parrots in Pynchon

[kelber at mindspring.com]

On the other hand, though, parrots bite.  Nothing magical or hallucinogenic about that.  When I was a kid, my big sister had a parrot named Zoe that bit really hard when you stuck your finger in the cage.  Kind of the same personality as Joaquin, the parrot in ATD. 

I have an acquaintance who treats her pet parrot like he's a kitty-cat.  She cradles him in her arms, strokes his tummy and feeds him bits of cheese and even chicken.  He knows lots of phrases, all in Russian, and when he sees a treat he wants, he shouts:  Vkusna! (tasty!).

They're complex animals, with lots of personality.  Maybe they're the hippies of the avian kingdom?

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>

>
>Let's riff on this for a moment....parrots are like tripping, 
>getting high, giggling and talking a lot; parrots are like
>magical realism, flights of surreal connections -verbally--, 
>what is 'reality' re the parrots asks Bekah and maybe
>
>the reality is that they mediate reality--that huge Vineland theme--
>with words that connect magically, so to speak, like word-users
>who mediate reality for us?  Words they hear but repeat in unusual
>ways.  a small symbol of the writer in the modern world?
>
>
>      
>