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Mockingbird by Walter Tevis

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Mockingbird by Walter Tevis Read and Download Ebook Mockingbird... Mockingbird Walter Tevis PDF File: Mockingbird... 1 Read and Download Ebook Mockingbird... Mockingbird Walter Tevis Mockingbird Walter Tevis Mockingbird is a powerful novel of a future world where humans are dying. Those that survive spend their days in a narcotic bliss or choose a quick suicide rather than slow extinction. Humanity's salvation rests with an android who has no desire to live, and a man and a woman who must discover love, hope, and dreams of a world reborn. Mockingbird Details Date : Published January 1st 1980 by Doubleday Books ISBN : 9780385149334 Author : Walter Tevis Format : Hardcover 247 pages Genre : Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fiction Download Mockingbird ...pdf Read Online Mockingbird ...pdf Download and Read Free Online Mockingbird Walter Tevis PDF File: Mockingbird... 2 Read and Download Ebook Mockingbird... From Reader Review Mockingbird for online ebook Anna says This past week I’ve had two guests staying while also working full time, which really cut into my reading time. Nonetheless, I made it through ‘Mockingbird’, an interesting science fiction curiosity from 1980. 451 years in the future, the few humans that remain are served by robots, high on drugs, and wholly estranged from one another. The world-building has a nice sense of the bleakly absurd, studded as it is with malfunctioning closed-loop toaster factories, contraceptive valium, and ‘thought buses’. Very nearly everyone is illiterate, a point of great significance to the plot. The main narrator, Bentley, teaches himself to read and finds that this wholly transforms his life. He encounters Mary Lou (somewhat of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl) and Spofforth (the most advanced robot to exist and thus essentially in charge of the world). Bentley stumbles from situation to situation, gradually becoming proactive, while the reader wonders what exactly is going on with Mary Lou and Spofforth. The structure of the book is peculiar, frankly. It isn’t plot- led, nor really character-led, rather the narrative seems to play with ideas. There is a whole series of chapters in which Bentley encounters 25th century Christianity, for example. I wasn’t really sure what to make of that section. The treatment of anomie and atomisation was probably the most powerful element. What remains of American society appears unaware and indifferent to its downfall, as from early childhood everyone has been trained to look inward and to avoid connections with others. Tevis’ vision recalls Brave New World in some respects, except the machines that labour has been delegated to have their own agendas, or simply do not work as they should. In fact, one interpretation is of a world in which machines have taken their revenge on humanity for being created as slaves, without humanity really noticing. I wasn’t overjoyed by the emphasis on heterosexual romantic love as fundamental to regaining humanity, however I did appreciate Mary Lou’s general ambivalence about most things. I cannot help feeling that the last couple of chapters would have been improved by her point of view. Nonetheless, the rather predictable ending is beautifully written and packs quite a punch. I’m still unsure whether to give ‘Mockingbird’ three stars or four. On balance I think it must be three, as doesn’t examine its themes with nuance so much as muddily blur them together. The dangers of excessive individualism are well-explored, however religion, popular media, community, and mechanisation get much more erratic treatment. Perhaps the whole thing would have seemed more cohesive if I’ve read it in a fewer sittings? It might also be that it rewards re-reading. On balance, though, it struck me as an intriguing dystopia that spent too much time with its least interesting character and strung together some thought-provoking ideas in a rather loose fashion. Perhaps its relative incoherence is representative of when it was first published - on the cusp of the 1980s, when America was on the verge of a huge socioeconomic shift towards neoliberalism. Simon says A dystopian future awaits us although in this case, not one that was thrust upon us, but rather one in which we have carelessly walked into. Our relentless drive towards automating everything, our pursuit of pleasure and rugged individualism has led to a society in which we are run by robots and humans have become hopelessly uneducated, permanently drugged out of their minds and are losing the will to live. Now things are falling apart. No one knows how to read anymore or how anything works, most of the robots created to look after us killed themselves because they couldn't bare living, the population is dwindling PDF File: Mockingbird... 