There's been a bit of a thread going on with " fictional birds" .... and especially, those "undefined" birds, where we don't really know for sure what they are. I've already dealt with, but not resolved, the issue of that " black bird" which is used to distract Kanga in "The House at Pooh Corner" , and that undefined "Owl" ,well, a stuffed owl actually, in a Wordsworth poem. I found this one recently, featuring quite heavily in a very famous French novel, "Zazie dans le Métro" . It's a "parrot" named "Laverdure" ..and a very odd one too. He is owned by one " Turandot." All Laverdure ever says ( well, almost) is ... " Tu causes, tu causes, c'est tout ce que tu sais faire." "You chatter, you chatter, it's all that you can do " Throughout the book, from his no doubt incredibly boring cage, that's all he says. In the German version, it's .. " Du quasselst, du quasselst, das ist alles, was du kannst." (Just showing off there a bit.)( The Spanish version ( Zazie en el Metro ) is very expensive ..otherwise I could show you that as well. All donations towards its purchase gratefully accepted. ) But in the penultimate chapter,at the parting of the ways, he says ... hang on, "spoiler alert" ... " Alors au revoir, les gars !" ( " Na denn, auf Wiedersehn, Jungens.") That hardly needs a translation. BUT ... enough of this skirting around the issue ... what blasted sort of "parrot" is he ? That's where the author has let us down badly. That book cover up on the left is no use. It's just been bunged on there by the cover designer ( easy job that) without a moment's thought. It seems to be the bastard offspring of those two parrots up at the top there. Maybe. with an added bowler hat. So what is he ? The author, Raymond Queneau, is long dead, so we can't ask him. Plus, I've been reading a book about Zazie dans le métro which deeply analyses every " petit morceau" of the novel, but signally fails to get to the bottom of this suspiciously deep but also very important mystery. I'd have thought that it should have been uppermost in his to-do list. You'll probably want your own copy ... there it is below . ... if you're going to join the growing band of "Laverdure-istas" who are determined to get to the bottom of all this, find out what species of "parrot" he is and mount a campaign to get parrots out of their cages. There's a tantalising glimpse of what might be the "parrot" in the film of the book ... but you've got to be quick .. it's at 25 seconds ... .. but that surely can't be it . It looks stuffed to me. One obvious and vital question is ... do all parrots have the ability to talk ? The internet says,er, yes, and no, and everything in between. So that's no use. I've even invested in a huge parrot book .... it's the book that's huge by the way ... but it says very little about which ones can, or cannot, talk. Bah. I've even sunk to the depths of consulting wikipedia !! ( Wackypedia) Here's what it has to say about "fictional parrots" ... ...hardly anything really .... Psittaciformes
¡¡¡¡¡ C R I P E S !!!!! Hey ... there's no mention of Laverdure in that tiny list. But that's not all I've found .... there's a whole chapter about Laverdure and Turandot at the far end of this link ... the Laverdure section starts 2/3 of the way down on page 90..... there's bags of other parrots referenced in there as well..... books.google.co.uk/books?id=DeATDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT102&lpg=PT102&dq=Laverdure+and+Turandot&source=bl&ots=HaIWQbXAks&sig=KQKkZq4xQAQVDgYu44hmQDfe4_w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9iKj6gbXdAhVoKcAKHStLBHoQ6AEwBnoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=Laverdure%20and%20Turandot&f=false I, by the way, am now "Lavedure-ista" #773 But I still haven't a clue what sort of parrot he is. If you have any theories, madcap or not, you could tell me about them... [email protected] Try to keep it down to less than 6000 words if possible. Right .... that's enough tripe and codswollop for one day ,,, let's have some proper music ... very appropriate, this one, for such a windy autumn day as this ... Eva Cassidy ... " Autumn Leaves."
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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