The woman speaks:
What bothered him, what drove him sort of nuts, was that once, he had understood the language of the birds. The language of all the animals, actually. They were as much fun to listen to as you’d think they’d be. The birds especially. But it’s not like they were actually saying anything. They would say things like, “Yoo hoo” or “Here I am” or “Coming.” The baby birds would say, “Feed me feed me food food food.”
The man speaks: But that’s what was so nice. It wasn’t words, like you hear all the time now. I mean words are fun, I love words, but there’s this very beautiful thing that’s not words, but it’s still, I don’t know, still speech, or still language. Expression, I guess. Expression without words, and that’s what he’d lost, that’s what bothered him, he’d swapped one kind of knowledge for another.
The woman speaks: Sometimes it would come back, like if he were sitting at the beach listening to the waves, then he’d hear a sound and know that he was hearing the language of the birds again. But if he listened to it too closely then right away he’d lose it and it was words again, words all lined up in a row, not the beautiful language of the birds.
The man speaks: That’s what naming the animals had been like, honestly. You just listened to what they said and it wasn’t really a trick to name them. It was just what they said. He’d heard that the angels had tried to name the animals and hadn’t been able to, but of course they couldn’t. They couldn’t hear them. I mean, no disrespect but they already knew about good and evil, so of course they couldn’t name them. You know? They didn’t understand what the animals were saying.
The woman speaks: And this is why the idea of a talking bird is so appealing and yet so absurd. What we want to hear them say has nothing to do with what they’re saying. We’re like the angels now, we know too much.
A small brown bird got trapped in the bar
What bothered him, what drove him sort of nuts, was that once, he had understood the language of the birds. The language of all the animals, actually. They were as much fun to listen to as you’d think they’d be. The birds especially. But it’s not like they were actually saying anything. They would say things like, “Yoo hoo” or “Here I am” or “Coming.” The baby birds would say, “Feed me feed me food food food.”
The man speaks: But that’s what was so nice. It wasn’t words, like you hear all the time now. I mean words are fun, I love words, but there’s this very beautiful thing that’s not words, but it’s still, I don’t know, still speech, or still language. Expression, I guess. Expression without words, and that’s what he’d lost, that’s what bothered him, he’d swapped one kind of knowledge for another.
The woman speaks: Sometimes it would come back, like if he were sitting at the beach listening to the waves, then he’d hear a sound and know that he was hearing the language of the birds again. But if he listened to it too closely then right away he’d lose it and it was words again, words all lined up in a row, not the beautiful language of the birds.
The man speaks: That’s what naming the animals had been like, honestly. You just listened to what they said and it wasn’t really a trick to name them. It was just what they said. He’d heard that the angels had tried to name the animals and hadn’t been able to, but of course they couldn’t. They couldn’t hear them. I mean, no disrespect but they already knew about good and evil, so of course they couldn’t name them. You know? They didn’t understand what the animals were saying.
The woman speaks: And this is why the idea of a talking bird is so appealing and yet so absurd. What we want to hear them say has nothing to do with what they’re saying. We’re like the angels now, we know too much.
Song: Small Brown Bird
A small brown bird got trapped in the bar
Where I sat drinking my beer all alone
The barman chased her with a bar towel
And shouted, “Go home! Go home!”
Pursued, she flapped one wing
Hopped up and then started to sing
her song
And I was the only one who heard
That small blue song from that small brown bird
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