Describe the jellyfish’s story presented by Ishmael.

In Part III, the narrator recounts the generally accepted history of the universe, beginning with the Big Bang theory, progressing through the theory of evolution, and ending with the appearance of man. However, he insists that this story involves facts and can hence not be considered a myth. Ishmael agrees that the story contains facts, but argues that the way the facts are arranged are what make it a myth, and that the narrator has accepted this arrangement from Mother Culture. The narrator is confused, so Ishmael tells a story of his own.

In Ishmael's story, an anthropologist roams the Earth alone, half a billion years ago. Eventually, the anthropologist discovers a jellyfish floating in the waves, and asks it to tell him its culture’s creation myth. Indignant, the jellyfish replies that there is no creation myth (much in the same way that the narrator refused to acknowledge such a myth). Instead, the jellyfish tells the anthropologist a factual account similar to the narrator's, except that its version ends with the appearance of jellyfish.