View source for The Diary of Mr J. Walker

[https://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/the-diary-of-mr-j-walker/ The Diary of Mr J. Walker] by [[Kit Miller]], with art by [[Melanofly|melanofly]] first appeared in issue [[Issue 109]] in 2024.

== Summary ==
In which Mr Walker reports on his encounters with a nice merman.

== Author's Notes ==
This piece was literally years in the making. The core idea of ‘human artist-scientist and curious merman’ had been incubating in my head for a very long time. The spark that really lit it, though, came when I wondered what merpeople genitalia would look like, and I went on a deep, deep dive into cetacean and pinniped genitalia. Okay, mostly penises. So I’ve been seriously working on this piece for a good three years, on and off, and was intending to submit it in one of the Theme Free issues—and then this issue’s theme was announced! <br/> <br/>
I can’t really remember when the whole diary idea happened. Probably around the time I watched ''Gentleman Jack''. It will come as no surprise that I took the idea of an encrypted, explicit, queer diary from Anne Lister. Even the name of Walker’s editor is a reference: Lister’s main editor is Helena Whitbread, I invented Ellen Baker. Walker’s name is some kind of reference to the Lister diaries too: as I contemplated what to call my human protagonist, I recalled that Lister’s wife was called Ann Walker, and thought to myself, “Wow, wouldn’t it be stupid as hell if the land-dwelling part of a merman/human couple would be called Walker?!” But then, like so many things in my brain, it stuck.  <br/> <br/>
I can’t remember why I called Maurice Maurice. Sorry. <br/> <br/>
Most of the merman’s sexual behaviour is based on the courting and mating behaviour of dolphins, but I based the rest of his biology mostly on that of seals. I am, however, emphatically not a biologist, and I am certain that, if aquatic humans existed, they would not be considered a subspecies of humans; actually, I think they would not even be considered in the same genus at all. But merfolk do not exist and so I can do what I want. So, in essence: the biology and taxonomy and other sciency things in this piece are nearly all hogwash, though I hope it’s at least verisimilitudinous hogwash. I did try to follow taxonomic rules and conventions as much as I could. For those wondering: ''aquatilis'' means “dwelling or growing in water, aquatic” while ''terricolus'' means “dwelling on land, terrestial.”  <br/> <br/>
I had an absurd amount of fun making this look as scholarly as possible. Don’t try to seek out any of the citations; except for the OED, I made them all up. Many, but not all, scholars’ names are some sort of pun or wordplay.  <br/> <br/>
With thanks to Joanna, who read this when it was still a WIP and left excellent commentary, and to melanofly, who once again blew it out of the water with their amazing illustrations!

=== Content Notes ===
Some off-page animal cruelty in the entry for 24 July.

== External Links ==
This story is also available [https://archiveofourown.org/collections/bb_shousetsu/works/58822741 on Archive of Our Own (AO3)].

[[Category:text]] [[Category:Art]]  [[Category:2024]]
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