VLVL2 and NPPF: Birds [was VLVL2 (1): Annotations (pp. 3 - 4)]

[Tim Strzechowski]

> Must remember that bird references are ubiquitous in VL, and tend to be
> associated with the communication of stories and ideas, often of an
> ahistorical kind (see for ex the story telling parrot on p. 223). The
> militant jays (which figure symbolically in the ending) conspicuously
> contrast with the pigeons - TP is tipping his hand that he is working
> within a dialectic. Jays are among the most aggressive and striking
> looking of birds while pigeons are commonplace, rather dirty, but a member
> of the dove family and thus associated with peace. I believe (must check
> this later), whereas jays will disrupt other bird's nests, pigeons mate
> for life, an obvious contrast between domestic felicity and potential
> domestic tragedy. (And sonically, pigeon = Pynchon) PIgeons are also
> associated with messaging in other ways, i.e. stool pigeons, and, of
> course, with being a victim; jays are militant, of this world, while
> pigeons are badly suited to this world, i.e. icons of another world. It's
> interesting that Pynchon describes Zoyd's inability to read or understand
> the message of the other-worldly pigeons a the beginning of his own book,
> seemingly an ironic invocation to readers, and that he uses the phrase,
> "but none of whom . . . he could ever get get to in time." The contrast is
> subtly made between what doesn't understand "in time," that is the
> profane, and what might understand 'out of time,' the sacred.
>

This is excellent, and I must admit I hadn't thought before about the
significance of birds in this book in particular.  This gives me something
to look more closely at in the upcoming chapters.

For those reading PF, is there a similar significance to birds in the novel?

Tim