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Kallocain

Karin Boye,

Gustaf Lannestock (Translator),

Richard B. Vowles (Introduction)

3.78 · Rating details · 6,724 ratings · 406 reviews

This is a novel of the future, profoundly sinister in its vision of a drab terror. Ironic and detached, the author shows us the totalitarian World-state through the eyes of a product of that state, scientist Leo Kall. Kall has invented a drug, kallocain, which denies the privacy of thought and is the final step towards the transmutation of the individual human being into a ...more

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Paperback, 193 pages

Published April 2nd 2002 by University of Wisconsin Press (first published 1940)

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Mar 30, 2011 Sofia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, dystopian

I don't know how famous Kallocain or Karin Boye are outside Sweden, but she's pretty much one of our most renowned authors. I actually read this book back in 2007, but today at the flea market I just so happened upon a FREAKIN' ORIGINAL COPY FROM 1940 AND BOUGHT IT FOR FIVE FREAKIN' CROWNS! IT'S AMAZING AND SO FRAGILE AND THE PAGES A BLOODY HAND-CUT AND I LOVE IIIT!

*Ahem*

Excuse me for that.

So anyway! Kallocain is a dystopian part-scifi about the chemist Leo Kall, who invents the first ever truth ...more

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Nov 05, 2010 Amy Sturgis rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Amy by: Pontus Liljeblad

Shelves: sf-in-translation, postapocalyptic-dystopia, 20th-century

This poetic and moving novel deserves to be remembered in the same breath as We, 1984, Brave New World, and other great twentieth-century dystopias.

Leo Kall is a scientist who employs chemistry in the service of the oppressive Worldstate. He develops kallocain, a drug that exposes the private thoughts of his fellow-soldiers, thus paving the way for the Worldstate to ensure that either each individual becomes a "happy, healthy cell in the state organism" or he/she is eliminated.

To quote Leo's t ...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Bjorn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sweden

Political dystopias found their form in the first half of the 20th century, with books like Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as the big three. Karin Boye's Kallocain (1940) deserves to be mentioned in the same context. It's certainly at least as good, and its central message - that fear, hatred and paranoia demands a conscious effort, which cannot be sustained forever - certainly more hopeful, as bleak as the novel and its author's untimely end is.

The set Political dystopias found their form in the first half of the 20th century, with books like Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as the big three. Karin Boye's Kallocain (1940) deserves to be mentioned in the same context. It's certainly at least as good, and its central message - that fear, hatred and paranoia demands a conscious effort, which cannot be sustained forever - certainly more hopeful, as bleak as the novel and its author's untimely end is.

The setting will be familiar to anyone who's read either of the others; a totalitarian state (officially named The World State, even though there are hints that there are other states and occasional wars), "sometime in the 21st century", where the government controls everything. Children are raised by the state and separated from their parents for good when they hit puberty, every aspect of life is rationalised, standardised and specialised with no free will at all, everyone is taught that they exist solely to serve the state, and it goes without saying that the police have spy cameras and microphones everywhere.

Except in people's minds, obviously.

That is, until the chemist Leo Kall stumbles across a new chemical compound, which he names after himself and which proves to be a perfect truth serum. Kallocain works a little like alcohol, he speculates (alcohol, of course, was banned several generations ago); rather than force people to tell the truth, it simply makes them want to stop lying. Shoot them up and they relax, smile and tell you everything that they've been trying to keep hidden. Perfect for convicting criminals, he thinks - except pretty soon it becomes obvious that it can do so much more. Suddenly the state can prosecute people for their thoughts, and Kall is expected to help - but what if it turns out that the worst threat to a totalitarian government isn't a few isolated pockets of convinced political dissidents, but simply people being people, telling stories and listening to music you can't even march to? And what does it mean for his own marriage to a wife he can't help but suspect of being disloyal to him (in itself of course a crime, since they're both supposed to be loyal only to the state)? What is this word "soul" he keeps hearing the suspects mention, which doesn't seem to serve any purpose at all...?

