Monday, September 15, 2008

Camp Concentration 001 - A Journal of My Own


(My copy of the book: Avon paperback, 1971)

I read this book around 1986 and for a long time I used to put it in my lists of "10 Best SF Novels" or the like. I did not read it a second time since then. What impressed me most was, first, the fact that the protagonist was a poet; I have since compiled a small list of "Poets in SF". Then, the fact that Disch manages to convey the idea of the gradual increase of intelligence in a human being, with all the brilliance and all the turmoil that such increase may cause. And then there is the stunning "coup-de-theatre" in the final scenes.

Some friends are putting together a "collective reviewing" of this book in their blogs, and I wish to join them. But I think that instead of writing a review, in the strict sense, I will try to re-read the novel along the next 30 days and to register my impressions in this blog, as in a journal.

QUOTE: "This is my journal. I can be candid here. Candidly, I could not be more miserable" (CC, p. 11, May 11 entry).


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