[PHOTO] "The smiling squid"
Mar. 7th, 2012 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldCephalopods are in. I photographed this concrete traffic barrier with an apparently curious and friendly squid spraypainted on it in red in the Annex this past summer.
Seeing this photo again made me wonder about the changing image of cephalopods in world culture. In the 19th century, whales were widely seen as inscrutable monsters, threats to human life, a paradigm defined by Moby-Dick. Over the 20th century, as research into whales and other cetaceans revealed their intelligence and sociable natures, this image changed completely.
Could it be that, as research into cephalopods reveals their remarkable intelligence, their image will change similarly? A Google search for pet cephalopods does reveal a surprising number of hits. Cuttlefish apparently are most popular among the aquarium community, owing to their relatively small size and their fantastic morphing abilities.
Seeing this photo again made me wonder about the changing image of cephalopods in world culture. In the 19th century, whales were widely seen as inscrutable monsters, threats to human life, a paradigm defined by Moby-Dick. Over the 20th century, as research into whales and other cetaceans revealed their intelligence and sociable natures, this image changed completely.
Could it be that, as research into cephalopods reveals their remarkable intelligence, their image will change similarly? A Google search for pet cephalopods does reveal a surprising number of hits. Cuttlefish apparently are most popular among the aquarium community, owing to their relatively small size and their fantastic morphing abilities.
