The Octopus and I
Page 29
This is where the seal is, now. She is hovering, watching the octopus. Every now and then, she surfaces for air. She has eaten two wrasse and one morwong. She has been floating there so long, and so calmly, they all but swam into her mouth. Twice, she nearly ate the octopus. She still might. But for now, she is happy enough watching—biding her time while her pup writhes inside her.
It’s so beautiful. The octopus is so attentive to them: her eggs, her tapestry of swaying pearls. She won’t abandon them. The little seal would love to have shown him—to have shown her friend how the octopus cares for her young. And then they could have played tug-of-war on the octopus’s stretchy body.
But of course, he’s not there. She doesn’t know where he is. So, for now, the little seal thinks, it’s just her and me: the octopus and I.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
Scott’s account of the octopuses crossing the isthmus at Eaglehawk Neck on page 60 is inspired by an anecdote recounted in Richard Bennett, Jill Mure and George Mure’s The Photographer, the Cook and the Fisherman: Real Stories of Tasmanian Fishing, Richard Bennett, Jill and George Mure, Hobart, 2002, p. 177.
Scott’s story on page 62 about being spooked by an octopus while abalone diving is heavily inspired by an encounter described in Milfred Knight’s Abalone Diving in Tasmanian Waters: The Men, the Boats and the Island Coastline, Milfred Knight, Hobart, 1985, pp. 45–46.
The information about octopuses that Lucy reads to Jem and his family on pages 62–63 is from Richard Schweid’s Octopus, Reaktion Books, London, 2014, pp. 21–24.
The information about octopus neurons and suckers on pages 71–72 is drawn from Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, Atria Books, New York, 2015, p. 14.
On page 309 Lucy reads an article about scientists sequencing an octopus genome; the quotes she reads are from neurobiologist and octopus researcher Clifton Ragsdale, and it is published in Joshua A. Krisch’s ‘Scientists Have Sequenced the First Octopus Genome’, Vocativ, 12 August 2015, http://www.vocativ.com/220961/octopus-genome/index.html, accessed 4 March 2018.
On page 310 Lucy reads another article, about an octopus’s interactive touch. This quote is drawn from Natalie Angier’s ‘At Love and Play Under the Sea in an Octopus’s Garden’, New York Times, 11 August 1998. https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/11/science/at-love-and-play-under-the-sea-in-an-octopus-s-garden.html, accessed 4 March 2018. Her mention of an octopus’s capacity to see with its skin comes from the finding reported in M. Desmond Ramirez and Todd H. Oakley, ‘Eye-Independent, Light-Activated Chromatophore Expansion (LACE) and Expression of Phototransduction Genes in the Skin of Octopus Bimaculoides’, Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 218, 2015, pp. 1513–1520.
Lucy’s reference on page 310 to an octopus’s ability to learn vicariously comes from the findings reported in Graziano Fiorito and Pietro Scotto’s ‘Observational Learning in Octopus vulgaris’, Science, vol. 256, no. 6056, April 1992, pp. 545–547. Her mention of octopus displays of favouritism is written about extensively in Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus, pp. 8–13.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am immensely grateful to so many people who supported and encouraged me in innumerable ways whilst I wrote this novel, and who helped me bring it into being.
Hannah Stark, Danielle Wood and Robert Clarke were so generous with their insightful guidance and feedback when this story was in thesis form. Their expertise, enthusiasm, criticism and reassurance were invaluable. I am a better writer, reader and thinker because of their support, which was facilitated by the University of Tasmania. I am grateful for Commonwealth funding to complete my PhD, which gave me the time and space to begin this novel and think through the complexities of human and non-human relationships in a range of ways which permeated the narrative and helped it become what it is.
Robyn Greaves, Sophia Sheehan, Claire Neyland, Susie Cretan, Adrien Butler, Tess Luttrell and Emma Voss so generously gave up their time so they might offer me a reader’s perspective on early drafts of the novel. I need all of you to know how grateful I am for this, and how grateful I am to have friends like you in my life.
Rachel Edwards at Transportation Press published my first ever short story which morphed into the chapter that tells the story of Jake’s tuna-fishing escapade. This was such a formative moment for me; it made me think that writing might not be just something I do, but that I might actually become a writer—an identity I now fully feel able to occupy thanks to the assistance of my agent, Gaby Naher, who was instrumental in helping me turn being a published author from a dream to a reality. Gaby, thank you for your enthusiasm, your assistance in turning the manuscript from a thesis and into a novel, and your guidance through the publication process.
I am so fortunate that my publisher, Jane Palfreyman, understood what I was trying to do with this narrative. Her nuanced edits helped me refine the text in all the right ways. I want to thank Jane, Ali Lavau, Deonie Fiford, Jacquie Brown, Tom Bailey-Smith and everyone at Allen & Unwin for their support and for transforming this strange, octopus story into a book.
I was born into a family that loves literature and the ocean, and this novel wouldn’t have been what it is (likely would not have been at all) if it weren’t for this. Mum, Dad, Luke and Grace—I am so lucky that you are my family and that our home was full of words and sand.
This book is dedicated to Ido Luttrell. Ido, when I mentioned to you that I wanted to dedicate this book to you, you were surprised. But really, I can’t thank you enough for your love and friendship, for your wit and insights, for your support, for an office in Alonnah, for all those shared hours on and in the water, for encouraging me to write creatively all those years ago, and then once I was writing for continually dragging me into the world outside of my writing. You make sure I live a balanced life, and my writing blossoms because of it.