My Life in Sea Creatures: A young queer science writer’s reflections on identity and the ocean

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In Norse mythology, Jormungandr is a “huge monster” from the sea who is so big he can surround the earth and grab his tail. In Marvel Comics, Jormungandr is known as the Midgard Serpent. Thor, the thunder god, is the arch-enemy of Jormungandr. 16. The Kappa As a mixed Chinese and white non-binary writer working in a largely white, male field, science journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Reading notes This book is after a few chapters, so far successful, very strange mix of science, being young and gay and full of angst, and the story of her mother in China. It's quite unclassifiable but interesting. There are quite mind-boggling sentences, "My grandmother grew up believing she was ugly because everyone told her so. A friend of her father's, their wealthy neighbour's sixth concubine always told my mother she was ugly, even for a five year old."

SN: In that essay, you write about the difference between living and reliving and how both can be, for a jellyfish, a physiological experience, but it can also be a psychological or emotional process for people. Can you elaborate on the difference between living and reliving, and nonlinear trajectories of life? In this book, Imbler switches between describing a sea creature and their own life. The most interesting aspect of this is how they relate the sea animal to themself, such as talking about an octopus mother who starves herself to death for her babies, and Imbler's mom. The largest part of this book to take away appears to be how insidious it is to discriminate against someone based on their ethnicity or sexuality. How painful it is, and how much it affects them for years and years. The Oceanids were a collective family of 3,000 water goddesses who rule over the Earth’s freshwater. These mythical sea creatures are derived from Greek mythology and are believed to be nymphs whose primary occupation was to monitor the rain clouds, springs, and fountains of the Earth. 12. Mermen In Greek mythology, Charybdis along with Scylla, another fallen sea nymph turned sea monster, is a feared mythical sea creature who patrols the Strait of Messina. Together with Scylla, Charybdis terrorizes sailors and other Greek heroes including Odysseus, Jason, and Aeneas. 6. Nereus How did you think about time and the scale of time while you were writing this, and how did studying the myriad of ways life changes and persists in the ocean make you think about how time and life interact with each other?

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Mussie is a local name for a mythical sea creature thought to be living in Muskrat Lake, Ontario, Canada for quite some time. As legend would have it, Mussie is said to be around 24′ long, with 3 ears and 3 eyes, closely resembling either a walrus, a sturgeon, or a 3 eyed Loch Ness monster. Mussies’ diet on Muskrat lake reportedly consists of cattails! 32. The Cirein-Croin

A young queer science writer on some of the ocean's strangest creatures and what they can teach us about human empathy and survival Shondaland spoke with Imbler about geological time scales, the many meanings of immortality, being jealous of a sea creature’s bodily autonomy, and the importance of dreaming. I love memoirs in which the author includes some kind of technical writing or specialized history, but especially when they include science writing. I learned about sea creatures, and connected emotionally with them, almost as much as I did with Imbler herself. This is a powerful, moving collection for the unexpected, heartbreaking, and affirming stories Imbler shared from the parts of the world we don't always pay attention to. Like a mythical sea creature from Japanese folklore, the Akkorkamui is a gigantic octopus. He is believed to reside in the waters off of Funka Bay and is said to be about 390 feet long. He is entirely red in appearance and is big enough to swallow whole boats and whales In one big gulp. He is also known to frequent the nearby waters of Taiwan and Korea. 29. KaijinSARAH NEILSON: How did this book come together in its form as a collection of essays that each extrapolate ideas, metaphors, or lessons about life from one sea creature?