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Week 15: We are Mermaids

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Stephanie Burt’s poem We are Mermaids is the perfect reading to close off the semester. We have been studying our relationship with the environment throughout the mythology of the mermaid but this poem proposes the idea that our very nature is that of mermaids and this provides a thought provoking exploration of how we can imagine a different relationship with the natural world that is in harmony with our nature and against the capitalist model that has been taught to us.

Within the first stanza Burt establishes that our very tears, often a reflection of human emotion, are composed of the same substance as that of the ocean. Thus we are not beings separate and superior to the natural world but rather an extension of it. If mermaids are the bridge between the human and the natural world then it must follow that we are also mermaids. Her second stanza assures us that life has existed long before the presence of humanity and life was simply a matter of survival, in other words “to get through the day”. Within her third stanza she claims that there is stability to be found in this simple way of life. To try to depend on the machine of fortune is much less certain and provokes doubt. Given that we are mermaids we have the gift of choice; to try to fit into the life modeled to us by society or we can choose the stability of a life of simplicity. Her fourth stanza shows us that we would be wrong to think a simple life dull or meaningless. She shows us this by describing different organisms and how they thrive when following their nature, “The thermophiles…whose sulfur would kill a human being. They love it here”. Jumping onto the sixth stanza it made me think of our discussion in class about the modern world’s demand for originality to be seen as someone of importance. Such a thing does not exist in the natural world and, if the mermaid can live in and out of water, then we, we being mermaids, can live with or without the need of originality or usefulness. The first line of the seventh stanza reads, ” You can spend your life benthic of brackish.” Benthic means in the deep ocean whilst brackish water can be found within estuaries which are a threshold between river and open sea. So too can we as mermaids live within this threshold without sacrificing our role in the natural world.

This is a beautiful piece that I will be taking and perfectly encapsulates one of the most important things that this course has taught me.

Week 14 The Deep

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The text that really caught my attention in this week’s reading is on page 84. “They organized the world as two sides of a war, the two-legs in conflict with everything else. The way Suka talked about farming, it was as if they ruled the land and what it produced, as opposed to… existing alongside it” (Solomon 84) It’s a great passage about the human condition delivered through the point of view of Yetu. Throughout the semester we have been discussing the relationship between us and our natural environment. We see that the attitudes have certainly changed over time but for many societies they have truly seen it as something separate from us. i like that the passage also describes human history as one that is constantly at war. That is certainly how history is commonly taught to us. We can orient ourselves within a point of time based on the wars that were being fought and of course, the way that history is taught is commonly taught through the perspective of the conqueror of these wars. We then treat our relationship with the environment as if waging a war against it for our own means of profit. It is something we come in contact with only under our terms. Through these mermaids the book has shown us what living alongside our environment, as a part of it, might look like. I like that later on Yetu comments on her dislike of how the rain breaks water apart, she is so used to it operating as 1 whole body. The Wajinru are simply one more organism forming a part of this one body of water. This again reinforces the ideas of unity that are so prevalent in her community that most of the westernized world does not possess.

Week 13: Ti Jeane

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The story of TI Jeane was particularly striking to read because it both contains traces of the folklore elements present within western mermaid folklore but The mother of the water has a much more active role as a protector of the forest. Much like how mermaid stories of the west are full of history of the christian culture that shaped them so to does this story tells us of the markedly different relationship that the native people’s of the caribbean had with the environment.

I appreciate that the text preceding the story explains Mother Water as being a “transnational Deity”. We have been considering mermaid folklore stories to be an archive that can teach us of the cultural history of a group of peoples. Since this story is widely known amongst the Caribbean and through many different language we can imagine how the trafficking of enslaved people across the ocean contributed to the creation of this transnational deity. As we know how Christianity sought to break people’s ties to their cultural beliefs through conversion, to have this story survive and spread can be considered as an act of resistance. Here then we can also see the ocean acting not as a barrier to the spreading of this story but rather as the vessel through which this story is carried and spread.

Essay 2: Close Reading Assignment

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Lixia Peña

Professor Jessica Pressman

ECL 305

14 April 2024

Close Reading Essay

The path of mermaid folklore across time takes us into the story of The Little Mermaid and Melusine in the 19th century. Here we see the mermaid form the desire to acquire a human soul through marriage with a human man. It is worth analyzing how the introduction of a human soul within mermaid folklore reflects the hierarchy by which the industrialized western world of the 19th century was structured. This is a hierarchy in which humans, specifically Christian, are at the top and dominate over nature. Through the analysis of this theme we can gain a better understanding of the Western understanding of what makes someone human and how it has shaped our current relationship with nature.

