{"id":26720,"date":"2017-07-30T13:13:35","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T17:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=26720"},"modified":"2017-07-30T13:40:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T17:40:29","slug":"the-last-dodo-and-dreams-of-flying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2017\/07\/the-last-dodo-and-dreams-of-flying.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;The Last Dodo and Dreams of Flying&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center>A reading at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.albionbeatnik.co.uk\/about\/\">Albion Beatnik Bookshop<\/a> in Oxford<br \/> from a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenewriverpress.com\/shop\/heathcote-williams-the-last-dodo-and-dreams-of-flying\">book of poetry<\/a> published by New River Press.<\/center><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FujqhSwaKm8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><font size=2><center><em> \u2018I hope you love birds, too. It is economical. It saves going to Heaven.\u2019<\/em><br \/> <em><strong>&#8212; Emily Dickinson<\/strong>, from a letter to Eugenia Hall<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018Why,\u2019 said the Dodo, \u2018the best way to explain it is to do it.\u2019<\/em><br \/>\n<em><strong>&#8212; Lewis Carroll<\/strong>, from Alice&#8217;s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Lewis Carroll was nicknamed the Dodo<br \/>\nBecause of his inveterate stutter.<br \/>\nAsked his name, he\u2019d reply \u2018Do-Do-Dodgson\u2019.<br \/>\nHe found \u2018Carroll\u2019 easier to utter.<\/p>\n<p>So Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the clergyman,<br \/>\nBecame Lewis Carroll, author of distinction,<br \/>\nWho\u2019d revive the Dodo in his \u2018Alice in Wonderland\u2019 &#8212;<br \/>\nThe real Dodo having suffered from extinction.<\/p>\n<p>For Lewis Carroll had been very intrigued<br \/>\nBy something he\u2019d seen in a Museum:<br \/>\nA large-cropped bulbous bird that was stuffed<br \/>\nAnd could be seen in the old Ashmolean.<\/p>\n<p>Two hundred years before, a Dodo had been captured<br \/>\nBy sailors stopping off in Mauritius.<br \/>\nThey\u2019d thought it part goose, part vulture and were fearful \u2013<br \/>\nSailors being naturally superstitious.<\/p>\n<p>But the bird was fearless and easily lured aboard<br \/>\nBy an offer of unlimited ship\u2019s biscuits.<br \/>\nBy a miracle the bird survived the crew\u2019s curiosity<br \/>\nAnd their wondering if it tasted delicious.<\/p>\n<p>After it had lived out its life in England<br \/>\nA taxidermist was called when it died.<br \/>\nHe stuffed it and, to retain its luxuriant plumage,<br \/>\nCunning preservatives were applied.<\/p>\n<p>Its first owner in its afterlife was John Tradescant,<br \/>\nWho passed it onto Elias Ashmole,<br \/>\nSince then this comical but salutary creature<br \/>\nHas become a curator of the earth\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n<p>For through it man\u2019s begun to learn that extinction<br \/>\nCan last for the rest of time<br \/>\nAnd thus cherish an inhabitant of paradise whose life<br \/>\nWas ended by a carnivorous crime.<\/p>\n<p>A Dutch sailor, Volkert Evertsz, described the bird<br \/>\nAs showing concern for its fellow creature:<br \/>\n\u201cWhen I held one, he cried and others ran forward<br \/>\nTo help the bird that was held prisoner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In \u2018Wonderland\u2019 the Dodo\u2019s portrayed as benign<br \/>\nGiven its invention of a \u2018caucus race\u2019<br \/>\nIn which everyone entering ends up winning<br \/>\nAnd is accordingly then given a prize.<\/p>\n<p>People say that something\u2019s \u201cas dead as a Dodo\u201d<br \/>\nAs if relishing the Dodo\u2019s demise,<br \/>\nYet it lives on as an innocent victim of that progress<br \/>\nThat prefers sunset to a hopeful sunrise.<\/p>\n<p>The Dodo may have died out from being too nice;<br \/>\nLarge and flightless with an excess of trust.<br \/>\nThose who last saw it alive in the seventeenth century<br \/>\nSaid the Dodo was friendly. And now it\u2019s dust.<\/p>\n<p>When it was alive it was briefly displayed in London<br \/>\nAs part of an urban freak show;<br \/>\nIn death it\u2019s become a testament to the folly of mankind,<br \/>\nA less loveable laughing-stock than the Dodo.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8212; Heathcote Williams<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><font size=1>This poem was previously <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2015\/04\/the-extinction-lesson-of-a-comical-and-salutary-creature.html\">published by Cold Turkey Press<\/a> on a card limited to 36 copies.<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A reading at the Albion Beatnik Bookshop in Oxford from a book of poetry published by New River Press. \u2018I hope you love birds, too. It is economical. It saves going to Heaven.\u2019 &#8212; Emily Dickinson, from a letter to Eugenia Hall \u2018Why,\u2019 said the Dodo, \u2018the best way to explain it is to do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,4,20,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-literature","8":"category-main","9":"category-media","10":"category-news","11":"category-political-culture","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Illustration-\u00a9-by-Elena-Caldera.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-6WY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26720"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26753,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26720\/revisions\/26753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}