Book Review

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith

B+

Genre: Nonfiction

I go through animal obsessions in stages and currently I’m (PLATONICALLY) interested in cephalopods. I’ve read a few books that involve cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish, octopuses, nautilus) and I’ve seen some weird shit, you guys. They are especially popular in the steampunk genre and in Lovecraftian horror.

For example, fictional items which feature cephalopods that we’ve reviewed here include:

The Farthest Shore by Marian Perera

Fantasy in which a young woman has a mind meld with a kraken. Not erotica.

Kilts and Kraken by Cindy Spencer Pope

Steampunk that includes a scene in which a kraken attacks a ship. Not erotica.

Someone to Cuttle, by Luna Loupe

M/m/m/ erotica. Very short.

First Watch by Peter Hansen

M/tentacle-monster erotica on a submarine.

I’ve also read several nonfiction books about these very weird creatures and so far Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness is the best one I’ve come across.

This book explores the evolutionary background of cephalopods and their biology, before getting into how they might think and what they might feel. How do you perceive the world around you if most of your neurons are in your arms? What’s it like to see with your eyes but also your skin? What’s it like to taste through your skin? If your esophagus runs right through the center of your brain, can you stab yourself to death with your own food? The answer to that last question is “Yes.”

Other Minds is written simply enough that anyone can understand it, but still gets in depth, no pun intended, with the facts and analysis. It has a good balance between science facts and anecdotal experience. I’ve read three non-fiction books about cephalopods in a row and the authors always end up talking about their inner journey, which is fun but can easily take over the book. This book had enough stories from the author, and stories the author collected, to feel immediate and personal without turning into a book all about the author’s emotional experience.

I don’t know that I’d recommend this book to someone who is all, “Meh. I prefer owls.” However, I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in octopuses, squid, cuttlefish, and nautiluses. You will spend a lot of time going “WHA????” You will be informed and entertained. Also there are pretty pictures.

Erotic writers, here are some helpful facts:

  • Cephalopods can manipulate every sucker individually.
  • Squid have hooks inside each sucker so that they can rip off your face with maximum efficiency.
  • Arms have suckers all along their entire length. Tentacles only have suckers at the end. Therefore, octopuses don’t have tentacles. Nautiluses don’t have arms. Squid and cuttlefish have both. Know your appendages.
  • The octopus mom has one batch of eggs, guards them, and when they hatch she promptly dies. So unless there’s some octopus birth control involved, the octopus HEA is about four to five months long.
  • When a male cuttlefish and female cuttlefish love each other very much, the male grabs the female’s face and puts his sperm in a hole by her mouth. Make of this what you will.
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Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith

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  1. Ren Benton says:

    Squid have hooks inside each sucker so that they can rip off your face with maximum efficiency.

    For erotica purposes, maybe “rip off your clothes” would be a better application of this feature? O_o

    Now I can’t stop thinking about Kraken domestic squabbles. “Obviously I meant clothes, Kevin. I’ve had a long day attacking ships. I come home to relax, not be attacked for every little slip of the beak. Don’t touch me. I’m not in the mood anymore.”

  2. Anonymous says:

    Thank you so much for posting this! I go through animal-cognition obsessive phases every so often, and the last time I tried to read a book about octopodes as part of it, but it turned out to be super obnoxious, because while there was some really fascinating information in there, most of the book was the author, a journalist, telling us about how she did her research, which, in addition to not being what I thought the book would be about (I’m sure the aquarium where she did her research is a great place, but I didn’t care), also involved rather a lot of going on and on about how much she loves the octopus! and is so special because she loves the octopus! and boy doesn’t she love the octopus! and y’know she like has a mystical connection with the octopus! and by the end of the book I just wanted her to get eaten by an octopus.

    This book sounds exactly like what I was hoping that other one would be. I will definitely check it out. Thank you!

  3. Todd says:

    Being a fan of David Attenborough, I’ve watched his “Life” and “Blue Planet” series. In one of them there’s a segment on an octopus mother – she takes her fertilized eggs, finds a safe place, lays them, then spends the rest of her life fanning water across them to make sure they have properly oxygenated water. Then she dies. I understand the male octopus dies after mating … so his HEA is even shorter.

  4. Jenny says:

    At the Seattle Aquarium, they have “Octopus Week” every year in February. Each year, the Aquarium tries to arrange a tryst between a male on display, and a female (advertised as “Octopus Blind Date”). Once or twice, they’ve had to cancel said tryst when the male (the most notorious one being Kong) became so aggressive toward the female that staff were afraid he’d eat her.

  5. CarrieS says:

    @Anonymous: I know exactly what book you are talking about. It drove me up the wall.

  6. Trix says:

    I can’t remember what book it was, but the author said that if cephalopods were nurtured instead of having to fend for themselves right after birth, they’d probably be more developed than humans. He also said he could no longer eat cephalopods because he felt it was immoral since they were so evolved…hmm.

  7. Anonymous says:

    @CarrieS: THANK YOU. It came very highly recommended, and I seriously only finished it because I kept thinking I must not have got to the part where it became good.

  8. RayC says:

    And I have to do a shout out for Wriggle and Sparkle by Megan Derr… M/M romance between shape shifting kraken and unicorn wrapped in a mystery plot. Given it probably started as a dare idea ‘what’s the two least likely animals you could put together’ – it’s managed to get on my keeper shelf for cheerup days.

  9. CarrieS says:

    WHAAAAAT????????????

  10. Lisa says:

    I just got this book! I heard about it from a coworker who commented on my octopus t-shirt!

  11. Artemis Crow says:

    For your cephalopod-loving pleasure. “Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod”

  12. katelynanne says:

    I second that Megan Derr rec. I freaking adore that book. I assumed it would be worth a laugh and instead got a super sweet romance that I’ve read through a few times now.

  13. Demi says:

    OK, I’m now officially awaiting a book titled “Clits and Kraken”, since that’s what my eyes read to me in lieu of the word “Kilts”.

  14. Sarah M says:

    I’m assuming you have already read Sy Montgomery’s classic of an article “Deep Intellect” in Orion. He expanded it into a book, The Soul of an Octopus, that I didn’t love quite as much, but still loved a lot. I’m excited to pick this book up now.

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