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baldingape 's review for:
The Ravenmaster
by Christopher Skaife
I was sad when I read that Merlina had gone missing and now presumed dead while reading the book.
Skaife writes with humour, and you can see from the book that he's a 'character,' as people say.
You can also see his love for the Ravens and even other wildlife around the tower.
He even states that he tries to look after all the wildlife's needs, not just the Ravens.
On pages 164- 165, he ponders Raven's emotions and says he thinks they can remember things, such as remembering a former Ravenmaster. Studies have been done on Crows that certainly point to them having a memory and remembering peoples faces. And since Crows are also Corvids, I can see this being the case too for Ravens.
Crows & Jackdaws have been known to 'mob' people they deem bad, whatever bad means to a Crow. And that crow that dive-bombed you because you did something it deemed bad will dive bomb you again on another day if you arrive because it remembers your face!
And I believe it was Jackdaws in Konrad Lorenz's book 'King Solomon's ring' that he mentioned dive-bombed you if you held anything that remotely looks like it could be a black feather. And because they can remember faces, he dressed up as the devil while trying to ring them. Not on the phone, I mean banding their legs.
I can attest to birds in general seeming to like routine. This also reminds me of myself, since I like a routine to make me comfortable in an ever-changing world. The world may change around me, but I feel most stable if I have some routine to ground me.
Skaife seems to have some moral hangups about one particular thing that isn't really that big of an issue, in that there is no need to view it through the lens of morality. On pages 156- 157, he talks about Ravens mimicking the human language and says, 'It certainly is amusing, but that doesn't make it right.' That right there I can only call, utter bollocks. It wouldn't really make them any less wild, after all, all they're doing is mimicking a sound. Plus, mimicking sound is what birds do, even in the wild, so why he has such a hang up about that, is beyond me.
If it's with the logic in mind that they're wild animals and we should treat them as such, then he is living a major contradiction. Because if that is his logic, (even though it's not logical), then why not go the whole hog and say, we shouldn't be keeping a wild animal in the tower in the first place? Note that, that isn't my opinion, I'm just stating that if you're gonna have such bizarre moral qualms about something as slight as 'allowing' a bird to learn and mimic human language, then maybe you should rethink the entire situation you have them in, in the first place. Of course, it's much too late to go and set these Ravens free if that was his conclusion.
But he goes to say further in the book he wants to start a breeding programme. So he wants to continue the tradition.
Fair enough.
But I still find his moralising of birds learning human words to be illogical and bizarre.
As for the myth that the Ravens need to be there or the tower will fall, I guess I can relate to that feeling.
I have frequent visitors to the garden, which I feed peanuts to regularly, the Eurasian Jay. Which are part of the Corvid family and I have become attached to these birds, one of them in particular that comes most days. And I do feel like the day they inevitably stop coming; I may well collapse. Because I love those buggers! So, it's nice to know that a fortress in London is supposedly as weak and as much of a pussy as I am!
He talks about about the history of the tower, but I'm more interested in the Ravens.
I wish I could rate 3 and a half stars, but Goodreads doesn't allow that.
Skaife writes with humour, and you can see from the book that he's a 'character,' as people say.
You can also see his love for the Ravens and even other wildlife around the tower.
He even states that he tries to look after all the wildlife's needs, not just the Ravens.
On pages 164- 165, he ponders Raven's emotions and says he thinks they can remember things, such as remembering a former Ravenmaster. Studies have been done on Crows that certainly point to them having a memory and remembering peoples faces. And since Crows are also Corvids, I can see this being the case too for Ravens.
Crows & Jackdaws have been known to 'mob' people they deem bad, whatever bad means to a Crow. And that crow that dive-bombed you because you did something it deemed bad will dive bomb you again on another day if you arrive because it remembers your face!
And I believe it was Jackdaws in Konrad Lorenz's book 'King Solomon's ring' that he mentioned dive-bombed you if you held anything that remotely looks like it could be a black feather. And because they can remember faces, he dressed up as the devil while trying to ring them. Not on the phone, I mean banding their legs.
I can attest to birds in general seeming to like routine. This also reminds me of myself, since I like a routine to make me comfortable in an ever-changing world. The world may change around me, but I feel most stable if I have some routine to ground me.
Skaife seems to have some moral hangups about one particular thing that isn't really that big of an issue, in that there is no need to view it through the lens of morality. On pages 156- 157, he talks about Ravens mimicking the human language and says, 'It certainly is amusing, but that doesn't make it right.' That right there I can only call, utter bollocks. It wouldn't really make them any less wild, after all, all they're doing is mimicking a sound. Plus, mimicking sound is what birds do, even in the wild, so why he has such a hang up about that, is beyond me.
If it's with the logic in mind that they're wild animals and we should treat them as such, then he is living a major contradiction. Because if that is his logic, (even though it's not logical), then why not go the whole hog and say, we shouldn't be keeping a wild animal in the tower in the first place? Note that, that isn't my opinion, I'm just stating that if you're gonna have such bizarre moral qualms about something as slight as 'allowing' a bird to learn and mimic human language, then maybe you should rethink the entire situation you have them in, in the first place. Of course, it's much too late to go and set these Ravens free if that was his conclusion.
But he goes to say further in the book he wants to start a breeding programme. So he wants to continue the tradition.
Fair enough.
But I still find his moralising of birds learning human words to be illogical and bizarre.
As for the myth that the Ravens need to be there or the tower will fall, I guess I can relate to that feeling.
I have frequent visitors to the garden, which I feed peanuts to regularly, the Eurasian Jay. Which are part of the Corvid family and I have become attached to these birds, one of them in particular that comes most days. And I do feel like the day they inevitably stop coming; I may well collapse. Because I love those buggers! So, it's nice to know that a fortress in London is supposedly as weak and as much of a pussy as I am!
He talks about about the history of the tower, but I'm more interested in the Ravens.
I wish I could rate 3 and a half stars, but Goodreads doesn't allow that.