''Mockingbird'' is a
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
novel by American writer
Walter Tevis
Walter Stone Tevis (February 28, 1928 – August 9, 1984) was an American novelist and short story writer. Three of his six novels were adapted into major films: ''The Hustler'', ''The Color of Money'' and ''The Man Who Fell to Earth''. A fourth, ...
, first published in 1980. It was nominated for a
Nebula Award for Best Novel
The Nebula Award for Best Novel is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy novels. A work of fiction is considered a novel by the organization if it is 40,000 words or longer; a ...
.
Plot
The novel begins hundreds of years in the future in Manhattan, where most of the buildings have been razed and its population, as with the world's, is largely depleted. The surviving people are illiterate, and are drugged with pills that makes them supine and infertile. That has caused human life on the planet to gradually decline to the point of near-extinction. The surviving humans are survived by
android robots, of which Spofforth is the most powerful and sophisticated. No humans have been born in many years and there are no children. Suicide by immolation is rampant, as people have nothing to live for.
Over the years Spofforth has held many important positions, including head of the entire auto industry, which no longer exists, and mayor of St. Louis. He is now the "dean of faculties" of
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
,
As the novel begins, Spofforth climbs to the top of the Empire State Building to attempt suicide. The attempt is unsuccessful as Spofforth is programed to prohibit suicide. He has been doing this every year for many years, as he yearns to die.
Spofforth brings a teacher, Paul Bentley, to New York. Bentley has taught himself to read after a
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...
–like discovery of a film with words matching those in a children's primer.
Spofforth begins to dislike Bentley and the knowledge he has acquired from reading. Bentley says he could teach others to read, but Spofforth says that it is illegal and instead gives him a job of decoding the written titles in ancient silent films.
At the Bronx Zoo, where the animals are robots, Bentley meets Mary Lou. He explains the concept of reading to her, and the two embark on a path toward literacy. Spofforth responds by sending Bentley to prison for the crime of reading and takes Mary Lou as an unwilling housemate. Mary Lou is pregnant with Bentley's child. She learns from Spofforth that he has engineered the demise of the human race because he cannot be allowed to die as long as he can serve humans.
Bentley escapes from the prison, spends some time in a Christian community, and makes his way to New York. There he finds Mary Lou and her baby. She tells Paul that Spofforth has agreed to end the drug-induced depopulation. They climb the Empire State Building together and help Spofforth commit suicide.
Reviews
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American-Irish writer known for the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, ''Weyr Search'', 19 ...
commented, "I've read other novels extrapolating the dangers of computerization, but ''Mockingbird'' stings me, the writer, the hardest. The notion, the possibility, that people might indeed lose the ability, and worse, the desire to read, is made acutely probable."
When a new edition was published in 1999, with an introduction by
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was publishe ...
, Pat Holt stated that, "The book often feels like a combination ''
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
'' and ''
Brave New World
''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarch ...
'', with a dash of the movie ''
Escape from New York
''Escape from New York'' is a 1981 American science fiction action film co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter. It stars Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau, and Harry Dea ...
'' thrown in."
Reviewing the 1999 edition,
James Sallis
James Sallis (born December 21, 1944) is an American crime writer who wrote a series of novels featuring the detective character Lew Griffin set in New Orleans, and the 2005 novel '' Drive'', which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same nam ...
declared that "''Mockingbird'' collapses the whole of mankind's perverse, self-destructive, indomitable history, cruelty and kindness alike, into its black-humor narrative of a robot's death wish."
Film adaptation
On April 20, 2022, it was announced that
Alma Har'el
Alma Har'el ( he, עלמה הראל) is an Israeli-American music video and film director. She is best known for her 2019 feature film debut '' Honey Boy'', for which she won a Directors Guild of America Award.
Her 2011 documentary '' Bombay Bea ...
will direct a film adaptation of the book for
Searchlight Pictures
Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century Stu ...
.
References
External links
Don Swaim interviews Walter Tevis (1983-84)
{{Walter Tevis
1980 American novels
Science fiction novels by Walter Tevis
1980 science fiction novels
American science fiction novels
Novels set in New York City
Doubleday (publisher) books