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Limbo
In the aftermath of an atomic war, a new international movement of pacifism has arisen. Multitudes of young men have chosen to curb their aggressive instincts through voluntary amputation—disarmament in its most literal sense.
Those who have undergone this procedure are highly esteemed in the new society. But they have a problem—their prosthetics require a rare metal to function, and international tensions are rising over which countries get the right to mine it . . .
Those who have undergone this procedure are highly esteemed in the new society. But they have a problem—their prosthetics require a rare metal to function, and international tensions are rising over which countries get the right to mine it . . .
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
58 people are currently reading
1875 people want to read
About the author
Bernard Wolfe
32 books12 followersBernard Wolfe studied at Yale, taught at Bryn Mawr, served in the Merchant Marine, edited Paramount Newsreel, wrote Really the Blues with "Mezz" Mezzrow, and did a publicity stint on Broadway.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
June 16, 2022
SF Masterworks (2010 relaunch series) #88: a scientist that escaped a devastating World War III has been using lobotomy to control aggression in the remote African village he has lived in for almost two decades, when he is drawn back to the post apocalyptic world, only to find that his actions and writings before he deserted the War, have been used as the foundation for a pacifist ideology that sees many formerly able bodied men in the West and East volunteer for limb amputations and replacement cybernetics as a way of ensuring peace. And yes, this book reads as absurdist as it sounds!
And now a cybernetic limb GIF that makes me laugh every single time
Despite being very early in the post apocalyptic Earth sub genre, as well as in cybernetics, computer managed war and more, this book is securely set around the issues of the 1950s with significant and detailed talking points around the East-West divide, race inequality, gender divides, history, modern mythology, monism and more. Wolfe's Yale educated background bleeds through as it feels more like a literary polemic against the cultural norms of the 1950s that Wolfe wanted to question. And even though I struggled to stay enthused enough to get through this, I can see why it featured in many of the Top 100 sci-fi books of all time in the 20th century. I would strongly recommend this for 'serious readers' with little love of science fiction, as well as lovers of the absurd! 4 out of 12.
2021 read
And now a cybernetic limb GIF that makes me laugh every single time
Despite being very early in the post apocalyptic Earth sub genre, as well as in cybernetics, computer managed war and more, this book is securely set around the issues of the 1950s with significant and detailed talking points around the East-West divide, race inequality, gender divides, history, modern mythology, monism and more. Wolfe's Yale educated background bleeds through as it feels more like a literary polemic against the cultural norms of the 1950s that Wolfe wanted to question. And even though I struggled to stay enthused enough to get through this, I can see why it featured in many of the Top 100 sci-fi books of all time in the 20th century. I would strongly recommend this for 'serious readers' with little love of science fiction, as well as lovers of the absurd! 4 out of 12.
2021 read
August 31, 2016
This month's post-apocalyptic book club selection.
What a morass of sludge!!!
Wolfe wrote this book after undergoing psychoanalysis with Dr. Edmund Bergler, a follower of Freud. Full and immediate disclosure: I do not have a high opinion of the theories of Freud, and Bergler's theories, as interpreted in this book, seem like they might be even further off-the-mark concerning sexuality.
When undergoing Freudian analysis, the subject is encouraged to focus in on himself at length to try to obtain better self-understanding, in what might seem to an outside observer to be a rather navel-gazing, self-absorbed endeavor. This book reads like Wolfe's attempt to make sense of himself and the philosophies he absorbed (and wholeheartedly embraced) from Bergler. I interpreted the main character, a Dr. Martine, to be a stand-in for the author. I felt that first, Wolfe set up a straw-man philosophy (definitely an absurd and wrong-headed one), and then set about tediously and lengthily demolishing it with another flavor of wrong-headedness.
As the book begins, we meet Dr. Martine, who has been living for years, Gauguin-style, on a remote island populated by an isolated tribe. His ethical dilemma: when he met the tribe, they were giving each other primitive lobotomies in an attempt to remove aggression and negative behavior. In an attempt to mitigate harm, Martine started doing the lobotomies for them, using modern medical techniques, hoping to reduce death by infection. But he is still causing harm. He has noted, through exhaustive research, that the urge to aggression is linked to the urges to creativity and sexuality. Is his course of action justifiable?
