If I’m honest, when I hear the word “squid,” I don’t think of their remarkable predatory skills.
I don’t think of their millennia-old significance in mythologies from around the world.
I think of deep fried calamari and chips. (I can’t help it; I’m from a family of commercial fishermen that stretches generation after generation all the way back to the old country.)
Which is why it’s a good thing there are people like Prof. Martin Wallen around to remind people like me that squid are and have long been far more than simply the main ingredient for a large pile of hot, crispy, battered deliciousness.
In his new book Squid, from the extensive Animal series by Reaktion Books and University of Chicago Press, Prof. Wallen dives deep into both the natural as well as the human cultural history of these fascinating mollusks, exploring how they have long filled oceanic enquiries, our imaginations, our nightmares, and our deep fat fryers.
Is anyone else besides me getting hungry?
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