Horseshoe Crab

Someone once posited this song is about derealization. I appreciate that idea a lot.

I love this song.

I think this song is about derealization/depersonalization. This song makes me feel understood. I enjoy it a lot.

This is actually my friend's interpretation, I turned him on to Slothrust. I told him to post it, but he didn't, so I am. His name is Mike Choate.

It starts with her being told that her hunger is a symptom of bad behavior. The song mentions sometimes she does feel like the seahorse. They float along upright, accepted as normal, travel in cute pairs, avoiding conflict by blending in with their surroundings for protection. But really, they aren’t threatened much by predators anyway. Because inside, they are bony and indigestible.

Then there is the horseshoe crab, which right off the bat, it’s judged by its thick protective shell, but it’s not even really a crab. Instead of correcting the name, those who know this, just give it a nickname “misnomer”. So they sink down and hide in the sandy bottom.

Beneath the shell is a fascinating creature, 10 eyes that see in all directions and even see what we can’t (ultraviolet). We mistake their spiny telson as an intimidating weapon, when it’s actually just used to flip themselves back up, when they are knocked in their backs. If you were to get hurt, it would be from flippantly grabbing it. A large percentage of them die while mating, because the ocean kicks them out onto the beaches and they suffocate. Because they aren’t crabs! They are beautiful creatures that belong in the sea. Unlike the seahorse, the horseshoe crabs insides are valuable. Because their blue blood is used to help us detect the contamination in ours.

So...what does the girl in the song do, pretending not to be hungry? She “bites her tongue” and wakes up with blood on her pillow. Thirsty. At a loss for words that make sense, she just wants to sink down, because underwater, away from that judgement, it gets better.

But ultimately, it’s all unfamiliar.