This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Micro-Landscapes of the Anthropocene

"Bird(s) and their ageold relationship with man"

- Ella Howe

Gemma's look at Kadrii Tüür's work "Bird Sounds in Nature Writing: Human Perspective on Animal Communication" suggests the idea that our interaction with birds is what gives us the ability to understand their intentions and actions; and similarly that this, in turn, can influence our emotional response to birds.

The idea that our opinion of birds influences how they interact with us, or at the very least, how we think they interact with us, was something that intrigued me; and led me to look at Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds.

I was interested in seeing how the film could influence peoples' opinions on birds they interact with in every day life.
Brooks' article in The Guardian conveys the human naivety when looking at the reason for the birds acting how they act within the plot.

"I have no idea what draws the birds and turns them bad and it seems that nobody else does either. "I don't know why," says harried Melanie Daniels (Hedren). "Wish I could say," blurts bemused Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor). Everyone is confused, ruffled, on the brink of flight. Here is a film that provides no answers and no escape. Chaos reigns from top to tail.”

However Martin's article "It's the End of the World: The Influence of The Birds on the Evil Child film" suggests that reason for the birds acting this way is because of our interactions with them.

"...The numerous means by which humanity has slaughtered and exploited birds for fun, fashion, and food..."

Martin continues to state that "“Hitchcock opens the trailer by describing his newest project in scholarly terms, dryly referring to The Birds not as a film, but a “forthcoming lecture”” This suggesting that the meaning behind The Birds film is not that of an interesting and horrifying story but of a lesson as to what could happen if humanity keeps treating birds, and animals in general, this way.

The film therefore works as a way of showcasing how, if birds interactions with humanity is dependant upon how we treat and view them, then our treatment of birds could end up in a violent rampage by the species.

Brooks, X, (2012), 'My Favourite Hitchcock: The Birds', The Guardian, 1 August 2012. Available at
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/31/my-favourite-hitchcock-the-birds (Accessed 11 October 2018).

Martin, C, (2014) 'It's the End of the World!: The Influence of The Birds on the Evil Child Film". In Olson, D, (eds) Children in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pg. 193-217. Available at:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137472816_11#citeas (Accessed 11 October 2018)

This page is referenced by:

Birds in the literary imagination
Gemma Collard

My chosen topic for the research clusters is ‘bird worlds’, though I will be working collaboratively in the broader ‘atmospheres’ cluster. My interest in this area stems from having grown up surrounded by myriad bird species, with a father who can name them by call, and who builds model aeroplanes to share the sky with them.

The first article I came across was Kadrii Tüür’s “Bird Sounds in Nature Writing: Human Perspective on Animal Communication.” Though at first glance the title may seem to mark the article as a scientific paper, Tüür quickly identifies that the paper aims to highlight the importance of fiction (specifically nature writing) as a means of subjective documentation of bird species, which serves as an important addition to scientific notes on species. She also goes on to suggest that “inter-species’ communication is one of the zoosemiotic topics that needs to be reflected upon in the framework of the analysis of nature writing.” (p.588). The reason for this, she suggests, is that semiotics is inherently subjective; she makes no claim that we can understand the intentionality of birds, but instead suggests that there is worth in exploring the emotions evoked in humankind from our interactions with birds (and that this emotionality is unique to literature). Of particular interest to me is that nature writing allegedly often contains a visual component – as an amateur photographer and keen creative writer, I am inspired to try my own hand at nature writing, with a particular focus on birds. I feel also that having an image alongside writing may challenge authors to give a more accurate account, as if the image is there to be elaborated on, but also to remind an author of what is being expressed.

My second article is Barbara Holloway’s “The Logic of Birds”, which reads more like a piece of nature writing or a kind of eco-fictocriticism. She applies many of the characteristic techniques of nature writing that Tüür outlines in her discussion. Holloway’s description of small birds is fascinating – she captures the immense speed of their movements with the rushed prose that seems to barely document each action as it whirlwinds into the next. Holloway also makes powerful use of scientific papers and constructs her recollections of time spent with birds around quotes from such papers. To my mind, this is reminiscent of the way a literary critic might use a quote to support their assertions about a text. Can scientific backing allow us to overcome the limitations of language in capturing our experiences? I am certainly interested in this idea, and the sort of reversal that articles and fiction share in the space of nature writing.

References

Holloway, Barbara. “The Logic of Birds.” Southerly, vol. 64, no. 2, 2004, pp. 136–146.

Tüür, Kadri. “Bird Sounds in Nature Writing: Human Perspective on Animal Communication.” Sign Systems Studies/Trudy Po Znakovym Sistemam/TöId MäRgisüSteemide Alalt: Semeiotike, vol. 37, no. 3-4, 2009, pp. 580–613.