The Spectator Bird

Content Warning: This section contains references to rape, incest, and eugenics.

The Spectator Bird uses tropes lifted from legend and myth to deepen the psychological resonance of the story’s themes and events—particularly The Dangers of Tampering With Nature. The novel’s central mythological trope is that of the “Fisher King,” a legend associated with King Arthur’s knights and their search for the Holy Grail. The “Fisher King” has thematic roots that reach as far back as Greek myth, and many modern writers have alluded to it in their works—e.g., T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.

Most commonly, the Fisher King is described as an old man with a grievous wound that will not heal. His kingdom is a “waste land” afflicted with disease and famine, with the implication that the land’s fertility is linked to the king’s health. Sir Galahad, one of Arthur’s knights, arrives at the castle and, while feasting in the hall, watches the king’s servants carry a radiant cup into the hall and out the back. This cup is the Holy Grail, but Galahad does not recognize it and does not think to ask the king about it. That night, the king’s wound grows much worse, and only then does Galahad learn that if he had asked about the Grail, the evil spell would have been broken.