Constant Reader discussion

Our next story is "Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot" by Robert Olen Butler. You can find it in our anthology The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction. If you don't own the anthology, I also found it at this website: https://webdelsol.com/butler/rob-5.htm I read a number of Butler's short stories at one time. He is a very inventive author. I believe that Steve, who has been missing here for a while, actually met him at some point.

I've read this story before and it's been much anthologized. I'll be curious to know what you all think the reason for that is. To me, it seems like the perfect ending for this man who obsessed over a woman who has no interest in being faithful to him. He helplessly obsesses over her in life, dies as a result of his obsession and comes back as her parrot who has about as much power as he did.

But, it's also comical in a very dark sort of way. And, this subject is a difficult one to combine with humor.

It was Dale Short who introduced me along with other Constant Readers to Robert Olen Butler. Dale was very high on this author. We read and discussed A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain in the mid-nineties as I recall, although that is not reflected in the archives now available. I was impressed.

I am shy about telling of my meeting him. That would require me to admit that I attended a reading by an author in a book store. Everyone knows that I do not do that.

This story comes dangerously close to being too cute by half. But I don't think it crosses that line. There are comic touches, but it conveys to me quite vividly the anguish of the main character. I have not yet figured out how the story does that so well. But I'll try.

Oh good, Steve, you’re back!

Steve wrote: "It was Dale Short who introduced me along with other Constant Readers to Robert Olen Butler. Dale was very high on this author. We read and discussed A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain in the mid..."

Mid 90s? Wow! How long has this short story group been active?

Dinesh, Constant Reader was established on Prodigy in 1993 or 4 (I think). I don't know how long it was until the Short Story conference was started; at first CR was "books," any books, usually several discussions progressing at the same time. Then there were nominations and lists, and Classics Corner was made a separate thing. Short Stories came pretty quickly as I recall, refined and perfected by Barb.
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I've read this story before. As I recall I was amused by it, but not much more. Reading it this time I was apparently so much more attuned to the husband that it was depressing AF. He is so pitiable! He can't conquer these constant unfounded suspicions of his wife (Barb says she is a woman who has no interest in being faithful to him but I saw no evidence to validate his accusations.) He's unable to trust, so insecure, so doomed during the marriage, and then tortured once he becomes a parrot, when she is, of course, free to have whatever men she knows.

Time to reread--this time I will be alert to any hints that his wife is unfaithful. What I'm sure I correctly remember is that when he went to the guy's house, he did mention that the guy's car was there, but not that his wife's car was. And still he was so sure she was there---he needed a therapist!

That was a fun story! As a parrot, I could laugh at this man and feel sorry for him at the same time.

The concept that being naked is like being plucked to a bird was funny. The "Hello, Cracker" was fun too.

I actually Googled the captive parrot hormonal state, and learned that it can become constant, causing a male bird to become territorial and aggressive. So this was a perfect comic device, with the reader realizing that not much has really changed for the man.

Hi Dinesh, Constant Reader is a pretty amazing group, I must say. It's been around since 1994. I joined in 1995. Steve was here before me. We started on the old Prodigy server, then tried to find places on the web that were stable. For a while, Tonya helped us survive by giving us space on her husband's web browser (is that the right term, Tonya?). Then we finally found goodreads and, for the most part, it's been a good home for us.

If you look under the Orientation conference here, Sherry gave a good overview of the entire group. The short story conference within Constant Reader has not been around that long. Previously, we read story collections as part of our overall book schedule. I remember us reading a Raymond Carver collection that I nominated. But, a collection of stories didn't lend itself to that kind of discussion easily. Sherry finally started organizing a story conference within CR at some point after we left Prodigy and before goodreads. When she decided not to do it anymore, I took it up and have been doing it ever since because I love the short story form.

Participants come and go in all the conferences within CR but we are always trying to get new ones. It really adds to the discussions. I've learned over the years that short stories aren't to everyone's taste but they are most decidedly to mine. Because of that, I'm always trying to recruit readers who feel the same.

