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Camp Concentration: A Novel, by Thomas M. Disch
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Louis Sacchetti is a poet and pacifist imprisoned for refusing to enlist in the war against Third World guerillas. After he and the other inmates are used in perverse scientific experiments, Sacchetti is infected with a germ that raises intelligence to incredible heights while causing decay and death.
- Sales Rank: #382825 in Books
- Brand: Disch, Thomas M.
- Published on: 1999-04-27
- Released on: 1999-04-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.94" h x .43" w x 5.15" l, .45 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 192 pages
Amazon.com Review
Thomas M. Disch is one of the overlooked masters of science fiction, and Camp Concentration is one of his finest novels. The unlikely hero of this piece is Louis Sacchetti, an overweight poet who's serving a five-year prison term for being a "conchie," or conscientious objector, to the ongoing war being fought by the United States. Three months into his sentence, Sacchetti is mysteriously taken from prison and brought to Camp Archimedes, an underground compound run by General Humphrey Haast. This is the so-called "camp concentration" of the book's title, a strange oubliette where inmates are given a drug that will raise their intelligence to astounding levels, though it will also kill them in a matter of months.
Sacchetti's job is to chronicle the goings-on at Archimedes in a daily journal that is sent to Haast and other select members of the project. Through his writings, readers get to know the various characters that inhabit the camp, geniuses whose intellectual fires burn brightly even while their bodies slowly go cold. Although these latter-day Einsteins are supposed to be thinking up new ways of killing the enemy, most of the inmates are instead focusing their studies on alchemy, which Haast hopes will allow them to discover the secret of immortality.
Camp Concentration is one of those SF books that falls squarely into the "literature" category both for the eloquence of Disch's writing and the timelessness of his ruminations on life and war. This is a thoughtful novel that offers insights into human existence, and it will likely stay with readers long after they have turned the last page. Ursula K. Le Guin summed up the book best in her cover blurb, which says simply: "It is a work of art, and if you read it, you will be changed." --Craig E. Engler
About the Author
Thomas M. Disch is the author of such classic works of science fiction as "Camp Concentration, 334, The Brave Little Toaster, " and "On Wings of Song, " all of which are cited in David Pringle's "Science Fiction: 100 Best Novels." His criticism has appeared in the country's leading magazines and newspapers. His book "The Castle of Indolence" was a nominee for the National Book Critic Circle's Award in Criticism.
Most helpful customer reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
A pardox beset with paradoxes
By Amazon Customer
"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
27 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
THIS BOOK IS INTELLECTUAL SCI FI AT IT'S BEST
By A fan
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."
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
The Dark Side of Grey Matter
By Patrick Shepherd
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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