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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8809030" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well, back to the difference between reader perception and author intent, I think it's a valid reading that the narrator accepts his condition joyfully and finds happiness, but I think authorial intent here is that that is horrifying in the extreme.&nbsp; Because it doesn't matter how horrifying you find the sea, it's nothing but a tiny shadow or mere dust compared to overwhelming neurotic horror HPL had to the sea and ocean life.&nbsp; He literally couldn't be in the same room as a fish.&nbsp; He be forced to flee the room in a panic, stomach heaving, heart racing, sweating and gasping for air in the presence of sea food.&nbsp; So it's interesting to think about what this scene means to the author.&nbsp; Is he trying to come to grips with his own phobia?&nbsp; Or is he channeling his own horror?&nbsp; There was earlier talk about the way vampires have shifted mentally in peoples mind from being horrifying monsters greatly to be feared, to being a desirable state of existence where we romanticize being the monster.&nbsp; The fish people HPL describes are not conventionally attractive at all (contrast strongly the almost anime Harem depiction Stross gives them!).&nbsp; Would we be romanticizing the vampire in CW dramas if they were always portrayed as rotting Nosferatu - high function zombies smelling of dead flesh?&nbsp; Would we be like, &quot;Of course I'd want to live like that?&quot;&nbsp; Of course I'd want to be a grotesque fish person living in the lightless depths among worms and glowing corals?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 8809030, member: 4937"] Well, back to the difference between reader perception and author intent, I think it's a valid reading that the narrator accepts his condition joyfully and finds happiness, but I think authorial intent here is that that is horrifying in the extreme. Because it doesn't matter how horrifying you find the sea, it's nothing but a tiny shadow or mere dust compared to overwhelming neurotic horror HPL had to the sea and ocean life. He literally couldn't be in the same room as a fish. He be forced to flee the room in a panic, stomach heaving, heart racing, sweating and gasping for air in the presence of sea food. So it's interesting to think about what this scene means to the author. Is he trying to come to grips with his own phobia? Or is he channeling his own horror? There was earlier talk about the way vampires have shifted mentally in peoples mind from being horrifying monsters greatly to be feared, to being a desirable state of existence where we romanticize being the monster. The fish people HPL describes are not conventionally attractive at all (contrast strongly the almost anime Harem depiction Stross gives them!). Would we be romanticizing the vampire in CW dramas if they were always portrayed as rotting Nosferatu - high function zombies smelling of dead flesh? Would we be like, "Of course I'd want to live like that?" Of course I'd want to be a grotesque fish person living in the lightless depths among worms and glowing corals? [/QUOTE]

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