Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.
Speaker 2: I'm welcome to stefan Never Told You production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: A big spoiler warning for this book Club episode, everything
Speaker 2: will be spoiled dage. So today we are talking about
Speaker 2: Rita Indiana's Tentacle, which was first published in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: The edition I read was published in twenty eighteen, which
Speaker 2: was translated into English by Achi Obeya. It is an
Speaker 2: experimental dystopian science fiction, climate disaster, time travel book that
Speaker 2: deals with themes of gender, queerness, race, class, art, class again, environmentalism,
Speaker 2: and yes, time travel.
Speaker 1: I will say, when I was trying to find the
Speaker 1: book on Audible, which is not available there yet, I
Speaker 1: got some interesting results.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, so the original Spanish name I am not going
Speaker 2: to try to say because I'll butcher it, but and
Speaker 2: I apologize in advance for what I'm gonna do my
Speaker 2: best to pronounce, but a very different name that they
Speaker 2: went with Tentacle because I believe it was actually translated
Speaker 2: into German first and then English. And the author was like,
Speaker 2: I just loved Tentacle. It's got like an icky, like
Speaker 2: it's got this.
Speaker 1: Like they're not wrong, definitely. I was like okay. And
Speaker 1: then when I was because I put the S on
Speaker 1: it at the beginning, I think that was tentacle's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of forget that there's a whole world of
Speaker 1: because my partner would laugh because I think that I
Speaker 1: don't even know what I was looking for, and he's like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna find tentacle porn. I was like, what is this?
Speaker 1: What is this? So yeah, but it's not like that necessarily,
Speaker 1: like not to that level. And if that's your thing,
Speaker 1: no judgment. I was just very surprised by it.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, it reminds me of my mishap when I
Speaker 2: was on that show that was hosted by two like
Speaker 2: teenage girls and they ask you for the book recommendation,
Speaker 2: and I recommended The Lilith Octavia Butler and it has
Speaker 2: tentacol stuff and it.
Speaker 3: I just start of forgot. I feel don't read that
Speaker 3: em like, oh no, I'm so starty. Wait until you're older,
Speaker 3: then read it.
Speaker 1: Tive yourself for it.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay.
Speaker 2: So what I'll say about this is like it's a
Speaker 2: short book, but it hits you fast.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's like fast and.
Speaker 1: A lot a lot there's a I had to go
Speaker 1: back and forth a few times because I was like,
Speaker 1: wait what, because I was it takes you a minute
Speaker 1: to realize how the plot, how the book is plotting. Yes,
Speaker 1: like going so you have to go like, oh, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: because you know when you will go into a new thing,
Speaker 1: not realizing is it gonna be flashbacks? Is it gonna
Speaker 1: be this, It's gonna be that, It's gonna be that.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yes, because the time travel works in a really
Speaker 2: interesting way in this where it's sort of like strange
Speaker 2: daydreams you're having that you don't necessarily have a choice
Speaker 2: in having, but you can kind of like see.
Speaker 1: Them, yes, and experience them. Yes, I will say creativity
Speaker 1: that because that was new.
Speaker 2: That was a travel It was very yes, very interesting.
Speaker 2: I got I had to look up. I'm like, I
Speaker 2: just to be sure this is the same character.
Speaker 3: Right O.
Speaker 1: Wait did I not read this name before? This is
Speaker 1: a not unusual name. So let me go back here.
Speaker 3: Wait there are pirates. Okay, hold on.
Speaker 1: Right here, we're talking about buccaneers.
Speaker 3: Yes, but it's all related. It's all related.
Speaker 2: That being said, content warning, offensive language, some of the
Speaker 2: same like because it is a translated version, it's also
Speaker 2: from like just different culture.
Speaker 3: So I'm not entirely sure, but offensive.
Speaker 2: Language, sexual assault, death, abuse, homophobia, drug use, climate change,
Speaker 2: natural disasters.
Speaker 3: Death of dog.
Speaker 1: I was very upset.
Speaker 3: I knew you would be.
Speaker 1: I had to like skip through a little bit, very upset.
Speaker 3: I knew you would be. Billy, poor Billy. Oh that
Speaker 3: whole scene was not good.
Speaker 1: Quick.
