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Dave Eggers' The Wild Things is available for preorder, in regular hardcover and
limited-edition fur-covered.

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Coconut Octopus.

O. marginatus

BY JOHN HOPPENTHALER

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 Hydrostatic pressure defines the pulsing shape
 of an octopus. marginatus dwells among sunken
 coconuts, more than 50 feet deep, hiding
 sometimes in their shells by drawing two halves around
 its body. When faced with danger, it wraps six arms
 around itself and backpedals away on a pair, camouflaged, 

 innocent coconut bob-bobbing along. Camouflaged, 
 eluding predators with admirable stealth—shape-
 shifter—the suckered treads of its fluid-filled arms
 rolling slowly over ocean bottom, past sunken
 shipwrecks, intrusive snorklers who dive around
 the coastline of Indonesia. What glorious hiding, 

 so utterly naked and in open sight! Such stealthy hiding
 can excite, though, really, the ingenious camouflage
 of marginatus is stereotyped, an inherent moving around
 requiring no feedback from the brain. The shape, 
 color, not more than an oblivious twitch of nerves, sunken
 coconuts a coincidence of seascape to which it adjusts. Armed

 only with primal behavior coded into the ganglia of each arm, 
 it could care less about the potential thrill of its hiding. 
 Ignorance, if not bliss. I'm looking hard at my face: sunken
 blue eyes, tidal drift of hairline, the graying camouflage
 of a beard. My fantasies are all about being in better shape, 
 anxious moments spent realizing that I've been floating around

 a very long time. Every creature in the food chain is surrounded
 by gourmands and midnight snackers, swollen armies
 of gluttonous neighbors whose grotesque shapes
 mirror the intensity of their desire. Here I am, hiding
 out in the flotsam of suburbia. I'm camouflaged
 as pocket lint, later as a soul who knows how low to sink, 

 how thrilling it is to buoy among windfallen coconuts. At the kitchen sink, 
 I'm preparing octopus while a lover seems still around
 to enjoy it; she's curled up on the sofa, camouflaged: 
 comfy bolster, shadow. I could hold her in my arms. 
 Remove ink sac, eyes, and teeth. Clean well. "Oh, hide
 from me, will you?" Place in a pot; simmer till tender. "Oh, shapely, 

 shapely. Sunken treasure; seductress." Cut the eight arms
 into bite-sized pieces.
 Around every corner, she's hiding there. 
 In the coconut cream, camouflaged, roiling, assuming another shape. 

 

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