Making a Splash: Mermaids (and Mer-Men) in 20th and 21st Century Audiovisual Media Paperback – January 30, 2017

It's my understanding that Philip Hayward is a professor of music who has taught and published widely on the subjects of contemporary music and audio visual culture. His special interest area is maritime cultures and the music of islands. His august academic work in this field dovetails ( fishtails?) beautifully with the interests of a far more whimsical Philip Hayward. This is he as a young boy. A boy who was fascinated with the idea and image of the mermaid during his childhood seaside holidays in Cornwall, England - a place that is rich in the lore of this charming , graceful entity - the mermaid .Many of us, myself included, have a real affection for this liminal creature. She is of course strange, different, unheimlich. Yet again and again in many tales, the initial surprise of humans who encounter her is easily replaced by fascination and and affection. Her tail and her beauty become real objects of visual pleasure.Hayward employs great anglers skill using lures fashioned from a multidisciplinary expanse of media, culture, gender, body and folklore to entice and land the mermaid. The mythical allure of the Saturday matinee mermaid is transferred from its B grade home to A-list billing as Hayward dismantles the Ron Howard movie Splash, floats through the evident sexual conundrums and then reminds us once again of Internet rule 34: if it exists there is a pornographic rendering somewhere.With all the heft and erudition of a cross disciplinary masterclass, paired with that runaway childhood fascination, Hayward brings the lure and the lore to land a fine book.The body of the mermaid and her rarely seen counterpart, the Merman, provide a nexus for exploring issues of gender, sexuality and innocence. For those still splashing about with transmutable desires, grab a copy and indulge the playful fun to be had here.