Kallocain clearly owes a lot to Huxley (it predates Orwell's book by several years), but in a way, it's a very different animal. Boye was first and foremost a poet and that sensibility shows in her SF writing even though the narrator Kall is a pretty cold fish at first. She largely stays away from the big political questions; they're there, definitely, and we find out enough about the world Kall lives in to understand it, but the focus is still on personal politics; about what living under constant pressure to be quiet, lie and serve others does to people. It's tempting, of course, to read it not only in a 1940s context - trapped in a world of totalitarian thinking that created both Stalin and Hitler and the people fighting them, and the big war just starting to gather steam - but also in relation to Boye's personal life; as a lesbian, she faced a very real risk of getting thrown in jail simply for existing, and it's quite likely that that pressure led to her suicide a year after Kallocain came out. But even so, 70 years later, there's something in Kallocain that manages to make it positively uplifting. Because what the smiles on the faces of the victims say as they incriminate themselves is "this is not us. We are human beings, we are fucked up and not always good, but as long as it takes a conscious effort to suppress ourselves, we can never be automatons in the long run."

ETA 160625: Det finns en strålande anpassning för radioteater från 1966 på Sveriges Radios sida. Gunnar Björnstrand! Erland Josephson! ...more

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Aug 08, 2015 Matt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: from-the-north-country, hard-rain

In vino veritas

According to roman historian Tacitus some Germanic peoples counseled only while drinking wine, because they believed that the drunk always speak true.

Wine is no longer necessary to loosen one's tongue since Leo Kall developed the drug called Kallocain. Kall is a chemist and the narrator of (t)his story. He is living in Chem(istry)town #4 in a nation called Worldstate. Like everyone else he is a fellow soldier and his work and after hours are filled with duties for the state. He is In vino veritas

According to roman historian Tacitus some Germanic peoples counseled only while drinking wine, because they believed that the drunk always speak true.

Wine is no longer necessary to loosen one's tongue since Leo Kall developed the drug called Kallocain. Kall is a chemist and the narrator of (t)his story. He is living in Chem(istry)town #4 in a nation called Worldstate. Like everyone else he is a fellow soldier and his work and after hours are filled with duties for the state. He is married with three children and they are living in a small apartment. Camera and microphones (called police eyes and ears) are installed in every room. Kall is actually a rather mediocre citizen until he finds the formula for this new drug. When administered, Kallocain forces people to answer each question truthfully, and to reveal their feelings and thoughts to the interrogators. This comes in quite handy for the state because:

From thoughts and feelings words and actions are born. How is it possible that thoughts and feelings are the private property of the individual? Does not the whole fellow soldier belong to the state? To whom do his thoughts and feelings belong if not the state? Until today there was just no way to control them – but now the agent is found.
(translated by me)

The dystopian world (or utopian, depending from where you look at it) is impressively portrayed. The author was clever enough not to overload the story with too much technical stuff that is either incomprehensible, or has become outdated already. The story focuses on the main character, his psyche, and its immediate surroundings. From the first page the reader knows that Kall is serving a long sentence and he tells his story from prison. One of the questions is why. The answer is not revealed until the very end and it was not what I thought it was. And then there is some kind of afterword that gives the book an additional and unexpected twist. This finally gave the book its fourth star.

The book was written in 1940, so it lies right in the middle between Huxley's Brave new world and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I would argue that Kallocain is neither much better or worse than these two works. The reason this book is not so well known is probably because a) it's from a Swedish author, and b) it's from a female author. Both of these reasons are no reason at all to avoid the book. I admit I had some problems with the prose. Some parts in the middle seem a little rigidly and awkward. But that's probably just the German translation I read. Recommended!
...more

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Dec 18, 2020 Alwynne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: work-in-translation, speculative-fiction

