Welcome back to Reading the Weird, in which we get girl cooties all over weird fiction, cosmic horror, and Lovecraftiana—from its historical roots through its most recent branches. This week, we cover Daphne Du Maurier’s “The Birds,” first published in her 1952 collection The Apple Tree (now reprinted as The Birds and Other Stories). Spoilers ahead. CW for (bird) suicide attacks and harm to eyes. “Black and white, jackdaw and gull, mingled in strange partnership, seeking some sort of liberation, never satisfied, never still.” Pensioned by disability from WWII, Nat Hocken works p...