If my earlier post, “Only the mockingbird sings at the edge of the woods” . . . piqued your curiosity about the Walter Tevis book Mockingbird, then here is a bit more on the subject.
I had done a semi-thorough search regarding the quote, “Only the mockingbird sings at the edge of the woods,” a little while back, and then I simply did another cursory search just prior to writing my earlier post, just to make sure no one had in fact been able to pin down an exact meaning of the quote. I wanted to make sure that my initial premise was correct, that no one knew what the quote actually meant. I read a snippet of conversation on a website, not bothering to pay much attention to what site I was on.
Well, today I realized that I had left the tab open, and before closing it I glanced a little further down the page. Lo and behold, there was a link to a podcast discussion of the book. I certainly would have included this link in the first post had I noticed it.
Here is the link: http://www.shelfwear.com/goodstory/GoodStory110.mp3
In this podcast discussion of Mockingbird, the two people having the discussion go into a more in depth talk about the symbolism prevalent in the book. When I read the book, I was aware that there was a ton of symbolism there, but I didn’t do a deep dive. My whole thing was just that this book was (as mentioned in my earlier post on the subject) good enough to be read and studied in schools, right along with 1984, Fahrenheit 451, etc. I was aware of the cultural, social, political messages, or symbolism, and that there was also some not-at-all subtle religious symbolism, etc. The podcast leans toward the religious symbolism, but covers a lot more also. This podcast is well worth listening to if you are at all interested in the book.
If you are just interested in the discussion of the quote, that portion starts at 55:44 into the podcast. However, I would highly recommend listening to the whole podcast, which is 1:15:13 long. They even let you know when to stop listening if you have yet to read the book and don’t want to hear the spoiler section. And, of course, I highly recommend reading the book. There is so much in the book that is interesting and entertaining, and even some parts that are profound.
I’ll have to do a little more exploring of the websites, but the initial website was a site that I believe is called A Good Story is Hard to Find. It’s a blog on Blogspot. The blog discusses books and movies, so you know I’ll be checking it out in more depth. That’s where I stumbled on the link. And the other site is called shelfwear.com, as you can tell by reading the link above. I’ll also be checking that one out.
I did listen (on the Shelfwear site) to part of another podcast on a book called Wine Dark Deep by R. Peter Keith. This book is a “hard science” Sci-fi book. I stopped at the start of the spoiler alert section. I haven’t decided whether to read it or not. I kind of want to. They mention the book The Martian by Andy Weir, and compare Wine Dark Deep to the Weir book, at least with regard to the science being factually correct . . . This might just be enough to get me to try it, as I absolutely love The Martian. In fact, I have a blog post already written that talks about The Martian. I just haven’t gotten around to putting the post up yet. Maybe it is time that I go ahead and post it, since Andy Weir has just released another book along the same lines. I think this new book is called Hail Mary. I’m not too keen on the title for some reason. Perhaps I would be more inspired with that title if it was a book about football. That title for a sci fi book? But I don’t know, since I haven’t read it, I best not make any judgements right off the bat. I will say (as I mention in the unpublished post) that The Martian is probably the only book in my life that immediately upon completion I thought, I wish I had alzheimer’s disease so I could forget everything and read it again immediately. That’s harsh, I guess, but I did (and still do) envy those who haven’t read The Martian yet. Those who are about to embark on that journey, man, I’m totally jealous. I mean, you know the book has to be good with a first line like that. How can that line not draw you in? I was immediately hooked. The whole book was something new and fresh.
Anyway, to close, I encourage you, once again, to listen to the podcast discussion of Mockingbird. But better yet, read the book!