(urth) Short Story 221*: The Lithosphere Whale

[Marc Aramini]

THE LITHOSPHERE WHALE

As part of the Creature Coral, “The Lithosphere Whale” was Wolfe’s entry in
the Wofford College’s 2012 shared world. It appeared only online.

Here is the entry in its entirety:

The lithosphere whale (Physeter macrocephalus borboros) is more commonly
known as the earth whale or the wrong whale. During the great days of
whaling in the 19th Century it was called the cachalittle or mobydirt.

Lithosphere whales may be divided as follows: blubber, whale leather,
baleen, spermaceti, petroleum, and fossil amber. These are the only
cetaceans known to yield the final valuable commodity. Individuals are
commonly solitary, wandering the terrestrial crust in search of food,
although pods are occasionally reported as causing earthquakes. Large bulls
may dive to a depth of three (or even four) diamond mines. They are air
breathers and must surface to breathe once or twice a fortnight. By day,
their exhaled breath is often visible for a considerable distance; when
seen, the exhalations of these whales are commonly termed "dirt devils." In
the stillness of night they are heard as long whailings. The superstitious
belief that they seek to attract railroad trains for reproductive purposes
has little basis in fact.

Diet consists principally of soil squids (q.v.), although coal miners and
bomb-shelter residents are taken as well. Calves are said to dine on
earthworms, this by filling their mouths with rich soil and forcing it out
between their teeth, the worms being retained.



 COMMENTARY:

This collaborative creative world was devised in conjunction with Wofford
College’s 2012 summer writing program. Wolfe’s involvement probably stems
from his daughter Theresa Goulding’s position as editor and compiler of the
short stories, alongside figures such as Michael Moorcock, Patrick
Rothfuss, the Vandermeers, Lavie Tidhar, and other fabulists of some
renown. The overall theme seems to be simply fabulous creatures, most
ecologically tied to the environment (such as the lithosphere or the
stratosphere). The majority are simply absurd creature entries. There is a
large somewhat interactive drawing of the creatures which can be found
below.

Wolfe’s clearly relies on some of the whaling details from Melville’s *Moby
Dick,* and takes the classification scheme as a serious blending of the
deep terrain and a creature, since types include petroleum and fossil
amber. It fictionalizes the dusty exhalation of the beast as a “dirt devil”
and borders on absurdity as well with the reproductive talk of railroad
trains. Its passive digestion of strained earth resembles the manner in
which a real whale would simply passively sift through swallowed water for
nutrients. Physeter Macrcephalus is indeed the Sperm Whale, and borboros
could refer to borborygmos, or loud intestinal sounds audible externally
that can precede blockage or distension. Lithosphere is the hard outer
layer of the earth and is composed of the Greek element lithos, meaning
rock. Another name for the sperm whale is the cachalot, from the Spanish
and Portugeuse for root word meaning “big head”, and Wolfe puns on this by
calling the Lithosphere Whale the cachalittle. Besides the clear influence
of Melville on the entry and a possible allusion to Jules Verne, it is a
lighthearted romp with little relationship to most of Wolfe’s other fiction.

CONNECTION TO OTHER WORKS:

 Wolfe’s contributions to a shared universe can be counted easily on one
hand. One foray can be found in the two stories set in the shared world of
Liavek which bookend *Storeys from the Old Hotel* and the miscellaneous
stories which might blend into the Cthulthu Mythos of Lovecraft. It is
interesting to see so many big Fantasy names under the auspice of one
program. While some of the entries are related to each other, the majority
of them are stand-alone miniature faux encyclopedic treatments. While it is
brief and rather uninvolved, it bears a spiritual relationship to works
such as *A Walking Tour of the Shambles* and *Bibliomen* its encyclopedic
approach.

RESOURCES

Wolfe, Gene. “The Lithosphere Whale.” Shared Worlds. Woffod College. 2012.
Web. 22 April 2015.
https://www.wofford.edu/sharedworlds/critters/byauthor.html#gwolfe
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