Grammar for Birds.
Behind-the-scenes research post.
I am writing about coincidences lately. Funnily enough, as I typed this line I was trying to figure out where my pigeon handling TikTok went, and a DJ on another tab said “this collar is turning my hair into a bird nest”. If you were wondering, it’s Hana. This link goes to the exact moment.
These coincidences are a lot of fun, especially if you ascribe significance to them.
But why was I looking at birds today?
A few months ago we had a poll to decide what sort of content you’d like to see, and a few of you wanted to know what research my human brain does before writing human stories.
Now, as I’ve not yet sunk my brain into a vast tank of nebulous sources / sauces and mixed it around until it becomes murky and confused, so I can often recollect what research I’ve done for each story. A few years ago, my university poetry collections were inspired by Futurism articles, and now I enjoy science videos on Youtube. I’ve gone through a lot of Richard Dawkins and Roger Penrose (books and videos) for my heavier books; and for a short story about a pigeon I am currently working on, I’ve just realised it might be helpful if I learn about bird language too.
Because I like my worlds to be detailed.
How fortuitous. I was going to just show you this because it is cool (and therefore is ‘general research’ - stuff I learn but not for a specific story, which no doubt will show up somewhere eventually) and now it has a proper reason to be slotted into the expanding universe of stories and research.
The pigeon story this bird research should1 show up in is WHO REBUILT THE HUMANS? which is the book coming -after- WHO KILLED THE HUMANS? so you’ve got a while left to wait considering WKTH isn’t even out yet.
But it is being edited, and it is looking like the launch will be Summer 2026. About which, I am looking into merging a comedy show with a book launch, perhaps for THE MANCHESTER FRINGE. I will let you know how this goes.
So, today I turn my computer on to write, set up a Youtube playlist, and find in my recommended bar a video about bird grammar (linked at the end of this email).
It is fascinating. I am going to have to watch it a second time this morning to reabsorb it. Professor Toshitaka Suzuki ponders if our distant ancestors might have, at some point in time, understood the complex languages of animals.
I think we did. Maybe long ago we could ask the animals about the lands ahead, plan accordingly.
But now we have drifted so far from the natural world thanks to our tremendous capacity for invention, that we have now a new linguistic landscape, a simulation of reality. You are in that simulation right now, as you disentangle the pixels on your screen into symbols, which in turn open out like flowers to reveal context and code. This word here makes sense to you because you learned it, and all the relationships and underlying codes which make the word ‘word’ mean something.
And at the same time, you’ve probably forgotten how to ask magpies where the nearest river is.
Or, it is more true to say, someone before you forgot it, and didn’t pass it on.
We have ‘invented’ storytelling2, a device which animals definitely already had, but we added layers of detail to. Intergenerational stories enabled humans to collect information over generations much faster than evolutionary processes could pick up on. But isn’t that itself evolutionary? Our capacity to pass information (and fart jokes) down from generation to generation is why I didn’t have to reinvent the computer in order to send you this email.
What a timesaver that has been.
Thank you, past clever people.
Anyway, bird language.
When I say ‘should’ I mean that my writing process is not mechanical. It’s entirely possible another story grows which takes over the space the pigeon story might otherwise have used. This happened in WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? in 2019, where a story titled MENHIR (about alien abductions and gorillas) was cut out of the book in favour of an expansion to what is now known as EARTHLOOP stories.
Also, the WORLD’S BEYOND IMAGINATION free fic friday shelf is still live for 43 hours, if you’re interested.
Whilst we are talking of storytelling, I wanted to remind you that BEYOND IMAGINATION bookshelf is still live, and will be for about 39 hours after this post goes out.