The Savage Landscape by Cal Flyn review into the wild

"Off the coast of California, two miles down, there exist geothermal nurseries: gatherings of tens of thousands of small violet octopuses, each the size of a grapefruit. Known as pearl octopuses (Muusoctopus robustus), they congregate around hydrothermal springs which warm their eggs, allowing them to hatch in less than two years (in cold water it can take 10 years). When I want to calm my mind, I think of these gatherings, this factory of octopuses powered by the Earth's energy that exists quietly away from our gaze, and might easily never have been discovered."

"It's a work of extraordinary physical and narrative movement that takes us from the depths of the ocean to volcanoes and icebergs, but is also a journey into our own psyches, and the stories we tell ourselves about wild landscapes. Above all, it is a reminder that the places we might conceive of as empty or barren are no such thing; that within wildernesses there is abundant life, both human and nonhuman. As Flyn points out, the fascination with wilderness is widely shared across cultures."

"The Sumerian epics can be read as wilderness quests, with exiled heroes making their way through remote hinterlands while facing danger and trials; similarly, the Toraja people of Indonesia observe an annual ritual whereby they run into the forest at night and become one with the wilderness. In her way, Flyn is the latest incarnation of this desire. She's a keen hill walker, and receives both nourishment and solace from wild places (towards the end of the book she writes about heading to the hills after her father died)."

"While there, she experiences a thinning of the skin, a sense of communing of all that is non-human. The notion of untouched wilderness is a fiction, and Flyn continually pulls the rug from under our assumptions Like many of"

Pearl octopuses gather in geothermal nurseries off the California coast around hydrothermal springs. The warm springs incubate their eggs, enabling hatching in under two years instead of about ten years in cold water. These underwater communities operate quietly on Earth’s energy, suggesting many similar worlds may remain undiscovered. Wilderness also appears in human stories and rituals across cultures, including wilderness quests in Sumerian epics and night forest rituals among the Toraja people. Personal experiences in wild landscapes provide nourishment and solace, including feelings of connection with non-human life. Untouched wilderness is treated as a fiction, and assumptions about emptiness are repeatedly challenged by abundant life.

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