9 Comments

The scene-setting is so tense, the brutalist architecture risen from the ashes of the bombed city, decomposing pigeon the idea of a nest built from bird-bones, and the ringing of the church bells.

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Thank you. I really enjoyed this piece as an exercise in writing imagery and trying to construct something from the bits and pieces seen (and heard) from my balcony.

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I enjoyed the result :)

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Could be the basis of a fascinating uncanny story in which the birds were somehow connected to the mysterious explosion.

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I like that. That's a good direction.

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Top tip: Birds are always uncanny. Something about their latent dinosaurosity

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I think its also something to do with the fact that no one actually knowing how smart they are. I heard the other day that crows can pass on their grudges against specific humans inter-generationally. Other animals are just base instincts.

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In fact me and some chums have an “uncanny anthology” themed around birds which is due to come out next month (though I’ll believe that when I see it). My bit is about a bloke who gets tarred and feathered back in the 17th century and consequently becomes a sectarian Birdman avenger right the way into the Troubles of the 1970s-90s.

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That sounds really amazing. Please let me know when and where it can be read. I had this idea long ago of a comic-book story about a Dutch sailor in colonial Cape Town who gets bitten by one of the seagulls in the harbour and becomes some sort of vengeful Seagull-man.

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