A Bird with No Wings
On the topic of weird things, the dinornis was certainly one of them. Reaching up to 10 feet tall, the dinornis resembled an ostrich -- except it didn't have wings! It is this interesting tidbit, along with the fact that this species was hunted to extinction by humans, plays an important role in "Was He Dead?" (for more info on dinornis(es?) visit http://www.newzealandfauna.com/moa.php).
The dinornis lacked the ability to fly; however, in the story, Purpel suspends the egg from the ceiling, putting it in a state similar to that of "flight." The unnaturalness of this situation continuously pops up throughout "Was He Dead?," reflecting the rather ominous and bizarre nature of Purpel's experiments. Purpel puts the egg in a dangerous position, when at any moment it can fall and gush "ten pounds of lime" (Mitchell 222). His quest to bring a dead man back to life, too, places the beliefs of his friends and himself in a precarious situation -- when it backfires, they are all left with the terrible realization that they've sinned by defying the laws of Nature. So in a way, this "failed" experiment dashes any hopes the three friends may have had of discovering Nature's secrets about life and death; in other words, the dinornis egg (which represents some of the biggest mysteries science seeks to unveil) the will never hatch into a dinornis (a state of enlightenment and omniscience). In this story, man has in effect hunted the dinornis to extinction, just as was the case in reality.
posted by Quinn at 10:11 PM
3 Comments:
After reading the website about the dinornis, I thought of another possible symbol the egg could be. Since the bird is extinct, perhaps the egg could contain a baby bird before hatching or the genetic material to create the bird (like Jurassic Park). Therefore, it is possible that the egg represents new knowledge, waiting to be discovered (cracked open). As it swings around the room in "Was He Dead?", it could hit something and crack open at any moment, revealing its insides.
If in fact the egg represents undiscovered knowledge, I think that it is significant that the dinornis is extinct. Once humans became interested in dinornis, it was hunted to extinction. So is it possible that the author is suggesting that once the "new knowledge" is discovered, it will lead to the ultimate demise?
I think that Ami raises a very interesting philosophical question that is really at heart in all of these "danger of science" stories, how much is too much and where does it end? Specifically, as she said, when does discovery or advancement become dangerous and how far should scientists push into the realm of the unexplored?
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