The following post aims to show links between Victor Hugo’s The Toilers of the Sea and some of the earlier octopus political cartoons from the books publication in 1866 to 1910 when obvious references to Hugo’s pieuvre disappeared. Page numbers and quotes come from the following edition (English translation): Hugo, Victor. The Toilers of the Sea. Translated by James Hogarth. New York: Random House, 2002.

Previous studies:
Moncelet (and Pierre Larousse) covered the link in an essay in Ridiculosa, and Mieville provides a compelling argument for Hugo’s role in the origins of Weird Fiction (see footnotes).

Hugo’s Devilfish:

“All ideals being admitted as valid, if causing terror is an objective, then the devilfish is a masterpiece.”¹

Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Travailleurs de la Mer’ (Toilers of the Sea) was published in 1866 in Brussels, with English translations published in New York in 1867 and later in the UK in 1896.² It was a popular book and within six years of its first publication, eight English editions were published³.

Hugo begins by listing everything the octopus is not⁴ when compared to other animals, but, in his estimation: “And yet of all animals the devilfish is the one most formidable armed”⁵.

The following are a few of the descriptions Hugo devotes to the octopus: “[T]his sea creature looks as if it were made of ashes. It is spiderlike in form and chameleon-like in coloring. […] And horrifyingly, it is soft and yielding. […] It has something of the aspect of scurvy and of gangrene. It is disease shaped into a monstrosity. […] It cannot be shaken off; it clings firmly to its prey.”⁶

“It has no bones, no blood, no flesh… There is nothing inside it: it is no more than a skin”⁷.

Monocolet, in ‘Les “viles” tentaculaires’⁸, notes Pierre Larousse⁹ observation that after the appearance of ‘Toilers of the Sea’, columnists saw the octopus as a useful, if vague, analogy. This post is intended to show a small selection of octopus cartoons that refer directly to this book, and how that has shaped the octopus ‘meme’ or metaphor.

The Terrestrial Devil-Fish:

“The cephalopod - terrestrial devil fish - a monster of centralization” (1873) in my collection of the octopus as a metaphor for an industry. The presence of the cave, and the timing² would suggest an Victor Hugo influence. It also precedes the ‘burst’ of octopus cartoons in the1880s and is slightly earlier the “Serio-Comic War Map” of Europe (1877).

Later Cartoons:

Two examples of 19th C. cartoons that quote Hugo directly are: “The Irish Devil-Fish” (1881), and “The Modern Devil-Fish” (1904)¹⁰. The quotes included in the cartoons’ captions are a variation of: “The octopus is a formidable opponent; but there is a way of tackling it. […] The octopus is only vulnerable only in the head.”¹¹

‘The Modern Devil-Fish’ is an anti-saloon/prohibition cartoon published in The Defender in 1904¹² and shows the hand of Prohibition Party stabbing the octopus through the head. What it shows is the octopus as shorthand¹³ for organisations (real and imagined) such as governments, industry and monopolies. It describes a central intelligence, with interfering dangerous tentacles that spread out from the head. Cutting off the arms will achieve little, as it leaves the rest of the beast to contend with. This stabbing/spearing the octopus through the head (as opposed to cutting off its arms) also appears in ‘Stemt Rood!’ (Hahn, 1918) and ‘Valoroso Marinaio Uccidi il Monstro E libera l’Adriatico’ (Rico, ~1915).

‘The Irish Devil-Fish’ is an anti-Land League cartoon published in Punch in 1881. It shows the Land League as the devil-fish that has entangled the UK PM William Goldstone, and it is also captioned with a variant of the aforementioned quote.

Another cartoon that quotes Hugo directly is ‘La Pieuvre’ postcard (ca. 1900): “All ideals being admitted as valid, if causing terror is an objective, then the devilfish is a masterpiece” and shows several men in suits being strangled by an octopus.

