[ 4 minute read ]
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Sulk and Blackbird
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I was reading a Wilbur Smith book last night, ‘The Dark of the Sun’, by Mandarin Books, 1997, but the copyright is for 1965, one year after Wilbur Smith became a full time writer at the age of 30 or 31 years old. William Heinemann, as the original publishers, produced a far superior edition. In an opening scene, I was struck by a description of the protagonist, a portion went like this: ‘Black eyebrows slanting upwards at the corners, green eyes with a heavy fringe of lashes and a mouth which could smile as readily as it could sulk.’ Personally, I think physical descriptions of characters in books is interference in the story unless it is essential for the plot. If this character, Bruce Curry, is mistaken for someone else, then fine, let me, the reader, know how this comes about, but gratuitously adding someone’s physical attributes in a story reminds me of ‘Chekov’s Gun’; if the gun is not going to be used in the plot, don’t include it in the story. However, as a tool to provide scope or distinction, including a gun that will not be used can be fun for the reader and useful to the nuanced picture, such as ‘His efforts were about as much use as an unloaded musket in a tank battle’, as a simile. The second thing that struck me was the cadence during the latter part of the sentence combined with the abruptness of the end. The word ‘sulk’ has a hard final letter sound. I couldn’t help hearing a Northern English comedian of yester-times saying, ….’with a mouth that could smile as readily as it could sulk’, or him saying something malicious to describe his mother-in-law. So, it is in a Yorkshire accent that the word ‘sulk’ sounds best to me.
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Anyone who knows Morse code might recognise this cadence as SITT U I EE, or if you cut and paste .... .. - - / ..- / .. / . . into the Morse Code Translator at https://morsecode.world/international/translator.html you can hear the cadence as dots and dashes (‘with a mouth that could smile as readily as it could sulk’)
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I think if you are using a phone, you can have it vibrate for the respective lengths instead of hear the tone.
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In trying to find the same cadence in birdsong, I got lost in a dream for a while on the RSPB site, ‘Bird song identifier: 15 common bird sounds for beginners’, while also searching for evocative birdsong.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/identifying-birds/bird-song-identifier#2.-blackbird
which is the male Blackbird song.
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For me, the Blackbird simply IS Summer. It reminds me of the last light in our quite large garden as we, as primary school-age children, played hide and seek. It is a time of transition; when light changes to dark; when there comes a chill and we want to go inside and do something else; it is a sound of finality; no, not finality, completeness and satisfaction – there is nothing malevolent or circumscribing in its voice. The sound is an echo of the day, even if that day included loss or disappointment when it says, ‘Oh well, you can’t win them all’. Yet there is also no hope in it. If the day was fun and unmarred by sourness or stain, it says, ‘Okay, fondly re-run the day in your head. Fold this day up and remember and treasure it; it’s night-time now and time for something else.’
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Some people like the feeling of hot candle wax dripped on their skin by their partner; some people like the feeling of being stung by a stinging nettle after an hour or so; some people like tangy sweets; some people like to carefully and slowly sink into a bath that is a bit too hot; the Blackbird’s evening song, for me, is ice sliding down my back on my sunburn.