In Daphne du Maurier’s short story from 1952, birds start attacking humans viciously. It doesn’t seem to be a local phenomenon, rather it happens simultaneously all over the world. With an estimated bird population between 200 and 400 billion, which appear to have one common goal – to get rid of the human race – the outlook seems bleak for humanity.
Modern society is vulnerable
And that seems to be the point; humans are vulnerable. Daphne du Maurier has chosen birds as the enemy, probably inspired by the recent WW2. The bird attacks do have an obvious resemblance to the air raids during the war. But it might as well have been a different animal or a different threat.
In the short term we can of course protect ourselves from air raids, angry birds π or even a contagious virus, by sheltering in our homes or going underground. But our modern, complex way of life will still depend critically on an intricate infrastructure to get food, clean water and fuel. We also rely on the smooth working of the global transport network to move people and goods around. It isn’t actually that difficult to bring our society and economy more or less to a stop. And if we do something drastic such as attacking birds all over the world with poisonous gas or destroy the enemy with an atom bomb, we ruin the crops, the animals and the very foundation for our own existence.
Central governance structure – taking away our initiative?
Opposite other creatures on earth, we have governments who tell us what to do, especially in a crisis. This obviously has huge advantages. In a war, fighting together in an organised way has much more impact than every man for himself. But once we have got used to being told what to do, what happens when the government doesn’t guide us?
When the birds start their inexplicable attacks, we follow Nat and his wife clinging to the radio, their only lifeline to the outside world and to the people in charge. But soon the radio stops broadcasting. Fortunately, Nat is able to act on his own initiative, but not everybody seems capable of thinking for themselves, which has immediate consequences.
There is also the possibility, *ahem*, that the government simply doesn’t have the means to solve the crisis. Nat certainly has his doubts.
It’s always the same”, he muttered. They always let us down. Muddle, muddle, from the start. No plan, no real organisation.
Have humans become arrogant?
We are used to be on top of the food chain. We aren’t necessarily the strongest, but we are – probably – the smartest. Has that made us arrogant? Nat’s neighbours go out with shotguns, meaning to have some “fun” with the birds. And the government sends out reconnaissance planes. With the sheer number of birds, both missions are clearly doomed and shouldn’t have been attempted in the first place.
In Hitchcock’s adaptation, our arrogance is spelled out even further, showing how humans keep birds in cages.
Some have interpreted the bird attacks in the story as nature’s answer to our arrogance, irresponsible behaviour and overcrowding of earth. Interestingly, the same has been said about Covid-19. I don’t believe in any moral causality as such, but on a low-practical level, it may be the case that the transfer of Covid to humans is closely linked to the way we handle wild animals.
The upper hand of the suicide killer
The birds in the story are suicidal and put the overall goal before their own lives. This is an important part of their power. The problem with a suicidal enemy is the lack of a weak spot. An enemy caring for their own life is vulnerable, which can be utilised. If they don’t care, odds are they can do a lot of damage before going down. The Japanese kamikaze pilots demonstrated that under WW2 and we have seen the same with terror attacks in more recent time.
Artificial intelligence and hive minds
The attacks from the birds are unanimously targeted towards humans and the attacks are highly coordinated, following the rhythm of the tide. Hence, the birds effectively function as a hive mind.
[Nat] wondered how many millions of years of memory were stored in those little brains, behind the stabbing beaks,the piercing eyes, now giving them this instinct to destroy mankind with all the deft precision of machines.
This gave me associations to another threat we might be facing. Most scientists agree, it’s a matter of time before we humans manage to produce artificial intelligence smarter than us, i.e. superintelligence. This threat has similarities to the birds; a coordinated hive mind, which exists all over the world and works brutally towards one common goal.
Nick Bostrom’s excellent Superintelligence describes the problem of controlling such a force, which per definition is a lot smarter than humans. Trust me, it is truly frightening.
When Daphne du Maurier wrote The Birds in 1952, she had the experience of WW2 clear in mind and some critics also think she predicted the cold war. When reading the story some 70 years later it gave me associations to modern phenomena such as Covid-19, suicide attacks and AI. I have no doubts, future generations will be able to relate it to, whichever threats they are facing at the time. The sign of a true classic.
Title: The Birds [1952] Author: Daphne du Maurier Format: eBook Genre: Horror, Classics
Great post! Continued relevance on a thematic level (as well as a gripping story) is definitely the sign of well crafted fiction. Du Maurier was a master.
Thanks Callum, she really was a master and I was surprised how much I liked The Birds, since I have very mixed experiences with short stories. But this one was perfect!
Wow this is super interesting! It’s years since I last read ‘The Birds’ and I never would have considered the parallels otherwise.
I am glad you found it interesting! Probably some of my thoughts were driven by the fact that we are in a bit of a mess at the moment. If I’d read it at another time, I might just have enjoyed it as a captivating story (which it really was).
Interesting and highly relevant. Shared to my Facebook.
I am glad you found it interesting and thanks so much for sharing to Facebook (although I am sure photo’s of people’s dinners will always be a lot more popular than posts like this π). I did see your message, the reason your comment didn’t appear was that you are a first time commenter, so I had to approve it. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Wow! This was a great post, so many great thoughts π thanks for sharing
Thanks so much, I enjoyed writing it and I am glad you liked it!