Footnotes

Image Source: Matt Stagg (2008) ‘An octopus drawing by Victor Hugo‘ (Accessed: 17th Mar 2009)

1. Victor Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea, trans. James Hogarth (New York: The Modern Library, 2002), p. 349.
2. Wikipedia (2009), ‘Toilers of the Sea’ (Accessed: 17th Mar 2009)
3. Graham Robb, “Introduction,” in The Toilers of the Sea (New York: Random House, 2002).
4. ‘taxonomic transgressions’ - Miéville, China. “M.R. James and the Quantum Vampire.” Collapse IV (2008): 105-28.
5. Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea, p. 350.
6. Ibid., p. 350-51.
7. Ibid., p. 352.
8. C Moncelet, “Les “Viles” Tentaculaires: Réquisitions Satiriques De La Pieuvre,” Ridiculosa, no. 10 (2003).
9. In Ibid.
10. Note the use of the word “Devil-Fish”, Hugo, at least in the translated version, refers to devilfish in the chapter the quote appears, but only call it ‘pieuvre’/octopus in the truncated paragraph quoted.
11. Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea, p. 357. An exception to this is the “La Pieuvre” (~1900) postcard which uses “All ideals being admitted as valid, if causing terror is an objective, then the devilfish is a masterpiece” p. 349
12. Later re-printed during the Prohibition by the Chicago Tribune in 1925?
13. Robert MacDougall, “The Wire Devils: Pulp Thrillers, the Telephone, and Action at a Distance in the Wiring of a Nation,” American Quarterly 58, no. 3 (2006).

Octopus as Chimera

Just a few rough ideas based on hybridity in political cartoons of octopus and other in order to develop a nomenclature for the different types of “octopuses” that appear in political cartoons. With the exception of the human/octopus combination, hybridity only makes up a small proportion of monstrous octopuses in political cartoons.

1. To dehumanise (i.e. “Yellow Peril”, politicians): human/octopus hybrid is common
2. To make monstrous (i.e. corporations, governments, imperialism): stranger hybrids occur: skulltopuses, cyborgs and vampires.

I would argue that these are two distinct purposes, although they might overlap. Mostly this is due to who, or what, is represented. With “who” typically dehumanised, and “what” made monstrous. I’m still working this out so any ideas, or arguments to the contrary welcome.

A (rough) Typology of Hybrids

• Human/Octopus Hybrid (Anthropus?):
  • Octopus head replaced by human head. Nearly always a specific individual (Example: Putin, CP Hunting, Hitler), although may represent a group (Example: Chinese immigrants in “The Mongolian Octopus“);
  • Limbs replaced by tentacles. Example: “What Shall We Do With Our Boys?“
  • Tentacles terminate in hands (or feet) on their tips. Example: John Bull/Imperialism
  • Human body, octopus head. Example: “The Forty T…..“
• Skulltopus: Skull instead of a head. I would argue this differs from human/octopus hybrid due to the symbolism inherent in a skull (compared to a living head), and is more closely related to vampiric and monstrous octopuses. Examples: SOAW octopus, “Drug Habits” (Winsor McCay)
• Vampiric Octopus: Blood sucking octopuses. Example: Landlordism postcard
• Cyborg: Part machine or infrastructure, for example having bombs on the end of tentacles, or an oil tank for a head. Example: Standard Oil
• Animal/Octopus hybrid: Reptilian example: “The Devil Fish of Californian Politics“
• Geographical/Octopus Hybrid: “There he is! Get Him” (Kal 2007) cartoon which depicts a geographical/octopus hybrid – the map/land grows tentacles, and the Time’s Scientology cover depicting a volcano with tentacles.

Subterfuge

The octopus is often drawn as intelligent, mendacious and deceitful. The octopus tries to present itself as something other than an octopus. These include: appearing as the bearer of gifts in the Forty Thieves, as a Trojan Horse, misdirection in the “Hunting the Octopus” or as treasure on an island. This was a relatively common visual metaphor circa 1900, but only makes a limited appearance after 1910.