Poet and novelist Karin Boye’s Kallocain wasn’t at all what I expected, billed as dystopian fiction bearing traces of Kafka and elements of Zemyatin’s We, it read more like a detailed, psychological character study. When Boye wrote this, WW2 was in progress, the Soviet Union and Germany were allies, highlighting possible global domination by one or the other’s particular brand of totalitarianism. This had been an anxiety of Boye’s for some time. During the 1920s as part of radical Stockholm grou Poet and novelist Karin Boye’s Kallocain wasn’t at all what I expected, billed as dystopian fiction bearing traces of Kafka and elements of Zemyatin’s We, it read more like a detailed, psychological character study. When Boye wrote this, WW2 was in progress, the Soviet Union and Germany were allies, highlighting possible global domination by one or the other’s particular brand of totalitarianism. This had been an anxiety of Boye’s for some time. During the 1920s as part of radical Stockholm group Clarte, she took part in an official visit to the Soviet Union and was shocked by what she witnessed there. Then in the 1930s on a trip to Berlin she fell for a young Jewish woman Margot Hanel. They returned to Boye’s home in Sweden but Margot’s experiences and Boye’s perspective on Germany’s future set off concerns about National Socialism’s destructive potential. Yet Kallocain has none of the urgency or melodrama of Orwell’s later 1984 or the explicit world-building of the earlier We. Instead, it’s an introspective account presented by Leo Kall, for twenty years he’s been imprisoned far from his home in Chemical City No. 4, World State, possibly held by its rival power. Kall’s a scientist, he looks back at his time in Chemical City No 4 and his role in the invention of a new drug, he’d hoped to name Kallocain. The drug’s a truth serum of sorts, a single dose results in a subject freely confessing to their crimes or exposing their innermost thoughts. Its operations reminded me of Boye’s extensive involvement in psychoanalytic circles, like a perverse twist on the therapeutic process.

Kall’s tale unfolds slowly, in austere tones. Almost half the novel’s centred on drug trials on live subjects, interspersed with Kall’s private reflections, often drily related. Information about World State’s provided in dribs and drabs or gleaned from brief comments. The overarching features of his society are familiar, citizens are under constant surveillance, organised according to strict hierarchies, children are inculcated with the regime’s beliefs, and there’s an all-pervasive atmosphere of paranoia and distrust. But this isn’t, at least initially, a problem for Kall, in fact it’s welcomed, mistrust and lack of communication between people are the foundation on which World State was built. For Kall its institutions provide order and security despite their focus on perpetual readiness for war. What Boye appears to be doing with Kall is providing a test subject of her own, a means of exploring a personality formed by immersion in or submission to a totalitarian state.

Kall’s a less ideal member of his collective than he claims, he’s ambitious, self-interested, intensely jealous of colleague Rissen, someone he believes may have an emotional connection with Linda, Kall’s wife, that he doesn’t. Kall further justifies his dislike of Rissen by categorising him as possibly anti-social, an outsider posing a threat to World State. Kall’s state of mind suggests his carefully controlled world’s a façade masking a system prey to manipulation by petty individuals, in which he’s as ‘guilty’ as his human guinea pigs. Boye’s underlying critique also deals in issues of gender, Linda’s creative, empathetic role in the narrative’s presented in opposition to Kall’s and his increasingly damaging behaviour. It appears Boye’s not primarily interested in outlining the specifics of an all-encompassing system but in how it might be reproduced and exploited by individuals within it, those who crave power, people not in themselves monstrous but capable of monstrous deeds, and who convince themselves of their superiority in relation to an undesirable other. But in Linda she also offers a form of hope and an alternative way of being. I thought this was an interesting, well-crafted novel, although the arguments it's presenting could be clearer. But, except in its intense, claustrophobic final stages, I didn’t always find it a particularly engaging piece. It was hugely successful on publication, its circulation in occupied parts of Scandinavia aided by its status as science fiction. Unfortunately, Boye didn’t live to see its full impact and continued popularity, she committed suicide in 1941 not long after its initial appearance, Margot followed her a few weeks later. ...more

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Jan 16, 2014 Linda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, apocalypse-post-apocalypse, favorites, classic, utopia-dystopia, swedish-literature

The book is set in a future, dystopian, totalitarian world state, after a World War. The government surveillance, with eyes and ears, reaches everywhere. Even the maids are bound to report every week about the family at which they work. The main protagonist, Leo Kall, is a dutiful citizen, accepting the rules of the society. He even invents a truth serum, Kallocain, to increase the government's control over the people, making the world state the owner of not only the peoples' identities, but als The book is set in a future, dystopian, totalitarian world state, after a World War. The government surveillance, with eyes and ears, reaches everywhere. Even the maids are bound to report every week about the family at which they work. The main protagonist, Leo Kall, is a dutiful citizen, accepting the rules of the society. He even invents a truth serum, Kallocain, to increase the government's control over the people, making the world state the owner of not only the peoples' identities, but also their souls, because the truth serum reveals their inner, most intimate emotions.

