Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch [Spoiler Free Review]

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch.

[00:00:03]>> [music] >> So, this book was originally serialized in New Worlds magazine in the UK in 1967 and then later published as a novel. I have this copy here from Avon Books and we've got all sorts of quotes here from Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Aldiss and Samuel R. Delany all here on the cover.

[00:00:27]And this is the second book from Disch that I've read. I read On Wings of Song and I liked that one for the most part.

[00:00:35]This book I liked many aspects of this book, but I had a feeling when I was reading it that a lot of it was going over my head.

[00:00:45]And the reason I decided to grab this one right now, you know, eventually I would like to read every all of Thomas M. Disch's science fiction novels.

[00:00:54]But I've been reading through a collection of essays from Samuel R.

[00:00:57]Delany called The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, which is a a he got the title of that from this book, so that's pretty cool.

[00:01:06]There's a there's a passage from our narrator in this one where he writes a poem and that that term is used.

[00:01:15]And so, Samuel R. Delany in this in this essay he he's going to he breaks down a scene in this book and so, when I got to that essay, I decided I would would read the book first and then go back and read the essay and and see what I thought.

[00:01:31]And so, at the end of the video, I will talk about what Delany kind of discusses in that essay.

[00:01:39]But let let's just first talk about this book. So, this is definitely like a very new wave science fiction book. Disch was kind of a pioneer in the new wave movement. And this is a very good example of a new wave book because for actually for many reasons, you know, there's kind of an experimental writing style happening here. We have a lot of the book taking place within our character's head. It's very introspective.

[00:02:09]And there's you know, aspects of this book, a lot of the themes come from like classic world literature. So, while with a normal science fiction book, I might find myself looking up references of you know, nebulas and neutron stars and light sail ships, I find my I found myself with this book having to look up some references on some classic world literature that I am definitely not well-read on and I barely kind of skimmed the surface of of what those stories were about and how they fed into the themes and ideas of this novel. So, like I said, right as I was reading this, I knew a lot of this was going to be going over my head, but I think there's still enough in the plot and some of the ideas and the the twists that happen in this book, I I still think an average reader like me could still get a lot of enjoyment out of this book. I would give this four stars and you know, it's not for everyone.

[00:03:16]It's it's a bit of a kind of a darker book. It's got some deep heady themes and ideas.

[00:03:24]Um, you know, besides those those those ones that are drawn from classic literature, there's some apparent ones that I think everyone can can get, but uh like I said, maybe not for everyone.

[00:03:35]But let's get into what this one is about. So, we're in kind of a very near future from when Disch read the or wrote this and there's this big war going on and our main character, Lewis, he is a poet, he's a Catholic and he decided he would rather go to jail than to take part in the war. So, he's a conscientious objector and I I believe he was sentenced to four years in prison and he finds himself in this prison. He's been there for a few months wondering if he made the right decision.

[00:04:09]And then he's kind of abducted out of this prison and taking taken to a place called Camp Archimedes, which seems to be a secret government experimental prison where they're using this drug called Paladine to give to these prisoners and and this drug will apparently enhance their their intellect and make them smarter.

[00:04:37]But of course, everything comes with a cost and the cost to this one is your lifespan is is reduced drastically. Once you start taking this drug, you have, you know, nine months to live plus or minus a little bit of time there. And so, he finds himself in this, you know, very bizarre situation and since he's a poet, he's been writing journal entries. This whole book is written as journal entries. And the administers of this prison want want him to kind of document his experience here.

[00:05:17]And most everybody that's in this prison is from the military and he seems to be the only kind of civilian prisoner in this, but he has some unique qualities that that that get the attention of the people running this these experiments that and this is one of the reasons they want him there taking part in this. So, he's he's there. He is when he shows up, there's people at all different levels.

[00:05:47]So, there's people that are very close to death. They've been on this drug for nine months. They're very intelligent in certain ways, but their their body is declining as well. And there's people that have only been taking it for a few months. So, he comes in and he sees people at all different levels.

[00:06:06]And as he as his time progresses as you read through this novel, some people will die ahead of him. He'll be going through this this whole experience and his mind will be expanding as his body is degrading and he'll see other people coming in behind him. And so, it makes for this very interesting story told through the point of view of our character here.