The text we are studying for our purposes is found on page 118. This is the scene in which the grandmother of our unnamed protagonist explains to her the difference between the life of humans and mermaids. The texts reads as follows, “-the term of their life is even shorter than ours. We can live to be three hundred years old; but when we cease to be here, we shall only be changed into foam and are not even buried below amongst those we love. Our souls are not immortal. We shall never enter upon a new life… human beings, on the contrary, have a soul that lives eternally – and that rises up through the clear pure air to the bright stars above…So do they rise to unknown and favoured regions, that we shall never be privileged to see.” In considering that the text reflects a western hierarchy of value we have to pay attention to some key details in this conversation. The story so far has established that the underwater kingdom parallels the same structures to be found on land. The environment is very similar and a monarchy also exists under water. The only difference lies then on the possession of a human soul. Where the mermaids only become an organic part of the natural world, humans have a soul with which they can ascend to heaven. We have previously discussed in class how western thought, shaped largely by Christianity, places emphasis on up v. down. Up being considered more favorable as it is in closer proximity to God whereas down is considered to be a realm much closer to hell. Humans live their mortal lives in a place already closer in proximity to heaven but their immortal soul is granted the “privilege” of ascending further. Mermaids by living in a realm below humans are not even given permanence through remembrance, they are not memorialized with a burial. Humans, when they ascend, are also privy to the privilege of knowledge. Here the myth of the mermaid possessing unknown knowledge is transposed. Humans are now the possessors of privileged knowledge and it is our mermaid who is drawn onto land hoping to one day acquire this same knowledge. The reader, so far, can surmise that being human is a far more privileged position than to be a being that would eventually just form part of nature. If we understand the mermaid to be a representation of nature then we have to surmise that under western ideas the natural world is not as important as the human world. So far, we can also presume that all humans have this advantage but the text goes on to provide further specificity.

            The little mermaid’s grandmother goes on to explain to her under what conditions one could acquire a human soul. “Unless a human being loved you so dearly that you were more to him that either father of mother; if all his thoughts and his love were centred in you, and he allowed the priest to lay his right hand in yours…then would his soul glide into your body…he would give you a soul without forfeiting his own. But this will never happen!” We are no strangers to the presence of the contract of marriage in mermaid folklore. This text emphasizes that marriage, a Christian marriage specifically, is necessary for the mermaid to have a hope of sharing a soul with her partner. By making the requisite of a Christian marriage we can assume that not all humans have the privilege to having an immortal life in heave. Given that this is a story written for a Christian audience we can safely infer that it is the Christian God that the text is referring to. To understand how the story reflects the values of a western hierarchal society we must understand what is happening historically at this time. Colonization is in full force and indigenous peoples of the lands being exploited are being driven out of their homes; African natives are being kidnapped and trafficked into slavery and both groups of oppressed peoples are being forced into abandoning their religions and being converted to Christianity in the name of “righteousness”. In America western expansion is driving indigenous people’s out of their ancestral homes under the banner of “Manifest Destiny” and western settlers view the wilderness as land ready to be worked into production on Tobacco and cotton. Considering this history and the idea proposed by Andersen’s story, we have to wonder if the text implies that non-Christian peoples are then subhuman. This is certainly the understanding that colonial literature would present of enslaved and indigenous people as literature of the time will often use the word “savages” as a descriptor. It is worth mentioning that the origins of the word savage come from the French word Sauvage which means wild and from the Latin word Sivaticus which translates to “of the woods”. We can see here that under this Christian way of understanding, to live in a close relation to the natural world is to be less civilized and thereby less human. It is under this belief that the western world both justified its exploitation of non-christian peoples and forced them into converting to Christianity, so as to have a hope for their soul’s salvation and ascension into heaven. We could then understand the little mermaid as being the story of non-christian desiring a place at the top of the hierarchy, moving upwards into becoming a human i.e. Christian. The reader of the time in which this story is published is then taught that not only are they privileged above others but that these indigenous people are grateful to westerners for providing their souls salvation through conversion.