Now, back to "Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot". What did you all think of it?

I do not know how long the short story discussion group has existed, Dinesh. The Constand Reader group came into existence in 1993, the year I purchased my first home computer and long before Amazon® acquired the Goodreads® marketing tool. Originally, the concept was simple--everyone read a particular book and then we'll discuss it online for one month.

The thing that made it work well was that the person who recommended a novel had actually read it herself already. Thus, if you trusted the judgment of that person, you were probably in for a good read. I trusted Dale Short implicitly in that regard.

* * * * * *

Now then, as for the issue I raised at the end of my first comment, it could be entirely idiosyncratic. I have come to love parrots late in my life. We currently have two and have babysat others. It seems clear to me that Robert Olen Butler had been around parrots as well. Whether or not, it serves the purpose of the story in interesting ways. Consider these lines for a moment:

She knows that to pet a bird you don't smooth his feathers down, you ruffle them.

But of course she did that in my human life, as well. It's all the same for her.

I find that play on the phrase "ruffled feathers" to be delightful.

That was excellent, Steve, I noticed it too. The more revealing bit is the talking, tho, I think. "I never can quite say as much as I know" he thinks as a parrot, and we see the root of his troubles: he needed to speak to his wife when he could have, as a man.

Like you, I think his anguish is crushing.

I think that this was a wonderful way to tell a story of infidelity. I was amused, yet saddened by this guy (now a parrot) who has so much to say, but cannot quite get it out.

Excellent comment, Gina.

I am already at my quota of daily comments, but I wished to add one thing today anyway. The title of this story, "Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot," reads grammatically like a sensational tabloid headline. The story was published in 1996 as part of a collection entitled Tabloid Dreams. What does that do? I think the title sets us up mentally for the weird premise of the story.

Now, I am as sure as I can be that this story is the selection that the author read at Prairie Lights Book Store in 1997, the reading that I did not attend. And I did not go to Joe's Place for beers afterward with the author and his gorgeous companion who was not his wife.

Gosh, the comments were going up so fast yesterday that some were posted while I was writing my second, which, as it turned out, overlapped. If poor Dinesh Bob returns, he will learn more about the origins of the Constant Reader discussion group than he ever wanted to.

In any event and now that the discussion has concluded, I have had a chance to digest all of it. Here is the question that I am mulling over as a result. Why have I always so readily assumed that the wife was a . . . I was going to use the word "slut," but I believe that term is out of fashion now. Let me phrase it differently. Why have I always so readily assumed that the wife was differently enabled? It never occurred to me that she was an innocent and the protagonist was an obsessive in need of therapy.

Let's return to the title. In my experience the phrase "jealous husband" is most often used pejoratively. If the title were "Cuckolded Husband Returns in Form of Parrot," that would throw an entirely different light on the matter, wouldn't it?

And climbing a tree to peak into a window is strange, is it not? Maybe therapy was in order. It is possible that I was a biased reader because of my fondness for parrots. And that all is the reason I hang around these discussions. They sometimes function as a corrective for me.

* * * * * *

There is another related factor. Everyone knows how adamantly I am against pawing through an author's biography for help in interpreting her fiction. And yet there is a factor here that may have been operating in my subconscious. One of the reasons that I am so fond of Robert Olen Butler is that he is one of those rare men who has been married more times than I. If you refer to the wikipedia.org article on him, you will find an entire section devoted solely to his marriages.

One of those marriages was to a novelist and playwright named Elizabeth Dewberry. Unfortunately, Elizabeth began sleeping with Ted Turner. Robert was so obviously distraught that he unwisely blathered on about it in an email to his students and fellow professors at university. Maybe, without thinking about it, I projected all that onto this story.

I have so many good intentions that I fail to achieve that I should be famous for just that.