Arms Around the World

It is a staple of the octopus metaphor in propaganda and cartoons to plop an octopus on a globe to represent the threat to civilisation that group X presents.

A selection:

• Circa 1938 a German cartoon (Seppla) showed Churchill as a Jewish octopus with his arms around the globe.
• 1945: A French cartoon in showed Hitler as the octopus with his arms around the globe.
• Circa 1950: Stalin was represented as an octopus in such a position in a pamphlet “How Communism Works”
• 2001 Egyptian edition of ‘The International Jew’ by Henry Ford
• 2002: Octopus bearing a Magen David (Star of David) clutching the globe in its tentacles. The caption reads, “Secure borders for Israel” (Al-Ahram, May 25, 2002).

But this metaphor is not restricted to the pictorial world of cartoons. A quote lifted from an US government website from 2006:

“Frank Urbancic Jr., principal deputy coordinator of the State Department’s Counterterrorism Office said that even though Hezbollah portrays itself as a Lebanese nationalist movement it best could be imagined “as almost an octopus with the head in southern Lebanon and the tentacles moving around the world.” With the exception of Iran and Syria, its state sponsors, the tentacles “are for supply and support”. ’ America.gov, Hezbollah “an Octopus” with Tentacles Around World, Officials Say, Bureau of International Programs, U.S. Department of State, 28 Sept 2006 (SOURCE)

Of Maps and Octopuses

The following is a selection of octopuses with maps (or maps with octopuses). States are most typically represented as octopuses when it comes to maps, however, Landlords, Jews and Free Masons have also been shown as octopuses juxtaposed with cartography. I have excluded octopuses on globes for this selection, as the symbolism differs from a perceived regional threat, to a more nebulous ‘global’ threat.

The Maps

Artist unknown. American cartoon of John Bull (England) as an Imperial Octopus with its arms (with hands) in - or contemplating being in - various regions¹. He has eleven arms, just to demonstrate the “octo” part of “octopus” is negotiable when it comes to illustration.

Cartoon is caption “The Devilfish in Egyptian Waters” and was an American cartoon published in Punch in 1888(?).

John Bull is a large landowner. His estate, to which he adds a piece day by day, consists in the first place of the British Isles, to which he gave the name of the United Kingdom. Then he has the Channel Islands, and the fortress of Gibraltar, which enables him to pass comfortably through the narrowest ot straits. The islands of Malta and Cyprus serve him as advanced sentinels in the Mediterranean, If he could have Constantinople he would be satisfied with his share of Europe. In Egypt ho is not quite comfortable ; yet ho is trying to make himself at home there. He took good care not to invent the Suez Canal, and moved heaven and earth to try and prevent the canal from being made ; yet behold him to-day a& a shareholder. He occupies his territory with an army considerably inferior in numbers to that of any other continental Power, in spite of which none of his possessions is in the least danger […] He is a curious mixture of the lion, mule, and octopus.²

“The English Octopus: It feeds on nothing but gold”: “Coin” Harvey, Coin’s Financial School 1894. Sub-title: “‘The Rothschilds own 1,600,000,000 in gold’- Chicago Daily News. This is nearly over half the gold in the Chicago wheat pit.”³ (full article).

Postcard by WB Northrop showing a map of London with the vampiric octopus of “Landlordism” (absent landlord, renting) encircling parts of London⁴.

“Serio-Comic War Map for the Year 1877” by Frederick W. Rose. A British response to the Balkan’s crisis between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Britain sided with the Ottoman Empire as Russia was perceived to be a threat to its interests. ⁵

“A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia” by Kisaburo Ohara, published March 1904 prior to the Japanese-Russian War. Based on the Serio-Comic War Map by F.W Rose (1877) shown above⁶: Part of the text reads: ‘“Black Octopus” is a name newly given to Russia by a certain prominent Englishman. For the black octopus is so avaricious that he stretches out his eight arms in all directions, and seizes up every thing that comes within his reach. But as it sometimes happens he gets wounded seriously even the small fish, owing to his ? covetousness. … Suffice it to say, that the further existence of the Black Octopus will depend entirely upon how he comes out of this war.’⁷.

