Editing Riddley Walker

{{short description|1980 novel by Russell Hoban}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book
| name              = Riddley Walker
| image             = Riddley Walker cover.jpg
| image_size        = 180px
| caption           = First edition
| author            = [[Russell Hoban]]
| country           = United Kingdom
| language          = English
| genre             = [[Science fiction]], [[Dystopian fiction]], [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction]]
| publisher         = [[Jonathan Cape]]
| pub_date          = 16 October 1980
| media_type        = Print ([[Hardcover]])
| pages             = 220
| awards            = {{unbulleted list|[[Campbell award (best novel)|John W. Campbell Memorial Award]], [[Ditmar Award|Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award]]}}
| isbn              = 0-224-01851-5
| oclc              = 7313161
| dewey             = 813.54
| congress          = PS3558.O336
}}
'''''Riddley Walker''''' is a [[science fiction]] novel by American writer [[Russell Hoban]], first published in [[1980 in literature|1980]]. It won the [[Campbell award (best novel)|John W. Campbell Memorial Award]] for best science fiction novel in 1982,<ref>{{Cite web |title=sfadb: John W. Campbell Memorial Award 1982 |url=http://www.sfadb.com/John_W_Campbell_Memorial_Award_1982 |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=www.sfadb.com}}</ref> as well as an [[Ditmar Award|Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award]] in 1983.<ref>{{Cite web |title=sfadb: Ditmar Awards 1983 |url=https://www.sfadb.com/Ditmar_Awards_1983 |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=www.sfadb.com}}</ref> It was nominated for the [[Nebula Award]] for [[Nebula Award for Best Novel|Best Novel]] in 1981.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Science Fictions & Fantasy Writers Association|title=1981 Nebula Awards |year=1981 |url=https://nebulas.sfwa.org/award-year/1981/ |access-date=2025-01-16 |website=The Nebula Awards |language=en-US}}</ref>

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 ==
Hoban began work on the novel in 1974, inspired by the [[medieval]] wall painting of the legend of [[Saint Eustace]] at [[Canterbury Cathedral]].<ref name="Mullan">{{Cite web |last=Mullan |first=John |date=2010-11-13 |title=Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/13/riddley-walker-russell-hoban-bookclub |access-date=2012-01-16 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

== Plot ==
Roughly two thousand years after a [[Nuclear warfare|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.

==Characters==
*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"

== Language ==
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, and colloquialisms, and is influenced by the dialects of East Kent as Hoban heard them before 1980, where the book is set.<ref name="Mullan" /> Professor of English [[John Mullan (academic)|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.<ref name="Mullan" /> Author Peter Schwenger called the language "quasi-illiterate, largely phonetic," arguing that it "slows us to the pace of an oral culture."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schwenger |first=Peter |date=1991 |title=Circling Ground Zero |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/462661 |journal=PMLA |volume=106 |issue=2 |pages=251–261 |doi=10.2307/462661 |issn=0030-8129|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Some features include: 

* 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

== Critical reception ==
[[File:Riddley_Walker_by_Quentin_Blake.jpg|thumb|right|From the cover of the [[Folio Society]] edition by [[Quentin Blake]]]]
Peter Ruppert noted that Hoban's novel draws on "such well-known dystopias as ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'', ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'', and ''[[A Canticle for Leibowitz]]''", and "what is unique in Hoban's haunting vision of the future is his language" which is described as being similar to the ''[[Nadsat]]'' slang spoken in [[Anthony Burgess]]' ''A Clockwork Orange''.<ref name="utopian">{{Cite journal|last=Ruppert|first=Peter|date=1999|title=Riddley Walker|journal=[[Utopian Studies]]|publisher=[[Penn State University Press]]|volume=10|issue=2|pages=254–255|issn=1045-991X|jstor=20718123}}</ref> ''The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' stated that, "The force and beauty and awfulness of Hoban's creation is shattering," and praised the author's use of a crude "Chaucerian English".<ref name="atomicscientists">{{Cite journal|last=Messic|first=Penelope|date=June 1982|title=Penelope Messic reviews Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban|journal=[[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]|volume=38|issue=6|pages=49–50|issn=0096-3402}}</ref> John Mullan of [[The Guardian]] also praised Hoban's decision to narrate the novel in a devolved form of English: "The struggle with Riddley's language is what makes reading the book so absorbing, so completely possessing."<ref name="Mullan" />

''Library Journal'' wrote that the book holds "a unique and beloved place among the few after-[[Armageddon]] classics".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Clark|first=Jeff|date=July 1981|title=Hoban, Russell. Ridley Walker.|department=Book Review|journal=Library Journal|volume=106|issue=13|pages=1443|issn=0363-0277}}</ref> It was included in [[David Pringle]]'s book ''[[Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels]]''. In 1994, American literary critic [[Harold Bloom]] included ''Riddley Walker'' in his list of works comprising the [[Western Canon]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sonic.net/~rteeter/grtbloom.html|title=Bloom. Western Canon|last=Teeter|first=Robert|website=sonic.net|access-date=2019-10-02}}</ref>