3 Read and Download Ebook Mockingbird... rapidly and everyone is too stoned to know or care anyway. The future looks bleak and humanity doesn't look worth saving anyway. This story centers around three characters. Spoforth, the last super intelligent robot left alive and only still around because he was programmed not to be able to kill himself. Bentley, someone who inadvertently teaches themselves to read and Mary Lou who regains her mental faculties as she can't stomach the drugs. The two human characters eventually find each other and begin an awakening together. This is a lament at the way the author saw society as heading and there probably is some validity to his fears. The future he envisaged doesn't seem too far-fetched. It certainly gives you pause for thought. A bleak vision but not without some hope, for both those people in the story who've found themselves in that mess, and ourselves who still have a chance to avoid it. Jennifer says There are aspects of this book that terrify me. At least Skynet tried to kill us humans in one fell swoop. This was something different. Slow and insidious. Our doing really in the end. There were some bits about past technology that didn't quite hold up, but all in all it isn't to terribly off the mark. At least in my mind. I have to say at one point I became very anxious (I needed some Sophor to get me through those chapters) And I found myself loathing a character. A few chapters later I felt bad for that same character. For me this was a glimpse into a future I do not want to live in. Reading is a super power. Keep it, maintain it, encourage it. Lets not lose it. Bibliophile says Some dystopias seem worse than others. Popping happy-pills and letting robots do the dishes for you doesn't sound terribly upsetting to me, but no books? Nobody knows how to read anymore? The horror! Tevis had me hooked from the start thanks to the importance he attaches to the written word. The people of the future have put their lives in the hands of robots in order to pursue worldly pleasures, to the point where nobody remembers how to perform the simplest tasks. They spend their days drugged out of their minds, while babies fail to be born, robots fail to repair other robots, and society crumbles. Meet Spofforth, sexless, suicidal super robot, who takes care of NYC while longing for death (he has been programmed not to kill himself). Based on a human being, he experiences echoes of human feelings, but only enough to torture himself. Two humans, Paul and Mary Lou, become the Adam and Eve of this declining civilization when they learn to read and form new, revolutionary ideas. Unfortunately Spofforth has other plans for them, none of them including a new era for mankind. The story was compelling, and some of the imagery very effective. Halfway through, I started to lose interest. Paul's sejour among the reactionary Christians was dull, because, well, the Christians were sexist and horrible, and nobody discussed anything interesting (although it's comforting to know that 200 years from now, women will still be slutshamed and men will still reference a higher power when it suits them). The symbolism was way too heavy-handed and many of the novel's central ideas lacked subtlety. I also felt like the vision of the future could have been bolder. The book was written in the 80's but might as well have been from the fifties. Also: enough with the mockingbird already! Still, I read it in one sitting and I'm glad I did. PDF File: Mockingbird... 4 Read and Download Ebook Mockingbird... Carmine says La meccanica dell'Io interiore L'uomo si è sempre contraddistinto nel cercare di trasmettere qualcosa di sé nelle sue creazioni, forse nello stupido e disperato tentativo di giocare a fare Dio. Ogni decorso morale, spirituale e, infine, autodistruttivo viene accelerato dall'esasperazione tecnologica, imperscrutabile custode di un mondo con la data di scadenza, forse ancora vivo solo per un bulimico accanimento terapeutico da farmaci calmanti e scalette preconfezionate di azioni abitudinarie da rispettare. Se dovessimo riscoprire i tentativi di veicolare emozioni e storie attraverso film e libri, quale potrebbe mai essere il pericolo? Forse il ritorno di ogni tipo di emozione, comprese quelle che hanno portato sull'orlo del baratro il pianeta? E se è vero che aldilà della porta c'è tutto, conviene accettare questo mondo di compromesso e negarsi le intere potenzialità che la vita stessa può offrire? La nascita di un bambino e la morte di un anziano; ragazzini che giocano nel cortile alla guerra, mentre in un paese lontano la guerra è più che un gioco; un'azione caritatevole al prezzo del dolore inflitto a uno sconosciuto. Nessun Dio a sorvegliarci, solo l'autodeterminazione attraverso il libero arbitrio.
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