I did reread the story yesterday, I just never got back here to write about it. I was at least slightly wrong when I said he needed to talk to his wife. Apparently he did:
I felt like a damn fool whenever I actually said anything about this kind of feeling and she looked at me like she could start hating me real easy and so I was working on saying nothing, even if it meant locking myself up. My goal was to hold my tongue about half the time. That would be a good start.

Still, nothing dissuaded me from the sense that his jealousies were not justified by anything his wife did. I can't even imagine how tiring a jealous lover would be; it seems like it would just wear you out. Therefore, I can see how freeing her new widowed situation feels for her. I cannot explain why I feel such pity for him, while also believing he is the one to fault. But he is so unrelentingly plagued by these feelings that he ended up killing himself twice to escape them. And that is just so sad.

I am quickly past my anger with your tardiness here, Tonya. I forgive you because that last is an excellent comment. As a parrot the man has acheived his goal of keeping his mouth shut because of the bird's verbal inadequacy.

On 31 August, Barbara wrote: "I've read this story before and it's been much anthologized. I'll be curious to know what you all think the reason for that is...."

Barb's response to her own curiosity was good. However, I think we are coming closer to the reason that the story is so widely anthologized. There are two very valid interpretations possible here. (1.) The wife was in fact sexually disloyal, or (2.) the husband was obsessively jealous for no good reason. You opened up my head for the first time to the possibility of number 2.

However, I suspect that many readers smarter than I picked up on that quickly and realized that their own reaction had everything to do with their personal baggage that they brought to their reading of the story . . . and that personal baggage includes their own position on the gender spectrum.

Tonya! Tonya! Tonya! When my phone's operating system was last updated, an app called "Gemini" was installed. I only noticed it recently and had never used it before today. It is Google's artificial intelligence thingie. I opened it, turned on the microphone, and asked it this question: "In the short story 'Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot,' did the wife commit adultery or not?" The answer I received after a few seconds was incredibly good . . . scary good, as a matter of fact. Everything that follows is artificial intelligence:

The short story you're referring to is "Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot" by Robert Olen Butler. It was first published in The New Yorker and later appeared in his short story collection, Tabloid Dreams.

​Story Summary

​The story is told from the first-person perspective of a man who, after his death, has been reincarnated as a yellow-naped Amazon parrot. In his previous life, he was an obsessively jealous husband who constantly suspected his wife of infidelity. His death was a tragic accident directly related to his obsessive spying on her.

​The narrative begins with the parrot-narrator in a pet store in Houston. One day, his former wife comes into the store with a new man and, drawn to the parrot, buys him. The parrot is taken back to his old home and placed in a cage in the den, where he is forced to watch his former life continue without him.

​Trapped in his new form, the parrot is still consumed by his jealousy. He can't communicate his true identity or his feelings to his wife, only squawk the simple words he's taught, like "hello" and "pretty bird." He takes out his rage on his cage toys, furiously attacking them as if they were his wife's new lovers.

​Over the course of the story, the parrot reflects on his human life, realizing that his jealousy wasn't just about his wife, but stemmed from his own deep-seated insecurities and fear of losing her. He finds himself in a "cage" both physically and emotionally, unable to express the love and regret that he now feels. In the end, in a desperate attempt to be free of his feelings, he repeatedly flies into a window, an act that is a sad echo of his first, self-destructive demise.

​Key Themes

​Jealousy and Obsession: The story is a powerful exploration of how unchecked jealousy can consume a person, leading to their downfall and, in this case, a literal and metaphorical "caging."

​The Inability to Communicate: A central theme is the tragic gap between what we know and what we can say. The parrot is filled with profound thoughts and feelings, but his vocabulary is limited, mirroring his failure to communicate his fears and love to his wife when he was human.

​Transformation and Reincarnation: The magical realism element of reincarnation allows Butler to explore how our past lives and unresolved emotional baggage can follow us even into a new existence. The parrot's journey shows a struggle between his animal instincts and his lingering human memories and emotions.

​Regret and Self-Reflection: As a parrot, the narrator gains a new perspective on his past actions. He is forced to confront the truth about his own insecurity and how it was the real cause of his misery, not his wife's perceived infidelity.

