Field Note of the Silverfish

The Natural Hostility Between Bookworms and Silverfish

Observations from an escalating ecosystem.

All investigations so far suggest that relations between bookworms and silverfish have been strained for a very long time.

While bookworms traditionally inhabit the structures of publishing houses, literary institutions, cultural supplements and established distribution systems, the silverfish was long regarded there as no more than a marginal phenomenon.

That changed abruptly when the first silverfish began writing books of their own.

The reactions were as expected.

Some bookworms declared it biologically impossible.

Others demanded stricter quality controls for silverfish literature.

Still others denied the existence of silverfish altogether and described every sighting as a hallucination caused by excessive consumption of digital media.

The bookworm population was particularly disturbed by the fact that silverfish showed no interest whatsoever in learning the existing rules.

Instead, they published books.

Directly.

Sometimes even successfully.

Further confusion arose from the observation that many readers barely noticed the difference between a traditional book and one created with the assistance of silverfish.

Some did not notice it at all.

This finding caused considerable unrest in parts of the ecosystem.

The silverfish itself remained largely unimpressed.

It had neither a lobby nor any notable political influence.

Its traditional survival strategy consisted of sitting in dark corners and hoping not to be stepped on.

To this day, it remains unclear whether the natural hostility between bookworms and silverfish actually exists or is merely a misunderstanding.

Recent observations suggest that, in the long term, both species face the same problem.

The reader.

For while bookworms and silverfish debate the future of literature, a substantial proportion of readers have decided to watch videos of dancing raccoons instead.

Further research is required.

🪲 Note from the silverfish

The author of this field note points out that all similarities to real publishing houses, authors, literary institutions, algorithms or particularly sensitive bookworms are purely coincidental.

At least, no evidence to the contrary has yet been produced.