Drug Habit Skulltopus

Editorial heading cartoon by Winsor McCay taken from Golden Age Comic Book Stories piece on Winsor McCay (via lines and colors). I don’t think context needs to be provided for this one: not exactly subtle.

Winsor McCay "Drug Habit"

Vampire Octopus Returns

Brief post. Another (contemporary) reference to blood sucking octopuses (or in this case the inverse of “multitentacled vampire“):

Political parties appeared and disappeared like the thick grounds at the bottom of Turkish coffee cups. Gipsies read fortunes and played addictive violin music that made one lascivious and light-headed. All this frivolity rested like a multitentacled vampire above a huge, backward peasant mass that lived in hunger and rags in villages. The aristocratic vampire with its grotesque appetites sucked dry the energy of millions of wretched humans.

–Andrei Codrescu, ‘The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara & Lenin Play Chess’

–Quote taken from ‘The Many–tentacled Vampire of Andrei Codrescu‘ (George Ttooli).

Other blood-sucking octopuses: Landlordism octopus of London.

Victor Hugo – Toilers of the Sea (The Literature Network)

• ‘What, then, is the devil-fish? It is the sea vampire.’  (NB: This depends on your translation, in The Modern Library edition it is ‘What, then, is the devil-fish? It is a suction pad.’ p.350)
• ‘English sailors call it the devilfish or the bloodsucker’ p351 (roughly the same in both translations)
• ‘A tearing of the flesh is terrible, but less terrible than a sucking of the blood.’ (In The Modern Library edition:  ’ A bite is fearful, but less so than a suction’ p.353)

Winding Down

This is the start of formally ending the Vulgar Army project (or at least my participation in). I hope to have a crude essay done summarising some of my findings in April. I find I am repeating myself, or simply have nothing left to say on this topic.

I started this project for all the wrong reasons: heart break and vindictiveness (or my version thereof), and a genuine –although temporary^{1 —} fascination with cephalopodia.  Vulgar Army was supposed to be a just a few spoof paintings on the depiction of octopuses in pulp and propaganda (as complimentary to Poulpe Pulps), not a full-blown study into the representation of the octopus in political cartoons and propaganda. However, I have thoroughly enjoyed the unexpected diversion, and the insights gained through it into the use of metaphor.

I also hope that Vulgar Army has been of use to others (yes you, whoever you are).

Also, if anyone does want to take it over after April please contact me: michelle (removenospam at) whymicesing.com or leave a comment (with valid email address) below.

Footnotes

1. The tattoo of an extinct arthropod on the back of my neck shows where my true loyalties lie. Sorry, but molluscs aren’t it.

Leviathan Map

The Grand Map by Keith Thompson (2009)

Political octopus in pop culture: “The Grand Map” in Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and art by Keith Thompson. The map shows Northern Africa and the land below (or part of) “Serbia” as depicted by squid-like creatures.

You can see it in its full and glorious detail at Scott Westerfeld’s blog, where it is accompanied by information on how and why it was developed. There is also a version on Keith Thompson’s website that details each of the ‘allegories’ and why they were chosen.

For more cephalopod geographies: see “Of Maps and Octopuses“.

Big thanks to Mark Dominus for submitting this.

Silence – new material

This actually isn’t intentional. I just have nothing new to add at the moment.

If you know of any examples not here, or want to discuss anything here (or not here) or cephalophilia in general (include website blurbs), please feel free to leave a comment.

Boer War postcard (1899/1900)

Postcard from series ‘La Guerre du Transvaal’. Depicts Transvaal lion as biting British octopus. All other colonies in thrall to the octopus and entangled in its arms.

The caption says: ‘Tu as cette fois Albion, En face de toi un Lion’ (You have this time Albion, in front of you a Lion.)

Cephalophilia Online

To bring to your attention other cephalopod oriented websites. These are a mix of popular culture and science (but mostly pop culture). If you know of more you think should be here, please leave a comment.

