The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
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Web ID: 4132424Captivating for readers of any age!
A fascinating and very informative, easy to read book on an unusual topic.
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I loved this!!
The Beatles song “Octopus’ Garden” kept playing in my head. What a moving story that touches your heart. I wanted to run out and commune with an octopus, but there are none in Jacksonville, Florida! except for pet stores!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Inspiring and Heartwarming Story
Where do I begin with this book? Do I gush about the simple yet exquisite prose? The detail and research that clearly went into it? How I couldn't put it down, despite being a predominately fantasy reader? All of these are good places to start, but not quite the right one. The right starting place is this – I want to meet an octopus. Within thirty pages, this desire had burrowed its way into my very soul. I desperately need to see an octopus, to touch an octopus, to become friends with an octopus, to try to know an octopus. I need to reach across a void I never looked at twice and try to fathom the consciousness of another creature, one so alien from myself. This is a nonfiction book. A naturalists account of octopuses (yes this is the correct plural) and the people she meets while learning about them. It would appear to be a highly mundane story. Yet every second of this book is magical. Not magical as a synonym for amazing, magical as in breathtakingly filled with things so insane and unimaginable that seeing and experiencing them felt like the first time I read about Harry’s adventures at Hogwarts. On the surface, this book is about octopuses and the author’s first-hand experience with them, but it is actually a story about feeling. Even more than consciousness, this book asks you to ponder the emotions and choices of others. It is an exercise in walking a mile in someone else's tentacles. The process of struggling to understand an octopus feels a bit like enlightenment, though I am still not sure exactly what I was enlightened about. Perhaps about how to slide into someone else's head or how to burrow deeper into my own. Whatever it was, I feel like it permanently changed something in my soul for the better. Besides the truly incredible experience of meeting all these octopuses alongside the author and growing to love them, the second best part of the book was getting to know other people who have fallen in love with the octopuses. From their keeper Bill Murphy to Wilson Menashi the engineer who designs their toys to Anna the young girl who finds solace after heartbreak in the slimy arms of an octopus, the people who populate this book complete the rich tapestry begun by the octopuses themselves. Let’s start with the octopuses Montgomery gets to know at the New England Aquarium. The first is Athena, a highly active and feisty octopus. Despite only knowing Athena for a short time, Montgomery finds herself crying when Bill calls to tell her that Athena died suddenly. Octavia, the star octopus of the book, is who Montgomery gets to know best. Montgomery watches her from the moment Octavia arrives at the aquarium to when she lays eggs (beginning the end of her life-cycle) to her final decline and death. Though Octavia starts off aggressive towards humans, she becomes incredibly friendly and interactive once she acclimates to human interaction. Besides the author herself, Octavia is the character I feel I know best, despite her being so entirely different from myself. Next comes Kali, a baby octopus the aquarium acquires when Octavia lays her eggs, ensuring the aquarium will have an octopus ready for exhibit when Octavia dies. Kali is friendly and too clever and inquisitive for her own good, regularly trying to escape her tank to explore. The final octopus is Karma, the calmest of the octopuses, though she too attempts to escape her tank. Though all the octopuses have vastly different personalities, they all exhibit the incredible intelligence octopuses are known for. Montgomery’s main human interactions in the book are with Bill Murphy and Wilson Menashi. Bill is the head aquarist at the New England Aquarium. He cares deeply for all of the animals he is responsible for. His ability to tell when fish are stressed based on slight changes in their scent or behavior is amazing; he is essentially a fish whisperer. Wilson is the aquarium’s most experienced octopus volunteer and a retired engineer. He works primarily in designing toys to keep the octopuses entertained and engaged. Of all the people Montgomery meets at the aquarium, high schooler Anna Magill-Dohan is my favorite. Anna has numerous medical problems: Asperger’s, migraines, ADD, low blood pressure, and tremors. Yet she is such a joyful presence, approaching her interactions with the octopuses with the eyes of someone who has suffered loss and finds peace in the comfort of tentacles exploring her skin. Anna describes how gentle Octavia was after Anna’s best friend committed suicide. How it seemed as though Octavia could taste Anna’s grief through her skin and attempted to console her. Anna slowly comes to terms with her grief through her work at the aquarium and her interactions with the octopuses and the people around them. I read this book with an awful migraine, and Anna acted as my own beacon of hope just like the octopuses