{"id":83,"date":"2020-10-14T08:19:45","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T08:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimclarke.net\/?p=83"},"modified":"2020-10-16T11:40:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T11:40:54","slug":"riddley-me-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimclarke.net\/index.php\/2020\/10\/14\/riddley-me-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Riddley me this"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So, after a summer hiatus, there’s a new post on the Ponying the Slovos blog, the first of three looking at Russell Hoban’s post-apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker <\/em>on the occasion of its 40th anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoban’s novel, like A Clockwork Orange, <\/em>deals with dystopia by distorting the language, the very means of communication between author and reader. A broken world is revealed piecemeal via broken English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we talk about Riddleyspeak as a language in itself? It’s obviously derivative of English and is supposed to be that English which has evolved over 2000 years following a civilisational collapse. In that regard, by its own premises, it fails. A mere 13 centuries after Anglo-Saxon and Caedmon’s hymn, English is entirely unrecognisable compared to its forebear tongue, whereas Riddley Walker’s English is mostly comprehensible to us on first sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps that is nit-picking, since books are written to be understood and read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, more here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, after a summer hiatus, there’s a new post on the Ponying the Slovos blog, the first of three looking at Russell Hoban’s post-apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. Hoban’s novel, like A Clockwork Orange, deals with dystopia by distorting the language, the very means of communication between author and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Riddley me this”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[23,22,24,20,21],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-invented-languages","tag-a-clockwork-orange","tag-anthony-burgess","tag-ponying-the-slovos","tag-riddley-walker","tag-russell-hoban"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t