<![CDATA[Camp Concentration: A Novel]]>

false <![CDATA[Camp Concentration: A Novel]]>

553907

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

924275

book

1969

Camp Concentration: A Novel

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5 5 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1974 Thu Nov 20 05:55:42 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 01:10:53 -0800 2008 5 Flowers for Algernon has become a minor classic, and, thanks to the movie, even people who haven't read it often know the story. Poor Charlie Gordon is given an operation which turns him from a mentally subnormal dishwasher into a genius, but the treatment turns out to be flawed. It's a great ...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Jul 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 09 15:42:17 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 12 11:41:49 -0700 2008
I have encountered many writers who possess the twisted, wild skills of...more...]]> 1 2 false false Fri May 02 10:35:21 -0700 2008 Fri May 02 10:42:50 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Dec 07 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 19:02:18 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 08 19:01:28 -0800 2008 1
Seriously though this will leave you starved for science fiction written by a WRITER as opposed to a thinker or a schemer.]]> 4 2 false false Tue May 13 08:32:08 -0700 2008 Tue May 13 08:32:47 -0700 2008 Flowers for Algernon", it would have come out like this. ]]> 3 1 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 07 12:47:16 -0700 2008 Tue May 20 11:15:35 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jan 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 16:12:01 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 16:19:20 -0800 2009 Camp Concentration, published in 1967, is the most erudite work of speculative fiction I've ever read, beating out even the various books and short stories that I've read by Gene Wolfe. The book's narrator, you see, is a poet, and he casually deploys scores of allusions, some of which...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Dec 28 10:03:22 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 28 10:03:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 13:45:28 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 18:18:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Dec 11 07:08:34 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 09:41:44 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 07:08:34 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Feb 22 07:53:22 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 18:36:58 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Dec 03 19:48:29 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 03 19:53:48 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jul 08 06:33:51 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 06:43:12 -0700 2008 i learned of his passing by way of John Crowley's live journal:

http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/92664...

some of the longer entries are revealing - and certainly Crowley's

Thomas M. Disch's Camp C...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 18 20:28:08 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 25 05:51:47 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 08 11:38:00 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 02 09:05:01 -0700 2008
Which isn't exactly fair for Disch. He's too good a poet for this. And i...more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Aug 17 16:43:57 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 16:43:57 -0700 2009 here to find it in the catalogue.more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 19 08:44:55 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 08:47:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 12 13:53:56 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 14:04:47 -0700 2009 There is a lot of effect to be achieved to make this plausible. But somehow Disch manages to do it.
The end could have done with...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 13 13:50:24 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 13 13:51:36 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue May 27 13:07:13 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 10 15:34:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=553907