“Mucky Water, Full of Shapes”: Extinction and Cross-Species Connection in Ned Beauman’s Venomous Lumpsucker and Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea

Abstract

Ned Beauman’s Venomous Lumpsucker (2023) and Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea (2023) share the similar theme of species extinction and cross-species communication. In both novels, the attempt to communicate with an underwater species is met with failure or limitations. The failure of cross-species communication lies in the focus on an animal’s intelligence. Drawing on Eduardo Kohn’s How Forests Think (2013) and other works on the interplay between the body and the environment, I argue that it is not intelligence, but the physicality of both the animal body and the environment that makes cross-species connection possible. In this paper, I analyze the relation between extinction and cross-species communication in the two novels, and explain the failure and limitations of focusing on animal intelligence when forming connections. Apart from pointing out the failure, by putting emphasis on the bodily characteristics of animals over intellectual capabilities, I argue that the ocean, as a site of shared experiences, is an important factor in forming cross-species connections with marine animals.