So I just read Helen Palmer’s Lovecraftian-Seussian story “A Fish Out of Water” to my eldest…

…and I think that my earlier critique of it was in fact a bit off-base.  Read aloud (in the right style), this story of a monstrous, growing fish is deeply unsettling. It’s also really quite remarkable how the author hit all the cosmic horror tropes without ever quite realizing it.  Helen Palmer (Geisel) could have made for a credible horror writer, honestly.

Seriously, if you do the voices the right way you can unnerve yourself.

Moe Lane

PS: Don’t read up on Dr. Seuss’s family life if you enjoy thinking well of people.

PPS: I understand that the original short story was Dr. Seuss’s, but if you compared the text Palmer filed the story down to something less like a nonsense story and something more resembling an ice pick.

4 thoughts on “So I just read Helen Palmer’s Lovecraftian-Seussian story “A Fish Out of Water” to my eldest…”

  1. I enjoy thinking well of people, and will take your advice.
    Even though curiosity is killing me.

  2. The Geisels certainly have elements of horror in their blood. Have you ever *realy* thought about the wider implications of Horton Hears a Who? Or any of the Bartholomew Cubbins stories really? That stuff could get dark.

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