The Lydia Tár Of Mantids
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Last Friday, my partner T and I were lucky enough to visit an insect lab at the American Museum of Natural History. The room was hot, humid, and smelled faintly of roach, because, well, there were lots of roaches there. Some were familiar, like the cocktail-sausage shaped Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and others were strange, like some freshly molted cave cockroaches whose newly hardened bodies gleamed the ethereal yellow of a bamboo shoot.
But we were not there to see roaches, Rather, we were there to see praying mantises under the care of Lohit Garikipati, a PhD student at the AMNH (I recommend listening to Lohit talk all about mantids on this episode of Ologies). I got to hold a beautiful orchid mantis, a girlie who immediately loafed in my palm and just kind of chilled as I held her. But T got to hold a stick-imitating mantis who bore an uncanny resemblance to one of the most infamous and iconic composers of our modern era. That’s right, I’m talking about Lydia Tár.
It’s not just that this mantis kept striking the Tár pose—arms outstretched and head arched back—but that she also had Lydia’s energy. As she sat in T’s palm, the mantis emanated an alluringly menacing sort of power. She swiveled her beautiful mantis head back and forth to regard us regarding her. The experience was frankly electrifying. I felt as if I were holding some small deity, awaiting her orders. Whatever this mantis would have us do, we would do. If she belittled a BIPOC pangender person, well, we wouldn’t like it, but it would also be somewhat iconic, given the power differential between her, a mantis, and any person in the world.
As the four of us people chatted in the room, I felt myself inexplicably drawn to this mantis and her silent power. I don’t know if she had ever decapitated a male’s head—only certain species of mantis do this—but she certainly seemed powerful enough to do so. In fact, if I saw her behead another mantis, I would say nothing. Maybe I would even cheer her on. I would let this mantis belittle me any day.
Which filmmaker will be brave enough to make a biopic of this mantis, also starring Cate Blanchett? If anyone could play a depraved and beguiling mantis, it’s her.
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