            Through the focused exploration of this passage in Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, we can conclude that the story functions as a conversion story and further reinforces the idea that the natural world is in subservience to humans. It is something that ought to be used for the benefit of our own production and consumption. Even now as we work our way into de-colonizing our own thoughts and ideas it is clear that in order to do so our relationship with the environment is also something that needs to be re-examined. We need to understand our relationship the environment not as something to be dominated but as something to have a symbiotic relationship with. After all, when we put religion aside, the human body does eventually come to form a part of the natural world just as the mermaid becomes sea foam.

Deterritorializing Preface

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It is interesting that for so long the ocean has been considered a place where change does not take place even though it’s literally a place that is constantly undergoing movement. This week’s reading show that to believe the ocean to be ahistorical and un-dynamic says more about the way we as humans have shaped our beliefs and how the very language we create reinforces this “offshore” way of thinking. I am interested in comparing and contrasting our western relationship with the ocean with the relationship that other coastal cultures have with the ocean. It would be particularly interesting to analyze how language differs based on the geographical proximity to the ocean. Based on the readings we have been assigned these past couple of weeks it’s clear that in the environmental humanities it is crucial to listen and learn from people of all backgrounds, who have differing relationships with the natural world. It is a collective labor that will help re-examine ever sifting relationship with the environment. The Deterritorializing preface excerpt further examines how our language shapes the reality in which we live in. The examination of these aquatic terms helped me understand how more terrestrial terms can often limit our thinking. For example, the term current as opposed to field; It is clear that the usage of field connotes an understanding of safety in the reliable but it does not prepare us for when the reliable fails the way that the word current does. In such a rapidly changing world and one in which humans are in constant movement, I’m thinking particularly of immigration, is it not easier to accept change and difference with a word like current? It allows us to view the world as one of constant ebbs and flows and therefore something that we can all move in rhythm to rather than resistance. It seems like now more than ever, we can benefit from moving from terrestrial thinking, into a more “liquid” manner of thinking. I am getting a better understanding of the blue humanities and what it seeks to explore. After all, I believe it was last week’s readings that mention that the solution to our environmental crisis does not rely on technological innovation but rather in reshaping how we relate and think of the environment and that includes even the language we use.

Week Nine Reading Response

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It occurs to me, after this week’s reading, that I knew nothing about what the environmental humanities were. I am thinking that the environmental humanities seem like a response to some of the important points of our reading of Cronon last week. Reading “The Emergence of Environmental Humanities” further solidifies some of our discussion point from last week. Western views of our relationship with nature are deeply narrow and do not allow for the communication and open mindedness required to provide solutions to our ecological problems. It’s no coincidence that the study of environmental humanities grew through the contributions of different fields of study like gender and indigenous studies both being intersectional studies that try to de-centralize the western narratives. On discussing what topics are covered by the study of humanities the text says, “a new range of concepts emerged that provide a framework for environmental humanities, such as ecoracism, environmental justice, ‘naturecultures,’ the environmentalism of the poor and the posthuman.” It never occurred to me how important these topics are when considering environmentalism and that new technology is not always the only answer or even the answer to our environmental crisis. I like how the text mentions that science does not always consider the knowledge that is readily available to us. I remember discussing early in the semester how indigenous peoples have so much knowledge of the land that has been dismissed by science as nothing but folklore without actually considering what knowledge they have to offer. It is how we learn that controlled fires in a forest are necessary to bring about new life.

 I have recently read Greg Grandin’s book “The end of the Myth” and in it he re-contextualizes the conditions that led to the dustbowl famine during the great depression. A big part of the reason for the famine was the destroying of land by unsustainable farming practices used for the production of cotton. The book explores the idea that plantation owners were not interested in sustainability of farming because the myth of the frontier gave them a false sense of confidence that when the land was spent they could just extend further west. Pairing this book with the topics being discussed in this class helps reinforce why environmental humanities are necessary.

Week Eight Reading Response

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I appreciate how this reading defines wilderness and the environment. It helped to enrich my understanding of these concepts when considering them in conversation with mermaid mythology. The idea of wilderness had always seemed to be a naturally occurring thing. Something that simply existed and humans affected. To realize that wilderness is but a human construct and a rather narrow and exclusionary point of view is fascinating.