A 1917 map by Maurice Neumont: “La Guerre est l’Industrie Nationale de la Prusse”, “War is Prussia’s National Industry”. A French poster that shows the expansion of the German and Prussian military. The octopus - wearing a pickelhaube helmet - has a map superimposed over it with its tentacles throughout Europe and Asia Minor (full article).

Den Preussiske Bläckfisken “The Prussian Octopus”: A map of Europe with two octopuses: Prussia and Austria-Hungary ⁸. The text reads:

DEN PREUSSISKE BLÄCKFISKEN. ‘Vi hota icke de små nationerna,’ förklarade tyske rikskanslern den 10 december 1915; ’ vi föra icke det krig, som tvingats på oss, för att underkuva främmande folk, utan for att skydda vårt liv och vår frihet.’ Bildkartan är illustration av hans ord. Den visar hur Preussen har stulit den ena provinsen efter andra från sina granner och likt en olycksbringande bläckfisk fortfarande sträcker ut sina tentakler för att rycka till sig nya förvärv.

THE PRUSSIAN OCTOPUS. ‘We do not threaten small nations,’ declared the German Chancellor on December 10th, 1915; ‘we do not wage war which has been forced upon us in order to subjugate foreign peoples, but for the protection of our life and freedom.’ This pictorial map is a commentary on his words. It shows how Prussia has stolen one province after another from her neighbours and, like a baleful octopus, is still stretching out her tentacles to grasp further acquisitions. ⁹

Anti-Japanese poster by Pat Keely (1944): “Indie Moet Vrij! Werkten vecht ervoor!” (Indies should be free! Work and fight for it!)¹⁰. It shows a Japanese octopus with its arms stretching down to Indonesia.

“Non! La France ne sera pas un pays colonise! Les Americains en Amerique!” (No! France will not be a colonised country! Americans in America!). This is unusual as the American octopus is not squatting in America, but as somewhere in the Atlantic? Published by the French Communist party circa 1950 ¹¹.

The last image is another French poster. It is an anti-semitic, Free Mason octopus. It shows an octopus with a human head on a map of France (more information).

Footnotes

1. http://historymike.blogspot.com/2007/08/profit-providence-and-politics.html
2. Max O’Rell (1887) “More Pictures of John Bull”, Te Aroha News, 4 June 1887 I’d recommend reading: More Pictures of John Bull in conjunction with this image as it provides insight.
3. SOURCED FROM: http://lyndonlarouchewatch.org/larouche-rothschild.pdf
4. Image source: Ebay auction (Accessed: 1st Feb 2009)
5. Harwood, Jeremy, and Bendall, Sarah. To the Ends of the Earth: 100 Maps That Changed the World: Struik, 2006.
6. Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department. 2008. Prints of the Russo-Japanese War. Glasgow University Library, http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/mar2008.html (accessed 15 Feb 2009)
7. Harwood & Bendall
8. VADS, http://tinyurl.com/d46ldj (Accessed: 15th Feb 2009)
9. Text and translation from VADS
10. Translation, and source: University of Washington, Special Collections Division: Content DM Collection, http://content.lib.washington.edu/u?/posters,8 (Accessed: 15th Feb 2009)
11. There appear to be versions of this poster: One has the poster published by “Edité par le Parti Communiste Francais. Cette affiche a été payée avec les fonds collectés par les travailleurs des usines Renault.” (Published by the French Communist Party. This poster was paid with funds raised by the Renault factory workers.). The other has just “Edité par le Parti Communiste Francais” (Published by the French Communist Party)