Speaker 2: About the author, Indiana is a Dominican music composer, member
Speaker 2: of the band Rita Indiana Elos Mystidios, and a producer
Speaker 2: and author. Tentacle was the first Spanish language book to
Speaker 2: win the Grand Prize at the Association of Caribbean Writers
Speaker 2: in twenty seventeen. About the translator, Obehas is a Cuban
Speaker 2: American author, translator, and journalist. She's also written a couple
Speaker 2: things that I recognize, so very cool. All right, so
Speaker 2: I'm going to go through the plot here. Okay, this
Speaker 2: book is kind of tricky to describe if you haven't
Speaker 2: discerned that yet. It opens in the Dominican Republic in
Speaker 2: the year twenty thirty seven, when the world's oceans have
Speaker 2: pretty much been completely destroyed, in large part due to
Speaker 2: the actions of President Sayid Bona, who accepted these biological
Speaker 2: weapons that's billed into the oceans and wrecked the environment.
Speaker 3: So we largely.
Speaker 2: Follow sex worker Acilde Figurora, who dresses as a young
Speaker 2: boy to attract male clients, and she wants to make
Speaker 2: enough money to obtain a drug that allows for a
Speaker 2: sex change without surgery, which, by the way, the pronouns change,
Speaker 2: so she at this point to that end, she starts
Speaker 2: working as a maid for Esther Escadero. Esther is a
Speaker 2: member of a cult that worships an aneinemy whose tentacles
Speaker 2: grant time traveling powers. So Esther believes that a seal
Speaker 2: Day is like chosen One and agrees to pass on
Speaker 2: her abilities to her. A sill Day transitions and then
Speaker 2: we start using he pronouns and gains time traveling powers
Speaker 2: as has chosen One to go back and repair everything
Speaker 2: that's gone wrong. Okay, so from there we get two
Speaker 2: time threads outside of that one one where a sill
Speaker 2: Day travels back to the two thousands and becomes a
Speaker 2: man named Georgio who works as a music manager. Amongst
Speaker 2: other things. He falls in love with a woman named Linda,
Speaker 2: who is desperate to save the oceans. Georgio uses art
Speaker 2: to raise money for her lab so that she can
Speaker 2: do that, and then we have another timeline where he
Speaker 2: travels back to the fifteenth century during the time of
Speaker 2: Spanish colonization and is a pirate named Rook. In both timelines,
Speaker 2: he meets a man named our Hey niece who also
Speaker 2: has time traveling abilities, after touching a tentacle while deep
Speaker 2: sea diving during an exit ambition of art, and while
Speaker 2: art of our Hey news that he created in the
Speaker 2: fifteenth century is a praise, Giorgio meets the future president,
Speaker 2: largely to blame for what happened to the oceans. He
Speaker 2: debates talking to him about it, which is what the
Speaker 2: mission was like, warning him about it, but in the
Speaker 2: end he chooses not to, deciding instead to abandon his
Speaker 2: future self and live his life with Linda as a man. Yes,
Speaker 2: that's how it ends, so basically gives up the whole thing.
Speaker 2: It's like, I'm happy here right now, so no need.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: The abrupt ending, like you it is so abrupt, and
Speaker 1: then I'm like, wait, what's cool. That's the end. It
Speaker 1: just goes like thanks for reading.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The next page is like thank you. Oh well, so.
Speaker 1: I thought maybe it was a part of it. I
Speaker 1: thought it was going to be.
Speaker 4: A setup to do because it was like thanks reader, Okay, no, yeah, no, it.
Speaker 2: Was not so themes one of the big ones obviously
Speaker 2: climate change. So we have a couple of quotes and
Speaker 2: hear about it, but I mean, it's like the whole
Speaker 2: thing is the ocean is turned into like brown sludge.
Speaker 2: There's no fish anymore, there's no creatures in there anymore,
Speaker 2: and it's just really created this dystopian environment where things
Speaker 2: have just gotten way worse. Here's a quote, how lost
Speaker 2: an obtuse the people of that small town looked now,
Speaker 2: how sad there's small plans and projections, how comedic the
Speaker 2: desperation of someone who does not yet know a marvelous
Speaker 2: destiny awaits around the corner. So because a sealed day,
Speaker 2: Georgio can see these times. He's always kind of like
Speaker 2: pontificating about like, oh, well, you don't know what's coming,
Speaker 2: but I've been in these three separate timelines and that
Speaker 2: moment of like the middle, the middle part of Georgio
Speaker 2: being like, oh this is so nice right now, but
Speaker 2: knowing knowing what is coming. Here's another quote. Where others
Speaker 2: saw scenery, Linda Goldman saw desolation. Where others heard relaxing,
Speaker 2: sub aquatic silence, she heard the shrieks of life disappearing.
