{"id":91,"date":"2020-10-24T06:55:33","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T06:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimclarke.net\/?p=91"},"modified":"2020-10-24T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T08:30:00","slug":"sum-poasyum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimclarke.net\/index.php\/2020\/10\/24\/sum-poasyum\/","title":{"rendered":"Sum Poasyum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today, scholars, academics, artists and writers will gather (except they won’t, this being plague year) in Canterbury<\/a> (ie virtually but hosted there) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s an astonishing novel, an evocative work of post-apocalyptic world set millennia in the future but demonstrating how the future will be back to the past if we permit the fragile, complex thing we call technologically-enabled civilisation to collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most notable thing about Hoban’s novel is of course Riddleyspeak, the quirkily spelt, puntastic invented language in which it is written. Meant to evoke both the post-literate society in which it is set and the limited cognitive capacities (and low cunning) of its 12 year old narrator, Hoban’s invented language is a remarkable piece of literary creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been posting about Riddley Walker <\/em>over at Ponying the Slovos<\/a> in my own meagre celebration, seeking to get under the bonnet of Riddleyspeak and identify how it works and what it does. I’m hoping to experience sum of the sum poasyum too, but that will be dependent on another creature of complex idiosyncratic communication and low cunning, my infant son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if I fail, good luck instead to all who attend and hopefully some of the materials will end up archived and online for those unable to be there, even virtually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, scholars, academics, artists and writers will gather (except they won’t, this being plague year) in Canterbury (ie virtually but hosted there) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker. It’s an astonishing novel, an evocative work of post-apocalyptic world set millennia in the future but demonstrating how the future … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sum Poasyum”<\/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":[29,24,20,21],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-invented-languages","tag-invented-languages","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