Word: riddley
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...SETH RIDDLEY...
Such, except for the unsexed hero, is the stuff of rousing historical fiction. Pilgermann is that and several other things as well. In Riddley Walker (1981), his fourth novel, Russell Hoban proved himself a master of the unexpected viewpoint. He imagined life several millenniums after a nuclear holocaust and then invented the debased, fragmented language that survivors might use to rebuild their civilization. This time, Hoban's English is normal, but his speaker-protagonist is not. He introduces himself. "Pilgermann here. I call myself Pilgermann, it's a convenience. What my name was when I was walking around...
...Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. Several millenniums after nuclear catastrophe, a group of survivors huddles near "Cambry" (Canterbury) and tries to reinvent the English language and rediscover gunpowder...
...Riddley mistrusts Goodparley's discovery--all the more when Goodparley lets on that his real goal is to harness the power that caused the great flash. Riddley's grounds for skepticism--expressed most succinctly by a fellow traveller--sound authentic not only in a land of foragers and howling dogs but in a world of bureaucrats and soaring weaponry...
This is Hoban's greatest accomplishment--that the mystical tale of a 12-year-old boy, told in an unknown language, resonates with an urgent, timeless message: in Riddley's words "the onlyes power is no power." Perhaps Hoban's gift as a children's writer gives Riddley Walker this sense of universality; perhaps you have to know how to speak to children in order to speak to their parents...