From The Dark Depths

Hey y’all. They finally photographed a real life giant squid. Here’s what it looks like:

It’s 25 feet long – The same length as the shark in Jaws, coincidence? – and apparently it moves quickly and viciously. While quite large, it’s not exactly this:

I seriously love this shit, I get off on it.

Since I was a wee child I have had this mean fascination with the deep sea; it’s a heady mix of fascination and fear. I remember having a Jacques Cousteau book when I was about four that was chock full of pictures and illustrations of giant squids, and those hideously ugly fish with the little glowy bobber that hangs over their giant needle sharp teeth, and sharks, my god the sharks.

I love sharks.

I’m going to keep that statement simple. If I lose control here about sharks this post will be the length of the Gettysburg Address.

As a kid I was also interested in outer space, magic, unsolved mysteries and things, but nothing held my attention like what existed in those deep and black depths of the oceans. I still hold onto this with a childlike fascination that is equal parts fear.

When I got older, I started getting into the scholastic ideas of the ocean being a symbol for the mind’s subconscious and how those fascinating beasties could themselves be symbols of our fears and desires, occasionally rising out of the blind, dark depths and devouring. I still like this idea, in that intellectually masturbatory way that I like to intellectually masturbate. But hearing that they had finally seen a live and kicking giant squid made me remember that feeling of being 4 years old, sitting on the floor of the living room and staring with wide-eyed wonder at my cherished Jacques Cousteau book.