Speaker 2: Where others saw a gift from God given for the
Speaker 2: enjoyment of humankind, she saw an ecosystem fallen victim to
Speaker 2: a systematic and criminal attack. When she looked at the
Speaker 2: coral reef, she felt like an oncologist standing before her
Speaker 2: patient's body. She knew she could save it, although she
Speaker 2: also understood the disproportionate capacity of evil and its reach
Speaker 2: down to its finest detail. In order to make the
Speaker 2: miracle happen, it was necessary to have a measure of
Speaker 2: extreme optimism and critical realism that would drive anybody crazy.
Speaker 2: So Linda's the one that's trying to really trying to
Speaker 2: save the ocean, is really concerned about it, has a
Speaker 2: lot of mental health issues around it, and is just
Speaker 2: trying to get like anybody on board with it and
Speaker 2: to make money to build this lab. Here's another quote.
Speaker 2: She knew how many times these nets were tossed into
Speaker 2: the waters, and she'd lived each day working against that
Speaker 2: sinister clock. Yeah, and there's a lot of stuff in
Speaker 2: there about like climate change education, not enforcing laws to
Speaker 2: protect the oceans, or water and her frustration about that.
Speaker 2: Here's another quote. In a few years, when those of
Speaker 2: us who saw it are no longer around, people will
Speaker 2: talk about the fish in the sea as though they
Speaker 2: were unicorns. It's pretty I mean, it's pretty dire, right,
Speaker 2: not good at all.
Speaker 1: Well, like the beginning with the anemony, the prophecy had
Speaker 1: worked out that Esther, who had owned this thing, was
Speaker 1: taking super good care of it. The main character it
Speaker 1: was trying to plot to steal it and say it
Speaker 1: because it was worth so much money. Because that there
Speaker 1: was no secreatures left. I mean, that's how Esther also dies.
Speaker 1: So there's because of that, but that level of like
Speaker 1: despair and trying to keep the ocean's eleven. By the way,
Speaker 1: the beginning technology of it all was like what's happening.
Speaker 1: I'd try to figure out what was happening with like
Speaker 1: they just killed someone, Okay, they poison someone on the
Speaker 1: on the step again, very very like futuristic, but like
Speaker 1: the level of what they need and what I see,
Speaker 1: and then like going back in time to see like
Speaker 1: this one man protecting this one area with all the
Speaker 1: sea creatures because he knows something that's coming up. And
Speaker 1: the ends up being the main character coming back to
Speaker 1: him itself.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: It's a lot. Yeah, but yes, sea creature is very important.
Speaker 1: I think that's obvious, and I think that's an obvious
Speaker 1: conversation that we've had repeatedly.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yes. Another theme is time travel. So here's a quote,
Speaker 2: according to the letter Black Cubans called a certain marine
Speaker 2: creature olo kun it could travel back in time. Dude,
Speaker 2: very Lovecraftian, like this myth why I won't say myth,
Speaker 2: but they have the story of like this creature that
Speaker 2: can do that, and I thought it was really Again,
Speaker 2: like you said to me, it's very creative in in
Speaker 2: like the way that those powers are granted and how
Speaker 2: it worked, and I you know, the is pretty depressing,
Speaker 2: but it is sort of like getting lost in the
Speaker 2: idyllic past off like, well, I don't want to go
Speaker 2: back to that future where it sucks and everything when
Speaker 2: I'm so happy right here right now, because the future
Speaker 2: is really bad. And going back to that technology you mentioned,
Speaker 2: it is very big brother It is very big brothery.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of talk about like technology that tracks.
Speaker 3: You everywhere there is.
Speaker 2: And I'll talk about it more in a second, but
Speaker 2: like these like bulldozer things that just kill immigrants. Like
Speaker 2: there's a very a lot of the government technology is
Speaker 2: scary in this Yes, and that brings us to class,
Speaker 2: which is another big theme because even in the apocalypse,
Speaker 2: things are exacerbated, but they're richer essentially fine. That's sort
Speaker 2: of what it's showcasing. Like right out the gate is like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can just kill somebody I don't want around from
Speaker 2: my like little door bill.
