Page 16 - Three Adventures

Voyage of the Pomeranian

I asked him for the meaning of that sort of exhibition, wondering if it
signaled an extreme of frustration. No, he replied. That was how
adult octopi communicate with each other; what had passed between
him and me as a series of binary codes was simply how they talked to
immature members of their own species and to all other cephalopods
capable of rudimentary instruction—including the giant squid! I
could not immediately grasp all the implications of Tristan’s
announcement. My focus remained on the kraken—my kraken, so I
thought of it. You can talk to kraken?—I demanded. At once my
mind raced ahead to schemes of convincing Tristan to call one forth
for me, for Britain, for Science! And he confirmed my suspicion by
his very firmly tapped response: yes, he averred, when necessary to
give them orders.

At last I had a glimmer of hope. Perhaps we could strike a bargain.
Can you bring a kraken up to the surface? Yes, replied the octopus.
In fact Dinadan and he were engaged in doing just that when they
were captured. Then a giant squid was in the vicinity of Ascension
Island twelve days ago?—I asked, astonished. Yes, again. And it
might be there yet? Yes. If I take you back to that location will you
promise to make the giant squid ascend from the bottom of the sea?
Yes.

I stopped to consider whether or not the creature were capable of
deception. It had not done anything duplicitous in the course of our
relationship. Rather it had to overcome its reticence in a threatening
situation to place complete trust in me. And was I not imposing on
another species a vice as yet unknown in any but my own? And yet
the ability to lie must be conferred inevitably upon the users of
language: manipulating words provides them the capacity to consider
the future and hypothetical situations in relation to self-interest. Thus
I deferred committing myself to Tristan. Now, as I ponder these
contradictory possibilities in the privacy and silence of my cabin my
best choice seems to be to believe the octopus. If the kraken does
not appear on command, then at least I shall be left with a creature
also unknown—if even less credible—to the Royal Academy, a
“talking” cephalopod. No doubt I should be considered a charlatan

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