alien productions: kosmonaut klapotetz

 

The Austrian writer Friedrich Achleitner reports in one of his Einschlafgeschichten * [stories to fall asleep] that one of the oldest acoustic bird defence devices - the "klapotetz" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__EHiAePUxA] - actually was an imitation of a plane.

Achleitner tells us of a fictitious 15th century farmer called Leonardo Klapotetz who tried to build a plane by assembling parts of a windmill, an oar and some logs. To ease the take-off of his aircraft he mounted it on top of a long pole; but as he returned the next morning he had to realise that it had not taken off but still was sitting on the pole making an incredible noise. So he decided to call it "klapotetz" and use it to scare the starlings off the vineyards.

But, according to Achleitner, there are hints that some of the klapotetzes in facts were airborne. As no one did ever see them they seem to have flown very far away. Not even the noises of the logs have been heard again.

We are flying to the sky by means of mechanics. But more often we stay on the ground and scare away the birds by similar means; beings which by nature are able to perform of what we are only dreaming. We build devices to destroy the desire.

But what are the dreams of these devices about when we are leaving them alone to chase away the flying flocks? Do they, too, yearn for the distance? Starlings are migrating birds, only in transit. Is it possible that some raptors have joined them? Since months we have received signals from outer space - hints that a few of them are in orbit...

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*) Friedrich Achleitner, Einschlafgeschichten; Wienna, Paul Zsolnay-Verlag, 2003 pp.14f