Karin Boye wrote Kallocain during the second World War, just months before committing suicide. The oppression and government abuse are choking and frightening, as well as believable. Since there was a fear among the Swedish people of a German invasion, the theme of the book has been connected to the Third Reich. But, having been a socialist, Boye, after visiting the Soviet union, had began to crumble in her political conviction, especially when it came to the restricted individual freedom of the people. As much as the world state resembles a nazi society, it also resembles a communist era. The people live in small apartments, all identical, and they call each other "fellow soldier", not so unlike the Soviet's ”kamrat” - comrade. There are no economic class divisions, and there is a kind of human equality, but only in the indiscriminating way that noone has a value. A human life is worth nothing more than being a cog in the machine. Individualism is strictly forbidden and seen as a crime and threat to the nation, as the biggest purpose is to serve the world state. Kall is a scientist and contributes to the state through his Kallocain experiments on people from a voluntary service where they sacrificing themselves for ”the greater good”, a unit one can enter but never leave.

Since individualism is forbidden and private emotions are viewed as selfish, dangerous thoughts, the society is built upon mistrust and suspicion - a foundation necessary for the existence of the world state. For every private gathering, witnesses are needed to be able to prove one's innocence if faced with an accusation. There is no term as ”innocent until proven guilty”.

There is a biblical theme in the book. The mysterious myth about the hero Reor that didn't care about witnesses and protection, but simply trusted his fellow citizens, and thereby reached a freedom of mind, something he had to pay for. Parallels can be drawn to Jesus, and his role of sacrifice. The people believing in this myth and trustful way of behavior, were seen as strange and dangerous. Like a religion, there were no certificate to be a member, no head of the organization, not even an organization. Not being able to control such a people, the ruthless state had to defend itself.

When no one can be trusted, the only way to feel safe is power, but power is only an illusion, since it doesn't take away the small voice inside one's soul. Kall received the kind of power he thought he needed, through his invention. It's interesting how far a person is prepared to go to defend his structured, safety-imagined every-day life. The clear-eyed, openminded character Rissen served as Kall's suppressed conscience, which explains Kall's split feelings towards him, mostly fear and loathing due to the dangerous risk of rebellious thoughts in his mind, which could jeopardize his safety, especially with Kallocain in production.

Kallocain is a unique Swedish novel, about ten years ahead of George Orwell's "1984" and Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451". More than seventy years old, it's still of importance, considering the present discussions of the FRA-surveillance in Sweden, and even on an international scale, considering Wikileaks and the information revealed by Julian Assange. Furthermore, it shows how easy a man, and eventually a whole society, can be controlled by fear and mistrust. It also awakes the important prospect that a society consists of people, like an organism consists of cells. Every cell is needed, and every man can make a difference. He has to decide for himself who he wants to be, and dare to fight for it. ...more

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Mar 22, 2015 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: feminismlit, aa-europelit, all-five-star, zz1940, aa-scandilit, translation, speculative-fiction, aaa-favwomenfiction, aaa-top-translation, aa-womanauthor

270315: bleak, believable, banal, beautiful- best dystopia of which i had never heard, written by a woman poet. some reviews characterize Kallocain (1940) as kind of a Swedish 1984(1948) or Brave New World (1932), but i suggest the lineage more fruitfully explored is We by Zamyatin (1921). this is a lyrical, poetic, rather mundane world without either the melodramatic oppression, the great names, the obvious powers of orwell's book- ministry of truth, thought police etc.- or the conspiracy of in 270315: bleak, believable, banal, beautiful- best dystopia of which i had never heard, written by a woman poet. some reviews characterize Kallocain (1940) as kind of a Swedish 1984(1948) or Brave New World (1932), but i suggest the lineage more fruitfully explored is We by Zamyatin (1921). this is a lyrical, poetic, rather mundane world without either the melodramatic oppression, the great names, the obvious powers of orwell's book- ministry of truth, thought police etc.- or the conspiracy of intellectual powers, seductive technology, behaviourism of BNW, this world, this worldstate, seems more plausible, more human, more philosophical. partly because there is no big reveal, no real, identifiable, irresistible powers- only surveillance, informing, group psychology, personal ambitions and emotions radically redirected to the worldstate. when the narrator is less than heroic, when his truth is often revealed accidentally, rather than confessed, and the truth of love is the final private sense of humanity... when this goes under to the power of kallocain truth serum... are we human anymore...?