            Whilst reading, it was interesting to notice the how the ideas of wilderness and mermaids shift over time. By this I mean that as the wilderness becomes less and less a place of evil and more a place to consume recreationally, so too do the attitudes about Mermaids shift. She becomes less of an evil monster and is commercialized in the 19th century. This also gives me a better understanding of why she is often used as a representation of nature and wilderness. On page 17 Cronon describes wilderness as a “siren song of escape.” I find this particularly interesting because we are learning that wilderness in many ways is a social construct that is a product of myth. The idea that nature and civilization operate on separate spheres is likewise a myth. We see this even in the story of Melusine. The beginning of the story describes that nature is in many ways a man’s domain, it is for a man to find adventure and prove their bravery by conquering it. Constantly humans infringe upon nature but so many stories show the mermaid as being the invader. Many years later we see these same sentiments still being echoed in the figurehead of The Virginian. I appreciated that the text also does away with the Christian idea of wilderness as untouched and “virgin” first because it denies the presence of natives that were forcibly removed from their homes; Second because to say that wilderness is virginal and that it is the environment in which the individual man can enforce their freedom and masculinity is deeply troublesome. When gender is considered as these elements of power, it is not difficult to understand how we end up with so much history of misogyny. It further reinforces the texts claim that to think of the wilderness through such a narrow scope also influences who we view as human and worthier of protection. If the point is to save the environment by keeping it pristine and untouched then what of the people that live in constant relation to the land and see themselves also affected by the same environmental issues affecting the natural world. Does that mean that these humans are not worth protecting? Again, we are put into the conversation of defining who is human who is not and what and who is worth saving.

Discovery Assignment

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Lixia Peña

ECL 305

Professor Pressman

March 2nd, 2024

Considering Environmentalism in Ponyo

            Thesis: In his 2008 movie, Hayao Miyazaki, re-imagines the deceptively simple story of the little mermaid to consider our current with the natural world. His movie uses the children as a device to consider a different way to co-exist and respect the natural world.

The plot of the story would not be kickstarted without the presence of a man meddling with the natural world. It is the father of this little mermaid, initially named Brunhilde, who has forgone the human world in order to become a wizard focused on healing the ocean from human destruction. Ponyo is his child and the sea goddess’s child. Immediately it is explained that her magic ability comes from the human and the natural world coming together. Ponyo acts, like so many mermaids in folklore, as a bridge between the human and natural world. This little mermaid is brought within proximity of the human world after being caught in a human fishing net and being hurt by trash polluting the sea. Here Miyazaki immediately begins his criticism of the detrimental effect that human presence has had on the ocean. This daughter of the environment is partly exposed to the human world by human’s presence and destruction of the ocean.

Ponyo is then saved by a little human boy Sosuke who immediately aids and takes her into his care, declaring that he is responsible for her. I found this interesting because Miyazaki immediately does away with the Christian tones of so much mermaid folklore. Sosuke takes her in exactly in her fish’s form and never turns on her for being of the sea. Much of the folklore that we have studied, the man comes into contact with the mermaid when she is not in her true form. When the man and the mermaid come into the marriage contract we are often told of the riches that the mermaid provides for the man and his curiosity and need to control this being of the natural world inevitably lead to the man’s betrayal. It is important that Miyazaki imagines his own male and female characters as children. It’s is because of innocence that Sosuke readily accepts Ponyo, an extension of nature, wholeheartedly as she is without feeling the needs to control her. Ponyo is impulsive, adventurous and free and Sosuke never tries to change this. This is contrasted with Ponyo’s father who immediately snatches her back into the ocean against her wishes. He tries to, quite literally forces Ponyo back into the shape of a fish and trap her; hear reaction is to run away and create a Tsunami so she can find Sosuke. I believe that here Miyazaki is stressing the importance of doing away with thinking that nature is something that has to be controlled. Harmony can exist when we cohabitate with the environment and nature. To try to dominate it is useless and detrimental to all.

I found Miyazaki’s decision to depict a Tsunami to have been a very conscious choice. Only four years before this movie was released a Tsunami had devastated coastal cities of Japan. Japan has a long history with Tsunamis and so it was interesting that he would present a natural disaster within this children’s story. It is not presented with the horrifying images that we imagine when we think of tsunamis. This could be easily explained away with saying that this is a children’s movie. I believe that he chooses not to display the destructive power of the ocean so overtly because he is trying to comment on the nature aspect of the natural world. Nature after all, is functioning exactly as it is in its nature to do so. Instead the weight of destruction is mostly blamed on humans. It is used to depict the carelessness in how humans treat their environment. Through Sosuke, Miyazaki proves that it is possible for humans to interact in a more harmonious manner with the natural world. If we accept it as it is, without trying dominate it.