do for her. A sign that no matter what life throws at you everything will eventually be okay. All of the octopuses feel familiar in a way no one else in the novel does, perhaps because their way of meeting people and exploring their world is far more intimate than humans are able to. Octopuses can taste with their entire body and may be able to taste the differences between different neurotransmitters, rendering them essentially able to taste emotions. While humans can recognize the smallest of expressions that cross someone’s face – thus discerning emotion – they cannot touch someone’s skin and know exactly how they are feeling. Despite being a book that contemplates cutting edge scientific studies, ancient and modern philosophy, and naturalism, it remains very approachable. Montgomery is expert at making complex scientific and philosophical ideas understandable. She educates without lecturing, connecting every scientific fact with an observation that makes learning feel both fun and personal. I learned and remember far more about octopuses and other sea creatures than I would have in a classroom setting. I find it interesting how often Montgomery brings up scientific studies of octopus and mentions that either the researchers waited years to publish it (because it went against accepted ideas of consciousness) or that it was ridiculed for years before becoming accepted and considered cutting edge. How strange that a science entirely about objectively observing things so often falls prey to the status quo of traditional knowledge and belief. What is fascinating is how often the researchers knew that the octopuses they studied had an inner life and personality as vibrant as a human or dog or horse. Yet because octopus are mollusks, creatures with brains so much smaller and so unlike ours, treating their test subjects as individuals would cause scientific mockery. We as a species still have so much to learn about the world around us with many of our failings emerging from a sense of superiority of mind, feeling, and thought. I do not consider this a warning, but I’ll mention it for any parents to help them decide if this book is appropriate for their children. There is a long section towards the end of the book where the author attends the Seattle Aquarium’s Octopus Blind Date, during which the aquarium introduces two octopuses on Valentine’s Day in hopes they mate. The author intersperses her experience at this Blind Date with a scientific look at mating in different species of aquatic animals, as well as octopuses. It’s actually a really cute section in my opinion. After the first introduction between the octopuses, the group of schoolchildren there on a fieldtrip leave. What is left are adults who all see in the octopuses something relatable. Couples of all ages get excited and exclaim to each other how loving and cute it is. The beauty in this section is not in the octopuses themselves, but in the reactions of the adult onlookers who, although strangers to one another, comment on the scene and find common ground amongst themselves and with the octopuses. I finished this book and knew that I would die with regrets if I did not get to meet an octopus myself. I talked about it enough that my grandma found an aquarium that will let you meet their Great Pacific Octopus. It was a brief connection of tentacles and hands over the edge of the octopus’s habitat. A short moment of feeling another creature greet me through tasting my skin and blood as I met it through touch and sight. It was cold and slippery and transcendent and completely magical. I highly recommend this book. You will learn plenty of facts about octopuses, so if they are your favorite creature, look no further. If you are interested in a philosophical look at what consciousness is through the lens of understanding a consciousness entirely alien to yours, this book has it. Maybe you want a story about unlikely friendships and a group of ‘outcasts’ finding each other. I can easily say that this book is a mix of all of these things, but it also feels like so much more – something undefined and unknowable and magical. Every single reader can take something from this book, for we all feel and love and lose in ways as similar as they are different. If you are looking for a story that will steal your heart, this book is for you. Since this review is so long, I will not include spoilers. You can find the spoilers section of my review on my blog The Artistry of Reading.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Heartwarming book
The octopus is one of my favorite creatures. I was so excited to dig into this book. I loved the author's way of writing. It was fun, entertaining and informational. As much as I thought I knew about the octopus, I ended up learning more. The author would also veer off so we could learn about other creatures. This was enjoyable as well. The only thing that kept me from giving 5 stars is that sometimes these tangents that the author would go on could be a bit boring, especially when it was about all the people she would get to know along the way. Ready to read more from the author though.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Repetitive
The science in this book is great! It truly helped me appreciate these cephalopods further. However, the narrative of whenever the author touched an octopus became increasingly repetitive.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com