The Many Moon Birds
Tue, Mar 31st 2009, 11:50
Sometimes when you choose a name for a story or a character you find out someone has got there before you.
Is it because you heard the words before subconsciously? Is it because it's just a good idea and therefore several people have found it to resonate in some way? Is it because you've reached for the first thing that comes to hand and need to try harder? I suppose depending on the idea it could be any of these. Then comes the tough question... are you going to change the name you came up with just because someone else has used it?
We are in pre-production on our next short film called The Moon Bird. I thought it was about time I googled the name in case it had been used before. I don't want to get into any legal wranglings after all. It turns out the concept of the Moon Bird does have heritage... here's what I found.
The most startling find was an animation. And not just any old animation, but an Academy Award winner (for Short Subjects) from 1959 by John and Faith Hubley. Check out Michael Sporn's blog for more info.
But this isn't the only Moon Bird out there. Joan Miró the famous Catalunian artist created a bronze sculpture in the forties called Moon bird.
There's also a picture book, that has been made into a play. In this story the Moon Bird teaches a deaf and dumb prince how to communicate with sign language.
In addition to these Moon Bird is also the name of a band, a yacht, an etching by an Australian artist, also a watercolour painting by a Mexican artist, a brand name for tampons and cosmetics in South Africa and plenty more besides.
Indeed the oldest reference I can find is from Africa. It's from The Journal of the Royal African Society by anthropologist P. Amaury Talbot in 1914. Also there's a repeated reference in a later book Life in Southern Nigeria by the same author. He writes in relation to the Ibibio people:
“Old Women tell that, after showing the people how, by honouring eggs and oval stones, and making sacrifice to the Great Mother, the gift of fertility might be won, the magic bird flew back to her home in the sky ; whence, with folded wings, soft brooding, she still watches over the children of men. Mortals call her ‘ Moon,’ and sometimes, when people are sleeping, the Moon-bird floats down from her home on high and pecks up grains, or other food, which she may find lying about.”
So the concept of a Moon Bird goes back a long way! It's obviously an idea shared by a lot of artists. There must be something in the imagery of a bird and moon linked that appeals to a lot of us.
So what about that thorny question? "Are you going to change the name you came up with just because someone else has used it?" The short answer to this is... no. The Moon Bird is reborn (again!)
