[A1I]≡ Descargar Gratis The Mirrored Ocean A Short Story eBook Luke F D Marsden

The Mirrored Ocean A Short Story eBook Luke F D Marsden

Download As PDF : The Mirrored Ocean A Short Story eBook Luke F D Marsden

The Mirrored Ocean A Short Story eBook Luke F D Marsden

This is a short story told, in the first person, by a whale; a rather thoughtful whale that speculates on his surroundings and the meaning of the world above the surface. That sounds like either self-indulgent new-age mysticism or tiresome cute anthropomorphism. But author Luke F.D. Marsden manages to avoid both, albeit only just sometimes. The result is rather good.

We’re in the mind of a young male cachalot (sperm whale) as he dives for prey, crunches the odd octopus, and passes shoals of brightly-lit plankton in the deep ocean. Every now and then he goes to the surface to fill his lungs with air, as whales must, and wonders what is up there and what the moon and the stars are, and whether they mirror his world. “In these vast oceans, my home, which I understand so well, I have made it my purpose to come to know what happens in that world beyond the surface, that extends as far above it as the depths reach below it – perhaps further.”

Two things lift this story above the average. One is simply that it’s well-written; it’s a highly literate piece with simple but expressive prose. (The same is true of Marsden’s other short story, The Isle of the Antella.) The other is that Marsden actually has tried to get inside the head of a whale. God knows how you do that, but the narrative has a strange ring of truth. Thus, after diving to a great depth, the whale encounters “a colossal brute of a squid ... Eat him or die. Your belly is sated? It matters not. Eat him or die.” He struggles with the squid but does eat him, and takes a simple pleasure in what he has done: “What a hunt! What food … what … life!”

Now and then, Marsden does get just a little too close to anthropomorphising his whale – by having it assign the Moon a name, for example, and referring to its grandfather (to be sure, a whale would have one; but would it recognize him as such? I suppose we do not know). Also, Marsden has said the story – with its two worlds, of the undersea and the air above – is an allegory of the difference between the conscious and the subconscious minds. That did not really come across, though it is perhaps represented by the whale’s instinctive behavior below the surface, and its conscious speculation on its surroundings when it broke above it.

Nonetheless I liked this story. It’s a bold idea, but Marsden knows how far to take it; the story’s about the length it should be, so you can suspend disbelief. It’s also, as I said, rather well-written. A story with a whale as a narrator? Not everyone is Jack London, and this story could have fallen flat on its face. It doesn’t, and is oddly memorable.


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The Mirrored Ocean A Short Story eBook Luke F D Marsden Reviews

If you are willing to empty your mind and let yourself go then read this book, once you are ready Luke Marsden is going to take you on a journey inside the mind and body of a whale. It is a fascinating idea, one thing that nature documentaries don't do, you don't get to realise just what the animals think. Luke takes you into the depths of the ocean where your internal organs are being cushed under the immense pressures, he takes you hunting resulting in a battle with a giant squid and he slowly takes you back to the surface to explode into the air to witness the moon.

Wonderful writing and I am sure it is all true, he really got inside the mind of a whale, he wouldn't lie to us... would he? Again Luke has produced a story like nothing I had read before.
This is a short story told, in the first person, by a whale; a rather thoughtful whale that speculates on his surroundings and the meaning of the world above the surface. That sounds like either self-indulgent new-age mysticism or tiresome cute anthropomorphism. But author Luke F.D. Marsden manages to avoid both, albeit only just sometimes. The result is rather good.

We’re in the mind of a young male cachalot (sperm whale) as he dives for prey, crunches the odd octopus, and passes shoals of brightly-lit plankton in the deep ocean. Every now and then he goes to the surface to fill his lungs with air, as whales must, and wonders what is up there and what the moon and the stars are, and whether they mirror his world. “In these vast oceans, my home, which I understand so well, I have made it my purpose to come to know what happens in that world beyond the surface, that extends as far above it as the depths reach below it – perhaps further.”

Two things lift this story above the average. One is simply that it’s well-written; it’s a highly literate piece with simple but expressive prose. (The same is true of Marsden’s other short story, The Isle of the Antella.) The other is that Marsden actually has tried to get inside the head of a whale. God knows how you do that, but the narrative has a strange ring of truth. Thus, after diving to a great depth, the whale encounters “a colossal brute of a squid ... Eat him or die. Your belly is sated? It matters not. Eat him or die.” He struggles with the squid but does eat him, and takes a simple pleasure in what he has done “What a hunt! What food … what … life!”

Now and then, Marsden does get just a little too close to anthropomorphising his whale – by having it assign the Moon a name, for example, and referring to its grandfather (to be sure, a whale would have one; but would it recognize him as such? I suppose we do not know). Also, Marsden has said the story – with its two worlds, of the undersea and the air above – is an allegory of the difference between the conscious and the subconscious minds. That did not really come across, though it is perhaps represented by the whale’s instinctive behavior below the surface, and its conscious speculation on its surroundings when it broke above it.

Nonetheless I liked this story. It’s a bold idea, but Marsden knows how far to take it; the story’s about the length it should be, so you can suspend disbelief. It’s also, as I said, rather well-written. A story with a whale as a narrator? Not everyone is Jack London, and this story could have fallen flat on its face. It doesn’t, and is oddly memorable.