== Adaptations ==
=== Film and theatre ===
* Robert C. Cumbow wrote in ''[[Slant Magazine]]'' that the post-apocalyptic film ''[[Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome]]'' borrowed "whole ideas, themes and characterizations" from the novel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/summer-of-85-we-dont-need-another-hero-mad-max-beyond-thunderdome/|title=Summer of '85: We Don't Need Another Hero: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome|last=Cumbow|first=Robert C.|date=2010-06-19|website=Slant Magazine|access-date=2015-05-03}}</ref>
* Hoban's own theatrical adaptation premiered at the [[Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester]], 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/riddley.html|title=Russell Hoban's RIDDLEY WALKER|last=Awl|first=Dave|website=THE HEAD OF ORPHEUS - A Russell Hoban Reference Page|access-date=2013-04-14}}</ref>
* In 1989, Russell Hoban gave permission for theatre students at Sir Percival Whitley/[[Calderdale College]], Halifax, West Yorkshire, to transcribe the book into a theatrical script, which was then staged in a new production at The Square Chapel, Halifax.
* In November 2007, the play was produced by Red Kettle in [[Waterford]], Ireland, to positive reviews.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://red-kettle.com/site/productions/riddley-walker|title=Red Kettle Theatre Company, Waterford: Riddley Walker|date=November 2007|website=red-kettle.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618214604/http://red-kettle.com/site/productions/riddley-walker|archive-date=2009-06-18|access-date=2013-04-14}}</ref>
* In 2011, the play was also adapted for Trouble Puppet Theater Co. by artistic director Connor Hopkins at Salvage Vanguard Theater in [[Austin, Texas]]. This production employed tabletop puppetry inspired by the [[Bunraku]] tradition and was supported by an original score by Justin Sherburn.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.troublepuppet.com/Trouble_Puppet/Archives.html|title=Trouble Puppet Theater Co. Archives|date=2011-11-08|website=troublepuppet.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911062752/https://www.troublepuppet.com/Trouble_Puppet/Archives.html|archive-date=2014-09-11|access-date=2013-04-14}}</ref>
* 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.

=== Popular music ===
* "The Rapture of Riddley Walker" is the eighth song on the [[Clutch (band)|Clutch]] album ''[[From Beale Street to Oblivion]]'' (2007).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/from-beale-street-to-oblivion-mw0000745772|title=From Beale Street to Oblivion - Clutch {{!}} Songs, Reviews, Credits|last=Prato|first=Greg|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=2012-07-19}}</ref>
* "Widder's Dump", named after a location in the book and notes on the credits as being inspired by the novel, is the fifth song on the 1989  ''[[King Swamp]]'' album.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/king-swamp-mw0000203727|title=King Swamp - King Swamp {{!}} Songs, Reviews, Credits|last=Allan|first=Mark|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=2012-07-19}}</ref>
* "In the Heart of the Wood and What I Found There" from the album [[Thunder Perfect Mind (Current 93 album)|''Thunder Perfect Mind'']] by [[Current 93]] features references to Riddley Walker. Another Current 93 song, "The Blue Gates of Death" from the album Earth Covers Earth incorporates a rhyme from the book. Also, their album ''[[Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre]]'' cites the [[Saint Eustace]] story.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.errorbar.net/rw/Related_works|title=Related works|editor-last=Bishop|editor-first=Eli|website=Riddley Walker Annotations|access-date=2017-12-10}}</ref>
* "Ode to Riddley Walker" is the title track of the second solo album by [[The Owl Service (band)|The Owl Service]] vocalist Diana Collier (2020). The song refers directly to Hoban's novel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2020/02/diana-collier-ode-to-riddley-walker/|title=Diana Collier: Ode To Riddley Walker|last=Kidman|first=David|website=Folk Radio|access-date=2022-12-18}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Novels}}
* ''[[Cloud Atlas (novel)|Cloud Atlas]]''
* ''[[The Book of Dave]]''
* ''[[Engine Summer]]''
* ''[[Pilgermann]]''

