"Before it ends you will understand everything." (12)

Note: It is difficult to describe the plot of this story, as it can be read out of order and that can change the way things happen.

Unique Elements that arise from The Deathbird

• Formating taken from Nietzsche
  • Thus Spake Zarathustra
  • Writing without the intention of fitting it into a book (same media given, but through different mediums)

• Tables(?) and other formating are recent developments.
• Telling a story from different angles rather then in chronological order.
  • While a table of contents, index, and page numbers are supposed to make reading easier, they are unnatural
• Good stories place restrictions on readers and plays within that structure.
  • You don't want free space. If the reader can bend all the rules, you don't have a story.

Themes

• About begginings and endings
  • Nathan
  • World
  • Mom
  • Dog
• Letting Go
• Power and control
• Deciphering good vs evil
• Word is true. Elison says the word is not true, the word MAKES truth.
  • The power to narrate and tell a story isn't the power to descirbe the world, but the power to determine the world.
• Love
• Re-examine traditional religious beliefs
  • For example: Is God the good guy because he runs a better PR campaign than Satan?

Mysteries that drive the text

• What is the purpose of the discussion questions?
• What is the purpose of the Deathbird? - haunts the end of the passage
• Dog Passage - Allegory
• Who is the Narrarator? Who is writing the discussion questions?
• What is the center of the story?

External Links

Deathbird Stories @ ScifiPedia