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Mockingbird by Walter Tevis (SF Masterworks # 70)
01/07/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Pub: Gollancz. 278 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-575-07915-1. Buy Mockingbird in the USA - or Buy Mockingbird in the UK  check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
I suspect some of the younger generations reading here will wonder who Walter Tevis is. Probably his biggest claim to fame that is most associated with him is being the writer of the novel 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' which ended up being a mostly faithful adaptation (rare for SF) into the David Bowie film.
'Mockingbird' could certainly be given similar treatment if producers wanted to look at the late Tevis' works for other material. Set a few centuries from now, Earth is falling apart. Personal privacy has been taken to an extreme that you cannot speak unless spoken to and since no one speaks, you end up becoming more isolated so take drugs to keep yourselves happy. Those who aren't happy tend to kill themselves by incineration. No one spots that the drugs also conceal birth control and the population is in sharp decline. Mankind is dying out and the few working robots left to tend to them are failing in their task simply by obeying their duties. Did I miss anything out from this dsytopian mess?? Yeah! An important one. Reading has been banned. Knowledge is disruptive. Ignorance is bliss.
Spofforth, the last of the remaining Make Nine robots engrammed with some of the personality of a human being is the new dean of a New York university and allows a self-taught human, Paul Bentley, access to translate the text dialogue from old films into speech and the library where his knowledge widens. He weans himself off the drugs by his addiction to books and exploring the nearby zoo, discovers Mary Lou Borne, another disruptive, who he also teaches to read. When she becomes pregnant, Spofforth has Bentley arrested for reading and sent across state to jail and takes on Mary Lou. Although sexless itself, Spofforth wants a taste of normality. Bentley escapes and with limited knowledge slowly works his way back to New York and reunites with Mary Lou and helps fulfil Sporfforth's final wish.
This book, I have to say, is riveting. It's a textbook lesson in how to present a world that is falling apart in the same manner that George Orwell did with '1984'. You see reality from the characters' point of view and recognise how far things have changed from our time without pressing home on the differences. You are really left to make up your own mind which makes for a stronger story. The reference to old technology which is still tape and vinyl might jar new readers but when Walter Tevis wrote this book in 1980, no one had thought of things like CDs and DVDs. Even if they had, it would make no difference and one could quickly surmise that these no longer functioned. The naivete of the characters as they discover what a dictionary is and come to terms with how to use it is both touching and thoughtful.
If anything, this story is still very relevant, especially showing the effects of extreme privacy can go if it stunts communication and gleaning knowledge and mankind is left no longer in charge of its own life and is being killed by an odd sort of kindness. Although underplayed, it is a sharp reminder of what can happen should freedom be lost.
'Only the mockingbird sings at the edge of the fence.' Read this book and you'll know why you fell in love with Science Fiction.
GF Willmetts
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