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Mollusks metaphors
Liliana V. Blum´s Un trago de luz |
While looking for the English word squid, I found some things that explain further why mollusks have been a favoured literary subject:
The common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, has eight arms, covered with suckers and used for locomotion and grasping prey. Its soft, saclike body contains a highly developed nervous system and brain. The octopus is considered an intelligent creature with a capacity for learning. Sexes within the mollusks are generally separated, but some cases of hermaphroditism have been found in the gastropods (snails and slugs). Courtship is either nonexistent, as in more primitive forms, or highly complex, as in the gastropods and cephalopods. It is no surprise that we prefer to see the good metaphors in "ink creatures" like the internet (specially when words were more important than images), drawings, and literary pieces. Here I celebrate two "mollusk metaphors", as part of the Mistery that clothes human relationships. Both separated in time, unaware of each other but certainly close to our human feelings of love, lovelessness, compassion; together with ambiguity, and predatory and survival darkness. For, a highly developed nervous system and brain and complexity of behaviour are characteristical of cephalopod (squid, octupus) mollusks. The next paragraph is a direct translation from a literary piece by my wonderful classmate Liliana Valderrama Blum: The man speaks; speaks much, the words spring from his mouth like the ink of a squid, humid, thick, viscous, staining and covering everything in total darkness.... Next are from a piece of mine: ...a solitary sign must inscribe itself on the page like a confession with all and darkness. Like an octupus hiding the shame of its suckers with the black tide that flows from its head... A bad impression puts the letter back into the bottom of the box, into the recalling of the page before being stained by its foot. Poor mollusks, they have to pay for some of our darkest lines, despite their contributions: Modern India inks, which are noted for their intensity and permanence, are similarly composed. Carbon black provides excellent opacity and is not affected by moisture or light. Other inks were made from INDIGO; from the galls of oak and nut trees; from tannin; and from the inky fluids secreted by octopus, cuttlefish, and squid. In the squid bundles of giant nerve fibers controlling the muscles of the mantle have been the source of much basic knowledge of the electrophysiology of nerve cells. |