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Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban is not unknown but not hugely popular. Post apocalyptic novel written in a made up language (think Clockwork Orange). Poetic a
by mellosouls 7y ago
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban is not unknown but not hugely popular.
Post apocalyptic novel written in a made up language (think Clockwork Orange).
Poetic and deeply moving account of a boy's journey through a world where scientific knowledge has devolved to primitive ritual and incantation; and his dawning realisation that we lost everything.
I've never read anything else like it.
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddley_Walker https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddley_Walker
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/776573.Riddley_Walker https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/776573.Riddley_Walker
- mellosouls 7y agoHere's how it starts off, be warned: On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. He dint make the groun shake nor nothing like that when he come on to my spear he wernt all that big plus he lookit poorly. He done the reqwyrt he ternt and stood and clattert his teef and made his rush and there we wer then. Him on 1 end of the spear kicking his life out and me on the other end watching him dy. I said, "Your tern now my tern later."
- cannam 7y agoThat's an amazing opening. I'd like to read that now. (I have heard of this book before, but only in outline.) Edit: Oh my word! He wrote the text of the children's book "Bread and Jam for Frances" (and, I now learn, a whole series of others with the same character). That's a lovely bit of writing. I had no idea.
- mellosouls 7y agoYeah, it's like that all the way through, and some of it is inspired
- heatherengland 7y agoso it's not a completely made up language like klingon but just a dialect of english? sounds entertaining for an amateur linguist to study!
- mellosouls 7y agoYeah, "made up language" was a poor choice by me - its an attempt at imagining a transformed English.
- prepend 7y agoThis sounds like the Sloosha’s Crossing last section of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Pretty cool.
- mellosouls 7y agoGood spot! Riddley was influential on Mitchell. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview27 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/05/featuresreview...
- kkwteh 7y agoReminds me a bit of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, which is an incredible book.
- mellosouls 7y agoOne of my favourites too, although I wouldn't link them apart from the darkness and poetic beauty of the language.
- dri_ft 7y agoBut it's surprising how quickly you settle into it, honestly.
- mellosouls 7y agoAgree completely, but I know several people who have struggled or just given up because it never clicked.
- Sophistifunk 7y agoCan you get it in English? I'd rather go to the dentist than attempt to read more than a paragraph or two of that gibberish.
- mellosouls 7y agoIt's not for everyone. Once I'd got my head round it I found it easy to follow and beautiful.
- kragen 7y agoThis is how we speak today, to the ear of a speaker of Anglo-Saxon or, here in Argentina, Latin. Only more so.
- mellosouls 7y agoYes. I guess that's what he was aiming at.
- jscn 7y agoSounds very reminiscent of The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth[0]. Will check it out, thanks! [0] http://paulkingsnorth.net/books/the-wake/ http://paulkingsnorth.net/books/the-wake/
- atombender 7y agoRiddley Walker was probably also a big influence on Iain M. Banks' Feersum Endjinn [1]. Most of the chapters are narrated by Bascule, a simple-minded (but certainly not stupid) young man who writes phonetically: Woak up. Got dresd. Had brekfast. Spoke wif Ergates thi ant who sed itz juss been wurk wurk wurk 4 u lately master Bascule, Y dont u ½ a holiday? The novel is a bit out of character for Banks, and reminds me of something Gene Wolfe or Terry Pratchett might have come up with. I think it's a wonderfully underrated gem, and Bascule's narration is one of its endearing features. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Feersum-Endjinn-Novel-Iain-Banks/dp/0553374591 https://www.amazon.com/Feersum-Endjinn-Novel-Iain-Banks/dp/0...
- geden 7y agoI’m not sure I’d describe it as out of character. Phonetically styled narrative from characters pops up in several Banks novels. I’d argue the The Barbarian’s Scottish dialect in The Bridge was a precursor to Bascule. There are also smattering’s of fun phonetic speech in the first few Culture novels. Most memorably from Fwi-song the prophet of the Eaters cult. I had the feeling with Feersum Endjinn Banks decided to go ‘all in’ on the fun phonetics. In the early 90s I went to a Banks reading (possibly Crow Road or The State of The Art) in Sheffield and during the Q&A he talked with great animation and detail about his new as yet untitled novel, which a few years later turned out to be Feersum Endjinn. Sorely miss him.
- atombender 7y agoI mean the story, sorry, not the style. It's one of Banks' few self-contained sci-fi novels, and it's set in a rather odd universe that fits into the "dying Earth" tradition of dystopian sci-fi (Wolfe's New Sun/Short Sun/Long Sun sequence, Vance's Dying Earth, etc.) more than in Banks' more utopian/panoramic Culture novels. His other standalones, Against a Dark Background and The Algebraist, are much closer to his Culture novels, for example.
- teh_klev 7y ago> I’d argue the The Barbarian’s Scottish dialect in The Bridge was a precursor to Bascule. I'd certainly agree with you there. He's variously introduced his readers to Scots, the Doric and the vernacular in his books over many years. Feersum Endjinn was a fun read, especially for me as a Scot who has an interest in the Scots language. > Sorely miss him. I do too. I'd met him at various times over the length of his career. Always a bloody nice guy and always self deprecating in a way you knew was very genuine. I always relished him taking the mickey out of his famous neighbour in North Queensferry, Gordon Brown, every now and again.
- rrgmitchell 7y agoRiddley Walker is a stunningly good novel. I've read it twice and I'd read it again. Many years ago there was a dramatisation of it at the Edinburgh Festival, very powerful. One bit that sticks in my memory is when Riddley stumbles on the overgrown ruins of what must be the M25 motorway that encircled London. And he cries: "O what we ben wonce! And what we come to now!"
- mellosouls 7y agoYes, exactly! That's my favourite part, his realisation of the magnitude of the loss, it's completely devastating.