The lens of sea life provides an exploration of itself in ‘How Far the Light Reaches’

How far the light reaches
Sabrina Imbler
Little, Brown & Co., $27

In How far the light reachesSabrina Imbler shows us that the ocean, in all its mystery and glorious glory, is queer — that is, the life imagined there challenges how we perceive the bearers’ ways of being. This collection of essays tells the stories of 10 sea creatures, including Imbler, a queer and mixed-race writer, weaving stories of family, self-discovery, sexuality and healing. Profiled animals, often thought of as aliens or aliens, pour joy into recognition of identity, community and grievance emblems in this entertaining group of commentary and science journalism.

Imbler begins with a confession: “It is true that I was asked by Petco, but I told everyone that I was forbidden.” Thirteen years ago, Imbler had a protest at the store, trying to convince customers not to buy bowls of fish. Cyathas, writes Imbler, condemn the fish to a truncated life in a transparent bag, in which they will perish separately, starved of oxygen, and poisoned by ammonia from their urine.

But the fishes flourished through the barriers of the bowl. When pet owners have drilled holes in the aquarium to pour into lakes or rivers, the fish can balloon to the size of milk jugs. These are “like living well and have become ecological threats,” they grow as deserts, exterminate farm populations, and encourage bacterial growth and algal blooms, Imbler writes.

Still, Imbler can’t help but marvel at the wild hippur’s resilience: “I see something that no one thinks is alive, not only alive, but unable to flourish.”

Surviving in unthinkable situations is a theme common to all profiled animals. get yeti cancer (Kiwa Puravida), that, having read this book, we now preach the icon (go away, Babadook). In the cold darkness about 1000 meters below the surface of the sea, the crab finds solace near the hydrothermal vents.

With such repasts he warms life in the desert. Heat and chemicals from within Earth’s ecosystem support crabs, clams, mussels, tube worms and more. There, however, just like that; K. puravida “He dances to live,” Imbler writes. Cancer yeti throws his claws in the air and waves like he just doesn’t care. In doing so, it “cultures” the bacteria it eats, which adhere to the hairy claws of the cancer. Chows down on the fingernails in a slow but steady fashion, creating nutrients for the bacteria.

In telling the story of cancer, Imbler reminisces on his quest to find community after moving to Seattle in 2016. Feeling alone among mostly white people, Imbler found a monthly party called Night Crush, which was projected and covered in color. Night Crush has become a special hydrothermal vent – an oasis warmed by people in dance nets, sequins, glitter and joy. “As queer people, we get to choose our families,” writes Imbler. Bacteria, tuber worms, and even cancer just take it a step further. They choose what they like.”

Imbler looks to the sea to explore all aspects of the family. purple octopus (Graneledon boreopacifica), for example, provides perceptions of motherhood. After incubating for four years, the longest known to any animal, the octopus starved to death, before hunting to protect the eggs.SN: 7/30/14).

Throughout the octopus saga, Imbler reflects on his mother, who moved to the United States from Taiwan as a child. Mother Imbler felt like she was on a “new planet”. To survive, she learned to want to be white and as “American” as possible, and as thin as possible – inherited traumas from Imbler that developed eating disorders.

In their recovery, Imbler realized that his mother’s will was thin, however harmful, in a way an act of love: “He wanted me to be thin so that they would be easier. White, so that they would be easier. Straight, easy, easy, easy. Unlike him, no one will ever question my right to be here in America.

The same grace, clarity and tenderness is the work of Imbler’s other commentaries in the book, whether he is thinking about his own kind of expression through the metamorphosing mastery of the fence, or exploring the experience of sexual assault through the striking sand, the predatory plot of the sea. .

Like a bowl of hippure restricted, I conclude the count with my word and I cannot say everything I want to about reading this book. I will therefore end in one last reason. In one comment, Imbler introduces the salt. These Blos gel like a colony of hundreds of identical salts linked together in a chain. Creatures do not move in one synchronized attempt. “Salps allows individuals to strive in the same general direction,” writes Imbler. “Strikes are not composed so quickly, but must be sustained for a long time, each sucking and stimulating as he pleases.”

This one common idea that sets people apart to a common cause at their own level is one that separates people and other groups they know very well — whether they’re creating a community or protesting civil rights. And the idea that Imbler imparts to his reader: “We may all move at different paces, but we will reach the horizon together.”

Buy How far the light reaches from Bookshop.org Science News Bookshop.org is an affiliate and will earn a commission on purchases made through links in this article.