Floyd Looney's When The Tardigrades Came
When the aliens came, everyone expected them to be aggressive and take over the planet, but they did not. These aliens are portrayed in Floyd Looney’s “When the Tardigrades Came…” These aliens instead of taking over the planet, did the opposite, they adopted the culture of humans. It took some time for both sides to get more used to each other, but not all the culture of the aliens was lost. This bit of culture not lost, was kept secret from the humans, and when the humans found out, there was an outrage. The difference between the aliens and humans is shown in the cultural differences between them, and the alien’s resistance to fully adopt the culture of humans affects the human’s opinion of them. These aliens are like humans in some ways,
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but they are not similar in their physical form. The aliens are described as looking, “exactly like five-foot-tall tardigrades” (Looney). After the aliens are described as the terrestrial tardigrades, the people of Earth started calling them tardigrades. In order for the tardigrades to be accepted into the world of humans, they had to strip themselves of their culture and to assimilate the dominant human culture. After the arrival of the tardigrades, they “adopted our culture and ways of life” (Looney). By surrendering their culture and adopting human culture, they lost the power to affect their own culture and beliefs. However, even though the tardigrades mostly lost their culture, many humans were still uneasy about them. This is seen when the narrator says, “Still, they had adopted our customs a little too well, a little too quickly” (Looney). The uneasiness, and loss of culture power, created a divide among humans and tardigrades, with the humans assuming power they became the self, and the tardigrades became the others. The tardigrades originally had very different culture and ways of life compared to humans and their earthly counterparts.
Unlike their earthly counterparts, these tardigrades had to eat, unless they were in “their ‘Tun State’. In their Tun-state they could survive for a decade like being in suspended animation” (Looney). This way of life was fading away though because the tardigrades no longer had to struggle to find food, as food is readily available in most modern human regions. The tardigrades adopted a human behavior over their own behavior when it came to getting food. The narrator first sees this phenomenon when he sees a tardigrade in a super-market, “The female…was shopping and buying normal items like bread and milk” (Looney). At first the adoption of culture was weird for the humans, but over time they got used to it. Unfortunately, however, not all of the adopted culture was good, the tardigrades also embraced negative behavior. There had been many accusations that “almost half the newcomer aliens were welfare bums” (Looney). Proving how willing the tardigrades wanted a different culture, this shows the increasing power humans had over the tardigrades, with many of them on welfare humans could have ended the help they needed at any
time. The tardigrades did not destroy all of their culture, however, they resisted losing and exposing their biggest secret and nature. This one secret is illustrated when the narrator notes “the only thing that seemed different about them, besides their appearance, was that they all belonged to the local Order…a strange and extremely secretive place where no human was ever allowed to enter” (Looney). Humans were starting to question the tardigrades’ resistance to letting humans enter a local Order. One day, the narrator and his friend Kyle decided to sneak into a local Order and they were greatly surprised about what they saw. The narrator explains he saw “their ugly proboscis opening and closing, swallowing the remains of one of their own kind” (Looney). At first, the narrator and Kyle were in outrage that humans were harboring cannibals. But, one of the tardigrades began to explain what was really happening, “‘My peoples’ DNA is made up of about 20% foreign DNA. Our species has found that when we die, certain organs in us can help sustain our DNA integrity’” (Looney). Afterwards, the narrator and Kyle decided for humanity, that the tardigrades’ secret should remain a secret for the sanity of humans. The tardigrades had also kept the truth of the Order a secret for their own safety; they were not sure if its truth would make humans fearful of the tardigrades’ nature. The tardigrades had fear and were resistant to lose all of their culture to be with the humans. The tardigrades’ resistance to fully adopt the culture of humans, and their cultural differences affects the human’s opinion of them.
but they are not similar in their physical form. The aliens are described as looking, “exactly like five-foot-tall tardigrades” (Looney). After the aliens are described as the terrestrial tardigrades, the people of Earth started calling them tardigrades. In order for the tardigrades to be accepted into the world of humans, they had to strip themselves of their culture and to assimilate the dominant human culture. After the arrival of the tardigrades, they “adopted our culture and ways of life” (Looney). By surrendering their culture and adopting human culture, they lost the power to affect their own culture and beliefs. However, even though the tardigrades mostly lost their culture, many humans were still uneasy about them. This is seen when the narrator says, “Still, they had adopted our customs a little too well, a little too quickly” (Looney). The uneasiness, and loss of culture power, created a divide among humans and tardigrades, with the humans assuming power they became the self, and the tardigrades became the others. The tardigrades originally had very different culture and ways of life compared to humans and their earthly counterparts.
Unlike their earthly counterparts, these tardigrades had to eat, unless they were in “their ‘Tun State’. In their Tun-state they could survive for a decade like being in suspended animation” (Looney). This way of life was fading away though because the tardigrades no longer had to struggle to find food, as food is readily available in most modern human regions. The tardigrades adopted a human behavior over their own behavior when it came to getting food. The narrator first sees this phenomenon when he sees a tardigrade in a super-market, “The female…was shopping and buying normal items like bread and milk” (Looney). At first the adoption of culture was weird for the humans, but over time they got used to it. Unfortunately, however, not all of the adopted culture was good, the tardigrades also embraced negative behavior. There had been many accusations that “almost half the newcomer aliens were welfare bums” (Looney). Proving how willing the tardigrades wanted a different culture, this shows the increasing power humans had over the tardigrades, with many of them on welfare humans could have ended the help they needed at any
time. The tardigrades did not destroy all of their culture, however, they resisted losing and exposing their biggest secret and nature. This one secret is illustrated when the narrator notes “the only thing that seemed different about them, besides their appearance, was that they all belonged to the local Order…a strange and extremely secretive place where no human was ever allowed to enter” (Looney). Humans were starting to question the tardigrades’ resistance to letting humans enter a local Order. One day, the narrator and his friend Kyle decided to sneak into a local Order and they were greatly surprised about what they saw. The narrator explains he saw “their ugly proboscis opening and closing, swallowing the remains of one of their own kind” (Looney). At first, the narrator and Kyle were in outrage that humans were harboring cannibals. But, one of the tardigrades began to explain what was really happening, “‘My peoples’ DNA is made up of about 20% foreign DNA. Our species has found that when we die, certain organs in us can help sustain our DNA integrity’” (Looney). Afterwards, the narrator and Kyle decided for humanity, that the tardigrades’ secret should remain a secret for the sanity of humans. The tardigrades had also kept the truth of the Order a secret for their own safety; they were not sure if its truth would make humans fearful of the tardigrades’ nature. The tardigrades had fear and were resistant to lose all of their culture to be with the humans. The tardigrades’ resistance to fully adopt the culture of humans, and their cultural differences affects the human’s opinion of them.