300619: decided to sum up several dystopian works read in this review, add others later...

200519: 1984. ok so it is time to read this again. i will find it in french. just read web article on guardian about continuing relevance/changed relevance of book in our world. i remember popular version of ‘real’ 1984 think i saw movie 1984 that year... 2017 is impossible to imagine from ‘real’ 1984 as much as ‘real’ 1948(9) when book 1984 was written/published...

i mention ‘brave new world’ in review but that does not have the same hold on my memories. too much (your) tech, science, culture is bad, (our) knowledge special, stupid people (everyone else) need leaders (us), we are smart (thus worthwhile) we have culture (yours is shit) etc. and if you are woman you are slut, stupid, simple, and should be nowhere near thought of. give her o (toys! clothes! fun! etc) she is happy. and then plot=lost boy discovers he is actually prince! (mistaken for lesser when he is real smart...), savagery ok that is how to be real! and read shakespeare dammit all else ever written anywhere by anyone else is just not worthwhile... ok just my early impression...

‘animal farm’ is parable. once you know horse=this, pig=this etc there is only argument about how accurate are the impressions...

‘we’ is beautiful. that is one problem, probably why i love it, but also too abstract for most readers. and then translated as ‘well-doer’ or ‘benefactor’ well which is it? so i read this later at u. more cynical about politics/art vs politics but still really loved gatsby (!) bc he seemed to have more personal meaning. but this somewhat obscure, difficult, poetic book written in 20s? by somebody in what some other language no red-blooded etc (not in cold war anyway) would read! no it is not global (read western?) phenom...

‘handmaid’s tale’ bothers me bc i am young man think young man thought think women etc. possible that there would be (in 1984!) such retrogressive men who would what do this (imprison, rape, kill etc) to women? no. too much feminist paranoia. impossible not now (1984) not in near future not in 2017 alabama where men love women so much they will never let little woman kill little clump of tissue (fetus is baby!) unless said clump is going to kill her! so... i am wrong. but see ther’s this miniseries that only those elitist intelligent leftists watch, wins awards, makes money! and, and then there’s this blonde captain someone and just last year wonder someone and, and alabama, well hey there’s this movie in it...! so maybe handmaid’s will become global phenom...

there are too many other bad places (dys?) i have read since 1984 but yet to find equal... so it is somewhere i like to visit, at least in writing, but no i do not want to live there... i have aa-dystopia bookshelf full of them, not many ya, but this is the book i will always remember...

1984: ...??? childhood: another favorite i have neglected to place, i read this first when i was 12/13/14 or something, an old hardback at home, about the same time as great gatsby. i have read this at least 3 times. so an interesting intro to literature of ideas, something particularly bleak. the vision of switching enemies, getting your hate on, of power for sake of power. the essay on new english made me cognizant of the power of words to distort or even create realities. so many ideographic terms, from thought police to big brother, insures this will never become dated even now after 1984. hard to believe it has given a name to so-called reality tv. i have to be aware of the power of media only just becoming apparent at the time written, brave new world is the one to read for that...

.??? 1980s?: i read ‘brave new world’ much later than Orwell’s 1984 (adolescent first ‘adult’ book), and what bothered me then still bothers me, on this second or third reading. this is that the book suggests a value conflict between science and art, in politics. and gendered relationships with the few women being represented as empty-headed, smiling, greedy, sensual addicts rather than thoughtful, mature, sensible, as men, aargh... not very advanced conceptually there, even if it is of its time. very good elaboration of our misuse of technology in empty amusement, but the idea we need suffering to create art of any consequence (maybe great art yes, more certainly miserable lives), the idea we can condition humans to fit determined roles (existentialist in me rebels at this line of thought, this suggestion humans are entirely determined), that of course we will recognize natural leaders in those who have any sense of art of Shakespeare (culturally blinkered eurocentrism), all seem curiously naive and quaint after the horrors of mechanical warfare, the horrors of genocide... ...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

