Riddley Review
Jan. 25th, 2012 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So I just finished up Riddley Walker by Russell Hobart. It's a short book and a bit of a hard read, but really rewarding if you can push through the text.
An the reesin its hard reedin is fer the buk is ritten by a bloak livvin in Inland 100ert and 100ert years after the Bad Times. So langwije is busted and rittin is thinkin simpl.
I wonder if the book is easier to read now than it was when it was published in 1980 simply because text-speak has made pidgin English more common. At any rate, it takes a bit to get into the cadence and flow of the text and sometimes a phrase or word will have to be reviewed so that you can understand what common word or phrase lies beneath it.
Anyway, the story involves young Riddley Walker who lives in a post-apocalyptic England (or Inland) near Cambridge (or Cambry and I'll stop doing this now). He's just come of age at a time when great changes are sweeping through the land. Riddley is part of a foraging group who wander about in a hunter-gatherer existence and they butt up against the farmers who are settling down.
Just as interesting are the efforts by the government (well, what passes for the government) to try and recover lost knowledge and power. So long has lapsed since the glory days, their efforts are more alchemy and ritual rather than experimental science (plus, they don't truly understand the gulf between iron-age existence and nuclear power).
Woven through all of this is the story of Eusa. From the story of St. Eustace, found in an old cathedral, a new religion springs up and it's largely transmitted via puppet shows. Look, if ritual puppet theatre followed by oracular delving into its meaning doesn't interest you, go back to TV.
So yeah, Riddley is soon launched into a mythic journey where he examines the central facets of his world from many different angles as he shifts among the various people and groups moving through Inland.
I really enjoyed this book, despite the text (and sometimes because of it). Certainly I'd recommend it to just about anyone. It takes a lot of the stuff you think you've seen a hundred times before and does some really spiffy stuff with it.
later
Tom
So I just finished up Riddley Walker by Russell Hobart. It's a short book and a bit of a hard read, but really rewarding if you can push through the text.
An the reesin its hard reedin is fer the buk is ritten by a bloak livvin in Inland 100ert and 100ert years after the Bad Times. So langwije is busted and rittin is thinkin simpl.
I wonder if the book is easier to read now than it was when it was published in 1980 simply because text-speak has made pidgin English more common. At any rate, it takes a bit to get into the cadence and flow of the text and sometimes a phrase or word will have to be reviewed so that you can understand what common word or phrase lies beneath it.
Anyway, the story involves young Riddley Walker who lives in a post-apocalyptic England (or Inland) near Cambridge (or Cambry and I'll stop doing this now). He's just come of age at a time when great changes are sweeping through the land. Riddley is part of a foraging group who wander about in a hunter-gatherer existence and they butt up against the farmers who are settling down.
Just as interesting are the efforts by the government (well, what passes for the government) to try and recover lost knowledge and power. So long has lapsed since the glory days, their efforts are more alchemy and ritual rather than experimental science (plus, they don't truly understand the gulf between iron-age existence and nuclear power).
Woven through all of this is the story of Eusa. From the story of St. Eustace, found in an old cathedral, a new religion springs up and it's largely transmitted via puppet shows. Look, if ritual puppet theatre followed by oracular delving into its meaning doesn't interest you, go back to TV.
So yeah, Riddley is soon launched into a mythic journey where he examines the central facets of his world from many different angles as he shifts among the various people and groups moving through Inland.
I really enjoyed this book, despite the text (and sometimes because of it). Certainly I'd recommend it to just about anyone. It takes a lot of the stuff you think you've seen a hundred times before and does some really spiffy stuff with it.
later
Tom
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 08:21 pm (UTC)Wait, there's a convention for...oh it's for Russell Hobart.
Wait, there's a convention for...oh, well of course there would be.
Oh, I'd get a t-shirt with three parallel red lines on the side of your belly. Which is super-subtle, but the t-shirt above only makes sense if you read the book.
later
Tom