The novel “Mockingbird” by Walter Tevis was published for the first time in 1980.
In the 25th century the android Robert Spofforth is the dean of the New York University but in fact controls the entire city, in sharp decline, because human beings are stuffed with drugs and machines fail without anybody fixing them. He wants to die but that’s against his programming and only his encounter with an out of the ordinary human being gives him hope.
Paul Bentley is a university professor, for what a work essentially useless is worth. By chance, he finds a way to learn to read and that opens a new world and humanity’s past. The meeting with Mary Lou Borne, a woman who doesn’t want to use drugs, brings a further change in his life but the two of them go against the rules and have to deal with Spofforth.
Walter Tevis was a university professor of English literature and “Mockingbird” describes a dystopian future where universities are no longer cultural centers. In the 25th century described in this novel, humans can’t even read anymore but it doesn’t matter because there are robots and other machines that take care of everything, at least those that still work.
The novel is set partly in New York but the decadence told by Walter Tevis through the protagonists’ diaries extends to the rest of the world. In this future humans regularly use drugs and immolation is a normal pastime. In the 25th a sharp drop in births that threatens even more the future of humanity adds to all of that.
When Paul Bentley discovers by chance the secrets of reading his view of the world starts changing dramatically. Reading allows him to access both literature and historical sources and that way he starts understanding the origins of the situation of his era.
Paul Bentley’s story becomes Mary Lou Borne’s as well after their meeting. The woman is a further anomaly in that society because she doesn’t want to use drugs. When Paul stops using them too, his awareness of what is happening in the world increases. Paul and Mary Lou’s life becomes very different from that of other human beings but is against the laws of their society.
The dystopia of “Mockingbird” was compared to other classics of this genre for a few common themes. The issue of the use of drugs to control the population reminds of “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. The centrality of reading reminds of “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury.
In fact Walter Tevis’ novel seems at least partly derived from earlier works but even if not particularly original in my opinion is very well built to show the decadence of a society in which human beings are used by technology instead of using it.
The android Robert Spofforth completely represents the wrong road taken. He’s in fact a cyborg, produced by the union of biological and electronic technologies. The fact that he’s asexual and that the mental matrix derived from a human being leads him someway to depression shows how the combination of biology and electronics was done the wrong way.
The result is in many ways less than the sum of the parts and eventually afflicts the whole society, leading it to decay. Spofforth, in his depression, would like to kill himself but can’t do it because that goes against his programming. One form of protection becomes a negative element, again at the expense of society.
Spofforth isn’t the only wrong product because the laws that govern the 25th century century can be distortions of correct principles. For example, the right to privacy applies to absurdity breaking the bonds among humans. The result is a society in which alienation is the norm.
Paul and Mary Lou’s first-person accounts are sad because the two of them are like little flames in the darkness. Emotions are crucial in this novel, in which the reader discovers along with the protagonists the desolation of the world in the 25th century. Readers participate in the protagonists’ emotions and often Paul’s one is sadness, even though he doesn’t always understand exactly why. Only the mockingbird sings at the edge of the woods.
Despite the generally gloomy tone, in “Mockingbird” there’s also hope for a better future. It’s a humanistic science fiction in the purest sense because humanity is at the center of the story. Again the message isn’t exactly original but Walter Tevis develops it well and the novel has become a classic, rightly so in my opinion and for this reason I recommend reading it.