Leo Kall wakes up one morning to read the newspaper and the headlines say "Thoughts Can be Judged." Well, Leo already knows this, having invented a drug which he named after himself: Kallocain. Early in his career as a scientist for the Worldstate, a totalitarian regime, Kall realized that when people become intoxicated they tend to spill their guts to total strangers. Working from that idea, he develops Kallocain, and after a few subjects from the Voluntary Sacrificial Service are injected with ...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Rebecca rated it liked it

Shelves: modern-classics, sci-fi

You know the feeling when you read something you know is good, I mean not just because others have told you so but because you can actually feel it when you read the book? You read on and you still get the feeling that this is a good book...

...and yet you don't particularly care for it. This was such a book for me. I can understand why it's a classic, well known, and I'm glad that I've read it. But still my feelings for it are no more than lukewarm. ...more

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Apr 19, 2019 Verdes Anos rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I don't usually write reviews but this book just made me go for it.
It is impressive to realize how a book written in 1940 can bring to light some of the most complex ethical discussions, some of those still remaining pretty present nowadays. Also relevant to note that some of the controversial issues are related to the scientific progression, almost serving as a real prediction for the worldwide reflections that came up after the first attacks using nuclear weapons (1945)
The book also served as ...more

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Aug 11, 2019 Sookie rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy, translated

A brilliant dystopian novel set between We and 1984 and A brave new world. However Boye's perception is far more narrowed than aforementioned books and her point of view focuses on the inventor of the drug that makes thought privacy almost impossible. What starts off as an ideological view of the world, it decimates quickly to the dystopian nightmare.
With lyrical prose and a controlled narration, Boye's world seems awfully familiar with all the censorship that once was and has always existed in ...more

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Jan 17, 2021 Elin Adler rated it really liked it

Shelves: hc-hce

I decided to read 12 classic books this year and this is one of them. I read this when i was in high school and i just remember i dissliked it alot. When i read it today i dont get it, because this is such a masterpiece!!! Was i to young maybe? To unintrested to think?

I dont know how famous karin is outside of sweden but i think this book is a must read. Intresting how she thought this was how the 2000 would look like.....almost like the cold war or like a very strict dictatureship.

Truly intre ...more

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Jan 23, 2016 Jose Moa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: distopian, favorites, post-apocaliptic

Once i have read Kallokain ,for me there are three absolute totalitarian distopian materpiece novels : We,Kallokain and 1984,the other two : Farenheith 451 and A brave new world dont fall in the same class.

In the first three the life, the thougths,the sons and daughters are absolute property of the state.
Paradoxically this regímenes in the theorical apareance of all be for the good of the comunity,the state,are the most insolidarian and individualistic societies,the individual is the most selfis ...more

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Oct 01, 2018 Oleksandr Zholud rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book is best seem as a part of dystopian quartet from the first half of the XXth century, the others are: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, brave new world by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell. The novel was nominated for the Retro-Hugo for 1940.

The novel depicts a totalitarian society where the protagonist developed a truth serum (Kallocain), which allows to take oppression to a new level – to judge the very thought and intentions of people. The story does a great job in showing the internaliz ...more

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Jun 21, 2018 Winterdragon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dystopia

Still ever so relevant, and beautifully written at that. This book deserves attention at least as much as Farenheit 451, 1984 or Brave New World. Is it because Karin Boye was a woman that the book hasn't reached the same level of fame? ...more

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Feb 02, 2015 Thomas Strömquist rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The fascinating Kallocain, the last novel by famous author and poet Karin Boye and published not 6 months prior to her tragic suicide in 1941. Well deserving of it's mention along with 'the great dystopies'; We, Brave New World, 1984 and This Perfect Day (yes, Ira Levin belongs there too!). Leo Kall creates the drug Kallocain after noting that people tend to reveal their inner thoughts following the intake of alcohol. Kallocain is much more effective and a great tool for the ones in power and th ...more

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Dec 06, 2014 Cecilia H. rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: swedish-literature, read-for-school, science-fiction, bored-now, the-disappoint, 2-stars, highly-overrated, important-issue-or-message, not-my-cup-of-tea, zzzzzzzzzz

Gosh. I'm just relieved and overjoyed that I got through this boring book! I never really got into it or understood everything. And we're going to analyze this in my Swedish class... -.-' Well, well.

