Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban

Zo begint Riddley Walker:

On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. He dint make the groun shake nor nothing like that when he come on to my spear he wernt all that big plus he lookit poorly. He done the reqwyrt he ternt and stood and clattert his teef and made his rush and there we wer then. Him on 1 end of the spear kicking his life out and me on the other end watching him dy. I said, ‘Your tern now my tern later.' The other spears gone in then and he wer dead and the steam coming up off him in the rain and we all yelt, ‘Offert!'

Walker is my name and I am the same. Riddley Walker. Walking my riddels where ever theyve took me and walking them now on this paper the same.

I dont think it makes no diffrents where you start the telling of a thing. You never know where it begun realy. No moren you know where you begun your oan self. You myt know the place and day and time of day when you ben beartht. You myt even know the place and day and time when you ben got. That dont mean nothing tho. You stil dont know where you begun.

fenced towns

the Mincery

Eusa show

time back way back

Puter Leat

Littl Shyning Man the Addom

connexion man

Eusa show

At the very end of the original Planet of the Apes movie, the astronaut played by Charlton Heston escapes from the ape-dominated society and rides off along the deserted shoreline. He hasn't got too far when he encounters the Statue of Liberty buried up to its neck in the sand, and realises (as do the film's audience) that what he thought was an alien planet is in fact our own earth in the distant future. In my view this shocking image, coming as it did at the end of that most Promethean of decades, the 1960s, was a kind of tocsin, alerting humanity to the folly of its quest for immortality and the stars. Riddley Walker presents the reader with the opportunity to experience this uncanniness for page after page. Feel free to marvel.

On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. He dint make the groun shake nor nothing like that when he come on to my spear he wernt all that big plus he lookit poorly. He done the reqwyrt he ternt and stood and clattert his teef and made his rush and there we wer then. Him on 1 end of the spear kicking his life out and me on the other end watching him dy. I said, ‘Your tern now my tern later.' The other spears gone in then and he wer dead and the steam coming up off him in the rain and we all yelt, ‘Offert!'

Walker is my name and I am the same. Riddley Walker. Walking my riddels where ever theyve took me and walking them now on this paper the same.

I dont think it makes no diffrents where you start the telling of a thing. You never know where it begun realy. No moren you know where you begun your oan self. You myt know the place and day and time of day when you ben beartht. You myt even know the place and day and time when you ben got. That dont mean nothing tho. You stil dont know where you begun.

fenced towns

the Mincery

Eusa show

time back way back

Puter Leat

Littl Shyning Man the Addom

connexion man

Eusa show

At the very end of the original Planet of the Apes movie, the astronaut played by Charlton Heston escapes from the ape-dominated society and rides off along the deserted shoreline. He hasn't got too far when he encounters the Statue of Liberty buried up to its neck in the sand, and realises (as do the film's audience) that what he thought was an alien planet is in fact our own earth in the distant future. In my view this shocking image, coming as it did at the end of that most Promethean of decades, the 1960s, was a kind of tocsin, alerting humanity to the folly of its quest for immortality and the stars. Riddley Walker presents the reader with the opportunity to experience this uncanniness for page after page. Feel free to marvel.