Riddley Walker

[awesomelies]

"The "straight passage" is a crucial moment, I believe. For those missing pieces here and there, it grounds the Eusa story in something concrete, and though we've known it all along, quite plainly puts forward the severity of the gap between our world and theirs. This moment both pulled me closer to Riddley's world in terms of pathos, and firmly planted me outside of that world. Without the magic of Riddley's language, the passage seemed almost naked to me, sad in its matter-of-factness. Oh, I thought, I'm one of them, and so far away."

Passages like this make the manifold idiocies of the Onion AV Club's discussion series on Riddley Walker much easier to bear. (No, fans have not come up with some inventive notions of where the book's places *might* go in modern England, you fool, those *are* the damn places, as Hoban makes entirely sodding clear). Still, there's enough insight to make the series worth keeping an eye on, and the idiocies have damn near stirred me into action on a long-threatened plan to scribble down some thoughts in this yere LJ...

Comments

[maga-dogg.livejournal.com]

There is a bit of reified-zeitgeist going on, yeah, but... hm. Goodparley sort of points out that it's awfully convenient. "Wel wel wel here I been stressing myself and straining and wearying and worrying this long time and all that time this here knowing ben right unner my nose. 1 Littl 1 who wudve thot it." And earlier when Granser sings the song that starts the whole discussion that leads to them pulling out the yellerboy, he's "Looking at me sydling wylst he sung it like he wantit me to take noatis." So I think both sides are a little bit more savvy about what's going on than their overt discussion suggests.

I guess the deal is, the Mincery is pretty primitive as governments go, and there's no way it can be carrying out a long-term Secret Research Project without leaking secrets like a sieve. And Granser's supposed sacrosanct charcoal-burner secret lore takes about five minutes to extract. And Granser can hardly be unaware of the implications of Goodparley's downfall, yet he takes them in with over-the-top overtures of friendship. So I get the impression that there's been secret-trading going on between charcoal-burners and Mincery already, and a lot of this sequence is a puppet-show.