• Why Mice Sing (my art portfolio – shameless self-promotion), or if you would prefer a direct link to: Tentacles! (tentacle/octopus art).
• Cephalopod Tea Party (pop culture, art, crafts)
• Cephalopodcast (science education and ocean info)
• ZPi | Cephalopods (home of the tree octopus)
• Everything Octopus (pop culture)
• Indie Squid Kid (science and pop culture)
• Poulpe Pulps (Pulp magazines featuring octopuses in compromising positions)
• Tonmo (Octopus news magazine/forum)
• Cephalopods : Pharyngula (mix of science and pop culture)

Updates

• 18th Oct: Today in Tentacles (archive)

Cephalopod Awareness Days

3rd Annual International Cephalopod Awareness Days. A 3 day celebration.

• Thursday, October 8 – Octopus Day, for all the eight-armed species
• Friday, October 9 – Nautilus Night, a time for all the lesser-known extant and extinct cephalopods
• Saturday, October 10 – Squid Day/Cuttlefish Day, or Squidturday, covering the tentacular species

For more information: Cephalopodday.org, and Cephalopodcast. Hopefully I will find time over the next day or two in between uni assignments to put something together. (via Cephalopodcast) Update (7th Oct): fixed link *cough* – multi-tasking, pasted wrong link.

Subterfuge

Continuing on after Octopus as Chimera and Of Maps and Octopuses to identify reoccurring motifs.

The octopus drawn as intelligent, mendacious and deceitful: the octopus tries to present itself as something other than an octopus. These include: appearing as the bearer of gifts in the Forty Thieves, as a Trojan Horse,  misdirection in the “Hunting the Octopus” or as treasure on an island. This was a relatively common visual metaphor circa 1900, but only makes a limited appearance after 1910.

Octopus as Chimera

Just a few rough ideas based on hybridity in political cartoons of octopus and other in order to develop a nomenclature for the different types of “octopuses” that appear in political cartoons. With the exception of the human/octopus combination, hybridity only makes up a small proportion of monstrous octopuses in political cartoons. Two broad groups can be identified on their purpose:

1. To dehumanise (i.e. “Yellow Peril”, politicians): human/octopus hybrid is common
2. To make monstrous (i.e. corporations, governments, imperialism): stranger hybrids occur: skulltopuses, cyborgs and vampires.

I would argue that these are two distinct purposes, although they might overlap. Mostly this is due to who, or what, is represented. With “who” typically dehumanised, and “what” made monstrous. I’m still working this out so any ideas, or arguments to the contrary welcome.

A (rough) Typology:

It is very uncommon that a single octopus/image belong in multiple categories (An example is “Putin“, which is a human/octopus cyborg)

• Human/Octopus Hybrid (Anthropus?):
  • Octopus head replaced by human head. Nearly always a specific individual (Example: Putin), although may represent a group (Example: “The Mongolian Octopus“);
  • Limbs replaced by tentacles. Example: “What Shall We Do With Our Boys?“
  • Tentacles terminate in hands (or feet) on their tips. Example: John Bull/Imperialism
  • Human body, octopus head. Example: “The Forty T…..“
• Skulltopus: Skull instead of a head. I would argue this differs from human/octopus hybrid due to the symbolism inherent in a skull (compared to a living head), and is more closely related to vampiric and monstrous octopuses. Only one example so far: SOAW octopus
• Vampiric Octopus: Blood sucking octopuses. Example: Landlordism
• Cyborg: Part machine or infrastructure, for example having bombs on the end of tentacles, or an oil tank for a head. Example: Standard Oil (I would include “Hunting of the Octopus” in this)
• Animal/Octopus hybrid: Reptilian example: “The Devil Fish of Californian Politics“

Discussion on this topic more than welcome. Although it is still in an early, incoherent phase.

Update: “There he is! Get Him” (Kal 2007) cartoon which depicts a geographical/octopus hybrid – the map/land grows tentacles, and the Time’s Scientology cover depicting a volcano with tentacles.