching 7 Or 8 Assholes And Mister Rogers, if the two shows were in the same time slot. God, TV is so much cooler in my head.)

... Actually, come to think of it, that was pretty much my wish for Avatar, too. But you knew that.


RANDOM POINTLESS COMPLAINT: It kind of annoys me that they kept referring to the entire species as "mermaids." I hereby propose we come up with a good sex-unspecific term for merpeople that isn't as cumbersome as, y'know, "merpeople."


*Their big mistake was tossing in the Government Coverup. If you're a conspiracy theorist, any debunking of that is only further proof that the debunker is PART OF THE CONSPIRACY. There is no way to argue with the claim that "they had to present it as fiction because otherwise the government/Illuminati/lizard people would have completely crushed it."

**Or anthropoidology, I guess.

Comments

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

I think the first time they aired it there was a flurry of teh stupids enough that the government agency mentioned had to release an official statement.

I'm on the fun mockumentary side. And still laughing that the first spot on the first commercial break for this repeat went to Long John Silvers'.

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

I've got to agree. I mean, having seen the one on dragons it's nice they tried to mix it up a bit beyond the fairly standard presentational documentary bit but the whole metaplot about The Conspiracy didn't interest me a ton. I loved the design of the merpeople, though.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

I remember some similar responses to Troll Hunter. Very frustrating.

Also: Merfolk?

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

It might be the slot on Discovery that confuses people - it's really no longer a science channel, but that's how it started, and the reputation still lingers a bit.

[beccastareyes]

I think a lot of my irritation would be because of the 'OMG COVERUP' folks. If something presents itself as a clear fictional documentary, that's fun, but when people are taking it seriously and I have to put on my 'Doctor Killjoy' hat to talk them down (or at least provide an opposing viewpoint for the bystanders), that is not fun at all. Basically 'how many people on the Internet am I going to have to argue with'?

I agree with you: ignoring the coverup to tell a documentary story about what scientists would do if they did find mermaids and wanted to study a non-human aquatic civilization would be a lot more entertaining to me*.

* Heck, one of my professors compared giving a research talk to telling a story in that you have a sort of narrative structure to work around and need to set up all your twists and turns and big reveals and such.

[shadesofmauve]

My best high school art project was a colored-pencil mermaid picture, in a gorgeous background copied from national geographic (shh, don't tell, they're copyright demons), in which I spend scads of time and brainpower designing a mermaid whose fish tail went the RIGHT WAY, with a vertically oriented tale instead of a horizontally oriented dolphin/whale tail, as commonly drawn.

Mermaids. Serious business.

(Then I wasn't allowed to have it in the school art show because it showed naked breasts, 'cause I thought the seashell thing was stupid. Too titillating with the tits. Art teacher still gave me an A, though.)

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Naiads? Undines?

[tay421.livejournal.com]

I'm just going to raise my hand and wave it wildly and hope you understand it as "ME TOO, TO EVERYTHING".

I have some species of sorta-merfolk in my Bag Of Stories I'll Probably Never Write, although admittedly, due to their entire concept, their design is more fetish fodder rather than built from existing biology for the sake of realism. But since Mermaids: The Body Found, I've been slowly developing the stuff I would have wanted to see more of. Contact stories get most of the development though, since I do like to keep them as cryptids. But I have considered post-discovery scenarios, too, and even a backstory. I'm not sure if I'll post or even write those things, though, because, well, I'm afraid to ruin the ~*~mysteeeerious mystery*~* for the people who have been closely following said project(s).

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/06/hybrid-animal-wish-list/?pid=7052