Riddley Walker (SF Masterworks)

Reading Riddley Walker has been one of the most profound and moving experiences I've ever had with literature. Every sentence and every word stuck to me, and I couldn't help but want to get lost in the corrupted language.Some 2347 years, give or take, after a nuclear holocaust has wiped out our present civilization, the world's been stagnating in its earliest stages. Riddley Walker's is a text written by its eponymous connexion man after his naming day (i.e., 12th birthday), which means the text is written in a form of English quite transformed from our own. His short-lived role of connexion man ties him as a go-between to the ruling elite of the local Inland and Eusa folk. In a dead world with no electricity, communications, methods of transportation, science, literature, &c., he’s trained to translate the Mincery’s (‘Ministry’) puppet renditions of Punch & Pooty (‘Judy’) shows and the teachings of Eusa (‘St. Eustace,’ taken from the Cambry (‘Canterbury’) cathedral).Eusa’s dynamic teachings are the foundation for moral authority across the Inland (present-day Kent). He was, once upon a time, a religious martyr responsible for the 1 Big 1--tricked by the devil (‘Mr Clevver’) into splitting the atom (‘Little Shynin Man the Addom’) and causing the final holocaust. His head is spoken of as still speaking law at the mysterious island of Ram, where the ruling elite presumably live and dole out the Mincery’s law through puppet theater. His guilt is a guilt of a society driven by knowledge and power to be self-destructive, and it’s a guilt carried by the Eusa folk of Riddley’s time. Like many religious followers, the Eusa folk carry the suffering of Eusa in both physical and psychological mutations--their emotions form a telepathic connection between one another, and often packs of wild dogs. Riddley, as part of his connexion duties, has one version of Eusa’s Story and its core teachings memorized. The memorized text he uses for his work reflects modern religions: Its teachings were written long after the existence of Eusa, but centuries before Riddley Walker recites them, and the language itself is slightly less corrupted compared to the language the current Inlanders speak.Punch & Judy pop up with significant influence throughout the book. At times, the creepy rebelliousness of Mr Punch is literally channeled through Riddley, who carries a pre-war, rotten Punch doll as a charm. For the central conflict, we even get a full performance of Punch & Judy mythologized for the people of the Inland. (Despite its unoriginality, that ranks among my favorite passages from any novel. I highly recommend those unfamiliar to give Neil Gaiman’s Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch a look-see first. I’d wager his creepy graphic novel knowingly takes a lot from Hoban’s use of the doll.)Riddley Walker’s difficult at times, but is balanced enough between catchy lyricism and a Joycean nightmare that its messy style is more a boon than a distraction. Even though the language is of its own world, its vocabulary is as limited as the culture employing it. Keeping it simple, then, Hoban has riddled the language with as many layers and allusions as he could. You still have to slow down, but at least you'll want to--and ain't that a clear sign of great writing if ever there was one! (Indeed, the 1998 edition features an afterword by the author, with a sample from his first draft written in standard English. It carries little of the published novel's weight.)While some guiding themes are built from typical Cold War fears, they're written in a way that effects a timelessness in this new mythology Hoban created. The corruption of language, and mythopoeic reconstruction of a moral belief system in this future Dark Age keeps Walker's text from feeling dated by Cold War ideology and its technological trappings. E.g., the Inland's folklore is often peppered with broken references to science and technology, but the backwards, '70s understanding of it benefits the backwards state of the Inland society. Puter Leat is Computer Elite; Belnot Phist is Nobel Physicist; 1stoan Phist is Einstein Physicist; and--a favorite--the sovereign galaxies and nebulae above are the sarvering gallack seas and flaming nebyul eye.Knowledge is the currency of power in the Inland, particularly the lost knowledge of the industrial age. This is probably why no one ever seems to be headed anywhere in Riddley Walker: They’re fighting to take Eusa’s very steps and split the Little Shynin Man once again, taking equal movements forward and back with each Ful of the Moon. Kinda sucky world, but I really wanna go back.Arga Warga.

