When a merman-human hybrid dives into the sea, he blows out, then opens his mouth wide. Water enters through mouth and nostrils to fill lungs and stomach. Merman metabolism extracts oxygen and sieves salt from tissues. Internal combustion counteracts cold.
Although I have striven to summarize and accept Poul Anderson's account, a humanoid body willingly filling itself with water severely strains my willing suspension of disbelief. However, the description of the descent through successive pressure levels is well imagined. Just keep reading, basically. Also, trust Poul Anderson to take us somewhere interesting.
6 comments:
Well, it's not strictly a human being.
The main problem would be getting enough oxygen out of water. It can be done; tuna have four-chamber hearts and highly active metabolisms, though most fish don't. But not easily. The dissolved oxygen concentration in water is much lower than the percentage in the atmosphere, and it decreases with depth.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I think real mer people would need to consume large quantities of food, more so than people or animals living on land. So even slight changes in available quantities of food could mean disaster for mer people.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: that's what Poul posits.
Note that aquatic mammals usually have insulation in the form of thick coats of fat under their skins -- which means merpeople would probably look like Nick van Rijn...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: I did not think of that, real mer people needing to be, bluntly, fat! Iow, real mermaids would not look like the women in PLAYBOY centerfolds.
Paul: Btw, the image you chose for this blog piece struck me as being than better than most I've seen inflicted on Anderson's books. I think it's an Italian translation of DAHUT, the third volume of THE KING OF YS. Or, possibly, the fourth volume, THE DOG AND THE WOLF.
Ad astra! Sean
With respect to that cover, an aquatic mammal would not likely have large buttocks.
Human buttocks serve the purpose of a tail in most animals -- they exist to stabilize the stride, and are one of the secrets of our superior performance in long-distance running.
They're also a 'secondary sexual' characteristic, like the human female's breasts.
(Which are mostly fat; the actual milk glands don't need nearly that much space.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I'm sure you are right. But, I was thinking the cover shows us Gratillonius' daughter Dahut, after she became a SIREN. Iow, a monster who had once been a human being. Meaning she was not a normal aquatic mammal. The Andersons shows us Dahut as still LOOKING like a human woman.
Ad astra! Sean
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