Okay, now about the book:
Kallocain was written by a very famous Swedish author, Karin Boye. She was mainly a poet, but wrote several novels too. Boye worked with the book during WW2, it was published 1940, so the novel has a lot of influences regarding both Germany and the Sovjet Union during that pe ...more

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Feb 02, 2014 Natalie (CuriousReader) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have always been interested in Karin Boye, she's famous in Sweden mostly for her poems. I found Kallocain in a thrift store by chance, and decided to pick it up. It's rich in its language, beautiful in it's storytelling. The world that she describes is frightening, as it should be - being a dystopian. It's frightening, and even more so, the character of Leo Kall - a typical/average man living in this society. His journey, his growth, is fascinating to follow, and it made an impact. It's so cle ...more

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Aug 08, 2015 Jos rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, favorites, scandinavian-lit

Amazing! I would put this book on a level with Brave New World and 1984. May be, it's not that well-known because it was easier for a Swedish author to win the Nobel prize than to become popular worldwide. At least until writing Swedish thrillers became a guarantee for popularity. But seriously, the suicide of the author shortly after its release and being published during WW II probably caused the slide into oblivion.

Kallocain is a dystopia. The Earth is divided into two totalitarian states fig Amazing! I would put this book on a level with Brave New World and 1984. May be, it's not that well-known because it was easier for a Swedish author to win the Nobel prize than to become popular worldwide. At least until writing Swedish thrillers became a guarantee for popularity. But seriously, the suicide of the author shortly after its release and being published during WW II probably caused the slide into oblivion.

Kallocain is a dystopia. The Earth is divided into two totalitarian states fighting each other. The individual is under absolute control. Every room inclucing the bedroom is equipped with cameras and microphones. Housekeepers deliver daily reports, any doubt is reason for prosecution. Kids are removed from the family before they are ten years old as they "belong to the state". Spouses don't trust the other. When talking, they just share official accepted information. There's a lot more, I cannot give justice with my short summary to the coherent and imaginative society drawn by Boye.

In this environment, Leo Kall develops a groundbreaking substance, Kallocain. This substance is a powerful truth serum forcing suspects to reveal their deepest thoughts and emotions. With Kallocain being available, jurisdiction is extended to the maximum when a law is introduced that allows prosecution of thoughts. Mindcrime, eight years earlier. The effect of this drug combined with the new law is a complete corrosion of any privacy.

On a personal level, Kall undergoes a transformation from a loyal soldier to a doubting citizen while confronted with the effects of his drug and the way the ones in power use it. His slight hopes that the drug might achieve opposite effects with regard to the destruction of privacy, i.e. that individuals who have crossed the barrier to finally speak open and honestly, might change and their honesty could be infectious from thereon, remain illusionary as the enemy invades the World State.

The totalitarian society developed in Kallocain is a mirror of Boye's frustration with the political situation in Europe. The Third Reich was at the height of its power, the reality in the Soviet Union was a letdown for socialists as well. The depersonalization of society with the destruction of personal relationships and trust in the big nations of Europe must have destroyed Boye's hope for future mankind. Her suicide is an indicator that other personal problems contributed as well to the dystopic tone. ...more

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Jun 28, 2019 Wreade1872 rated it liked it

Shelves: 1940s, dystopian

So this is a philosophical dystopia kinda half-way between We and 1984. Maybe a little of the dryness of Meccania, the Super-State.

Its main character is a strange sort of combination of the protagonists of We and 1984, in that like the guy from We he's quite happy as part of a dystopia but also like Winston Smith he's terrified of everything. This cognitive dissonance is just one of the confused or complex elements of the story.
Its quite a complicated tale and maybe a little is being lost in t ...more

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Aug 25, 2016 Amethystina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourite-books-and-series

I absolutely adore this book. It is, without a doubt, one of the better ones I've read in my life. Explaining why I like it is a little difficult, however, since I'm having a hard time putting my finger on why.

