More on Vampyroteuthis Infernalis: Culture

So much of vampyroteuthic behavior reveals it to be a lovable and loving being. An examination of our society, however, reveals hardly any evidence of human lovability. If anything, the following is true: For the vampyroteuthis, it is precisely love, the recognition of others [...] The natural state [of humans] on the contrary, is defined by universal hatred, by the universal struggle for survival — one against all. By overcoming its animality, therefore, the vampyroteuthis learns to hate; by overcoming ours, we learn to love. — Vilém Flusser

A problem of the highest order

Humans and vampyroteuthis live far apart from one another. We would be crushed by the pressure of its abyss, and it would suffocate in the air that we breathe. When we hold its relatives captive in aquaria—both to observe them and to infer certain things about it—they kill themselves: they devour their own arms. How we would conduct ourselves if dragged to its depths, where eternal darkness is punctured only by its bioluminescence remains to be seen.

Vampyroteuthis Infernalis: A Treatise, with a Report by the Institut Scientifique de Recherche Paranaturaliste is included in the required summer reading for my MFA program at CCA. I have yet to understand why this book is required but am fascinated.