Lately I've been skimming through this book called ASTONISHING ANIMALS, and then I stumbled on The Believer Magazine's website (www.believermag.com). I thought about how great it is to look at animals these days. The book has 97 animals, all but one of which are real. The illustrations are detailed, but stylized, and the descriptions are pretty intriguing. Think about this: There is a creature called an Olm that lives in caves, in complete darkness, in nearly freezing water. They are newborn-baby pink and they look like 1-2 foot long salamanders. They have gills and lungs. They have no eyes. One lived without food in a jar for 12 years. When it was taken out, killed and dissected, the creature had absorbed its entire digestive tract. 'Ohm' is the sound Buddhists believe resonates beneath the din of our terrestrial noise. I think the Olm must be that noise as well. The book doesn't get all woo-woo like I do about these connections, but the writers for The Believer do. In their section under the heading 'Mammal' you can read about ancient mariners' lust for manatees, or the fantastic disappointment genetically invented Unicorns present. I also recommend "Animal Stories" by Jason Brown from his collection DRIVING THE HEART. I'm not positive how healthy all of these interests are, or if I'm inventing the importance of crossovers like Olm and Ohm. They only live in caves in and around Slovenia, though, and they can live for 100 years. That big black nothingness, then, that people are thinking themselves toward - sitting cross-legged in candlelit monasteries, makes me think of this salamander that is called a Human Fish, the one explorers in the 1600's thought were baby dragons.
ASTONISHING ANIMALS: Extraordinary Creatures and the Fantastic Worlds They Inhabit TIM FLANNERY AND PETER SCHOUTEN. Atlantic Monthly, $29.95 (208p)/SBN 0-87113-875-1
- Drew McNaughton
posted by Drew McNaughton at 1/18/2005 01:10:00 PM 
