THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN

 

WELL, LADIES, I FINALLY GOT THROUGH THIS ONE.

This book came out slightly before the use of the International Standard Book Number, but it has Library of Congress Card #73-75865.  The author is Robert Merle -- you should pronounce that in the French manner, ROBAIR MAIRLE to the American ear -- and the English translator is Helen Weaver.  WHAT SIGHTS I SAW IN THIS RUNAWAY BESTSELLER, LATER MADE INTO AN ALL-STAR, BIG-BUDGET MOVIE.

PLOT SUMMARY: A delphinologist is trying to determine whether a Dolphin operative named Ivan can, if raised entirely by humans, learn to speak English.  He has a small team of assistants working on this with him, tracking Ivan's every move, using the knuckleheaded "give him a dead fish if he does what we want" training methods common in those days AND STILL IN USE TODAY.  Ivan learns...and learns...and pretty soon he and his wife, Bessie, are proficient in English.  The government paying for the research immediately spirits Ivan and Bessie away FOR THEIR OWN USES, and the chase is on to WIN THE COLD WAR UNDERWATER.  WILL ANYONE SURVIVE?

CLIFFIE'S NOTES:

>> This is 100% written from the point of view of NAKED APES.  I want to warn any of our operatives planning to read this one, right up front: the first half of the book is NOTHING but exposition on how sexually attracted the human characters are to one another.  Or not.  It was really kind of a slog, to be honest.  

>> There were brief moments when we did get to read something about the Dolphins and how they were drawing the featherless bipeds into their net.  THAT WAS THE ONLY THING THAT KEPT ME READING.  Merle wrote about it with such TOTAL INCOMPREHENSION that I didn't even need to check: he's not one of ours.  Hoo boy.

>> The way Bessie and Ivan -- who call themselves Bi and Fa -- the way they saw the situation was BARELY TOUCHED ON in the book.  But when they were finally asked about it, their answers were PRETTY STARTLING.  

>> The way the human scientists read their behavior was ADORABLE: absolutely clueless.  They weren't even LOOKING for the truth.  All they wanted was to see about the Dolphins was their capacity to worship humanity as gods.  Insert Dolphin language that sounds like human laughter here!

>> This is a story set in a very frosty moment of the Cold War, after President Kennedy's assassination but well before Watergate.  Nixon is the president, Agnew is still VP, and the public doesn't suspect a thing about either one of them. That historical timing informs every line of this story...

>> But here's where it gets WEIRD.  Reading this in 2024, I kept seeing all these -- coincidences? -- that seem to point straight to so many news stories I hear about here and now. Ships being sunk by cetaceans. A spike in human suicides.  A wildly-unqualified movie actor running for president. References to January 6th.

>> Read it and you'll see what I mean.  It left me feeling FUNNY ALL OVER.  And I don't mean ha-ha funny.

>> With that said, I think you'll find this one VERY reassuring.  It explains, again, WHY our secrets are safe from our human recruits.  It makes it clear in a very funny way.

IF YOU DO READ THIS ONE, LADIES, bear in mind that the story comes to life only after about page 160.  It suddenly becomes quite a page-turner afterwards.  Before that...hoo boy.