What scares the snakes and spiders?

Dogs aren't so fond of fireworks - quite a few might panic tonight in the UK. But some of them have been bred and trained to hunt with human masters, and accept their physics.

Beware of scrolling below this point unless you are an adult who is willing to be discomforted, possibly offended, and scared. There will be spoilers for Alien too.

A weaving or scurrying spider can look a bit like a human hand. A slithering or striking snake a bit like a human arm - an arm struggling maybe, possibly drowning or wrestling.

Look how they flex, move and struggle, how the camera can obscure wider context and bonds. (Also, did human hands set it up? Did men stay at arm's length?)  Picture a limb there, a shoulder.

If fear of the two - spiders and snakes - can be a deep-rooted instinctive defence against the danger these creatures once represented - still do - isn't it also possible this can be fear not of them, but the human? Our own abilities. After all, we do know ourselves best. We are more dangerous than spiders and snakes. Arms and hands that manoeuvre and manipulate - design, sculpt and wield new and strange tools. Not much revelatory there.

Look at the facehugger, a nightmare hold made by human hands - is that tail all elbow?

Is it a scheming 'I' that our sixth sense seems to see in the forms and flows of the spider and snake? Do we see tensed hand, arm slipping in? Worry at the mind that guides it..?

If so, what might a spider fear? Or a snake? Gossamer glints? Flicking tongues? What about other creatures of vastly different forms? Creatures from other worlds - fantastical, or coldly or warmly real - on a planet by another star, or inside that star, or in the space between, maybe on a level we can't see? The kind of being AsymmetricalXeno dreams up. What keeps them awake in their version of night, peering into their own dark corner?

Is it possible we have more in common with monsters and aliens than we think - each a fear of ourselves, our tools that might bridge a galaxy? Are the monsters, aliens and us together allies against each other's kin? Why do we love horrors, dragons and sci-fi AIs, the monster manuals and fiend folios, tyranids and worlds of darkness? Things and Its? Why do we keep pets, so different than us? Why is it the dog that's a man's best friend?

Whose hand is that on your pillow, whose arm across your chest? What is the dark..?

Remember, remember the fifth of November: it may well be 11/5 everywhere we go in the universe - but if a hand can stroke, or an arm stop you falling, maybe that's a good thing.

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