Think you’re too good for me, eh? That you’ll rob me and I’ll just be polite about it? You have your elaborate forts and your snorting equipoise. I have nothing but my sense of injury. My rage. And so I take wobbly aim at them, the pig-thieves, in Rovio’s world without end, in which there are hundreds of levels to master and the game gets bigger and bigger with constant updates.

Angry Birds is a so-called physics game, which suggests education, and also a puzzle in reverse, as you must destroy something by figuring out how its pieces come apart. Your tools are these birds — the victims of the theft, but also your cannon fodder. Each bird that is launched dies. Though there’s no blood, as it is death by cartoon poof, every mission is a suicide mission.

And so I must say that as much as I both pity and need the angry birds (they are the pretext for my anger and the expression of it), I hate them too.

I hate everything! I play Angry Birds! Sure, I have no excuses for being consumed with anger, finally, at this late date in my emotional evolution. I will say that it makes me happy. Images of pigs and splintering ice structures pervade my dreams. I see built things like capitol buildings and fantasize about how easily they could — and should — fall apart. Is this what it’s like to become not only an angry bird but also a bad bird?

Throwing child-development caution to the wind, I have even introduced my 5-year-old son, Ben, to Angry Birds. We play with the sound off and cover the pigs’ faces when, having survived an attack, they grin hideously and gloat. Ben says he feels the gloating is a touch too infuriating. He even came up with a great way to use the green boomerang birds: shoot them backward, tap to turn their direction and watch them whirl, hard and straight, toward the miserable pigs.



Points of Entry This Week’s Recommendations

SAD, AFRAID AND ANGRY BIRDS

The Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America and iBird have drawn raves for searchability, beauty and more information about birds than any human mind can contain. Apps are where you should keep birding info when the rose-breasted grosbeak comes along.



ANGRY BIRDS: THE MOVIE

There really may be a movie coming out. Rovio is said to be doing a deal, and there’s a full-dress trailer. I’ll see it only if audience members get slingshots and birds to launch. Search YouTube for ‘‘Angry Birds cinematic trailer.’’



ANGRY BIRDS: THE ALTERNATIVE

Nothing else is Angry Birds, but if you’ve been vanquishing piggies all day and need a break, Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jump and the original Crush the Castle are diverting game apps for iPad, iPod or iPhone.