Thanatophobia
Thanatophobia is the scientific term for the fear of death. But since we all fear death, it really means something a bit more specific, and it is that which is on display in this example imagery. Another term for what thanatophobia describes is death anxiety which suggest more than a fear, but an intensification of the fear of the visceral possibility of death:
“I felt the force of its threat physically. The sharp tingle came in white bursts in my toes and traveled up my body to the top of my head. I opened my mouth, suddenly short of breath. This was what fearing death truly felt like, not my initial submission to it. I leaned away, holding up my edan. I was sitting on my bed, its red covers making me think of blood.”
Death by Jellyfish
The Meduse are a jellyfish-ish sort of alien creature that present significant danger to the characters in the story. The mechanics of the kill are presented through fairly gruesome imagery made even more horrific by the understated presentation of the gore:
“Then the Meduse came through the dining hall entrance. I was looking right at Heru when the red circle appeared in the upper left side of his shirt. The thing that tore through was like a sword, but thin as paper... and flexible and easily stained by blood. The tip wiggled and grasped like a finger. I saw it pinch and hook to the flesh near his collarbone.”
Country Mouse Out of Water
The story begins as portrait of a fish out of water. More than that, really, it is a fish out of water tale similar to the country mouse coming to the city. Our narrator presents herself as standing out in a way that sounds similar to a city slicker spotting a rube except it’s the rube recognizing their own rubeness:
“I was wearing a long red skirt, one that was silky like water, a light orange wind-top that was stiff and durable, thin leather sandals, and my anklets. No one around me wore such an outfit. All I saw were light flowing garments and veils; not one woman's ankles were exposed, let alone jingling with steel anklets. I breathed through my mouth and felt my face grow hot. `Stupid stupid stupid,’ I whispered.”
Friendship Starts at Okuoko
To make it quick and simple: the jellyfish-ness of the Meduse has to do with their having tentacles. Our protagonist is proud of her thick lush hair plaited into tentacle-like braids. The symbolic melding of two distinct species into one singularly unique friendship is, not surprisingly, centered upon this one yoke of similarity:
“I looked for a very very long time. Not at my dark brown skin, but where my hair had been. The okuoko were a soft transparent blue with darker blue dots at their tips. They grew out of my head as if they'd been doing that all my life, so natural looking that I couldn't say they were ugly. They were just a little longer than my hair had been, hanging just past my backside, and they were thick as sizable snakes. There were ten of them and I could no longer braid them into my family’s code pattern as I had done with my own hair.”