Speaker 1: Just immediately, just kidding, you're coloring up my part door.
Speaker 3: I don't like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, woof Again it comes out hitting hard.
Speaker 3: It does not.
Speaker 1: Wait no, immediately several things are like well damn like
Speaker 1: and then rape immediately You're like what and then they
Speaker 1: become friends. I'm like, what has happened?
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 3: Pretty quick, pretty quick.
Speaker 2: There's also a lot of issues of like racism and
Speaker 2: colorism within like this discussion of class. Like I said,
Speaker 2: there are these bulldozers that roam the streets and kill
Speaker 2: illegals as they're called on the spot. And the author
Speaker 2: has been a very big critic of anti Haitian legislation
Speaker 2: in the Dominican Republic, and it was supposed to reflect
Speaker 2: that based on what interviews I read with her colonization
Speaker 2: is also a big theme. Here's a quote for the
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Review of Books. It is an age of
Speaker 2: unbearable heat and La Yourna with its two years of rain.
Speaker 2: Laurona the Weeping Woman is the name given to La Malinche,
Speaker 2: Herman Cortes's Naha interpreter and mistress, often revive for her
Speaker 2: key role in facilitating the Spanish conquest by calling this
Speaker 2: extreme weather event Laurona. Environmental crisis is associated with the
Speaker 2: demise of indigenous peoples after the arrival of the Spanish
Speaker 2: in the fifteenth century, as well as by implication with
Speaker 2: more recent neo imperial activity in the region. That was
Speaker 2: a really interesting article. I had a lot of good points,
Speaker 2: because again, when your first time you're reading it, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: there's so much going on here. I need somebody to
Speaker 2: so I it helps you out awesome sexism. Yes, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of sexism in it. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: misogyny in it, especially from the character who kind of
Speaker 2: embodies all of this our heinies like he's bad news.
Speaker 2: He's just bad news. Yes, he's got a lot of
Speaker 2: insecurity about his masculinity. He fantasizes about violence against women.
Speaker 2: He's very homophobic, which we'll get into. And a second,
Speaker 2: he's constantly thinking about sex when Linda's just trying to
Speaker 2: run scientific tests on the Ocean's like that.
Speaker 1: She loves her husband.
Speaker 2: Yes, I loves her husband. Here's a quote from him
Speaker 2: in his head, Georgio was an altruistic man who believed
Speaker 2: in him, and she was a conceited and selfish slut. Yep.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, homophobia. A Sealdae's family arranges for a
Speaker 2: man to rape her as a child to get rid
Speaker 2: of her quote mauth skill in tendencies, and yes, later
Speaker 2: when she is raped during sex work, her lack of
Speaker 2: reaction is really really telling. The author has a bunch
Speaker 2: of quotes about that as well. There's a whole thing
Speaker 2: about like rejected men starting rumors that a woman is
Speaker 2: a lesbian because she rejected them, and our haines, yes,
Speaker 2: being homophobic but having homosexual desires so internalized homophobia for him, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, if you're wondering, he's the one who
Speaker 2: killed a dog, so yes, he.
Speaker 3: Was very bad news. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also, themes of just being trans are queer. So in
Speaker 2: the book, there's this drug called Rainbow Bright that's the
Speaker 2: injection that you can use that gives you like a
Speaker 2: sex change without surgery. That's what a Seal Day was
Speaker 2: trying to save up for and eventually got. But then
Speaker 2: I've read a lot of stuff from the author to
Speaker 2: you about like, you know, being in different bodies across
Speaker 2: time and the powers and privileges that comes with that
Speaker 2: in different bodies. So that was an interesting thing in
Speaker 2: terms of like time travel, getting those different seeing those
Speaker 2: different windows. And yeah, mental health is a big theme
Speaker 2: in there. And then lastly, I always say art going
Speaker 2: back to the author is a musician, like an author,
Speaker 2: very into art. Art is a huge theme, especially in
Speaker 2: kind of the two thousands timeline where they sort of
Speaker 2: have like a compound it feels like almost but they
Speaker 2: got people making art.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was like the friends, No they're compound, No
Speaker 1: you got kicked out, well yes he killed the dog,
Speaker 1: so all those things, but what's happening? Also they only
Speaker 1: use them to make art, but same know what?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they sort of all came together to make
Speaker 2: art to make money so Linda could write finance her
Speaker 2: lab so that you could save the water.
