IIda Torpinen is the author of Sea Monsters, a Finnish novel that traces the fate of a now extinct species: the sea cow. Similar to dugongs and manatees, the sea cow was only discovered in 1741 by the shipwrecked German-born naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, but by 1768 it had already The first marine species to be eliminated by humans.
It has been translated into 28 languages and was shortlisted for the country’s most prestigious literary award, the Finlandia Prize, and Sea Monsters has been described by the Helsinki Literacy Agency as “the best”. The most internationally successful first Finnish novel of all time. Torpainen, 38, a doctoral student in comparative literature, is now a resident novelist at the Natural History Museum of Finland. Her book will be published in the UK on October 23.
What inspired you to write the book?
I visited the Natural History Museum in Helsinki in 2016 and saw this very strange skeleton of a large, massive animal that I didn’t recognize.
The sign read: “This is Steller’s sea cow, which has become extinct 27 years after its discovery by science. Only three to four skeletons remain of this animal.”
And I was like, “Well, what happened here? There must be an interesting story behind these sentences.”
I discovered that the sea cow was the first animal to raise the scientific question: Was it possible for humans to cause the extinction of this animal through hunting? At the time the sea cow became extinct, in the 18th century, this question was ridiculed.
People thought it was impossible, which was a ridiculous idea. Even a hundred years later, in the 1860s, this question remained controversial and hotly debated. But of course, we now know that’s what happened.
I have long dreamed of writing a novel about the sixth mass extinction. And I realized that this was the story I was looking for: this was the animal that would allow me to write about—and understand—why we are in the position we are in today.
We are gradually beginning to realize that we may be as catastrophic to other species as the biblical Flood, with all the responsibility imposed by this realization only recently – on the brink of the twentieth century –. For me, this explained a lot.
By writing the book, you have sparked a great interest in the sea cow. What do you think about the sea cow that captures people’s imagination?including yourself?
Imagine a huge manatee, the size of a whale, living in the frigid waters between remote islands in the Bering Sea. They had spiked fins, like an elephant’s, and moved on the sea floor and grazed near the surface, in the kelp forest.
According to the few accounts we have, they loved to caress and touch each other and hold their young children. They were the perfect victim: big, gentle, cuddly creatures who were very social and tactile. The dugong is a close relative.
I wanted this book to be a reminder and observation of extinction, and as I started writing it, I started dreaming about dugongs more often.
Now, I get a lot of comments from readers who say they dream about dugongs too.
There is something mysterious yet connected to this animal, something almost human-like, and I think it is no coincidence that this species has called for so many mythological interpretations. Wherever there are manatees or dugongs in the world, there have always been legends about mermaids.
The stories follow them, and I too felt that pull.
Why dugongs? Extinct?
Dugongs were hunted mercilessly after Stiller wrote about his encounter with them, and when fur traders shot all the otters on nearby islands, the sea urchins multiplied and ate up all the sea grass. So while the dugongs were being hunted, they were also starving.
What touches me the most is how peaceful and kind they are. They could have easily capsized a boat, given their size. However, to my knowledge, the sea cow has never once attacked people who were hunting it.
What is the impact of the book that won the Helsingin Sanomat Prize? Best Debut Award, In Finland?
While researching the history of the sea cow, I never encountered the villains. Too often, people behaved in ways that proved harmful despite their good intentions.
Strangely enough, this dynamic became a side effect of publishing the novel. After its release, people began flocking to the Natural History Museum in Helsinki to see the book’s “main character” for themselves.
Visitors were so eager to get close to the skeleton that some even touched it, despite its fragility.
Until then, the specimen had been on display outdoors, but the museum eventually had to install glass walls around it to protect it from overly enthusiastic admirers.
I still don’t know if it’s tragic or comical that my book ends up endangering the remains of a sea cow.
What do you hope readers learn from the story of the sea cow?
To question the way we think about our relationship with nature, to see where we have been and where we are, and to reflect on that.
It’s very easy to judge historical figures and historical events from today’s perspective, but when you look at what people like Stiller knew, and how they saw the world, it becomes much easier to understand their actions.
I think remembering the sea cow is powerful. I hope that by inviting people to experience the loss of this wonderful animal, which deserves to be remembered, it will help us gain a new perspective.
Sea animals By Ida TurpinN, translated by David Haxton, to be published by McLehose Press