Thinner on the Science Than Expected - A Review of The Soul of an Octopus

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Pastel-coloured, boogly-eyed, and tentacled: these are the primary descriptors for a particular brand of cute I’m especially fond of. Two out of three of those descriptors make sense to a broad swathe of people: pastel colours are often associated with infants and, therefore, fall into a commonly-understood spectrum of cute; same thing goes for big eyes. But tentacled? When one is looking at a squid or cuttlefish in a market, it can be hard to think of it as anywhere near “cute”, and far easier to be reminded of H.P. Lovecraft’s eldritch horrors.

But cephalopods—a group of animals that includes squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses (not, as I used to think, “octopi”)—can be cute as well, in ways that can easily appeal to a broad range of people. Take this tiny deep-sea octopus that scientists are considering naming Opistoteuthis adorabilis because it is just so gosh-darn cute (click here for a video). When one sees the animal alive and in motion in its natural element, instead of dead and limp on a fishmonger’s table, it becomes easy to see why they can be such fascinating creatures—and, yes, even cute.

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