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The Quantity Theory of Insanity
by
Will Self
What if there is only a limited amount of sanity in the world and the real reason people go mad is because "somebody" has to? What if a mysterious tribe in the Amazon rainforest turn out to be the most boring people on the earth? What if the afterlife is nothing more than a London suburb, where the dead get new flats, new jobs, and their own telephone directory? These are...more
Hardcover, 266 pages
Published
1993
by Bloomsbury Publishing
(first published 1991)
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August 2011
Will Self is...a bit tricky, to say the least. His stories are somewhat hit-or-miss. I won his collection Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes in a Goodreads giveaway a few years ago, and it sat on my culling list for many months before I decided that the one good story ("Foie Humain") was worth keeping the other three less impressive ("Leberknödel"), dull ("Prometheus"), and unreadable ("Birdy Num Num") stories around. Trust me, "Foie Humain" is pretty good a...more
Will Self is...a bit tricky, to say the least. His stories are somewhat hit-or-miss. I won his collection Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes in a Goodreads giveaway a few years ago, and it sat on my culling list for many months before I decided that the one good story ("Foie Humain") was worth keeping the other three less impressive ("Leberknödel"), dull ("Prometheus"), and unreadable ("Birdy Num Num") stories around. Trust me, "Foie Humain" is pretty good a...more
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Just a feast of a short story collection -- it takes place in that cozy little intersection between the dark alleys of modern neurosis and the cobbled boulevards of the smug academic world. In the titular story, Self starts with a campus farce much like David Lodge's, taking it in a darker and I would say more incisive direction. The narrator finds his disappeared mentor by deciphering the "code" written in men's bathroom stalls, moves on to working for an agribusiness magnate who would like to...more
Self has a very dry wit and I'm sure a lot of it went right over my head. I found some of his passages to be rather tedious, also. I did however get a few good chuckles, and very much liked how the stories were interconnected.
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I want to really like Will Self's writing. I like listening to the man talk and hearing what he thinks about things. I like certain aspects of his style of writing and many of his favoured themes. I like the love-it-or-hate-it width of his vocabulary.
But in general I find it difficult to sustain much interest in his stories. I couldn't get to grips with Liver, and of the six stories here I fully liked only one - the one that lends its title to the collection, which made me laugh often and freque...more
But in general I find it difficult to sustain much interest in his stories. I couldn't get to grips with Liver, and of the six stories here I fully liked only one - the one that lends its title to the collection, which made me laugh often and freque...more
Will Self is That Guy from high school. You know, the one who drove backwards on the LA Freeway at 100 miles an hour to catch an exit he'd missed. He's the one who inspired you to leap from the car (when it finally slowed down), screaming "Are you *&%$ing NUTS??!!??" Yes, he was, and he still is. But, now he has a vocabulary, and an even more twisted sense of reality.
The stories in The Quantity Theory of Insanity will sometimes make you want to jump out of the car, but you won't. You'll be l...more
The stories in The Quantity Theory of Insanity will sometimes make you want to jump out of the car, but you won't. You'll be l...more
Most pretentious book of short stories ever.
The stories are all loosely connected with characters weaving in and out. All characters are either "insane" in some way or are dealing with someone who is. Insanity in this book means any kind of mental disorder from schizophrenia to anorexia, etc.
The book's title comes from a short story in which an ambitious psychologist theorizes that in any population a certain proportion of the populace is insane. Whether the theory is actually true or not is h...more
The stories are all loosely connected with characters weaving in and out. All characters are either "insane" in some way or are dealing with someone who is. Insanity in this book means any kind of mental disorder from schizophrenia to anorexia, etc.
The book's title comes from a short story in which an ambitious psychologist theorizes that in any population a certain proportion of the populace is insane. Whether the theory is actually true or not is h...more
Will Self is so British, jaded, clever, and often hilarious. This collection of short stories comes across as very smart, if at times a little misanthropic. In one story we are presented with the afterlife only consisting of having to live in a different London neighborhood. In another, a man becomes so tired of "waiting" in his life that he finally snaps. And of course there's the title story where a group of psychologists play around with the theory that in any defined group, a set amount of s...more
This book is a waste of time, even if you're bored out of your mind and have no life whatsoever. Whenever I read a blurb that says a book is hilarious I know I can count on it to be unbearable. There's a story about running into his deceased mother, who is happily alive after death in the London suburbs. It's the kind of throwaway metaphor anyone with half a brain has made a hundred times at a bar: death is the London suburbs. But then we move on, because we have things to do and we know writing...more
Self knows a lot of big, old, underrated and little-used words and seems intent on using them. This collection of six short stories invites you to sample Self's rare intellect, but does so like an invitation to the gallery at the back of an auditorium for a lecture you've heard a lot about but soon realise have little hope of understanding.
Like the narrator of 'Waiting', you start well, rapt even by the wordplay, wit and intelligence, but soon Self has lost you, the rest of the book an "increasi...more
Like the narrator of 'Waiting', you start well, rapt even by the wordplay, wit and intelligence, but soon Self has lost you, the rest of the book an "increasi...more
After the promise of the first story, "The North London Book of the Dead," I found myself wanting to power through the rest of the stories, and several showed promise, but didn't deliver my imagination the payoff. However, there were elements I liked in a three of the remaining five stories, but I never felt any other story hook me. I understand there is a fantastical nature to Mr. Self's satire, but either I am lack insight into the current British perspective or we do not have similar tastes i...more
i expected so much more from such a flipping fantastic title. if your library has it, get it for the penultimate "Mono-Cellular", the only one of the six short stories where the insanity of the speaker works. and it really does work.
but sadly, the other five stories are trying way too obviously to impress. like, george saunders lite, plus nabokov lite (the title story highly resembles Pale Fire), plus pynchon lite. all stories told first person, which i often like, but you've got to make the spe...more
but sadly, the other five stories are trying way too obviously to impress. like, george saunders lite, plus nabokov lite (the title story highly resembles Pale Fire), plus pynchon lite. all stories told first person, which i often like, but you've got to make the spe...more
I enjoyed this book (even though I was expecting a novel and got a collection of short stories, but that's my fault!), Will Self's first book and a rather unsettling set of stories based around the common theme of mental health - or lack of it.
