V&O: The Octopus in Literature, an Equal, Intelligent Other

Book Club with Julia and Victoria

Julia takes Victoria on a deep dive of octopus stories throughout time and space in this first episode of The Vampire & the Octopus series. We tackle questions like “Are octopus stories a form of colonizer horror?” and “What’s with all the octopus books coming out recently?” and “Why did the 19th century French think the octopus was the physical embodiment of hell?”

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Mentioned in this Episode:

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Finding Nemo (film)

Finding Dory (film)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (film)

Oceanic Mythology by Roland B Dixon

“The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” and “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife” art by Hokusai

Devilfish Bay

“Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” painting by Caspar David Friedrich

“The Kraken” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

“The Octopus or The Devilfish of Fiction and Fact” by Henry Lee

The Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

The Sea Raiders by H. G. Wells

The Call of Cthulu by H. P. Lovecraft

The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham

It Came From Beneath the Sea (film)

Kraken by China Mieville

The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (TV series)

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

My Octopus Teacher (film)

The Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Remarkably Bright Creaturesby Shelby Van Pelt