I warned her. I said, I don't think you're going to like it when you see it. But she was obsessed. She couldn't shake it from her attention. She sat there staring at the thing for hours one day. Finally it happened, just as I predicted, and just as I predicted, she was totally grossed out by the experience. I've been preparing myself mentally for this for months, I've heard the stories, I've read the blog posts, and yet I still don't feel like I'm quite ready to see it. When you feel it without seeing it, it's kind of interesting and cute, but when she encountered it visually she described it -- not without a clear hint of revulsion -- as "a kind of flesh earthquake."
I'm referring, of course, to the baby moving around under the skin. I know by now Lis has passed out from reading this, so I might as well continue. I know, I know, I'm supposed to be totally enamored of every single aspect of pregnancy from beginning to end. I know I'm supposed to ooh and aww about the miracle of birth at every turn, and be super keen on every surprise and twist and carefree little moment. I know it makes me a terrible father for even saying any of this, but the fact is, you have to admit, in at least some small way, kind of, just a little, it's, you know, a bit weird to see a several-pound living organism moving around inside your skin. That is not an everyday kind of thing, at least not until this point in my life.
Japes aside, there clearly is actually some kind of cultural fear surrounding the idea of the alien organism inside. A long time ago, I posted about going to see Prometheus, and commented on the latent misogyny of the earlier Alien movies. One thing that didn't occur to me when I posted that was the full significance of the scene in the original Alien where the little critter starts moving around and then bursts from one of the characters' chests. The fact that it was a man's chest, and it was an aggressive, toothy female alien that impregnated him, seems, you know, a tad Freudian to me, but I can't quite put my finger on it. However, now I've experienced the template for that scene first hand, and I can see exactly... uh... well... oh, nevermind.
It's all so beautiful. That's what I was going to say. There's nothing odd about any of this. I mean, unless I'm some kind of fearful, old-fashioned macho man, I'm supposed to be commenting on the beauty of the whole thing right now, right? Um, yeah. It was, like, super... special...
I'm referring, of course, to the baby moving around under the skin. I know by now Lis has passed out from reading this, so I might as well continue. I know, I know, I'm supposed to be totally enamored of every single aspect of pregnancy from beginning to end. I know I'm supposed to ooh and aww about the miracle of birth at every turn, and be super keen on every surprise and twist and carefree little moment. I know it makes me a terrible father for even saying any of this, but the fact is, you have to admit, in at least some small way, kind of, just a little, it's, you know, a bit weird to see a several-pound living organism moving around inside your skin. That is not an everyday kind of thing, at least not until this point in my life.
Japes aside, there clearly is actually some kind of cultural fear surrounding the idea of the alien organism inside. A long time ago, I posted about going to see Prometheus, and commented on the latent misogyny of the earlier Alien movies. One thing that didn't occur to me when I posted that was the full significance of the scene in the original Alien where the little critter starts moving around and then bursts from one of the characters' chests. The fact that it was a man's chest, and it was an aggressive, toothy female alien that impregnated him, seems, you know, a tad Freudian to me, but I can't quite put my finger on it. However, now I've experienced the template for that scene first hand, and I can see exactly... uh... well... oh, nevermind.
It's all so beautiful. That's what I was going to say. There's nothing odd about any of this. I mean, unless I'm some kind of fearful, old-fashioned macho man, I'm supposed to be commenting on the beauty of the whole thing right now, right? Um, yeah. It was, like, super... special...
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