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Sundial

The Soul of an Octopus

Updated: Aug 16, 2023

By: Sundial


Have you ever wondered about the intelligence of other creatures? Whether your dog knows what you say, or whether the whales in a pod are speaking to each other. But not many people ask, do crabs have feelings, or what do clams think about, I mean, they sit all day just filtering food, they would have plenty of time to think. When we think about the intelligence of other animals the vast majority will think maybe of other primates which share the closest ancestor to humans in the evolutionary line but very few will even consider octopus. Octopus are invertebrates which are collectively thought of as brainless (literally not having a brain) and even not able to feel pain ( Although studies have shown that crabs and lobsters do feel pain). This book challenges the ideas held by society relating to animal intelligence by following the author as she befriends octopus at her local aquarium and learns from them and the people around her about their relationships with the other animals.

This book not only follower her story of befriending first Athena then Octavia, Kali, and Karma but also her experiences meeting the other people working and volunteering at the aquarium that housed all of these octopuses at one point as well as her experience learning to dive which was very fun to read after three years since my certification. This means this book isn’t very scientific in its language and is very easy for the regular person to pick up and honestly enjoy. Despite being on animal intelligence I thought this book did a good job of avoiding anthropomorphizing by mainly sharing her experience and what she saw from the octopus and avoiding making wild claims. Many of the quotes she included rather than from research papers, were from literary authors speaking on their respect, fear, or other emotions connected to octopus. Rather than focus on quantitative data gathered by researchers she focused on qualitative data collected by herself and the people around her.

This book includes death and heartbreak but also an understanding of love and rebirth with every octopus that dies (their lifespan is very short even in the wild maybe only a few years) a new young octopus not to replace it but adds to the relationship with this animal held by the staff and volunteers of the aquarium, and as a reader you get to experience the octopuses personality. For divers looking into this book, I had a very fun time reading some parts of this book as well. On our trip to Cayman, we saw around 3 octopuses on night dives we took so reading the things people say about octopuses and the fear held around them is really interesting and such an opposite view of how I see them. The author many times at the beginning of the book laments not being able to see them underwater. That really led to me recognizing what an amazing experience I had being able to see octopuses in the wild. Finally, hearing the struggles of a new diver and understanding them, really took me back to first getting open water certified and reflecting on how far I have come. Although she experiences problems with her ears the unfortunate truth is that those never really go away.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and it brought perspective from someone who had experience in scientific work but wrote in a very easy and readable way that I think many can relate to. Telling more of a Biography of her and an Autobiography of the many octopuses she met and interacted with at the New England Aquarium. I would give this book ⅘ stars and would recommend this book to others looking for a good read. It brought me more knowledge of octopuses, people's relations to octopuses, and even the other animals briefly talked about living in the aquarium







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