Frankenstein and the Mermaid

http://www.retronaut.com/2012/12/frankenstein-and-the-mermaid/frank/

“”Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid” was shooting near a set where “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” was filming. Tourists were shocked to see Glenn Strange’s Frankenstein Monster having lunch with Ann Blyth in her fishtail costume. Both Strange and Lon Chaney in his Wolfman make-up were invited to the Mr. Peabody wrap party, where they hammed it up in make-up.”
- IMDb

Glaucus

Usually mer-folk are born that way or at least have an undersea ancestor. Glaucus is an exception. He began as a normal human although he was unusually skilled at building boats. He built the Argo which Jason used on his quest for the golden fleece.

One day he noticed that the fish he caught were reviving and escaping back into the water. It turned out that he had dumped his catch on a strange herb and it was responsible.

Glaucus tried the herb and felt a compulsion to dive into the water where he changed into a merman with green hair. He learned prophesy and became known for helping sailors in distress.

A different version has Glaucus plunging into the ocean during the fight between Jason against the Tyrrhenians. Glaucus sunk to the bottom of the sea and was transformed.

Review: Drowning Mermaids

Drowning Mermaids (Sacred Breath, Book 1) by Nadia Scrieva

This is not your typical mermaid novel. For one thing, the mermaids have legs instead of fishtails. Als, it is written for a more mature audience - not that it contains adult subject matter, it just has content that will interest adults.

The aging captain of a fishing boat takes his crew to a stipper bar to unwind after losing a crew member. There he becomes entranced with a young stripper and invites her to be his house guest along with her two sisters.

Actually, she is over six hundred years old and ruler of an undersea kingdom. Even her youngest sister is 90 but looks 10. They are on the surface to raise money in order to buy weapons to defend their kingdom from aggressors.

This is a very well-written book. All of the plot twists were thought out in advance. The characters are well-developed and each has a distinctive way of speaking.

This book avoids one of the big traps of mermaid books - the undersea world is fully integrated with the modern world. Too often the undersea parts seem dreamy and indistinct compared with the modern world but not here.

Also, the writing itself is compelling enough to keep up interest even though very little actually happens in the first half.

One warning - while this is novel-length, it breaks off abruptly and is continued in the next novel. The first one is free (as an e-book) just to get you hooked. I've already bought the sequel.

Mermaid Technology

Mermaids are usually depicted as naked. If they carry anything, it is a comb and mirror. This shows just how alien life in the sea would be from life on land.

The basic building blocks of technology were fire, rocks, and wood. There is evidence that cooking food predates modern humans and that the extra calories gained from cooking food allowed us to develop our larger brains.

But there is no fire underwater.

Tool-making also predates humanity. These were a combination of stone and wood. Knives and scrapers were made from hard, brittle stone like flint but spears began as pointed wood with stone heads being added later. Flint is hard to come by on land or sea but the initial impulse to pick up a stone and use it is not as obvious when stones are as close as your feet. And wood just doesn't grow underwater.

The main tools that mer-folk would have to work with are shells and coral. Coral is soft enough that it could be worked with shells although there are limits on what can be made. Traditionally mer-folk have made things like necklaces and bras from sea shells but that would require drilling holes in the shells. How would this be done?

Clothing is its own issue. The first clothing was made from animal skins that had been dried and later tanned. It was worn to protect humans from the weather.

While you can make leather from many sea creatures, it cannot be done underwater. Also there is little point. Sea people would not need protection from the sun or rain and leather will not keep you warm in the water. Also, wearing clothes does not affect travel appreciably in the air but can slow you down underwater.

All of this is an intellectual exercise. Novelists depicting mermaid civilizations have to account for these things or their civilizations will feel off. If the mer-people live in set villages then the novelist has to explain why. What is the benefit of this way versus living in a constantly-moving school like dolphins? If they make things then the novelist has to know how and why.

This is a problem in some of the mermaid novels I have read. The set-up is detailed, down-to-earth. Then the lead character travels to a mermaid settlement and the tone becomes dreamy. The change can be jarring.

Granted, it is much easier to describe existing civilization than to make one up from scratch and still seem authentic. Thinking through these questions would help. How did the mermaid civilization develop and why don't they live like dolphins? If you can sell this to yourself then you can sell it to the world.