Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!i2pn.org!i2pn2.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: jerry.friedman99@gmail.com (jerryfriedman) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,alt.usage.english Subject: Re: 25 Classic Books That Have Been Banned Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2025 20:46:51 +0000 Organization: novaBBS Message-ID: References: <03gqqj562r4vi0kpi2vl8flsi59jsbot56@4ax.com> <2cd9b498-9b17-c4f4-47c3-bd54eb35ac59@example.net> <67b06d56$0$12928$426a74cc@news.free.fr> <26i1rjhcnl5ttd47vnp248s4q3h0gcveov@4ax.com> <67b0f216$0$402$426a74cc@news.free.fr> <67b1ef30$0$12934$426a74cc@news.free.fr> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: i2pn2.org; logging-data="363938"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@i2pn2.org"; posting-account="2yp7FJ0mssg9rlwe2EpnsPKF3Zq6mIDb7xK52/bjWAY"; User-Agent: Rocksolid Light X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 X-Rslight-Site: $2y$10$7LLRZmnqQVjw8ZjK7Uhryedio/XuVuxscsaQwZ2J8D.BBdalts.pi X-Rslight-Posting-User: 2915c02dede52d724ef855d98162b924d8b6326d Bytes: 3942 Lines: 74 On Sun, 16 Feb 2025 13:59:11 +0000, J. J. Lodder wrote: > Peter Moylan wrote: > >> On 16/02/25 06:59, J. J. Lodder wrote: >> >>> First line of the synopsis of the book: >>> "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, >>> but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." >>> It recurs in the text, as advice given to youngsters with air guns. >> >> Where did that synopsis come from? I don't recall reading it. Perhaps >> that is because I read the book, not the synopsis. > > Your edition will probably not have had it. > The Harper Perennial Modern Classics Edition > (Harper Collins) begins with it. > Evidently the series editors see it as -the- key sentence of the book. > It is probably absent in other editions. (full text in .sig) > Note that 'shoot all the bluejays you want' is positive advice. > So here we see a thoroughly nasty 'good' American. > >> I presume that the the author did not write the synopsis. Is it fair to >> criticise a book based on something the author did not write? > > But he did. She (unless you're crediting Truman Capote with that line). > It is quoted verbatim from a line in the text, From your sig: "==== Synopsis "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird". This is a lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this story — a black man charged with raping a white girl in the Deep South of the 1930s (The Harper Perennial Modern Classics Edition) ==== "PS The bluejay is a strictly North American species. It is best compared to the Eurasian Magpie. (Pica pica) This is a very intelligent bird, comparable in abilities to great apes. It is the only non-mamalian species known to pass the mirror test." Why best? Its closest relative is the Steller's Jay of western North America, and it's currently placed in the same subfamily as the other jays of the Americas [*], the sister to the subfamily that contains magpies, crows, ravens, and Old World jays. A Web search confirmed my surmise that the very intelligent bird you mentioned was the Eurasian Magpie, not the Blue Jay. Wikipedia mentions that a species of fish and a species of crab have been reported to pass the mirror test, as well as domestic pigeons after some training (e.g., to look in a mirror in order to find food). It also says that an attempt to replicate the mirror test with Eurasian Magpies didn't find any self-recognition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test Certainly crows, jays, and magpies are among the most intelligent birds, though. [*] Except the Canada Jay. -- Jerry Friedman --