Speaker 1: And then I like the random DJ she decided she
Speaker 1: was a DJ, and I was like, okay, go ahead,
Speaker 1: looks with DJ. Yeah, early, you're doing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all kinds of our painting, music and stuff. Here's
Speaker 2: a quote. When he stood by her side, she felt
Speaker 2: infused by his presence and discovered specifically and eloquently the
Speaker 2: extreme poverty suffered by Haitian workers, the tragic ties with
Speaker 2: which this ancient ceremony held onto the present, the permanency
Speaker 2: of a kind of slavery that now dressed itself up
Speaker 2: as paid labor, and the power of a music that
Speaker 2: lodged deities and human bodies, deities powerful enough to swallow
Speaker 2: the world. So this was an interesting thing that I
Speaker 2: was reading about after I finished a book. Was you know,
Speaker 2: they're sort of using art to save the world, but
Speaker 2: it's still very self serving, Like it's still very like
Speaker 2: I want to be a DJ now. And she did
Speaker 2: put a lot of work into it, like she was
Speaker 2: thinking about like Sha Cousto, like she was putting all
Speaker 2: these things in there, but you know, in the end,
Speaker 2: it's still very She wanted to do it one day
Speaker 2: it was like you know, right, I want to try this,
Speaker 2: Gonna try this, and then once you get to the end,
Speaker 2: it felt very much like, Okay, you're kind of looking
Speaker 2: the other way, but you're making yourself feel better, Like
Speaker 2: you're kind of like, see, I'm doing my part, but
Speaker 2: you're just sort of just sorting to do something to
Speaker 2: make yourself feel like the world isn't ending. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And it was interesting too, because there was a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff in there about you know, tourism and making
Speaker 2: a republic and how beautiful it is was in this world.
Speaker 2: So it's got all these lovely descriptions. It's very idyllic
Speaker 2: at this point, but knowing what's coming, it's sort of
Speaker 2: like you need to not look away, right, not look away?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it tacked in a lot real quick. Yes, I'm
Speaker 2: going to be thinking about it for a minute, I
Speaker 2: could tell sure.
Speaker 1: Like the ending was just like wait, wait, what wait
Speaker 1: what I mean? It's kind just like I will say,
Speaker 1: unlike other time travel movies or time travel books, it
Speaker 1: does talk about the consequences of what happens later. So
Speaker 1: the whole reason, once again the rationale was if I
Speaker 1: talked to said about the fact that this is going
Speaker 1: to happen, not only will I not get out of
Speaker 1: sex works as the original character who transitioned, who was like,
Speaker 1: finally I found my way to be happy, and that's
Speaker 1: by ending my life here and being my past self.
Speaker 1: But if he was not able to u get to
Speaker 1: that point, which would only he could get to that
Speaker 1: point through these disasters, you know, like that was the
Speaker 1: whole point, like he's gonna undo everything and he won't
Speaker 1: exist or he'll be so unhappy like that's and he
Speaker 1: won't be able to fix that for himself. So he
Speaker 1: chose himself, as you had already said, over the environment
Speaker 1: the whole world. But again it does take into account
Speaker 1: where everybody was just like impulsively does things. Hmmm, he
Speaker 1: thought about it. He's like, well, this is what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen to me, so no, thank you.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, there there was definitely a whole like inner
Speaker 2: conversation that happened where he was like, well if I
Speaker 2: do this, complications and what's gonna happen there? And he
Speaker 2: was very much trying to convince himself, I think, but
Speaker 2: there were valid points where like we could build this lab,
Speaker 2: like maybe it could you know again, I think this
Speaker 2: may save it. I think the main point was convincing
Speaker 2: yourself or turning away, right, But there were oh yeah
Speaker 2: that there was a conversation had internally.
Speaker 1: And then watching himself die Like that sounds like all, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the thing it does.
Speaker 3: I do love time travels.
Speaker 1: Like there's new ways to do it, and they found
Speaker 1: a new way they did.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, yes, Well listeners as always, let us
Speaker 2: know if you have any suggestions for this. If you
Speaker 2: have any thoughts about this book, you can email us
Speaker 2: at Stuffy da Mom, Steph at iHeartMedia dot com. You
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Speaker 2: you can get to wherever you get your books. Thanks
Speaker 2: as always to our super produced Christina are executed producing
Speaker 2: my and our contributor Joey.
Speaker 1: Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
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