Duration 3.03
Pollie Fallory: "Capercaillie, lammergeyer, cassowary... accentor, dowitcher, dotterel, bobolink, garganey, pratincole, phalarope, sanderling...
Before the Violent Unknown Event, Pollie Fallory did indifferent bird imitations. She had impersonated a nightingale for twenty-seven nights in a play called 'The Little Green Finches', and she played the part of a budgerigar with clipped wings in a film called 'The Reluctant Singer'.
Pollie Fallory: "Capercaillie, lammergeyer, cassowary...
Her act had been accompanied by random fluttering gestures and the habit of singing through an almost closed mouth. When she employed an agent, he would always be telling her to open her mouth and freeze her arms.
Pollie Fallory: "Pochard, serin, siskin, thrasher, whimbrel, whinchat, willet, junco, gooney, fulmar..."
Translator: "After the Violent Unknown Event, Pollie Fallory spoke Mickel-ease or Mickel. It was a language full of alliteration, sudden turns of speech, high registers, changes in volume and unexpected silences in which the speaker took prolonged and exaggerated breaths. Waiting for the next syllable in Mickel-ease was like waiting for a child to scream after a fall. Pollie quickly assumed a command of Mickel-ease that stretched the human tongue and voice-box to influence the language of animals rather than the other way around."
Pollie Fallory: "Loon, rail, scaup...
In a belated response to the badgering of her former agents, Pollie's body now stood rigid when she spoke or sang and remained that way, ideally unaccompanied by the slightest facial or body gesture.
Pollie Fallory: "Capercaillie, lammergeyer, cassowary...
Except for an occasional patient smile, she indicated with her body as little as possible that might reflect on her speech. She was persuaded to re-learn English to reach and recruit a larger ornithological audience, to add the VUE anthem to her repertoire and to make a definitive version of the Bird List Song. Pollie became a raconteur. She also did woman imitations.
Pollie Fallory: "Capercaillie, lammergeyer, cassowary...
The Falls Biographies
