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The Man Who Talks to Whales: the Art of Interspecies Communication

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The Man Who Talks To Whales: The Art Of Interspecies Communication is the revised and updated edition of "Dolphin Dreamtime," a serious, meaningful, and true account of wild animals and a man who "talks" to them and carefully takes in their responses. Author Jim Nollman is a charter member of the Participants School of zoology, and has gotten physically and emotionally close to grey whales, buffaloes, dolphins, and much more in his search for direct communication between human and animal. A thoughtful book about dialogues and reaching out to better understand who we share this world with, The Man Who Talks To Whales is a singularly fascinating read especially recommended for all who have tried to see and understand the world from an animal's point of view.

This environmental activist and music composer had one of his essays on nature writing included in THE GIFT OF BIRDS. Not only does he talk and communicate with whales, he also had a relationship with a 'touchy' raven in Northern Canada at the Arctic Circle. Together they took a hike over the Delta plain of the MacKenzie River, the raven leading half the time and serving as a sentinel at his tent in camp.

One of my favorite writers, Poe, felt far more vindictive about his own raven which he considered as a symbol of Death, going back to the Middle Ages where ravens were companions to witches, like the bird which counseled the evil queen in 'Snow White.' The Catholic Church maligned the raven because this midnight-black scavenger has a keen intellect. But talking to one out in the middle of nowhere?

Ravens possess a great variety of calls like parrots, mynahs, and mockingbirds. They are mechanical, like Whitt, the engineers of the avian world. Their calls correlate so closely with social behavior that it could be the rudiments of their own type of language. This underfed one purred like a housecat from a parallel universe down in the baritone range, at half the speed of a normal contented housecat like Star. They had a cat and mouse game on a treasure hunt for walrus ivory one thousand years old. I do believe Mr. Nollman has a good imagination.

First, they made eye contact which was difficult as birds have eyes on each side of the head and humans on a flat plane. He moved his head in concentric bird-like ways, cocking his long beaked face in differing positions. His long, intimidating scimitar beak which was three inches long and black as coal, started making sounds: croaking, squawking and cooing in a whispery, soothing tone. Together they made music with Jim using a Japanese Jew's harp (my dad called it a French harp) -- really a harmonica in syncopated four-four time.

"Immanuel Kent wrote that the human hand is the most visible aspect of the human sensibility." He's right, some hands are more slender and sensitive; in 'The Last Supper' the culprit who turned Christ in at the Garden where he prayed, was pictured as having one female hand.

According to raven protocol, there will be no touching. Human touch is taboo, the kiss of death among wild animals, and showed disrespect' thus, causing a rift. Like E. A. Poe's 'The Raven,' he squawks "nevermore" in Raven language, then forgave the indecent affront and continued to be the human's 'sentinel,' with his black silhouette stooped in a submissive pose. "Both of us striving to cultivate the novel 'camaraderie' that binds us to a middle ground of our own invention." Their relationship was elevated to a new level; "Let bygones be bygones."

Generic man is the meanest-spirited and most dangerous species in all of creation, a personification of evil. Some used birds for target practice. Sometimes a raven makes like a rooster escaped from the coop, sometimes considered a trickster, a comedian of birds. They were the first shamen, a true grodigy among animals. He claims that they had a good talk about the meaning of life, and the raven had written a sentence in his journal! Now, what could a raven write but "Nevermore'?!

Jim Nollman has also written SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY, THE BLEUGA CAFE, DOLPHIN DREAMTIME, ANIMAL DREAMING and THE CHARGED BORDER: WHERE WHALES AND HUMANS MEET. This essay is as good as any Brothers Grimm fairy tale, and as believable. What about ravens?