Merpeople: A Human History

by Vaughn Scribner

People have been fascinated by merpeople and merfolk since ancient times. From the sirens of Homer’s Odyssey to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and the film Splash, myths, stories, and legends of half-human, half-fish creatures abound. In modern times “mermaiding” has gained popularity among cosplayers throughout the world. In Merpeople: A Human History, Vaughn Scribner traces the long history of mermaids and mermen, taking in a wide variety of sources and using 117 striking images. From film to philosophy, church halls to coffee houses, ancient myth to modern science, Scribner shows that mermaids and tritons are—and always have been—everywhere.

Genres: Mermaids, History, Nonfiction, Folklore, Research

320 pages, Hardcover

Published September 17, 2020

Reviews

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Cuervo Solitario · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sin pretender cuestionar que la lectura de Merpeople: A human history es entretenida y que el trabajo de documentación garantiza que, en cualquier caso, el lector ganará en conocimientos tras acabarla, tengo la impresión de que es una obra que no consigue el calado que cabía esperar. En particular, creo que hace aguas en tres frentes.
En primer lugar, el análisis de la iconografía en la Edad Media es demasiado simplista. Del mismo modo que a día de hoy no podemos reducir nuestra sociedad a una forma de pensar, aventurar para todo Occidente una interpretación unívoca de las representaciones de las sirenas es, como poco, osado. De hecho, interesantes estudios han señalado que lo que interpretamos a día de hoy como sirenas (mujeres la mitad inferior del cuerpo con forma de pez) podrían ser equivalentes a otras mezclas de humanos y animales que representaban la transición a un estadio de iluminación o conversión superior. Del mismo modo, identificar todas las representaciones vegetales con los “hombres verdes” paganos es algo ingenuo. La vid es una planta trepadora que remite también al vino de la comunión, y, por ende, al cristianismo. Son solo un par de ejemplos que, a mis ojos, muestran que el autor se ha aventurado en terrenos que no conoce lo suficiente para desarrollar un razonamiento tan maniqueo como anacrónico e impreciso.
En segundo lugar, están las reiteraciones. Es fácil comprender el punto de vista presentado y justificado en buena medida por Scribner, con lo que la insistencia en determinadas interpretaciones parece poner en duda la capacidad del lector a la hora de comprender su razonamiento e inflan el libro, lastrando la lectura.
En tercer lugar, las justificaciones académicas de su punto de vista se ventilan con cierta premura, a veces con citas de citas, que dejan una sensación de ligereza a la que no ayuda que, hacia el final del libro, se marque un “¡qué curioso que las pirámides sean igual por todo el mundo!” a partir de similitudes fonéticas entre los nombres de personajes bíblicos (Noé) y personajes mitológicos de otras culturas. ¿Pretendía remitir a una raíz lingüística ancestral o sugerir algo mucho más abracadabrante? En ocasiones parece que vaya a salir con algún mito de Cthulhu...
Estos aspectos son una lástima porque globalmente el libro es entretenido y apunta direcciones de reflexión mucho más interesantes, en las que no profundiza, como los paralelismos entre culturas, la reinterpretación de los mitos, la identidad de género, etc.
Quizás me muestre demasiado exigente porque la temática me apasiona sobremanera, pero he tenido la impresión de estar ante una obra con buenos mimbres pero a la que le ha faltado no sé si ambición o tiempo para armar una reflexión pertinente y memorable. Demasiadas páginas para lo que aporta (al menos en mi caso) y algunos puntos oscuros o a revisar para dar más solidez al punto de vista del autor.

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

--- "Christianity's growing acclaim coincided with Church leaders' inclusion of merpeople into their imagery and message." (Scribner: 38)
--- "these artists relied upon beautified representations of merpeople, which helped them to demonstrate their artistic prowess" (Scribner: 83)
--- "with women pushing into new realms of power and publicity, gender roles become more complicated by the day. Mermaids, unsurprisingly, continued as critical symbols of various anxieties surrounding gender, sex and capitalism." (Scribner: 180)
--- "representations of merpeople provide a keen lens through which to understand these brutal and world-changing cultural, religious and imperial transformations." (Scribner: 227)

This book unfolds the fascination Western people have had towards merpeople. It shows how merpeople have been used and why this fascination was there in different historical periods and parts of the world.

In my opinion the book suffers from repetition and more than once the book provides examples of the same idea or restates the same idea. I missed some examples of marmaids decorating tombs in Venice, as the book claims this was the case, and the poor quality of some illustrations in the paperback version made it hard sometimes to appreciate author's comments. The concept in the book of what Romanticism is isn't the one most art historians support but I liked the book anyway.

[Liam Kaylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Merpeople was a fascinating read that discusses the history of mermaids and mermen in human art, architecture, literature, and film. I had anticipated that the book would be a blend of history and mythology, but it turned out to be entirely historical in nature. While that was still intriguing in its own right, it didn't capture me in the way I'd hoped it would. The book did, however, shed an interesting light (through a unique lens) on the hybridity of human nature: good vs evil, light vs dark, male vs female, deceit vs credulity, etc.. True to it's title, "A Human History," the book uses merpeople as a vehicle to explore the human condition and the dichotomous nature of curiosity and morality that can be seen in our history. A fun read overall, but not what I was hoping for, which is maybe a problem of expectation rather than delivery.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing is, this book is absolutely fine (with slightly too much on Christian iconography of mermaids), with some great colour pictures, but (having read the first two chapters), it doesn't add much to the shorter (and better written) Sophia Kingshill Mermaids book, which I can heartily recommend.

Maybe if I hadn't read the Kingshill first, this would seem much more interesting. As it is, it reads like a (slightly less good) version of the same thing (and about two years later).

Though, as I say, great colour pictures.

[Jen Well-Steered · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how many cultures already have some kind of human-sea creature hybrid or sea god, or other mythical being that lives off its shores, but as soon as they come into contact with our current notions of merpeople, they suddenly get sexy long hair and naked breasts and the men disappear almost entirely.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

suuuuuuuper interesting

[Keita · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually quite an interesting study. I loved that not a specific region was looked at but the whole world. Loved to read about the start the most.