Book Review: Riddley Walker
This interesting book is written entirely in a kind of pidgin English used by the distant descendents of Englishmen long after the world has suffered a nuclear holocaust (apparently in the 21st century, since space and computer technology was well past our own). Riddley is a member of a primitive tribe living on the southeastern corner of the island of Great Britain (in what had been the shire of Kent). Canterbury has become Cambry, Dover Do It Over, Folkestone Fork Stoan. Ramsgate has become a small island called The Ram which is home to the local authorities, separated from the rest of the land by the Ram Gut water passage (created by a nuclear blast).
The entire story represents just a few adventurous days in the life of 12-year-old Riddley Walker. The people are mostly contained in fenced farms (forms) where they cultivate the land or excavate the remains of earlier civilization under the direction of the authorities on The Ram. Packs of wild dogs rove the countryside and often hunt and kill unwary people. The people are periodically told stories in the form of puppet shows, which are performed by migrant "holy" men who must be authorized by The Ram. These stories represent the events of Bad Time (i.e. the nuclear holocaust) and the "time back way back" (i.e. the early days after), the primary stories seemingly being the "Hart of the Wud" and "Eusa" stories. A main theme of the book is how some bits of ancient knowledge have been preserved via these poetic stories.
This theme is reminiscent of another post-apocalyptic SF story: Walter Miller's A Canticle for Liebowitz, in which he portrays the "sacralization" of knowledge in the absense of science. The primitive post-holocaust people preserve artifacts and stories, but have only dim insights into the meaning of these things. They nonetheless make it of central importance in their lives to preserve as sacred these hints of past greatness for some future time when they may be understood. The implication is that most/all writings or stories considered sacred by religion are merely ancient ones not well understood today and that, given sufficient knowledge, could become demystified commonplaces of natural science at some point in the future (i.e. resolution of the sacred vs. the secular in favor of the latter). In fact, we witness this happening in the case of the rediscovery of gunpowder.
The "Hart of the Wud" story tells of one family (father, mother and baby) among the few survivors of the Bad Time. As they wander around in the woods starving, they meet Mr. Clevver (the Devil), who offers to show them how to use fire, but only if they offer in return something to cook and eat. That something is unfortunately their baby, but their starvation gets the best of them and they agree. Mr. Clevver not only shows them fire, but "flint and steal and makings" as well. He told them that eventually learning would return, first iron, then charcoal (burned in "the hart of the wud") and more. This is our first reference to a main theme in this book, the rediscovery of gunpowder, which is made from charcoal (chard coal), sulfur (yellerboy stone or Salt 4) and saltpeter (Saul and Peter, i.e. potassium nitrate). The implication seems to be that technological development, represented by gunpowder, is encouraged and enabled by the Devil and also assisted by man's "will to power" (the heart of the would). One major theme of the story is that we'd be better off without the "clevverness" ("the knowing brung the doing and the doing brung the shame" 81).
The stories memorialize the transition of humanity from foraging to agriculture, staying put and using "fentses" to confine animals and protect crops and later to industry. Before they got 'clevver' they had the '1st knowing' ("befor the iron ben and fire ben only littl" 17). This seems to be a spiritual type of knowing which includes thought-reading (lissening) and fortelling the future. One key aspect of this 1st knowing was a special animal-like awareness of "the nite" (the Ful of the Moon story). This knowledge was passed to humans by looking into the dog's eyes. Once they got clevver, though, they lost the 1st knowing, and eventually lost the clevverness too (in the holocaust). Although the war turned night to day, afterward everything went black for years (nuclear winter). Millions died in plagues and nothing grew in the ground. After that, the dog refused to again give humans the 1st knowing, and at full moon is driven by sadness to hunt them down and "arga warga [bloody death] if it catches them" (20).
