Marie Jamilcig: “The Disorder of Sea Creatures” – The Shallows of the Oceans and the Family

People find sea nuts to be an epidemic. Perhaps they gave a nice name to jellyfish, but they can really do without it: because transparent animals eat food away from fish, endlessly multiply and make the sea so sticky that tourists no longer want to swim in it. Worst of all, sea acorns eat their babies to ensure their survival.

Louise found that this story is one-sided. The marine biologist is the protagonist in Marie Gamelschog’s new novel. She has been researching the hated jellyfish species for years and is fascinated by the capabilities of sticky sea creatures: “We consider the sea nut to be primitive because it has neither a heart nor a brain, but it has a physical intelligence that has been completely lost to humans.”

Louise is interested in the bodies anyway. Above all, her body charms and disgusts her at the same time. As a teenager she struggled with an eating disorder and eating remains a difficult problem for her.

Her skin is also a problem for her – she tries to cover the bumps with several layers of makeup. But even makeup does not prevent Louise’s complexion from reacting to external influences, especially stress. It’s almost like a jellyfish: “A sea nut perceives internal and external stimuli through its skin and reacts to them directly, and it doesn’t have to translate the information in the brain first.”

In “Sea Creatures Revolution,” Marie Gamilchig paints the picture of a young marine biologist who feels uncomfortable in her own body and in her life. As a sought-after scholar, Louise rushes from Congress to Congress, but despite her success, she suffers from competitive pressures and high expectations.

She travels to Graz, her hometown, for a collaboration between her institute and a famous zoo. There she lives in the apartment of her father who is recovering from a heart attack with Louise’s brother. So the father is absent – but he is still constantly present: Louise tries to understand when they have become so strange to each other, why they can no longer talk to each other. Did not find an answer.

Marie Jamilchig describes all this in a kind of flux of ideas in which the present, the past and the future merge: there are meetings at the zoo, the mother’s visit, the meeting with a friend before, the difficult hours in the father’s emptiness. An apartment, where Louise relishes childhood memories and asks herself tormenting questions about the meaning of her life today.

It’s not always clear what’s really going on and what’s going through Louise’s head. She experienced her stay in Graz as if in a state of trance – an impression created primarily through the language of Gamilscheg. The author writes fluently, sometimes profusely. Your text is captivating, but it always makes you pause because the sentence requires more attention.

Marie Jamilcig has written a second, absolutely wonderful novel, The Revolution of Sea Creatures, which takes us to the depths of the oceans and into the depths of family relationships.