There's some interesting links between stories with characters appearing in each, often seen from a different viewpoint to the first time one encounters them. A darkly comic novel, there's some really poignant and touching moments such as the new art thera...more
There's some interesting links between stories with characters appearing in each, often seen from a different viewpoint to the first time one encounters them. A darkly comic novel, there's some really poignant and touching moments such as the new art thera...more
These stories are interestingly offbeat and unusual. They are definitely not the same sort of thing that everyone else is writing. Self has his own peculiar, yet intruiging, way of pondering and contemplating. All of the stories in this volume are worth the time to read, but "The North London Book of the Dead" has to be my favorite. I think it best showcases Self's ability to present life with a absurdly twisted angle in order to make it fresh and noticable again. Self is certainly a writer for...more
This is a collection of short stories which won many English awards in 1991. I only read three, but the first one concerned a clever view of the Afterlife. When you die in contemporary London, you just are reassigned a new place to live in a different area of the city. "The North London Book of the Dead". I'd like to try a novel by this author.
Okay, I will admit. I did not finish this book. It's not that it wasn't spectacularly written, or well structured, it was just, not my cup of tea. Too much pseudo psychology and I found the incredibly indepth descriptions very tedious to get through. Kind of felt over whelmed after the first two stories so I just couldn't bring myself to read the rest.
Probably where a lot of people begin with Self's writing. And possibly where a lot of people end with it. The short story form is perfect for his fiction, which is undeniably challenging both conceptually and descriptively. Brave, brilliant, and best in smaller doses.
thus far a strange London that Mr Self is conjuring up, I'm enjoying but definitely requires a dictionary on hand :)
On completion I found myself slightly disappointed as this read, whilst diverting, didn't provide the immersive experience I crave from my reads
On completion I found myself slightly disappointed as this read, whilst diverting, didn't provide the immersive experience I crave from my reads
When the storytelling device is more clever than the storytelling, it's usually a bad omen for the book. Self makes it work more often than not. More clever than funny, it helps to know the author was once diagnosed schizoid and the book seems to be an attempt at transparency.
I heard Will Self read at the International Festival of Authors in 2007, and I immediately wanted to go out and read some of his books. Four years later I finally got around to reading one, and although I really wanted to like it, I didn't. I actually couldn't even finish the book. I gave up part-way through the second last story. Although there were elements of the stories I liked, I was generally bored and constantly felt like I was missing out on the joke. The writing itself is strong, but th...more
Jun 05, 2009
Ryan
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
short story lovers who cannot get enough Will Self.
"Cancer tore through her body as if it were late for an important meeting with a lot of other successful diseases."
With the exception of the first short story, this is not the strongest work from Will Self I've seen. The dark realities of his other books are better captured in the longer stories. Simply, working with short stories does not appear to be his strength. He cannot sketch dystopia on the back of a postage stamp. He requires more space to appreciate his brilliance.
Check out his Studi...more
With the exception of the first short story, this is not the strongest work from Will Self I've seen. The dark realities of his other books are better captured in the longer stories. Simply, working with short stories does not appear to be his strength. He cannot sketch dystopia on the back of a postage stamp. He requires more space to appreciate his brilliance.
Check out his Studi...more
This book pulled me into a whole new world of literature and got me on to De Quincy. The North London Book of the Dead is especially great.
For an author so obviously smart and funny, you have to wonder what happened to his stories. The sentences as individuals are mostly really good, but then he fails on the overall structure. Not one story was able to impress me or hold my attention very well.
Pants. Try as I might, I could not get my head around this. I didn't bother finishing it, which rarely happens with me.
Not as "wow-isn't-humanity-terrible" as Self often is. Sort of light-hearted and silly, as I recollect.
4 stars mostly due to the short story "The London Book of the Dead," which I think of often.
Saw this on Jenn's list -- sounds right up my alley! Tell me what you think! xoxo
I can't imagine you'll ever read another collection of short stories like it.
Really not my thing at all, I found it quite dreadful.
Indescribably enjoyable.
"When you die you go and live in another part of London. And that's it"
"When you die you go and live in another part of London. And that's it"
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William Self is an English novelist, reviewer and columnist. He received his education at University College School, Christ's College Finchley, and Exeter College, Oxford. He is married to journalist Deborah Orr.
Self is known for his satirical, grotesque and fantastic novels and short stories set in seemingly parallel universes.
More about Will Self...
Self is known for his satirical, grotesque and fantastic novels and short stories set in seemingly parallel universes.
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“Mother sighed with exasperation. "Look, there aren't any "people in charge of death". When you die you move to another part of London, that's all there is to it. Period.”
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5 people liked it
“Well, it's like this," began Mother, "When you die you go and live in another part of London. And that's it." ~ North London Book of the Dead”
—
3 people liked it
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