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
*{{cite book |last1=Ackerley |first1=Chris |editor1-last=Marshall |editor1-first=Simone Celine |editor-link=Simone Marshall |editor2-last=Cusack |editor2-first=Carole M. |title=The Medieval Presence in the Modernist Aesthetic |date=2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-35702-0 |pages=169–190 |chapter=Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker: The Eusa Story and Other Blipful Figgers |doi=10.1163/9789004357020_012}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Boyne |first1=Martin |title=Sentenced to Destruction: a Stylistic Analysis of the Syntax of Two Post-apocalyptic Novels |journal=Working with English: Medieval and Modern Language, Literature and Drama |date=2009 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/documents/working-with-english/volume-5/boyne-sentenced-to-destruction-a-stylistic-analysis-of-the-syntax-of-two-post-apocalyptic-novels.pdf |access-date=23 May 2021}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Cockrell |first1=Amanda |title=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=Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts |date=Spring 2004 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=20–36 |jstor=43308682}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Dowling |first1=David |title=Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker: Doing the Connections |journal=[[Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction]] |date=1988 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=179–187 |doi=10.1080/00111619.1988.9937847}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Eve |first1=Martin Paul |author-link=Martin Paul Eve|title="some kind of thing it aint us but yet its in us": David Mitchell, Russell Hoban, and Metafiction After the Millennium |journal=SAGE Open |date=2014 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1177/2158244014521636|doi-access=free }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Granofsky |first1=Ronald |title=Holocaust as Symbol in ''Riddley Walker'' and ''The White Hotel'' |journal=Modern Language Studies |date=1986 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=172–182 |doi=10.2307/3194897| jstor=3194897}}
*{{cite book |last1=Hannah |first1=Matthew |last2=Mayer |first2=Sylvia |editor1-last=Hanke |editor1-first=Christine |editor2-last=Milburn |editor2-first=Colin |editor3-last=Hutta |editor3-first=Jan Simon |editor4-last=Cortiel |editor4-first=Jeanne |title=Practices of Speculation. Modeling, Embodiment, Figuration |date=2021 |publisher=Transcript Verlag |isbn=9783837647518 |pages=191–208 |chapter=Scale and Speculative Futures in Russell Hoban's ''Riddley Walker'' and Kim Stanley Robinson's ''2312''}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Huisman |first1=David |title='Hoap of a Tree' in ''Riddley Wa'ker'' |journal=Christianity and Literature |date=1994 |volume=43 |issue=3–2 |pages=347–373 |doi=10.1177/014833319404300309}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Lake |first1=David J. |title=Making the Two One: Language and Mysticism in "Riddley Walker" |journal=Extrapolation |date=1984 |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=157–170|doi=10.3828/extr.1984.25.2.157 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Maclean |first1=Marie |title=The Signifier as Token: The Textual Riddles of Russell Hoban |journal=Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association |date=1988 |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=211–219 |doi=10.1179/aulla.1988.001}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Maynor |first1=Natalie |last2=Patteson |first2=Richard F. |title=Language as Protagonist in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker |journal=Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction |date=1984 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=18–25 |doi=10.1080/00111619.1984.9933791}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Mullen |first1=R. D. |title=Dialect, Grapholect, and Story: Russell Hoban's "Riddley Walker" as Science Fiction |journal=Science Fiction Studies |date=November 2000 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=391–417 |jstor=4241511}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Mustazza |first1=Leonard |title=Myth and History in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker |journal=[[Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction]] |date=1989 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=17–26 |doi=10.1080/00111619.1989.9934681}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=Jeffrey |title="Three Quarks for Muster Mark": Quantum Wordplay and Nuclear Discourse in Russell Hoban's "Riddley Walker" |journal=Contemporary Literature |date=Winter 1990 |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=448–469 |doi=10.2307/1208323|jstor=1208323 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Roache |first1=John |title=In the Moment of Danger: Benjaminian History and Theology in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker |journal=Symplokē |date=2017 |volume=25 |issue=1–2 |pages=355–374 |doi=10.5250/symploke.25.1-2.0355|s2cid=148964555 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Schwenger |first1=P. |title=Circling Ground Zero |journal=PMLA |date=1991 |volume=106 |issue=2 |pages=251–261 |doi=10.2307/462661|jstor=462661 |s2cid=163939306 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Schwetman |first1=John W. |title=Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker and the Language of the Future |journal=Extrapolation |date=1985 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=212–219 |doi=10.3828/extr.1985.26.3.212}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=Nancy Dew |title='…You Bes go Ballsy': Riddley Walker's Prescription for the Future |journal=Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction |date=1989 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=27–39 |doi=10.1080/00111619.1989.9934682}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Warren |first1=Martin L. |title=The St. Eustace Legend as Palimpsest in Hoban's "Riddley Walker" |journal=Science Fiction Studies |date=March 2007 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=158–163 |jstor=4241511}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/26/russell-hoban-riddley-walker Russell Hoban on ''Riddley Walker''] (''The Guardian'', 26 November 2010)
* [http://www.errorbar.net/rw/ Riddley Walker Annotations]
* [https://spoonbill.org/hoban/riddley.html The ''Riddley Walker'' Concordance]
* [https://spoonbill.org/hoban/riddleyspeak.html Riddleyspeak: A Bibliography]
* [https://www.wired.co.uk/gallery/quentin-blake-illustrations-for-russell-hobans-apocalyptic-riddley-walker Gallery: Quentin Blake illustrations for Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker]
* [https://www.troublepuppet.com/productions Photographs of Trouble Puppet Theater Co's production]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridley Walker}}
[[Category:1980 British novels]]
[[Category:1980 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into plays]]
[[Category:British science fiction novels]]
[[Category:British post-apocalyptic novels]]
[[Category:John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel–winning works]]
[[Category:Books written in fictional dialects]]
[[Category:Novels set in Kent]]
[[Category:Novels by Russell Hoban]]
[[Category:Jonathan Cape books]]