I also noticed, throughout the movie, that the figures of power within the story were were mostly women. Ponyo, her mother the sea goddess an Sosuke’s mother. These three figures all draw their power from nature itself. This is most noticeable with Ponyo and her mother given that they are magical creatures. Lisa’s power is not as noticeable initially. As a woman mostly raising her son alone, her husband is a ship captain, Lisa is often thrust into the position of, not just a nurturer but also a protector thereby subverting our expectations of gender roles. She is just as willing as Sosuke to take Ponyo into her care. Miyazaki is clearly commenting on the power of women to influence younger generations. It is interesting that Ponyo’s wizard father, for all his magic, is unable to exert his power over any of these women.

The Little Mermaid

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I remember reading the Hans Christian Andersen story of the little mermaid when I was quite young. I remember being surprised by the darker tone of this story compared to the Disney version that I knew. It wasn’t until the casting of the live action adaptation of the little mermaid that I started to hear more insight about the original story. Through social media I learned it that it is widely believed that the story is meant to be an allegory of queerness and particularly of a failed love of Andersen’s. I set off to re-read this story again with this in mind.

Immediately I noticed how different the point of view of the story is. It is still third person point of view but it seems that it is limited to the experience of the Little Mermaid. This makes it so that we can see the story through her experience rather than our known human experience. It is important to point this out because I do not believe we see this within any of our other assigned readings. Due to this we are able to see the Little Mermaid as closer to human than to the unknown. As I was reading this I was interested by what her grandmother tells her as she is asking about human lives. The grandmother says, “Your fish’s tail, which is a beauty amongst us sea-folk, is thought a deformity on earth, because they know no better.” (Page 119). It seems to me like Andersen could just as easily be talking about how society perceives queerness. Queerness, especially throughout the history of Christianity has been heavily stigmatized much like the mermaid. Here then, we see a story that is not necessarily meant to influence the reader into Christianity. Rather we start seeing the use of the mermaid to examine the other as being queer. It’s a fascinating shift on mermaid lore and one that applies to its time. This is also the century in which Oscar Wilde produces literature that goes on to become part of the literary cannon while at the same time we know he was incarcerated and eventually ostracized for his sexuality.

“The Mermaid” article.

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While reading the article published, “The Mermaid” I was interested in how the depictions of the mermaid change so radically when race is added to the mythology. The mermaid stories we have read so far are always explicit in stating the beauty of the mermaid’s human half. So beautiful as to seem ethereal and other worldly. The source of evil and ugliness is always relegated to their animalistic lower half. On Page 234 of the text we get two completely different depictions of non-white/western mermaids. On the first one the article says, “It was a female with, with ugly negro features. The skin was harsh, the ears very large, and the back parts and tail were covered with scales.” This stands in such stark contrast with the previous descriptions we have previously encountered. The text explicitly state that this mermaid is not beautiful because of its ethnic features. Where the mermaid’s skin was previously pearlescent and so transparently white as to almost seem spirit like, this mermaid is described as having harsh skin. Though the description is brief it also gives the sense that it focuses more on how far from humanity this creature is. It struck me that it mentions the position of the mermaid when at rest. The text says “It’s position, when at rest, is always erect”. I don’t know if this is intended to be sexually suggestive but I am also considering that there is a history of Black bodies, particularly women’s bodies, being highly sexualized by the western world.

The second mermaid description that I noted is on the same page and it is describing a mermaid found in the Archipelagos of the Aegan Sea. This mermaid is described in fuller detail and it the text immediately zeroes in on its similarity to a young female human. Already this mermaid is placed in closer relation to humanity than the first mermaid. That being said she still has enough of that “exoticism” that the western world was so fascinated by in relation of Asian countries. She is not afforded the mythical flowing hair of western mermaids. Instead this one has “gills for respiration, which appear like curls… this one only has rolls which, at a distance, might be mistaken for short curls.” After this the article also mentions that she seems to have fins and her temples as if she was wearing a headdress. Here we see that this mermaid does not have the typical human head and torso and fish tail. It’s animal-like properties are distributed across her entire body.