The Sea Lady: by H. G. Wells

In The Sea Lady H. G.Wells employs a time-honored technique of satire: the alien perspective. A mermaid finds the ordinary world we inhabit not altogether sensible, her previous experience making it strange to her, and therefore strange to us as well. Herein lies a good deal of humor. In an early scene Wells burlesques the way popular literature represents his world and then uses the rest of the story to criticize the world as it truly is.But the lady has an agenda, too, and it isn't at all...