![]() In a sense, then, Riddley produces a scriptural record, a kind of wisdom book or neo-Ecclesiastes freighted with a lesson about the vanity of human wishes. Hoban ultimately focuses on Riddley's growing insight into the human conditioninsight that enables him to distinguish various kinds of appetitive knowledge from real wisdom, scientia from sapientia. In his story, as a consequence, he rigorously scrutinizes different kinds of knowledge, from the destructive science pursued by politicians like Abel Goodparley and Erny Orfing to the mythic and cultural lore transmitted in the tales and fables frequently transcribed for the reader. ![]() There he discovers a version of the Tree of Knowledge and the idea of its baleful fruit. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.Īs history became myth, it blended with a much older idea of human transgression, one that Riddley intuits in a trancelike moment in the ruined crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. Copyright 1989 by the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University. Back to The Head of Orpheus: a Russell Hoban Reference Page (home page).Įxcerpt (pages 83-105, 220-21) from David Cowart, History and the Contemporary Novel (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989). ![]() ![]() ![]() The Terror of History: Riddley Walker (continued from p.1) Back to The Terror of History page one.īack to The Russell Hoban Reading Room. ![]()
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