Between the annotated website, the essay THE TERROR OF HISTORY, and the text itself, it seems as if Eusa contains elements of USA, the USSR, Yeshua or "Little Jesu" (Hoban's earlier draft's name for Eusa, a.k.a. Jesus), St. Eustace, and it seems, Einstein or maybe Oppenheimer. But probably the USA more than anything.…

And the AV Club hasn't hired you as a writer yet, why? An excellent comment—though I think that this book's scope and ambition is so broad and multipurpose and effective that any one of us who try to say that the book is about any one thing is only going to be partially right.

What you two said. Though it doesn't have to be taken theistically—it could just be that this little piece of society is finally, in emulation of Riddley, accessing their intellects and their creativity, moving forward once again in a shared spirit of bold mental revolution.

Swibble, I like what you point out there—it really makes me want to re-read the book immediately. Hoban really inverts the idea of humanity's relationship to its collective potential (in that passage you mentioned), as if that collective potential, or that mass consciousness is the thinking part of the equation,…

Good comment. It's a lot like reality NOW: fraught with both hope and danger, with the potential for both progress and devastation. The most hopeful thing I think about Riddley's show at the end is that some people recognize something important in what he's doing and he does attract a following, following him out of…

And did you notice that Riddley mentions a place where a family of badgers used to live? I like to think that Hoban meant that to literally be the former home of Francis the Badger, though it's sad to think that that series ultimately concluded with the badger family's total nuclear devastation. No more bread and…

And then there's the 1 Little 1 that is one individual consciousness, in this case Riddley Walker's. In Hoban's version of the future, individual minds have become so devolved and muddled that individual consciousness has lost its ability to positively or at least technologically shape the 1 Big 1, the collective…

@Eli B, regarding "the way the 1 Big 1 is clearly the Bomb except when maybe it isn't." That's what's really been obsessing me about this book, as much as anything.

It really was intimidating, but also kind of exciting. I've had those moments before, where you just feel so in tune with the sources of your creativity and insight that it seems as if meanings and ideas are bombarding you from every direction, and you can never really capture them all. They're rare, but I think all…

Eli B., I have spent so much time on your excellent RW website this last month that seeing you here leaves me feeling kind of starstruck.

Best. RIDDLEY WALKER Website. Ever.

Here's something cool, a chart that shows a bit of how the stories told in RIDDLEY WALKER change the way stories have changed over the course human history A.D.—

It is weird how being a parent totally changes this genre. The movie of THE ROAD was so oppressive to me for that reason, as was the nonfiction book THE LONG EMERGENCY, just for all the fear it invoked about raising and protecting one's children in a world gone to hell. I can't even get my kids to be quiet for…

"Like a relic from a different age!"
Oh man, did I ever love this book. I can't remember the last time a book so quickly became one of my all-time favorites. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for picking this, Todd. I had never even heard of it before, but now I would buy myself an Arga Warga t-shirt if someone were…

Ficta, that is awesome. At this moment, you are truly a Jamesian reader, "a reader on whom nothing is lost." Thank you for what you just added to this book for me. Wildness.

Oho, this is that guy—the guy who writes biographies of salt and cod! Well. I've always liked that idea of writing about history through the lens of a certain object or animal or what-have-you, but it just seems as if these sorts of books are always ultimately so disappointing. Maybe that's a testament to the power…

For all its rough edges, I loved INTO THE WILD. That was a pretty faithful adaptation that perfectly captured the spirit of the book and the book's hero.

Thanks for that. I'm glad to hear there's a movie version.

I know I ought to stop posting on this thread already, but I'm just too excited for the discussion. And Farmer John, I'm really glad to see you're in for this round. Your comments are always illuminating, and I think you're right: this will an exceptionally good discussion. I suspect that there will be fewer people…

I worked "set-netting" at a live-in commercial fishing camp in Kasilof, Alaska when I was 19, and pretty much the only song all the crew knew was Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown," which we would often sing together at the end of the day, riding around in the open bed of a truck with no brakes. That experience, combined…