WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Hortus the Rotting Mermaid

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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<v Speaker 2>Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

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<v Speaker 2>As you probably know, I love a good monster manual,

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<v Speaker 2>I love a good bestieri, and I recently picked up

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<v Speaker 2>an especially imaginative book by German fantasy and horror illustrator

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<v Speaker 2>Yanna Heidersdorff, titled Doctor c Lilyfisk's Explorations in Sirenology, A

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<v Speaker 2>Guide to Mermaids and other under the Sea phenomena, purported

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<v Speaker 2>to have been written by syenologist doctor Cecilia Lilyfisk, who

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<v Speaker 2>is described as quote most definitely a real person. The

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<v Speaker 2>book guides readers through a fanciful and horrifying imagined world

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<v Speaker 2>of mermaids, sirens, o people, and related creatures. One of

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<v Speaker 2>the things I love about this book is the way

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<v Speaker 2>it fully embraces the weirder and from our vantage point,

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<v Speaker 2>horrific details of marine life and folds them into its

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<v Speaker 2>treatment of mermaids, mythic and folkloric beings that are based

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<v Speaker 2>in a very anthropocentric view that populated the ancient seas

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<v Speaker 2>with mere reflections of terrestrial and human life. So the

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<v Speaker 2>fantastic beings of the sea in this book are never

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<v Speaker 2>mere women of the deep, but bizarre creatures whose human

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<v Speaker 2>likenesses are infused with all manner of underwater mimicry, predation,

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<v Speaker 2>and camouflage. For just one example, I'd like to discuss

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<v Speaker 2>the hortoise, a creature from the latter portions of the

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<v Speaker 2>book that deal with denizens of the lightless midnight zone.

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<v Speaker 2>The main illustration for this entry depicts a mermaid resting

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<v Speaker 2>on the seafloor, her chin on crossed arms, as if

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<v Speaker 2>in slumber of some sort. Her back, however, is a

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<v Speaker 2>garden of corals and sea and enemies growing out of

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<v Speaker 2>her body, thriving with various other deep water organisms. An

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<v Speaker 2>accompanying image depicts the hortoise's eye sockets full of sessile

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<v Speaker 2>organisms and skin that is seemingly ravaged as well by

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<v Speaker 2>the growth of such life forms. As the entry describes,

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<v Speaker 2>the hortois is herself a sessile habitat for the various

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<v Speaker 2>organisms that inhabit her body, and is whale fall incarnate.

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<v Speaker 2>Whale fall, you might remember, occurs when the remnants of

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<v Speaker 2>a whale cadaver sync to the ocean floor in deep water,

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<v Speaker 2>creating an oasis ecosystem of life in an otherwise desolate

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<v Speaker 2>ocean floor environment, becoming not only a destination for scavengers,

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<v Speaker 2>but a localized, specialized ecosystem until the resources are completely

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<v Speaker 2>consumed later on. Knowledge of whale fall is relatively new

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<v Speaker 2>to science, having first been observed in the nineteen seventies,

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<v Speaker 2>but has been featured prominently on such nature documentaries as

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<v Speaker 2>Blue Planet. There are sulfide rich habitat islands that may

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<v Speaker 2>also have served as evolutionary stepping stones for deep sea

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<v Speaker 2>vent organisms, and they feature multiple phases of activity before

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<v Speaker 2>they pass once more into the night. A mobile scavenger stage,

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<v Speaker 2>followed by an enrichment opportunist stage, followed by a sulfophilic stage,

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<v Speaker 2>and finally a reef stage is detailed by Smith at

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<v Speaker 2>All in twenty fifteen's Whalefall Ecosystems, published in the Annual

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<v Speaker 2>Review of Marine Science. There's a morbid beauty in imagining

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<v Speaker 2>a mermaid form of whalefall, but Hydrosdorff takes it all

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<v Speaker 2>to the next philosophical level by having the horta seemingly

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<v Speaker 2>engage in this condition, willingly dreaming away on the seafloor,

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<v Speaker 2>undying and continually regenerating like a nightmare aquatic take on

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<v Speaker 2>Doctor Seuss's Thidwick, the big Hearted Moose, perhaps composed by

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<v Speaker 2>the android David. The inevitable comparison, of course, is that

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<v Speaker 2>while whales in death become a home for an entire

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<v Speaker 2>ecosystem of organisms, we live in humans, like all animals,

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<v Speaker 2>are hosts to a fertile microbiome of microorganisms. In a sense,

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<v Speaker 2>we are all the horta and its nightmare visage is

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<v Speaker 2>also our reflection. The book is currently in print, part

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<v Speaker 2>of the Wool of Bat folklore series, and I highly

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<v Speaker 2>recommend it. You can also read about such creatures in

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<v Speaker 2>the book as the terrifying jellyfish like Medusa Clara, the

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<v Speaker 2>deadly spinosa with its spiked tail, oh and the horrifying Vellum,

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<v Speaker 2>a midnight zone siren that quote devours any flesh its

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<v Speaker 2>prey offers, then rips out the bones, licks them clean,

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<v Speaker 2>and pierces itself with them. Tune in for additional episodes

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<v Speaker 2>of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you can

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<v Speaker 2>email us at Contact It's Stuff to will your mind dot.

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