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Riddley Walker

Riddley Walker is a science fiction novel by American writer Russell Hoban, first published in 1980. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel in 1982,[1] as well as an Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award in 1983.[2] It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1981.[3]

Author

United Kingdom

English

16 October 1980

Print (Hardcover)

220

813.54

PS3558.O336

It is Hoban's best-known adult novel and a drastic departure from his other work, although he continued to explore some of the same themes in other settings.

Production[edit]

Hoban began work on the novel in 1974, inspired by the medieval wall painting of the legend of Saint Eustace at Canterbury Cathedral.[4]

Plot[edit]

Roughly two thousand years after a nuclear war has devastated civilization, Riddley, the young narrator, stumbles upon efforts to recreate a weapon of the ancient world.


The novel's characters live a harsh life in a small area which is presently the English county of Kent, and know little of the world outside of "Inland" (England). Their level of civilization is similar to England's prehistoric Iron Age, although they do not produce their own iron but salvage it from ancient machinery. Church and state have combined into one secretive institution, whose mythology, based on misinterpreted stories of the war and an old Catholic saint (Eustace), is enacted in puppet shows.

Riddley Walker, the 12-year old protagonist

Brooder Walker, Riddley's father who is known for his "connexions" (prophetic stories) and dies early in the story

Lorna, the seer/priest in their village

Abel Goodparley and Erny Orfing, agents of the political-religious government

Eusa, a religious figure portrayed in puppet form

Lissener, titled the Ardship of Cambry, one of the mutant "Eusa folk"

Technological idioms: progam for plan, gallack seas for the heavens, Puter Leat for the computer elite, pirntowt for printout (or conclusion), the Littl Shyning Man the Addom for the atom

Capitalized nouns: Plomercy for diplomacy, Trubba for trouble, Master Chaynjis for changes, or the apocalypse

Phonetic spelling: fizzics for physics, vackt our wayt for evacuated, soar vivers for survivors

Place names: Inland for England, Cambry for Canterbury, Do It Over for Dover, Fork Stoan for Folkestone

Titles: Wes Mincer for Westminster, Pry Mincer for prime minister, Guvner for leader, Ardship of Cambry for Archbishop of Canterbury

Colloquialisms: bye bye hump for burial mound, doing the juicy for sex, Bad Time for nuclear armageddon

Kent dialect: parbly for probably, arnge for orange, barms for bombs

One of the most notable features of the book is its unique dialect: an imagined, future version of the English language. This language blends puns, phonetic spelling, colloquialisms, and is influenced by the dialects of East Kent as Hoban heard them before 1980, where the events of the book are set.[5] Professor of English John Mullan praised the novel's dialect as an "extraordinary risk" and noted that the language "naturalises the shattered world" of the novel, absorbing and engaging readers.[6] Author Peter Schwenger described the language as "quasi-illiterate, largely phonetic," arguing that it "slows us to the pace of an oral culture."[7]


Some features include:

Robert C. Cumbow wrote in that the post-apocalyptic film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome borrowed "whole ideas, themes and characterizations" from the novel.[12]

Slant Magazine

Hoban's own theatrical adaptation premiered at the , in February 1986. It was directed by Braham Murray and starred David Threlfall. Its U.S. premiere was at the Chocolate Bayou Theatre, in April 1987, directed by Greg Roach.[13]

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

In 1989, Russell Hoban gave permission for theatre students at Sir Percival Whitley/, Halifax, West Yorkshire, to transcribe the book into a theatrical script, which was then staged in a new production at The Square Chapel, Halifax.

Calderdale College

In November 2007, the play was produced by Red Kettle in , Ireland, to positive reviews.[14]

Waterford

In 2011, the play was also adapted for Trouble Puppet Theater Co. by artistic director Connor Hopkins at Salvage Vanguard Theater in . This production employed tabletop puppetry inspired by the Bunraku tradition and was supported by an original score by Justin Sherburn.[15]

Austin, Texas

In March 2015, a group of Aberystwyth drama students performed the play in Theatre y Castell over the course of two days. The production was directed by David Ian Rabey.

