comment on tone

Montgomery’s tone moves between the personal and the professional throughout her writing. At times, the style is almost as though she is writing in a journal, giving also many pieces of information that are inconsequential to the plot or exploration of octopuses. This serves to contextualize the information given, personally and continuously. But it also implicitly takes away from the scientific integrity of her writing for many readers. She adds, for instance, “Defeated, I crawled off to my car, where I discovered I was too dizzy to drive. I lay down in the backseat, on the blanket where our border collie sits, her paws and belly often plastered with mud, on the drive after our hikes in the woods together. Inhaling her scent, I felt instantly calmer. Within half an hour, though my ears still hurt horribly, the vertigo had eased enough for me to drive the two hours home” (129).