I think it's a combination of the world that Boye builds up — the strange, cold future that scares me a lot more than some of the other dystopian novels I've read — and the absolutely beautiful use of language. Boye paints everything with a poetic surety and while the book doesn't always g ...more

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Dec 17, 2015 Amanda Landegren rated it liked it

Shelves: read-for-school

Actual rating; 3.5

I usually don't use half stars for my ratings, however, this time I feel like I really needed it. I liked this book, quite a lot actually, but comparing it to 1984 by George Orwell (an amazing book and my all-time favorite classic) makes it shrink in comparison. It is by no means the same plot, but there are clear similarities. Kallocain just does not have the same precision and complexity in my opinion.

We follow a fellow solider, Leo Kall who is a Chemist. He is absolutely loy ...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Evilynn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, swedish, 2012

Kallocain is a Swedish classic (written in 1940), dealing with themes of love and sense of self and the meaning of life, in a totalitarian state. Everytime I read certain kind of dystopias, I get a sense of unease at how poignant a lot of them still are. Kallocain takes place in a totalitarian state, much like 1984 does, although Kallocain predates the latter, and a lot of the surveillance in it, that probably seemed outlandish and outrageous when it was written, is commonplace today.

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Oct 09, 2017 Kaj Samuelsson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have heard a lot about this book and I never really wanted to read it but when I found it as a Swedish e-book when I needed something "new" after finishing some good fantasy books...
I found the book a bit (very) rambling, but still interesting and it was mainly about thoughts and feelings you are not supposed to have in the all powerful World State. ...more

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Feb 05, 2017 Ophelia.Desdemona rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5
Actually even scarier than 1984.

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Feb 09, 2014 John Hatley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A brilliant book, first published in 1940, about the fate of the individual in a totalitarian future world where the state is more important than the individual.

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Apr 28, 2019 Daniela Maia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

What I do know is that by sick parents and sick teachers still sicker children are being brought up, until the sick has now become the norm and the healthy a horror.

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Dec 03, 2020 Marie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

A strong theme of this book is that if the individual versus the state; tied into this is a theme of ownership. How much can a state expect from a person? In Kallocain the state expects everything – your children, your work, your words, your actions. The plot ties in with this as Leo Kall, a chemist, invents the drug Kallocain which makes the receiver reveal their most inner thoughts. And so it poses the question: can the state also own your throughts?

Kall is living through a very interesting di ...more

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Jul 01, 2019 Byron 'Giggsy' Paul rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: fans of 1984, We, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Gardener's Tale, Anthem

Shelves: modern-classics, kafkaesque, favorites, dark, drug-drug-druggy, lesser-known-gems, dystopia

easily on same level as 1984, Brave New World, We, and Anthem

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Aug 12, 2020 Johannes Jansson rated it really liked it

Not as profound as 1984, but not as dense to get through either. This book was a pleasant fast read with all the elements you would expect from a big brother dystopia novel, well worth a read!

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About Karin Boye

Karin Boye

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Karin Boye was a Swedish poet and novelist.

She is perhaps most famous for her poems, of which the most well-known ought to be "Yes, of course it hurts" (Swedish: "Ja visst gör det ont") and "In motion" (Swedish: "I rörelse"). She also wrote a few novels including "Kallocain". Inspired by the rise of National Socialism in Germany, it was a portrayal of a dystopian society in the vein of Orwell's Ni ...more

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“Ni bygger utifrån , vi byggs inifrån och in. Ni bygger med er själva som stenar och faller sönder utifrån och in. Vi bygger inifrån som träd, och det växer ut broar mellan oss som inte är död materia och dött tvång. Från oss går det levande ut. I er går det livlösa in, sid 75” — 8 likes

“Vi har gått mot allt strängare övervakning - och den har inte gjort oss säkrare, som vi hoppades, utan ängsligare. Med vår skräck växer också impulsen att så omkring oss. Är det inte så: då ett vilt djur känner sig hotat och inte ser någon utväg att fly, går den till anfall. Då skräcken smyger sig över oss, finns det inget annat att göra än att hugga först. Det är svårt, när vi inte ens vet vartåt vi ska hugga... Men bättre förekomma en förekommas ( s. 105)” — 5 likes

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