The Aristo-Cat of Letters, Sir Thomas, was no ordinary feline. In his extensive, wood-panelled library, where books stacked in precarious towers rivalled the ones found in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, he pursued a singular passion: literary research on avian subjects. His current focus was, of course, the classic Harper Lee novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our British Shorthair tabby was a serious scholar. Adorned in his round spectacles, paws resting on the pages of his open book, he was a fixture of intellectual rigour. But after finishing Chapter 9, he was frustrated. And so he began to suspect a grand conspiracy by the avian world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem, he deduced, was that his library was too civilised. If he wanted to find a mockingbird, he needed to investigate in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018They\u2019re mocking me,\u2019<\/em> Sir Thomas hissed, a sophisticated, bespectacled hiss. \u2018I am the only valid Mockingcat, and these authors write entire novels about mythical birds that are always killed off-page.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He decided on an experimental approach. He would build a decoy. A \u201cmocking-mockingbird\u201d. He gathered feathers from a dusty duster, glued them to a walnut shell, and placed it on a low branch in the library\u2019s window nook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, he waited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within hours, a real Starling alighted near the decoy. Sir Thomas watched from behind his stack of classic books. The bird inspected the decoy. Then, he looked directly at the cat, a glint of genuine amusement in his tiny eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, he began to sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it wasn\u2019t a normal song. It was a perfect mimicry of Sir Thomas\u2019s own sophisticated, slightly haughty food-can-opener<\/em> meow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sir Thomas stilled entirely at the sound. The audacity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the bird switched, replicating the sound of Sir Thomas\u2019s squeaky leather chair and the distinct, scratching sound of his nails on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was psychological warfare. The starling was mocking the Mockingcat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Aha!\u2019 Sir Thomas announced, pushing off Moby-Dick<\/em> and knocking over a stack of novels. \u2018The novel is real! I have found the essence!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n He adjusted his spectacles and prepared to write his critical review. The title would be: The Mockingbird: A Case Study in Sonic Mockery and Literary Deception of the Primal Predatory Form.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He would include an annotation about how the bird had the gall to mimic his sophisticated purr. It was an outrage, but a scientifically validated one. Decoying a Mockingcat was a sin, indeed, but one that finally provided results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Author\u2019s Note<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sir Thomas was right in his own judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the original first printed edition (1960, J.B. Lippincott & Co.) of To Kill a Mockingbird,<\/em> the word \u2018mockingbird\u2019 is mentioned for the first time on page 90. It appears during the famous scene where Atticus is giving Jem and Scout their air rifles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Atticus said to Jem one day, ‘I\u2019d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you\u2019ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit \u2019em, but remember it\u2019s a sin to kill a mockingbird<\/em>.’<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n If you are reading one of the standard, widely distributed paperback editions, this same passage usually falls somewhere between page 103 and page 119, depending on the specific text layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The problem, he deduced, was that his library was too civilised. If he wanted to find a mockingbird, he needed to investigate in the field<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[49,64,13],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[579],"class_list":["post-3777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-experimental-prose","category-trails"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
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