Abstract Octopus encounters in Western popular music of the 1960s: well-known is “Octopus’s Garden” (The Beatles, Abbey Road, 1969). Around the same time, “Cement Octopus” (Malvina Reynolds/Pete Seeger, God Bless The Grass, 1966) and “Octopus” (Van der Graaf Generator, Aerosol Grey Machine, 1969) feature very different cephalopods.Meanwhile, Jean Painlevé’s 1967 film Les amours de la […]
Abstract Rachel Bailey takes up the challenge to respond to the famous 1814 woodblock-print by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) that depicts a sexual encounter between two octopuses and a female diver, popularly known in English as the “Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife”. The image is as shockingly repulsive as it is arousing, with […]
Abstract There are many octopuses in the literary world of English novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903-66). From the monstrous metaphor of Empire inherited from the late 19th Century, through to The Octopus and England (1928) critique of sprawling suburban architecture inherited from his friend Clough Williams. In Waugh’s novel though there are other octopuses – living […]
Abstract My presentation focuses on the monsterization process of a deep-sea dwelling animal, the giant squid. Today, the giant squid is usually understood as an animal that has evoked terror in humankind since the dawn of history and that the tales of these deep-sea monsters spread to the public domain from seafaring tales. In this […]