Oh, but fish do enjoy a good play on words! Or, a play on words, at any rate.And this particular play on words is just about irresistible to fish! (We've seen it before here and here.)
They're all about the hook, those fish. And why shouldn't they be? The hook represents their highest aspiration: to be jerked from the nurturing waters and dragged into the deathly air, where they may succumb in paroxysms of pain.
Do you see? While the fish in the foreground is cracking wise (or, you know, "wise"), the fella in back has a notion to bite down on that hook. He knows it's a trap—the Head Fish's line is hardly subtle—but he wants it all the same. Fish get a bad rap. We're told that they have the feeblest memories (not true). That they are impelled by nothing more than overpowering instinct. Now we plainly see that fish aren't stupid. It is just their all-encompassing wish to die that makes them seem that way to us.
And however you interpret the fish's exhortation to "get hooked"—is he encouraging other fish to join his cult or more fishermen to start killing fish?—it's a warped worldview only a twisted fish could espouse.
3 comments:
Oh, but those fishy fish have an attitude! I cannot but interpret the "get hooked" part as an incentive for first graders to come an join the seafood gangbang which is about to take place. You know ... get ... hooked.
This is a bit of a digression, but apparently Amy Tan has written a novel called "Saving Fish from Drowning," and the title is allegedly derived from a story (I'm not sure whether Tan made it up herself or if it's older): "A pious man explained to his followers: 'It is evil to take lives and noble to save them. Each day I pledge to save a hundred lives. I drop my net in the lake and scoop out a hundred fishes. I place the fishes on the bank, where they flop and twirl. "Don't be scared," I tell those fishes. "I am saving you from drowning." Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still. Yet, sad to say, I am always too late. The fishes expire. And because it is evil to waste anything, I take those dead fishes to market and I sell them for a good price. With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes."
As I mentioned, I'm not sure when this story originated, but it got me thinking about the earliest days of suicidefoodism. The story seems to me to be mostly a humorous tale of willfully ignorant hypocrisy from a fraudulently pious man -- but I found it interesting that the willfully ignorant hypocrisy happened to be expressed as a form of something akin to suicidefoodism. (Well, admittedly, the idea is that the man is claiming that he intends on saving the fish, rather than the that the fish intend on dying, but still.)
Sorry for being a touch OT -- just thought it might interest you. Maybe they could incorporate it into some signs in the Kids' Fishing Derby next time.
Hey, it looks like they tipped the scales with that one!
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