Escape Artists

PseudoPod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Bdoomed on January 20, 2022, 05:50:58 AM

Title: PseudoPod 793: And No Bird Sings
Post by: Bdoomed on January 20, 2022, 05:50:58 AM
PseudoPod 793: And No Bird Sings (https://pseudopod.org/2022/01/14/pseudopod-793-and-no-bird-sings/)

Author: E.F. Benson (https://pseudopod.org/people/e-f-benson/)
Narrator: Marc Burrows (https://pseudopod.org/people/marc-burrows/)
Host: Scott Campbell (https://pseudopod.org/people/scott-campbell/)
Audio Producers: Chelsea Davis (https://pseudopod.org/people/chelsea-davis/) and Shawn Garrett (https://pseudopod.org/people/shawn-garrett-2/)

“And No Bird Sings” was first published in the magazine Woman, December 1926.



Show Notes
 “Birdsong & Elemental Slug” soundbed by Shawn M. Garrett, dedicated to Adi Newton & The Anti-Group (TAGC)



The red chimneys of the house for which I was bound were visible from just outside the station at which I had alighted, and, so the chauffeur told me, the distance was not more than a mile’s walk if I took the path across the fields. It ran straight till it came to the edge of that wood yonder, which belonged to my host, and above which his chimneys were visible. I should find a gate in the paling of this wood, and a track traversing it, which debouched close to his garden. So, in this adorable afternoon of early May, it seemed a waste of time to do other than walk through meadows and woods, and I set off on foot, while the motor carried my traps.

It was one of those golden days which every now and again leak out of Paradise and drip to earth. Spring had been late in coming, but now it was here with a burst, and the whole world was boiling with the sap of life. Never have I seen such a wealth of spring flowers, or such vividness of green, or heard such melodious business among the birds in the hedgerows; this walk through the meadows was a jubilee of festal ecstasy. And best of all, so I promised myself, would be the passage through the wood newly fledged with milky green that lay just ahead. There was the gate, just facing me, and I passed through it into the dappled lights and shadows of the grass-grown track.

Coming out of the brilliant sunshine was like entering a dim tunnel; one had the sense of being suddenly withdrawn from the brightness of the spring into some subaqueous cavern. The tree-tops formed a green roof overhead, excluding the light to a remarkable degree; I moved in a world of shifting obscurity. Presently, as the trees grew more scattered, their place was taken by a thick growth of hazels, which met over the path, and then, the ground sloping downwards, I came upon an open clearing, covered with bracken and heather, and studded with birches. But though now I walked once more beneath the luminous sky, with the sunlight pouring down, it seemed to have lost its effulgence. The brightness—was it some odd optical illusion?—was veiled as if it came through crêpe. Yet there was the sun still well above the tree-tops in an unclouded heaven, but for all that the light was that of a stormy winter’s day, without warmth or brilliance. It was oddly silent, too; I had thought that the bushes and trees would be ringing with the song of mating-birds, but listening, I could hear no note of any sort, neither the fluting of thrush or blackbird, nor the cheerful whirr of the chaffinch, nor the cooing wood-pigeon, nor the strident clamour of the jay. I paused to verify this odd silence; there was no doubt about it. It was rather eerie, rather uncanny, but I supposed the birds knew their own business best, and if they were too busy to sing it was their affair.




Listen to this week's PseudoPod. (https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/pseudopod/Pseudo793_AndNoBirdSings.mp3)
Follow us on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtLeMuTcFDtF2C3MiF6GPfQ) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/7ahtswbjEhqKQifCwMX8o1?si=GMgBgLFHRsCzJ8xlvf9nOw)!