Well, it is a nearly correct response if you had asked Gemini "pls summarize Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot, and list the key themes." But I am bound to point out that there is no effort here to determine whether or not the wife committed adultery.

(I say "nearly correct" because AI has simplified one of the brilliant maneuvers I thought Butler created. Altho it says
The narrative begins with the parrot-narrator in a pet store in Houston. One day, his former wife comes into the store with a new man and, drawn to the parrot, buys him.
I'd argue what happens could be slightly different; it seemed to me that he entered that parrot's physical body after she was in the store. It was subtle, but I reread it a couple of times just to be sure the possibility was open. That's not to say it has to be that way, more that I see it that way.

Were any of you reminded of the Twilight Zone with a newly dead man who can't lose at any games, is instantly given anything he wants, etc, and thinks he is in heaven. Of course in the end he knows it is hell. Kind of like The Good Place, too. Creators get to construct the perfect hell for their "bad" character, and Butler nails it for this husband.

Actually, I interpreted AI's answer this way, although AI phrased it indirectly and politely:

"You dipshit, Warbasse! There is no direct answer to your question. And whether or not the wife had comitted adultery is completely beside the point. Your question is moot. The point is the man's own behavior while in doubt, behavior that is mimicked in his afterlife as a parrot."

I am shocked, I tell you, shocked, Steve! Not only have you admitted to going to an author’s reading but you also went to an outside source (AI of all things!) to research the meaning of a story!

That AI summary was quite good though.

I’m loving this discussion. I never thought that the woman was a “slut”, Steve. I thought that she just liked sex. Unfortunately, she had made the kinds of promises that marriage usually requires and she wasn’t living up to them.

Tonya, that’s an interesting idea that the husband didn’t enter the parrot’s body until after it was discovered in the pet store. I assumed reincarnation. I need to think about that for a while.

And, Steve, I like parrots too. An organization here called the Creature Conservancy often takes exotic animals that their owners can’t deal with any more. I’ve learned to love the Macaws there. But that also made me realize the amount of care they require and how long they live,.

Hi, Barb. We can digress here.

Back when The New Yorker was still The New Yorker, before Tina Brown, they used to publish long, in-depth articles, some of them multi-part.

At least 25 years ago or more, they published a long article on parrots and the heart-breaking history of the pet parrot market in this country. I have a print-out of it somewhere here.

Our parrots have all been rescues. No pet shops! People simply do not know what they are in for and only find out later.

And by the way, that AI rundown of the story so closely parallels Tonya's view. I am starting to suspect that "Tonya's" comments are AI generated.

Did the AI mirror my thoughts? That would mean I think like most people think, since AI knows what I said here, and what you said, in fact what everybody has said anywhere about "Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot."

Actually, I am in the anti-AI camp. I switched to StartPage on the phone and computer after wasting too much time trying to figure out how to disable AI on Chrome and Google. I really suck at tech! But it was driving me nuts having to scroll down past the AI responses every time I did a search. In the early days I remember Google's motto was "don't be evil." So simple, and yet seemingly impossible to avoid. Oops, I seem to have gone off on a rant...

My brother had a parrot for, gosh, decades maybe. He told stories about women the parrot didn't like, but it had no issues with me.

Also, somebody recently said "I don't use AI to write articles for the same reason I don't take a forklift to the gym."

You're a good sport, Tonya.

I finally figured out why the curve of her nose is more attractive to him now. It more closely resembles a parrots beak.

I am so slow sometimes.

If this truly occurred to you less than 20 minutes ago, I'm going to agree. You were a little slow on this one.

Sometimes, I am slow. Sometimes, you are very slow.

Even, sometimes I am slow, and sometimes I am very slow.

Welp, there is no need to beat a dead horse here.

I do find those last two and half pages of the story to be remarkable however. That is where the anguish becomes really clear.

If I had the words, these are the things I would say.