IIda Turpeinen is the author of “Beasts of the Sea,” a Finnish novel that tells the story of the fate of a now extinct species: sea cow. Like dugongs and manatees, the sea cow was only discovered in 1741 by the shipwrecked German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, but by 1768 it had already become first marine species exterminated by humans.
Translated into 28 languages, the book “Beasts of the Sea” was included in the shortlist of the most prestigious literary award in the country – the Finnish Prize. The Helsinki Literacy Agency named it the most successful Finnish debut novel ever. Turpeinen, 38, a graduate student in comparative literature, is now writer-in-residence at the Natural History Museum of Finland. Her book will be released in the UK on October 23.
What inspired you to write the book?
In 2016, I visited the Natural History Museum in Helsinki and saw a very strange-looking skeleton of a large and bulky animal that I did not recognize.
The poster said: “This is Steller's sea cow, which became extinct 27 years after its discovery by science. Only three or four skeletons remain of this animal.”
And I thought, “Okay, what happened here? There must be a pretty interesting story behind these sentences.”
I discovered that the sea cow was the first animal to raise the scientific question: could humans have caused the extinction of this animal through hunting? In the 18th century, when sea cows became extinct, this question was laughed at.
People thought it was impossible – an absurd idea. Even a hundred years later, in the 1860s, the issue was still controversial and hotly debated. But of course, now we know that's exactly what happened.
I've 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 an animal that would allow me to write and understand why we are in the situation we are in today.
Only recently – at the turn of the 20th century – have we gradually begun to realize that we could become as catastrophic for other species as the biblical flood, with all the responsibility that this awareness entails. This explained a lot for me.
By writing the book, you have sparked a lot of interest in the sea cow. What do you think it is about the sea cow that captures people's imagination?including your own?
Imagine a huge manatee, the size of a whale, living in very cold waters among the remote islands of the Bering Sea. They had flippers with claws like elephants, and they moved along the seabed and grazed very close to the surface, in the kelp forest.
According to the little information we have, they loved to cuddle and touch each other, and also to hold their babies. They were the perfect prey: large, gentle, sweet creatures, very sociable and tactile. The dugong is a close relative.
I wanted this book to be an act of remembering and observing extinction, and when I started writing it, I started dreaming about sea cows a lot.
Now I get a lot of feedback from readers who say they also dream about sea cows.
There is something mysterious and yet familiar about this animal, something almost human, and I think it is no coincidence that this species has given rise to so many mythical interpretations. No matter where manatees or sea cows live in the world, there have always been legends about mermaids.
Stories follow them – and I also felt this attraction.
Why sea cows die out?
Sea cows were hunted mercilessly after Steller wrote about his encounters with them, and when fur traders killed all the otters on the nearby islands, the sea urchins multiplied and ate all the kelp. Therefore, while sea cows were hunted, they also starved.
What touched me most was how peaceful and gentle they were. Because of their size, they could easily capsize the boat. However, as far as I know, the sea cow has never attacked people who hunted it.
What impact did the Helsingin Sanomat Prize-winning book have? prize for best debut, is in Finland?
While researching the story of the sea cow, I never encountered any villains. More often than not, people acted in ways that turned out to be harmful, despite their good intentions.
Ironically, this dynamic became a side effect of the novel's publication. After its release, people began to flock to the Natural History Museum in Helsinki to see the “protagonist” of the book with their own eyes.
Visitors were so eager to get closer to the skeleton that some even touched it, despite its fragility.
The specimen was previously on public display, but the museum eventually had to install glass walls around it to protect it from overly enthusiastic fans.
I still don't know whether it's tragic or comical that my book ended up endangering the remains of a sea cow.
What do you hope readers learn from the story of the sea cow?
To question our way of thinking about our relationship with nature, to see where we have been and where we are, and to reflect on it.
It is very easy to judge historical characters and historical events from today's perspective, but when you look at what people like Steller knew, how they saw the world, it becomes very easy to understand their actions.
I think the memory of the sea cow is powerful. I hope that asking people to grieve the loss of this amazing animal that deserves to be remembered will help us put things into perspective.
Beasts of the sea by Iida Turpainn, translation by David Huxton, to be published McLehose Press