Hoban's "Riddley Walker" is a dystopic vision set in a future, post-apocalyptic England. In the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, society has reverted to a level of Iron-Age sophistication; wild dogs roam the countryside. Most problematically for the reader, Hoban's view involves language and communication reverting to an imagined pre-civilized patois, and the entire book is written as a first-person narrative by the main protagonist, Riddley Walker, in this invented "proto-language". Think of the Russian-based slang of 'A Clockwork Orange" and multiply the degree of unintelligibility tenfold. Here is an example:"The Ardship he begun to gether with the Eusa folk they all took off ther cloes and tangelt ther selfs to gether all nekkit and twining like a nes of snakes which they callit that some poasyum. Which they done trantsing with it and hy telling. Doing it in that old Power Station in Fork Stoan where the out poast is. Which that place its so big and eckowing it wer realy some thing to hear them telling of the many cools of Addom and the party cools of stoan and all the diffrent colourt seeds and that."In his excellent recommendations for reviewers, John Updike admonishes us to keep an open mind when reviewing, to give the author the benefit of the doubt. Advice that is particularly germane to "Riddley Walker" because, guaranteed, there will come a point (probably about 20 pages or so into the book) when the bizarreness of the language, and the resulting difficulty in reading, force you to make a conscious choice: "Am I really going to take the trouble to keep plowing through this, or should I cut my losses now?" Mindful of Updike's advice, I chose to read the book all the way through. But it seems fair to ask: "Is the extra investment of effort that the author asks of the reader worth it?"For me, the answer to that question is a fairly unequivocal "No". In the end, it was not at all clear what the author is trying to say in this muddle of a book. There's an obvious quest motif, and some fairly banal stuff about the difficulty of communication, but any kind of deeper meaning eluded me. It doesn't help that the author uses the traditional Punch and Judy show as central to his story. It obviously holds deep significance for the author, and possibly for English readers, but its specificity to English culture precludes any broader resonance. As best as I could figure, some statement is being made about the importance of storytelling even in primitive cultures. My reaction was "That's it? I ploughed through over 200 pages of idiosyncratic, incoherent maundering prose for this?"I use the word "incoherent" quite consciously here, because there's a kind of laziness to Hoban's invented patois which is ultimately deeply irritating. He goes to great lengths to ensure that it will be difficult to read (by his own admission he wants to slow the reader down, as a device to make people think), but there is a lack of internal coherence which seems lazy and damages the overall plausibility. Why is "telling" spelled correctly, but not "really"? Sometimes it's "which", sometimes it's "which that". "Stone" is spelled as "stoan", yet "know", "twining" and "folk" retain their correct spellings. These seem like completely arbitrary inventions of the author, which seem frankly unlikely - why would such inconsistent orthography develop, following an apocalyptic event?* There are similar inconsistencies in the liberties taken with syntax and vocabulary. When Tolkien invents language in LOTR, he takes the trouble to make it linguistically and etymologically coherent. Hoban appears to have taken a much sloppier approach. But it's the reader who has to pay the price when trying to wade through the incoherent, barely comprehensible mess that results.* For that matter, why should linguistic development be set back so far to begin with - presumably the immediate survivors are not going to lose their existing linguistic mastery, so what would stop them from passing it on to subsequent generations? The reversion of language to some more primitive version seems fundamentally implausible to me and this particular choice of Hoban ultimately kills the book.

Interesting premises and technique, but the plot gets ridiculous after a few chapters

Je l'avais acheté sur recommandation, mais j'ai eu du mal à avancer dans la lecture: l'histoire est bien menée, mais le Riddleyspeak force le lecteur à ralentir pour se mettre au rythme de Riddley et de sa société post-apocalyptique dépourvue de machines, qui va à une allure bien plus lente que la nôtre. Un point de vue intéressant sur le monde moderne, déjà assez visionnaire à l'époque de sa parution. Version originale à déconseiller aux lecteurs qui maîtrisent mal l'anglais, au risque de passer totalement à côté du roman. Il faut savoir déchiffrer un anglais retranscrit d'une manière plus ou moins phonétiques, et reconnaître des références travesties, déformées, pas toujours accessible! Un classique de la littérature moderne.

I first read this book in the early 1990's then I loaned it to someone who never returned the book. During lockdown 2020 I re-purchased it and have just finished it. The first time I read it I was young and impressionable, I would say but this time, less of both. The idea behind the story of Riddley Walker, I can understand the rave reviews, to develop a language like this takes talent and dedication. Having said that, there are glimpses of how great this story could have been but I think it got lost in the zealous use of the language, the long rambling paragraphs where it was difficult to find the point and direction that went on and on. In the end, I was pleased it came to an end.

This is one of the great fantasy novels of all time. I have loved and admired it for many years. Although summaries of the plot often state that this post-apocalypse world was brought about by nuclear war the mention of a 'power ring' suggests to me that it was a particle accelerator similar to the one at CERN that did the damage. When it comes to a glossary I think it's more fun to work out one for yourself as I did the first time I read it. In this edition I don't find Will Self's introduction particularly helpful. What is he on about? Somebody said, was it him? that Eusa stood for the USA. Personally I thought the European Space Administration more likely. Anyway I would recommend this book to anyone who is not afraid to let their imagination take flight. Good reading!

I have read this book many times, ever since my dad bought it for me when I was fifteen, 40 years ago, and I've always found something new in it; it can be read on so many levels and as from a fifteen year old as my experience and knowledge grew, as the book drifted back into my reading orbit, so did my enjoyment.However in recent times, to my shame, it had dropped off my 'ownership' list. Chatting to my sister-in-law, on our recent holiday to the States, we were extolling the virtues of favourite books, of which Riddley Walker was at the top of my list, but I was being a bit vague describing it so I finished with a 'just get it, you won't regret it' and that would be my recommendation to any one thinking of reading this book.Mike