Mockingbird

Mockingbird is a science fiction novel by Walter Tevis, published in 1980 by Doubleday. It was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel. While Tevis was teaching English literature at Ohio University, he became aware that the level of literacy among his students was falling at an alarming rate. That observation gave him the idea for this novel, set in a grim and decaying New York City of the 25th Century: the population is declining, no one ca... more

Mockingbird is a science fiction novel by Walter Tevis, published in 1980 by Doubleday. It was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel. While Tevis was teaching English literature at Ohio University, he became aware that the level of literacy among his students was falling at an alarming rate. That observation gave him the idea for this novel, set in a grim and decaying New York City of the 25th Century: the population is declining, no one can read, and robots rule over the drugged, illiterate humans. With the birth rate dropping, the end of the species seems a possibility. A central character is the dean of New York University, Spofforth, an android who has lived for centuries yet yearns to die. The novel opens with his failed attempt at suicide. Spofforth brings a teacher, Paul Bentley, to New York. Bentley has taught himself to read after a Rosetta Stone-like discovery of a film with words matching those in a children's primer. Bentley says he could teach others to read, but... less