"Cuttlefish", acrylic on canvas board, 2009 "Now notice what's happening with the octopi. There is no dictionary. Both parties are seeing the same thing because my body is my meaning. I become my meaning. And you behold the meaning I have become. I am like a naked thought. Not even a naked nervous-system. More naked than that. I am like a naked thought, in aqueous space, unfolding in time. I maintain this is why octopi eject clouds of ink: it's so they can have private thoughts." These words are some of Terence McKenna's musings about how cephalopods--like humans wearing their hearts on their sleeves--can be seen wearing their minds on their skins. He describes their bodies as "naked thoughts"; I'll paraphrase that as "we bare witness to 'bare squidness'" (see previous post). Terence proposed the poetic notion that when a squid squirts an inkcloud this isn't solely to ward off predators, but also to shield its intent. Like humans penning in a journal, they're just looking to have a private thought. As beautiful as this idea is, my research has shown that, though it's "poetically correct", it's not entirely factual. You see, the ink that cephalopods spray, apparently has harmful toxins in it, and even the one who secretes it isn't immune to the effects of hangin' out inside that dark cloud. That idea would make the "private thought" into a self-destructive one. "Octopus ink doesn’t just hide the animal. The ink also physically harms enemies. It contains a compound called tyrosinase, which, in humans, helps to control the production of the natural pigment melanin. But when sprayed in a predator’s eyes, tyrosinase causes a blinding irritation. It also garbles creatures’ sense of smell and taste. The defensive concoction is so potent, in fact, that octopuses that do not escape their own ink cloud can die." So states a Smithsonian article by Rachel Nuwer. Of course tossing a handful of sand in the eyes of anyone who tries to read your journal keeps its contents private too, but that's not quite the same as what ol' T-Mac was proposin', now is it? Got any complimentary or contradictory information? #squidsquirts #thinkink #chromatophoricallyspeaking #barewitnesstobaresquidness #theungoogleable
