A man swallows an octopus but can’t digest it. The octopus spreads its legs out in various directions and in this way begins to exert its influence on the man. The man sprouts extra limbs, his eyes expand to the size of saucers and his nose curves and sharpens into a beak. But the influence works both ways, and the octopus becomes more like a man, shedding suckers, growing bones and sprouting hair. Eventually, the man with the octopus inside him has fully transformed into an octopus and the octopus inside him has transformed into a man. The octopus, having become a man, starts to wonder if their situation might be viewed as metaphor – for what he is uncertain – but the man, having become an octopus, has lost all capacity for figurative thought. The process inevitably reverses, and then reverses again, with each alternatively able and then unable to ponder its meaning.