It occurs to me that this story and other post-apocalyptic ones make the assumption that man is reduced to an extremely primitive level without modern science. This is probably in keeping with the evolutionary theory that we came from lower forms and are, in fact, animals. It assumes that our dignity comes from ourselves (i.e. via reason, knowledge, the products of our minds). A more biblical view would admit that, even deprived of science, technology and advanced culture, man would still have his God-given dignity and would not descend to the level of animals, even in the presence of poverty and primitive circumstances. The key issue is what is the source of our dignity, human or divine?
Riddley's father is the tribe's "connexion man" (finds connections among the scattered fragments of knowledge which lead to new insights), but after he is killed in a digging accident, Riddley is chosen to take his place. He attends his father's funeral and shortly after gives his first performance. Coincidentally, two important figures attend Riddley's first show (and give their own Eusa Show) and will appear later in the story; "Pry Mincer" Abel Goodparley and "Wes Mincer" Erny Orfing, visiting from the Ram. Soon after this, at a digging (at the site of his father's death), Riddley finds an old and very special "figger" (a finger puppet figure) buried in the dirt and, sensing a message from the nearby black leader of the "Bernt Arse" dog pack, escapes into the woods over the "fents" (73). This begins a strange and surreal set of events for Riddley and the reader.
Riddley soon meets and frees an imprisoned boy of his own age with no eyes who claims he is the "Ardship of Cambrey" (Archbishop of Canterbury). He is a member of the "Eusa" (USA?) folk, who were the "Puter Leat" (computer elite) and "Power Leat" (power elite) time back way back (apparently keepers of the nuclear secrets and other key knowledge). Most had been murdered in the aftermath of the holocaust, but a few had been spared as keepers of the advanced knowledge. Riddley calls him Lissener since he can sense thoughts (as increasingly can Riddley). It turns out Riddley's urge to escape the dig had come from Lissener; that he had "pult the dog and the dog pult" (98) Riddley, through mental telepathy. Lissener intends to go back to Cambrey, but Riddley senses they should go to Fork Stoan instead. So together and accompanied by the now friendly Bernt Arse Pack they set off toward Fork Stoan, where Riddley finds a bag of Yellerboy stone, brought to Inland (England) in the pocket of an unknown deceased traveller washed up in a sailboat. He is presumably from across the channel and hoping to trade their plentiful yellerboy stone for another gunpowder ingredient. After travelling together for a time, Riddley and the boy split up and, for safety, divide the yellerboy stones between them.
From here, the plot thickens, as the authorities somehow discover the existence of the yellerboy stone and realize it is the key to developing the "1 little 1" (gunpowder), and is the next step toward the "1 big 1" (a nuclear bomb). Of course, they want that power to secure their own positions. Riddley runs into Abel Goodparley again and befriends him. It turns out he doesn't really like being in power, but feels its his duty to help shepherd Inland (England) back toward its earlier glory ("boats in the air and picters on the wind"). He is later relieved after being ousted from power. It is Goodparley's old friend Granser, the chard coal burner who lives in the woods, who is able to combine the ingredients properly and mix the gunpowder. Unfortunately, both he and Goodparley are killed in the resulting explosion (194).
Riddley later meets up with Orfing (who took over after Goodparley but has now also been deposed) and they form a 2-man road show. Orfing reveals that the Ardship's yellerboy stones also caused an explosion (killing the Ardship), so the authorities are now savvy to this new form of power. At their first show, the local men have heard of the new power that's loose and suspect Riddley and Orfing may have something to do with it (in which case they'll kill them). As they perform the Punch show (about clever Punch's attempt to cannibalize a baby [!], continuing the author's apparent fascination with this theme), a dissenter forcibly stops the show, saying 'don't try that around here.' After knocking the man out, the leader decides he'll leave and travel with Riddley and Orfing (he also wants to shed his authority, as Goodparley and Orfing have done, since it requires violence and its struggle for control eventually produces evil, killing and war). Riddley's last thoughts as the book closes are: Why is Punch crooked? Why will he always kill the baby if he can? He doesn't understand, but he'll continue to ponder it.
Russell Hoban died in 2011 at age 86 (b1925).
See list of SF classics here.