Wonderful exploration of all the many ways we could be snuffed out of existence! I do think we rely too much on governments to do all the heavy lifting – all these people out partying and refusing to wear a mask or socially distance, and then blaming the government for failing to halt the spread of the disease, etc. But the threat that scares me most is definitely the AI one, or indeed, science in general. Not that I’m anti-science, far from it – I fully expect them to get us out of all the holes we dig for ourselves. But I wish occasionally they’d restrain themselves a bit! I read about an idea to fill the atmosphere with, I think, sulphur of some description to counteract the effects of global warming, and the scientist who was proposing it was cheerfully admitting that if it all went wrong it would mean the end of life as we know it, but hey! Still worth a try… π
PS Yes, it’s a great story!
Thanks FF. I generally think that if we get more responsibility, we take more responsibility. Unfortunately, I still think it would be too much of a risky experiment to let everyone use their own judgement during a crisis like Covid.
Haha, yes science is both wonderful (and the reason we live so comfortable lives instead of living in caves) and scary. It’s like Mount Everest: Why do we have to risk our lives to get to the top? Because we CAN. Why do we have to develop AI, which is so smart it might finish us off? Because we can and it would be a massive achievement. I 100% understand it, I have the same instinct myself. But we should definitely make sure we have some proper regulation around it. The problem as we have seen from tech companies and the financial sectors is: These sectors are so inventive and the development moves so fast. Also it takes some extremely smart people to be able to really understand what goes on. This is why the regulation always comes years after the problems. With certain inventions such as superintelligence, introducing regulation after it has started to go wrong is of course way too late. Ok, this sounded a bit bleak. It wasn’t meant like that and I am definitely a huge supporter of science in general.
I haven’t actually read The Birds. It’s one of those book it’s easy to be so aware of that one THINKS one has read it. But now I shall. And yes indeed. It’s the sign of a great book if the message is as relevant today as it was when it was written. What a thought provoking and interesting post. Thanks.
Thanks Margaret. Before I started blogging I didn’t even know, there was a story (admittedly a very different story) behind the Hitchkock film. I know – where have I been?! It was definitely worth reading and being a short story, it won’t take you long to get through it.
First source it though …
Do you have an e-reader? You can find pdf-version online via google, although I’m not sure whether there are some copyright issues with these versions, so it may be safer to buy the collection of short stories, where it features.
That’s what I’ll do then. I don’t get on with e-readers at all. I got my husband one for his birthday last year, and neither of us uses it, ever π What a waste!
Ah don’t give up on e-reading yet. Once we start traveling again, you may see the benefit of being able to bring a whole library with you across the world – in your handbag. That was why I got an e-reader in the first place, but now I wouldn’t be able to live without it.
We’ll see … good advice though.
wow, fabulous analysis! Thanks so much for writing this, it gives so much background depth for reading this classic
Aww thanks so much, I am glad you liked it! The story initiated so many thoughts in my head and I thought, I might as well write them down.
Love how you were able to make it just as relevant today by finding all these things to allude to as you read this classic. It’s actually a Hitchcock movie I have high on my list of priorities myself. Excellent thoughts as always! π
Thanks Lashaan, be aware that the Hitchcock movie is quite different from the original story. It’s inspired by the story, but it isn’t really an adaptation. Still, it’s a great movie!
Great post! The Birds is one of my favourite short stories and in my opinion, one of DdM’s best although there are many I’ve not yet read. I’ve not reread it during our current predicament but I agree entirely with the parallels you draw. Hope all is well, Stargazer. I’m slowly easing myself back into the blogging world π
Thanks Sandra, I haven’t got very far with my du Maurier reading, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up having The Birds as one of my favourites as well. It was exceedingly well-written and she made such a big impression with relatively few words. It is great to see you back in the blogging world! π
I had no idea the war was her inspiration and there was so much depth and relevance to the story even today. Great post!
No, I thought that was an interesting fact as well. But you can definitely see some similarity between the bird attacks and the air raids during the war. Thanks Inge!
I like your thoughts on this one! Lots of food for thought. Written so long ago, yet so relevant today. I really really want to read this, but alas, there are just too many frigging good books! π I love this post, stargazer!
Thanks so much! I have to say that this is such a short story, so it wouldn’t take you much time to read it. And it really is a great one! π
Iβm gonna KIV this! Youβre not helping With my tbr!!! π
I am sorry! (no not really ππ).
Stargazer, I just came across this article. It may interest you. I’ve never been a fan of the film but I want to watch it again now with these observations firmly in mind.
https://www.tor.com/2021/01/28/du-maurier-hitchcock-and-the-judgement-of-the-birds/
Thanks so much, Sandra, that is indeed a very interesting article. I like, that it mentions some of the same ideas and quotes that I included (so much for my “original” thoughts ππ), but the points about the Hitchkock film are interesting as well. I have a more positive view on the film than you, possibly because I didn’t know about the du Maurier story when watching. But I definitely think Hitchkock had some ideas of his own.