[00:06:35]And you know, he's he's a bit of an unreliable narrator because we've got this general who's in charge of this place, General Hast, and there's even this doctor, Amy Busk, who's a very interesting character in this one as well. And he knows that they're going to be reading all of these journals that he's writing. So, it it's not always apparent, probably especially on a first read through, but you you know he's withholding certain bits of information. And so, when a story is written like this from kind of an unreliable narrator who's on this drug as well, you know, there's going to be some things going on that you you can't really understand on your first read through. And sure enough, when you get to the end, there's some pretty mind-blowing twists that really did make me want to go back and read it and and see you know, once once you know what happens, you you do want to read through and see how much more you can pick apart of what was really going on since it was a very unpredictable twist that happens at the end. So, it's definitely like one of those stories. You know, the the the plot itself is very interesting.

[00:07:50]The the twists are are good. It there is some interesting aspects to this one. There's even some like occult ceremonies brought in. Um, there's but you know, a lot of the book is these these prisoners who are taking this drug with their intelligence increasing really kind of discussing philosophy and religion and you know, it's it's a lot of that. So, it could be considered kind of a a slow-paced book in that regard and and it's all really just told through the journal entries of our character.

[00:08:26]But there's so many themes really that Disch is exploring in this one uh like about the ethics of running government experiments like this and of course, this is very extreme example he gives in this story, but you could relate it to other things that were going on at the time or probably still going on today with the government doing things like this.

[00:08:49]And there's this, you know, this Faustian theme of someone selling their soul for knowledge and and what that trade-off really um, you know, whether it's worth it or not. That's that's the one thing that I think everyone it's it's pretty easy to catch that one, but there was plenty of other literary references in here that uh definitely went over my head. There's another real deep question and I don't really consider this spoiler at all or anything, but um, at one point in the novel, they're wondering cuz cuz you got to imagine they're in this horrible situation.

[00:09:27]They're they know they've got this death sentence of like nine months and while they they know it's coming, they they keep getting smarter and smarter along the way.

[00:09:37]But they you know, some of them start wondering if this is kind of the state of the universe and could be very nihilistic thinking uh but it's it's it's a very uh you you can really think about this book for a long time and think about it from all sorts of different angles.

[00:09:55]But you know, let now let's get into like what Samuel R. Delany was saying in this essay. So, this essay really is just breaking down a dream that our character has in this book. There's this this scene of a dream sequence.

[00:10:13]And so, Delany kind of preferences the essay a little bit to to set it up. Then he goes through the dream.

[00:10:19]He breaks it down in unfathomable ways. And then at the end, he kind of pulls everything back together and talks a lot about what Dish was trying to do with this book and and how how artistic he put all of these themes and ideas together in this science fiction novel.

[00:10:40]Now, a lot of what he talks about towards the end of this essay, I I couldn't even understand Delany's essay, let alone how it related to the book. So, that's just kind of my ignorance in some of these, you know, literary themes that are drawn from, you know, centuries ago from all over the world.

[00:11:04]Uh but, Delany let me off the hook a little bit because he said that he's read this book probably six or 10 times.

[00:11:14]He's lost track.

[00:11:15]And that even someone as well read on him and, you know, he's a writer. He he's always, you know, pushing the envelope on these literary the literary quality of science fiction.

[00:11:30]So, he says that he it even took him multiple reads to break this down and come up with this and try to really understand what Dish was doing. So, you know, it kind of let me off the hook a little bit that I wasn't just a for for not getting all that.

[00:11:46]But then it just kind of raises question, would I reread this?

[00:11:50]Do I have enough interest to try to break all that down? And the answer is probably no. I think if I did for some reason start studying classic literature and understood it a little bit more, then yes, at that point I would probably come back and give this one a reread and see if I could connect some of some of the things that Dish was doing in here to to those old works, but you know, really to me, I I think another reread would be interesting just for some of the the plot points that happen towards the end, but I don't think I could ever crack this nut like Delany did. So, um you know, that's just me. Like I said, it's it's a it's a very enjoyable book from many different levels, but I think from the the level that Dish intended, I I don't think I barely even scratched the surface.

[00:12:42]Um maybe maybe not, but you know, let me know if you read it and and what you thought of it or how many times you've read it if this is a book you read multiple times.

[00:12:53]But, you know, that's going to do it for that review. Next Next up I'm reading 2001: A Space Odyssey and I'm going to be doing that as a buddy read with Scott Danielson. So, just look for that video coming out soon. And once again, thanks for watching.