A dead mermaid washes up on the shore of a public beach, and a town responds.
Steven Millhauser, “Mermaid Fever,” in Voices in the Night (2015).
And suddently I’m seeing mermaids (and mermen): in the stylish low-budget movie Night Tide, with Dennis Hopper, in the Route 66 episode “The Cruelest Sea of All,” in the Netflix series Merpeople. And my young granddaughters are all in the grip of mermaid fever. The kids these days.
You can read “Mermaid Fever” at Harper’s.
Thanks, Chris, for recommending Night Tide.
Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard)
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
“The lower fishbody”
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Do you know this song?
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/4lOuPIBCMFw
Or this?
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/8qiRU32WJ9Q
I somehow know "Minnie the Mermaid," but not the Jim Kweskin song.
ReplyDeleteHere’s one back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjb6Vc5_VqE. I played and sang it for a class once — it might have been while reading the Odyssey.
I had forgotten about this John Hurt song. Thank you for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteThere’s an interesting backstory: https://www.elijahwald.com/songblog/let-mermaids-flirt/.
ReplyDeleteWow. Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteHappy to share. I always wondered why it sounded like a Jimmie Rodgers song.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983..._(A_Merman_I_Should_Turn_to_Be)
ReplyDeletejimi weighs in
Yes, and then there’s Cream, “Tales of Brave Ulysses,” with “trembling mermaids.”
ReplyDeleteLast night we were watching a documentary that happened to mention that the House of Luxembourg was said to have derived from a marriage with a mermaid (Melusine).
ReplyDeleteMy disbelief is suspended and defying gravity. : )
ReplyDelete