Cloud Atlas

The Book of Dave

Engine Summer

Pilgermann

Ackerley, Chris (2017). "Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker: The Eusa Story and Other Blipful Figgers". In ; Cusack, Carole M. (eds.). The Medieval Presence in the Modernist Aesthetic. Brill. pp. 169–190. doi:10.1163/9789004357020_012. ISBN 978-90-04-35702-0.

Marshall, Simone Celine

Boyne, Martin (2009). (PDF). Working with English: Medieval and Modern Language, Literature and Drama. 5 (1): 1–20. Retrieved 23 May 2021.

"Sentenced to Destruction: a Stylistic Analysis of the Syntax of Two Post-apocalyptic Novels"

Cockrell, Amanda (Spring 2004). "On This Enchanted Ground: Reflections of a Cold War Childhood in Russell Hoban's "Riddley Walker" and Walter M. Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz"". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 15 (1): 20–36.  43308682.

JSTOR

Dowling, David (1988). "Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker: Doing the Connections". . 29 (3): 179–187. doi:10.1080/00111619.1988.9937847.

Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction

Granofsky, Ronald (1986). "Holocaust as Symbol in Riddley Walker and The White Hotel". Modern Language Studies. 16 (3): 172–182. :10.2307/3194897. JSTOR 3194897.

doi

Hannah, Matthew; Mayer, Sylvia (2021). "Scale and Speculative Futures in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker and Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312". In Hanke, Christine; Milburn, Colin; Hutta, Jan Simon; Cortiel, Jeanne (eds.). Practices of Speculation. Modeling, Embodiment, Figuration. Transcript Verlag. pp. 191–208.  9783837647518.

ISBN

Huisman, David (1994). "'Hoap of a Tree' in Riddley Wa'ker". Christianity and Literature. 43 (3–2): 347–373. :10.1177/014833319404300309.

doi

Lake, David J. (1984). "Making the Two One: Language and Mysticism in "Riddley Walker"". Extrapolation. 25 (2): 157–170. :10.3828/extr.1984.25.2.157.

doi

Maclean, Marie (1988). "The Signifier as Token: The Textual Riddles of Russell Hoban". Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association. 70 (1): 211–219. :10.1179/aulla.1988.001.

doi

Maynor, Natalie; Patteson, Richard F. (1984). "Language as Protagonist in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker". Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 26 (1): 18–25. :10.1080/00111619.1984.9933791.

doi

Mullen, R. D. (November 2000). "Dialect, Grapholect, and Story: Russell Hoban's "Riddley Walker" as Science Fiction". Science Fiction Studies. 27 (3): 391–417.  4241511.

JSTOR

Mustazza, Leonard (1989). "Myth and History in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker". . 31 (1): 17–26. doi:10.1080/00111619.1989.9934681.

Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction

Porter, Jeffrey (Winter 1990). ""Three Quarks for Muster Mark": Quantum Wordplay and Nuclear Discourse in Russell Hoban's "Riddley Walker"". Contemporary Literature. 31 (4): 448–469. :10.2307/1208323. JSTOR 1208323.

doi

Roache, John (2017). "In the Moment of Danger: Benjaminian History and Theology in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker". Symplokē. 25 (1–2): 355–374. :10.5250/symploke.25.1-2.0355. S2CID 148964555.

doi

Schwenger, P. (1991). "Circling Ground Zero". PMLA. 106 (2): 251–261. :10.2307/462661. JSTOR 462661. S2CID 163939306.

doi

Schwetman, John W. (1985). "Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker and the Language of the Future". Extrapolation. 26 (3): 212–219. :10.3828/extr.1985.26.3.212.

doi

Taylor, Nancy Dew (1989). "'…You Bes go Ballsy': Riddley Walker's Prescription for the Future". Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 31 (1): 27–39. :10.1080/00111619.1989.9934682.

doi

Warren, Martin L. (March 2007). "The St. Eustace Legend as Palimpsest in Hoban's "Riddley Walker"". Science Fiction Studies. 34 (1): 158–163.  4241511.

JSTOR

Riddley Walker Annotations

The Riddley Walker Concordance

(The Guardian, 26 November 2010)

Russell Hoban on Riddley Walker

Gallery: Quentin Blake illustrations for Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker

Photographs of Trouble Puppet Theater Co's production