Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THIS BOOK IS INTELLECTUAL SCI FI AT IT'S BEST, November 15, 1999
Just finished this amazing novel. I'm making my way through Pringle's 100 Best Science Fiction Novels. So far, I've read 60 of them and this one is absolutely among the top 10. An incredibly layered, intellectual book. Make sure your dictionary is nearby for this read. It's a short book, but a slow read that packs so much thought, allegory and symbolism into so few pages. Yet Disch's style and characters keep the book entertaining. I expected nothing less than a fantastic, mind-blowing ending and that's what I got. I disagree with others who said they were disappointed. This book is the journal of an loftily intelligent man and only the most brilliant author could pull it off. Disch is nothing short of a genius--and he's writing horror now! Can't wait to read his horror, as well as 334 and "On the Wings of Song."
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A pardox beset with paradoxes, February 28, 2004
"Camp Concentration" plays on some familiar themes: government subverting the will of the people, technology as mechanism of human downfall, to name two. As such, one might be tempted to pass it by, which would be a terrible mistake. Thomas Disch has produced a novel that is perhaps unique in Cold War fiction, for even as it decries the folly of military adventurism (in the form of a war in Malaysia which has presumably spread from Vietnam) it also considers the individual's culpability in national mistakes. Ultimately, he questions whether principled, but passive, opposition is just that, or if it is a form of ego not far removed from the motivations of those who are being protested.Set in a secret government installation, "Camp Concentration" consists of the journal of Louis Sacchetti, a conscientious objector and prisoner, not to mention poet, who has been brought in to document the installation with a critical, but unscientific eye. The reason for this is that the population of this installation (except for administrators and staff) have been injected with Pallidine, a substance derived from syphilis that grants vastly expanded mental capabilities even as it ultimately kills the recipient.. Needless to say, those who receive it are being used to develop super-weapons, although they have other ideas. To offer any more than this brief sketch would surely spoil the plot, but it is the subtext that makes this a superb novel. First is the fascinating, and entirely unexpected, consideration of religion. Sacchetti, who is something of a born again Catholic, suffuses his journal with religious references. Moreover, the Pallidine is clearly and allegory for the Forbidden Fruit, the source of both enlightenment and death. However, the consideration of religion is far more free-ranging than simple metaphor, as Disch lays out a compelling, if oblique argument, that if God is dead or absent, it is because we offer no opportunity for Him to act through us. Hence, it isn't enough to decry injustice, one must actively subvert it. At the same time, there is a countervailing theme of the question of motivation: do the ends justify the means? Normally, this is an intriguing, if somewhat shopworn, focal point for a novel, but when set as a dichotomy with religion, it makes for fascinating reading. Finally, several reviewers question the ending of the book. While I empathize with their reaction, I think there is a point, a denouement in the literal sense of the word, which is being missed. This is because Sacchetti's fate (with out giving anything away) joins the two threads of the book, morality and expediency, as it were, in a conclusion that is satisfying, but also open to discussion or even rebuttal. I frequently struggle with fiction from the Cold War era (that deals with it explicitly) because it is almost always black and white: one is in favor of nuking Russia or totally against the "illegal" war in Vietnam. There is never any middle ground, any room for debate, and intelligent conversation is stifled as a result. Fortunately, in "Camp Concentration" Disch followed his own path and created a novel that revels in the gray. Entertaining on the surface, nuanced and subtle underneath, this is a novel that is not to be missed. Jake Mohlman
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Dark Side of Grey Matter, December 7, 2003
This book appears on most of the 'best of' science fiction lists that various pundits and critics have put out, even though it is not a very commonly known work. Does it deserve such a placing? I think the answer to that depends upon what your viewpoint is about what science fiction, as a form of literature, is supposed to accomplish.
The idea is simple enough. A new drug, developed from the bacteria that causes syphilis, is found to have the property of greatly increasing a person's intelligence, but with major side effect - it kills the user in about nine months. The story follows one Louis Sacchetti, a conscientious objector to a seemingly interminable war, and who would already be considered to be a genius by most standards, as he is transferred from a standard prison to a facility specially constructed to see what will happen to its inmates when given this drug. The story is told through the means of a journal that Louis is encouraged, almost forced, to keep.
As this idea is extremely similar to that of Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon (which was later made into the movie Charly), comparison is invited. Flowers emphasizes the tragedy of the hero, a man who struggles to find those bits of knowledge that will help not just himself but all mankind, up against an unbeatable problem, that of his own retreat to sub-normal intelligence again. Camp Concentration follows a completely different path, that of the essential selfishness of the individual, of nihilism, of the despair of ever being able to change humanity in any meaningful way. The inmates that Louis initially documents are apparently using their greatly enhanced intelligence to investigate alchemy as a means of providing immortality, not for humanity in general, but for themselves and the 'warden' of this prison, Humphrey Haast. Louis, meanwhile, seems caught up in crafting new poems and a play, entitled 'Auswitch, A Comedy'. The title is indicative of something Disch does throughout this book, playing with names and titles to produce another layer of meaning behind the straightforward words, and is fairly effective in doing so.
The tone is the primary thing here, a very dark, brooding atmosphere, enlivened by a very wide ranging vocabulary and many references, both buried and open, to other works of literature (most especially Dante), and scientific and psychological theories. Readers who are not familiar with these references may feel a little lost at places in this book - at least I did, as my breadth of knowledge in these areas is clearly more limited than Disch's. But from this tone, Disch develops his themes of the corruption of man, of his baser desires, the absolute horrors of what man is capable of, and where such capacity leads. As such, this book is almost the complete antithesis of Flowers for Algernon - that is, until the ending of this book.
The ending of this book, I felt, rather drastically detracted from its overall message, as it doesn't seem to fit with the rest, and has a little of a deus-ex-machina feel to it. Given the many layered discourse that Disch presented in the rest of the book, which while sometimes difficult to follow, was certainly excellent writing, this ending was a disappointment.
While this is certainly a major entry into the dystopian side of science fiction literature, whether it truly qualifies as a 'classic' will be, I'm afraid, very much a matter of opinion for a long time to come. But it is certainly worth reading, if for nothing else than to see the darker side of genius competently presented.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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