Spider story time


This is a brilliant idea, in principle. Maybe I need to start reading to the spiders.

Except…no, not Charlotte’s Web. The spider [spoiler] dies at the end [/spoiler]! This is not the inspiration I want to give the spiders. I’m trying to get them to breed, and telling them they’ll die afterwards isn’t exactly a great message.

Maybe I should read them this one.

Comments

  1. Reginald Selkirk says

    The spider [spoiler] dies at the end [/spoiler]!

    SPOILER ALERT: We all die in the end.

  2. monad says

    We all die, but at least Charlotte has 514 children to carry on her legacy, plus a pig to provide some cultural continuity for them.

  3. birgerjohansson says

    ….carrying on the legacy.
    And doing something that transcend our individual mortality.
    Just being kind, (and not voting for pathological charlatans) goes a long way. Ayn Rand and the crook in “Wall Street” would disagree, so would Adolph Hitler.
    BTW (And I am going off on a tangent here, but it is related to “legacy”) -you are all familiar with James Lovelock and the role he played in saving the ozone layer. CFCs do not just destroy ozone, they are far more effective greenhouse gases than CO2.
    Some boffins in the University of New South Wales recently published a paper describing what the current and future climate change would be if production of CFCs had continued.
    “Reduction in surface climate change achieved by the 1987 Montreal protocol ” Envirolmental Research Letters, volume 14, number 12
    It is scary reading, we just dodged a bullet, and have enough time to (maybe) save the world.
    And all this because a mild-mannered boffin (100 years old, but still alive and well) invented a very sensitive chemical sensor 70 years ago. That is some legacy!

  4. vucodlak says

    The inspiration for that e-book cover is obvious, but without the shark smile, needle-sharp claws, and eyes the color of freshly-spilled blood it just looks silly.

  5. vucodlak says

    Oh wait, I know what you should read the hideous brood- Breeding Ground by Sarah Pinborough. 99% of the world’s women transform into malevolent psychic spider monsters. What will the menfolk do?

    (spoiler)Suck and die, mostly. And, mostly, you won’t be sorry to see them go.(/spoiler)

    As a bonus, the book includes “science!” Read in spine-tingling suspense as our brave men of science do one incredibly stupid thing after another. Shiver as a man drinks a pint o’ blood. Marvel as the climatologist decides that GMOs are to blame,* because why not?

    *I’m reasonably sure that that was a joke on the part of the author. I hope.