If this quote is familiar to you, then you know that I’m going to discuss the book Mockingbird by Walter Tevis. I’ve had the great joy of only recently discovering him.
Thanks to the Netflix production/presentation of The Queen’s Gambit, I (and probably a whole slew of others) upon seeing that the show was based upon a book, decided to look up the author. Well, of course, I (again, along with many others, I’m sure) was shocked to see that the author of The Queen’s Gambit, Walter Tevis, was also the author of The Hustler.
Of course I’d seen the movie, The Hustler, with Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott, Piper Laurie . . . It is a classic. I had no idea that the movie had even been a book. And the fact that The Hustler is so completely different than The Queen’s Gambit especially intrigued me. Now, this difference, so far, to me at least, is only with regard to subject matter. Due to the fact that I have yet to read either of these books, that is the only judgment I can make. It could be that the writing style and tone is similar, and the characters might share some of the same traits, etc. There might be other similarities. In any event, I can’t seem to get there, to the reading of these books, due to the simple fact that I’m reeling from other facts about this author. He also wrote The Color of Money, which shouldn’t be surprising to me due to it being the sequel to The Hustler. What surprises me is that The Color of Money was also a book. I wasn’t that impressed with the movie. I merely thought it was a very bad sequel. I do have a copy of the screenplay for TCOM in a book with a couple of other screenplays written by someone named Price. I’ve just never gotten around to reading it.
And the surprises just keep on coming . . .
The Man Who Fell to Earth, the movie with David Bowie was also a book written by this guy. Wow! Now, to be honest, I’ve never seen the whole movie, just bits and pieces. I never really paid much attention to it. But now I’m trying to fathom that this movie and The Hustler were both written by the same man. This blows my mind.
And there’s more still . . .
Walter Tevis has written other works of Science Fiction. There is Mockingbird, and more. Since I love short stories, I zeroed in on reading his short story Sci Fi collection, Far from Home, first. This collection of stories was pretty good. I didn’t care for a couple stories that dealt with a character having an obsession with thoughts of having watched his mother undress in front of him in youth. Very bizarre and not at all up my alley. But there were several other stories that were good. A couple of favorites were “The Other End of the Line,” “The Ifth of Oofth,” and “The Big Bounce” (which was kind of goofy fun). I’ll maybe leave a review later on Goodreads, or Amazon that goes more into depth. This collection sort of sits somewhere between Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, and any one of Philip K. Dick’s collections of stories.
And finally, there is the novel, Mockingbird. The quote at the beginning of this post is from this novel. ***Spoiler Alert*** You are led to believe that the quote is something recondite or esoteric, and then the quote is never defined. Or if the quote was defined, I missed it. Perhaps I’m not smart enough to get it. LOL. However, I love the idea of the quote and that there might be something there . . . And many people have attempted to define it online. As far as Tevis defining it in the book, the only thing I can remember is a brief conversation between two of the main characters. Things are left somewhat vague. I love the quote though. I love it so much that I went on to perpetuate the nonsense—and I’m half joking using the term nonsense, as in the speculation that Tevis might have been pulling our collective leg–in a short story that I wrote recently, titled “Last Stop Jericho,” which might be released soon. I treat the quote seriously in my story.
Mockingbird is a very good Science Fiction novel, along the lines of Orwell’s 1984. As a matter of fact, Mockingbird is as good as, if not better than 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Brave New World. I will echo the sentiments of one reader’s review: “Why is this book not read or taught in schools?” I am just as astounded that it isn’t. Of course, it might be, currently, and I’m just not aware of the fact. I kind of doubt it, however. The book definitely should be read and shelved with these “classics.”
From the book Mockingbird:
I must get inside that library! I must have books again. If I cannot read and learn and have things that are worth thinking about, I would rather immolate myself than go on living. –Bentley
1984, I read in school. F-451, and BNW, I read later on. The first two were okay. Brave New World was not good at all in my opinion. It was so bad that I believe I’ve read it three times in my life. That isn’t a joke. I simply put it so far out of my mind that I had forgotten having read it at all. You know those books that you are so familiar with the titles, and some of the ideas are so well-known in life/society/culture that you simply feel like you might have read the book somewhere along the line. Well, it was the case with me and BNW that I thought I was just familiar with it from culture . . . And so I started reading it. Once into it, I realized that I had, in fact, read it before. I decided to finish it, thinking maybe I had been mistaken about how bad it was. Well, my opinion hasn’t changed. The only thing that will keep me from making the mistake again is the word “Bumble-puppy.” This word is in BNW. I took it to have been just a made-up word for a game that was in the book, a futuristic game.
To explain things, I love it when really odd coincidences occur. It fascinates me. I mean, what were the chances that I would ever come across the word Bumble-puppy again in life, ever? Slim to none, right? Up until that time I had gone my whole life without happening across it (if you discount the first two times I read the book and apparently overlooked it). Well, within a month, maybe two, of reading BNW, I happened to pick up E. M. Forster’s book A Room with a View, and start reading it. Lo and behold, there was bumble-puppy again. I got to thinking, well, British authors, same time period, etc. And maybe the game was real? But why had I never come across it before? I had read plenty of British authors of that same period. And just what was the game? In Forster’s book, you get the impression it has something to do with tennis, maybe. I looked it up. No one can really define it, it seems. There are a handful of definitions, actually, just all speculative. I’ve come to associate it with Tetherball. This was a game that my siblings and I, as children, received one Christmas. The game was a metal pole that you stuck in the ground. At the top of the pole was attached a length of rope. At the end of the rope was a ball. The ball was about the size of a soccer ball. Two people would stand across from each other, on either side of the pole. One person would bat the ball around one side and the other person would try and bat it back in the opposite direction. The ball would swing around and wind the rope around the pole in one direction or the other. It was an odd game. I don’t know how a score was kept, or if there ever was a score. It passed the time, however. Please don’t think we were mentally challenged. :>) This was back in the day when the only options were staying inside and reading, playing monopoly (or some other board game), or playing an outdoor game. Tetherball was just another outdoor game. There was another game, too, a board game that you might not be familiar with, called Wahoo, which isn’t around anymore. The funny thing is that in another short story that I’ve written recently, “Blue Girl and the Stars,” I mention the game Wahoo. This story will be in the same collection as the story I mentioned earlier, “Last Stop Jericho,” the one in which I talk about (or rather, the characters discuss) Mockingbird and the quote.
Though “Only the mockingbird sings at the edge of the woods,” will never be revealed to me, I do know for certain that I will always remember “bumble-puppy,” which will remind me that I have in fact read Brave New World. So I can rest comfortably now, safe and satisfied on that score.
I’m planning to, in time, work my way through all of Walter Tevis’ books. I’m happy to find another author who is (or was, since he is now deceased) all over the place in his writing. Not that I thought I was necessarily the only one jumping genres . . . But I know that some authors can’t do this without their readers screaming. Let Stephen King write something besides horror (though he has at times branched out), and watch the harsh reaction.
Anyway, I encourage everyone to read Mockingbird, and then place it right on the shelf alongside the other classics. And perhaps one day this book will also be taught and read in schools. As it should be!
And now I’ll leave you to ponder over, and be fascinated by (and possibly figure out—though I’m laughing, good-naturedly, as I write this) the same intriguing quote that started the post:
“Only the mockingbird sings at the edge of the woods.”
