Flusser and Bec 2012

Flusser, Vilem and Louis Bec. Vampyroteuthis Infernalis. Trans. by Valentine A. Pakis. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.

Octopoda

"We are pieces of the same game" (6) -- "We and the vampyroteuthis harbor some of the same deeply ingrained memories, and we are therefore able to recognize in it something of ourselves." (6)

earthworms; bees, ants, distributed colony animals as highest form; vampyroteuthis turned away from this track

comprehending "the basic structure of vampyroteuthic Dasein" (9)

"Certain aspects of human Dasein are evident in this structure, and certain others appear in it utterly distorted. Perhaps then a game can be built out of distorting mirrors that would enable us to recognize the basic structure, distorted and from afar, of our own Dasein. By playing a 'reflective' game of this sort, we should hope to gain a new perspective of ourselves that, though distanced, is not 'transcendent.' It will not be transcendent, that is, because its standpoint will differ from that of science, which would adopt an 'objective' position by floating above the world and looking down upon mankind. On the contrary, our analysis of humans will be made from the perspective of the vampyroteuthis, which coexists with us in the world. It is our co-being (Mit-Sein). What will be presented here is, accordingly, not a scientific treatise but a fable. The human and its vertebrate Dasein are to be criticiezd from the perspective of a mollusk. Like most fables, this one is ostensibly concerned with animals. De te fabular narratur." (9-10)

Genealogy

disgust -- hierarchy of disgust reflects the nature of life (12)

mollusks; "They are ek-centric animals whose bodies incline toward coiling both as a whole and in all their details. Their elan vital, this self-winding achieves dizzying heights in cephalopods, whose bodies coil around themselves to such an extent that head fuses with foot and mouth devours tail." (14)

"Cybernetically speaking, the nervous system of mollusks represents the highest organization of life." (14)

man is in the world -- how can he speak about it?

"Cephalopods are interesting insofar as we recognize ourselives in them, insofar as they are a part of the same stream of life that sweeps us away as well. And science as a whole is interesting insofar as it is an attempt to orient ourselves in the world. It is a mammalian function or, to be mroe precise, a human function much like digestion. The most 'objective' science becomes, the more inhuman. It does not become 'pure' but rather a mania, a distraction away from ourselves. The time has come for us to set aside scientific objectivity in favor of new methods of inquiry. This can be done without, necessarily, having to disclaim the 'objective' knowledge that has already been gained." (17)

"The merging of the head and foot, to repeat, brought about a ninety-degree shift in the symmetrical axis, so that what was once ahead is now below, and what was once behind is now above. The direction of this shift is therefore opposite to that which our own bodies undertook when, leaving the treetops behind for the tundra, we began to walk upright. Our directional shift led to the freeing of our hands and to the opening of our eyes to the horizons. As for cephalopods, their sensory and tactile organs migrated downward. Cephalopods are, then, our antipodes: elevated intelligent abdomens, unelevated brains. Their brain, however, is more complex than ours." (18)

clouds of ink that can "be shaped into sculptures by the 'arms' of the animal" (19); "galdns on the surface of the skin that emit light and others that allow the animal to change color. In short, the digestive system serves purposes far beyond digestion." (19)

"Thus the whole animal amounts to a centripetal and enclosed whirlpool, a vacuum within its environment that is released as a jet of water to propel it backward. Cephalopods are spiral vortices, and their very breath enhances their mobility." (19)

"If only we could grasp the world with a penis." (20)