I read [b:Mockingbird|323172|Mockingbird|Walter Tevis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328003672l/323172._SY75_.jpg|313880] for the first time over the summer before my senior year of high school. It was part of a course on intellectuals in literature. Reflecting on it, I can't remember who we considered the intellectual in this novel. Is it Spofforth, whose consciousness is modeled on an intelligent man's? Is it Bentley, the professor who discovers reading? Or is it Mary Lou, the high intelligent outcast? The novel focuses on Bentley's development much more than Mary Lou's. She's almost an accessory to Spofforth and Bentley; she doesn't have meaning or agency outside of her relationships to these two males. I would have appreciated following her experiences of the various breaks with the institutions of this advanced world. What enabled her to runaway from her dormitory? How did she meet Simon, her "father"? How did she get to New York? We never learn any of these things.

Mary Lou observes the Spofforth is one of the most human people she's known. He feels great melancholy and awareness unlike the humans around him (who he's had drugged into pleasurable, sometimes fiery oblivion). This begs the question: does suffering make us human? I think it's more the range of emotions, connecting to others, that makes us human. The societal dictum, "Don't ask. Relax." along with the various drugs humans consume, result in disconnected, incurious lives. Paul's defining feature, the reason for the whole novel, is curiosity. Mary Lou's is defiance, which is a step beyond curiosity - instead of asking "why" or "how" only, Mary Lou makes judgments and takes action. However, Mary Lou's defiance did not result in societal change, while Paul's curiosity may. Unfortunately, Mary Lou (and the other female characters we encounter) do not have the same agency as the men in this novel. All that being said, I do enjoy and return to the story, the projected future. It's more intriguing to me than other, similar options like [b:Brave New World|5129|Brave New World|Aldous Huxley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1575509280l/5129._SY75_.jpg|3204877], [b:1984|61439040|1984|George Orwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1657781256l/61439040._SX50_.jpg|153313], or [b: Fahrenheit 451|13079982|Fahrenheit 451|Ray Bradbury|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1383718290l/13079982._SY75_.jpg|1272463] .