“Remarkably Bright Creatures” (post 1) by Shelby Van Pelt: Gratuitous Symptoms of Multiple Personality in First Few Chapters

On the novel’s first page, narration is begun by Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living in the aquarium:

“My name is Marcellus…

“I am a giant Pacific octopus. I know this from the plaque on the wall beside my enclosure” (1, p. 1). He also overhears what visitors say about him. But even when there are no visitors, he appears to converse with an italicized voice in his head:

“Why don’t you prop the door?

“Well, obviously” (1, p. 24).

So far, the only other major character is Tova Sullivan, a seventy-year-old woman who works at the aquarium: “Now she sometimes catches a glimpse of her profile reflected in a shop window…She wonders how this body can possibly be hers” (1, p. 20).

Comment: Conversing with a voice in your head, and not identifying with your own reflection, are textbook symptoms of multiple personality, as previously discussed in this blog: Search “voices” and “mirrors.” 

Why would any novel have symptoms of multiple personality that are not called for by character development or plot? Gratuitous symptoms of multiple personality in a novel probably reflect the successful novelist’s multiple personality trait.

1. Shelby Van Pelt. Remarkably Bright Creatures. New York, ecco/HarperCollins, 2022.