{"product_id":"theres-a-monster-in-the-lake-the-world-as-a-fantastical-place","title":"There's a Monster in the Lake: The World as a Fantastical Place","description":"\u003cp\u003eA witty meditation revealing what our obsession with monsters says about wonder, reality, and narrative itself\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat does the Loch Ness Monster tell us about belief, tourism, and the stories we need to survive? In this formally innovative essay, award-winning Spanish writer Laura Fernández travels to the Scottish Highlands to investigate the legend of Nessie and develops a perspective on humanity’s perpetual and sometimes destructive need to “discover.” From the 1933 sighting that launched a media sensation to the cast of monster hunters, fraudsters, and devotees who have perpetuated the story, Fernández unravels how we transform mystery into tourist attraction. Boarding a cruise ship on Loch Ness itself, she encounters a world where imagination and commerce collide.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut this is more than a travelogue. Fernández probes deeper: What does reality consist of and who is creating it? How is observing also living? In a world increasingly hostile to the fantastical, what does our relationship with Nessie reveal about how we inhabit reality itself?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten with the punch of Douglas Adams and the ambition of Thomas Pynchon, There’s a Monster in the Lake is a brilliant meditation on monsters in the age of manufactured reality. Reminiscent of David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster, Fernández’s essay is both playful and philosophical, a celebration of imagination as the source of our humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MacMillan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53784509645107,"sku":"9781644454190","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0843\/1108\/1267\/files\/9781644454190.jpg?v=1785720526","url":"https:\/\/slantoflightbooks.com\/products\/theres-a-monster-in-the-lake-the-world-as-a-fantastical-place","provider":"Slant of Light Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}