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The Old Man and the Sea- read by Charlton Heston.

This article about the mind of an octopus, by Distinguished Professor of philosophy Peter Godfrey-Smith, starts out with a very interesting introduction. At first, with the line “Someone is watching you, intently, but you can’t see them” (Godfrey-Smith), I was reminded of the horror movie trailers, and common theme of being hunted by some creature in the depths of the ocean. Very quickly, though, the introduction shifted to descriptions of fantastical colors and shapes and textures, strange and curious and maybe with just a touch of the magic that I thought of when reading Bull Kelp by Jessica C. Levine. I thought that it was clever to start out by personifying the octopuses a little- it drew me into the article. The most curious part of the introduction, however, was the last line- “They are probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien.” (Godfrey-Smith). I thought that was interesting, since I wasn’t expecting the comparison to something so strange, so literally other-worldly, in this article reviewing research, and teaching the reader about the bodies and brains of octopuses. It does fit, though, as ocean creatures are frequently portrayed as like something from another planet. The rest of the article is much more informative than speculative, teaching the reader about the octopus’ strange and incredible body, and even stranger mind. An octopus’ ability to adapt and learn and interact is astounding, and then there are much more curious abilities, like recognizing and distinguishing different humans despite no clear evolutionary purpose for such a thing. Aside from that initial sense of strangeness and an ongoing sense of wonder and discovery, I do not think that this theme had a particular impact on this genre, or vice versa. A review article will always do what it is supposed to do- review and compile and compare pre-existing research- so the research being about a creature from the ocean doesn’t impact that much. It is interesting however to look at the creature from the ocean from a more friendly and analytical point of view, rather than the emotion-driven side of things usually present in the other genres explored here.

When I was writing my narrative about seeing the orcas at Telegraph Cove, I first focused on how I would approach the writing in relation to the genre- I remembered that in our first narrative writing assignment in class, I had a tendency to stray outside of the important moment for the story, elaborating too much about the background and thoughts that didn’t have to do with the narrative’s event. So, while writing about Telegraph Cove, I tried to focus only on briefly setting the scene, and then the important moment. I think I struggled with tying the theme in with this genre. When writing a narrative, since the point of view is important, I put a lot of emphasis on how I felt, or, at least, the specific moments in which I remember feeling something very strongly. Because of that, I feel like I neglected to embellish the details of the orcas, the ocean creatures of this narrative, though I do think that I manage to work the theme into the narrative fairly well with some of the descriptions.

The Old Man and The Sea is one of my favorite books, certainly when it comes to Nautical Fiction. I have always loved it for the immense attention to detail- the reader gets to feel like they are truly with the fisherman Santiago for every single step of his journey in this book. I think that the journey- at least, the form it takes- is one of the more important things to look at when analyzing this book as part of the Nautical Fiction genre as well as incorporating the theme of creatures of the ocean. Santiago’s story is a fight against those creatures- there is always some underlying urgency, though there are many points where things come across as very calm. It has some high-action points, but they do not make up the majority of the fight. Nevertheless, that it what it is. There is a fight to catch fish, and then a fight to catch the fish, and then, much later, as the sharks eat away at its corpse, strapped alongside the boat, there is a fight to keep the fish. This story is always a fight both for and against the creatures of the ocean, somehow at the same time. The creatures are also portrayed with an interesting tone- there is still the seriousness that seems common in most genres, but terror never seemed to be a prevalent tone, at least to me. There is some urgency, with the fight to catch the giant fish, and before that, when Santiago needed to catch fish to eat, but overall the serious tone that The Old Man and the Sea gives ocean creatures is still different than the serious tones we see in other genres. There are definitely some moments in which there is a sense of being hunted- on the third day with the fish on the line, it circles the boat. This reminded me a lot of the theme of being hunted in horror movies about sharks, but at the same time, in The Old Man and the Sea that sense of being hunted never sets in, because things are still being told from the point of view of the fisherman, who is in control- he is the one doing the hunting here.

The poem Bull Kelp by Jessica C. Levine does a beautiful job of using figurative language like personification and similes to paint a picture of seaweed strewn about the boulders on a beach. The theme of ocean life is a constant presence in this poem- we are reminded in nearly every line of the brine, the tides, and the seaweed, dancing along the shore. The personification brings the ocean plants like bull kelp and rockweed truly to life- they aren’t just living plants that can be found in the sea, they are frolicking and applauding in this magical scene that Jessica C. Levine creates among the boulders and the waves.

Poetry gives this theme a very different tone. In horror and nautical fiction, ocean life is portrayed as hostile and unsettling- a grand challenge to fight against. In the review article I analyzed, it was portrayed as wondrous and fascinating, but with a very clearly scientific mindset. Even in the narrative I wrote, while the killer whales are magnificent to see, they are still frightening, and intimidating. Bull Kelp has none of that- none of the fear, or the science. There is some grandness, with “boulders shaped like shoulders of elephants” (Levine 6). However, the main tone that this poem provides- in my opinion- is whimsy. It is very interesting because literature about ocean life generally has at least some amount of seriousness, whether it is focused on information or fantasy. In Bull Kelp, Jessica C. Levine describes the ocean life as intriguing and playful, fascinating and alluring and fun. It is a very different way to look at this theme, and I wonder if it is very common in the genre of poetry, or if this is more of an outlier.

I found it very interesting to watch these 5 horror movie trailers, all based on sharks, and compare some of the common themes. The majority of the trailers started with an isolating, underwater sequence in which there is a strong, ominous feeling of being hunted. There also tends to be a theme of a shark being strongly hinted at- maybe we see gills, or a fin- before being shown in its entirety, which is a much more impactful moment. There was also generally a happier scene towards the middle of the trailer, with either happy music or ominous music, both somehow managing to be in contrast with what was being shown. The majority of the trailers also showed the fight with the shark in some way- either with the shark attacking a character suddenly to startle the viewer, or by showing us characters aiming harpoons or guns, or by having a fast-paced action sequence with explosions. While it was definitely the case that no trailer really incorporated all of these, there was a definite sense of common methods and themes being used in these trailers.

In all of these trailers, the theme of ocean creatures was incorporated via a shark, the main antagonist of what we are shown. In most of these trailers, some threatening feature of the shark was exaggerated- it is either especially intelligent, bloodthirsty, or huge, or some combination of the three. The trailer for The Meg was interesting because it also incorporated a giant squid, which appears to be a very serious threat until the shark, a much bigger threat, tears it away from the vehicle the character is piloting. Regardless, in all of these trailers, the shark is seen as an enormous threat, and the environment seems to implicitly reinforce that in many of the trailers. Often, the character is stranded in one way or another in the shark’s habitat- there is a definite sense that the shark is the one in control, which I thought was an interesting theme. I also thought it was interesting how prevalent the shark is in this genre- while there are some other ocean-related horror movies that do not focus on a shark, it is by far the most common enemy in a movie that incorporates the theme of ocean creatures, enough so that it stands out as a common enemy in all horror movies in general.