This was the most interesting part of the book to me. It was written at the peak of medicine's craze for the lobotomy (the most unfortunate victims were operated on in 1950) and there was beginning to be a backlash against the practice, as it became clear that the subjects of the operation were not being helped.
But the focus of the story shifts a bit when foreigners arrive on the island. These strangers utilize amazingly advanced prosthetic limbs. They spark Martine's curiosity as to what's going on in the "civilised" world he left - a world ravaged by a terrible war between East and West dictated by rival super-computers. He goes back to find out. As it turns out, "civilization" has been aiming for the same goal as the island tribe - the elimination of aggression and war. Martine is horrified and dismayed to discover that a new philosophy has sprung up based on, of all things, a notebook journal left behind by him when he fled the war. In a terrible pun on "disarmament," society has decided that the best thing to do is for men to literally cut off their limbs, the instruments of aggression. Of course, the fad doesn't work - as all human research efforts are shifted toward developing prosthetics, sparking an "arms race" between the US and Russian to create ever-more powerful limbs, and a social divide between men who use artificial limbs, and those who believe that the right thing to do is to be a quadriplegic in a basket, cared for by women. (Women aren't allowed to opt for the amputations.)
There are some undeniably original, interesting and disturbing ideas in this book. It's bizarre, and historically interesting. (Especially for the perspective it gives on post-WWII, Cold War attitudes toward US relations with Russia). But all of that gets lost in the welter of peculiar theorizing.
This would've been a much better book if it were: #1. much shorter (there was an abridged version published, but that is not the one I read.) #2. Left out the Freudian stuff, especially the wacko theorizing about female sexuality (well, and male sexuality too). #2a. Definitely left out the rapey stuff, especially the bit about women enjoying rape, and. #3. If it went further with its tendency toward the absurd and the grotesque, puns and all, and just went for the gonzo, rather than trying to be a Serious Philosophical Work (as it is, it just feels overserious and self-important).
What a morass of sludge!!!
Wolfe wrote this book after undergoing psychoanalysis with Dr. Edmund Bergler, a follower of Freud. Full and immediate disclosure: I do not have a high opinion of the theories of Freud, and Bergler's theories, as interpreted in this book, seem like they might be even further off-the-mark concerning sexuality.
When undergoing Freudian analysis, the subject is encouraged to focus in on himself at length to try to obtain better self-understanding, in what might seem to an outside observer to be a rather navel-gazing, self-absorbed endeavor. This book reads like Wolfe's attempt to make sense of himself and the philosophies he absorbed (and wholeheartedly embraced) from Bergler. I interpreted the main character, a Dr. Martine, to be a stand-in for the author. I felt that first, Wolfe set up a straw-man philosophy (definitely an absurd and wrong-headed one), and then set about tediously and lengthily demolishing it with another flavor of wrong-headedness.
As the book begins, we meet Dr. Martine, who has been living for years, Gauguin-style, on a remote island populated by an isolated tribe. His ethical dilemma: when he met the tribe, they were giving each other primitive lobotomies in an attempt to remove aggression and negative behavior. In an attempt to mitigate harm, Martine started doing the lobotomies for them, using modern medical techniques, hoping to reduce death by infection. But he is still causing harm. He has noted, through exhaustive research, that the urge to aggression is linked to the urges to creativity and sexuality. Is his course of action justifiable?
This was the most interesting part of the book to me. It was written at the peak of medicine's craze for the lobotomy (the most unfortunate victims were operated on in 1950) and there was beginning to be a backlash against the practice, as it became clear that the subjects of the operation were not being helped.
But the focus of the story shifts a bit when foreigners arrive on the island. These strangers utilize amazingly advanced prosthetic limbs. They spark Martine's curiosity as to what's going on in the "civilised" world he left - a world ravaged by a terrible war between East and West dictated by rival super-computers. He goes back to find out. As it turns out, "civilization" has been aiming for the same goal as the island tribe - the elimination of aggression and war. Martine is horrified and dismayed to discover that a new philosophy has sprung up based on, of all things, a notebook journal left behind by him when he fled the war. In a terrible pun on "disarmament," society has decided that the best thing to do is for men to literally cut off their limbs, the instruments of aggression. Of course, the fad doesn't work - as all human research efforts are shifted toward developing prosthetics, sparking an "arms race" between the US and Russian to create ever-more powerful limbs, and a social divide between men who use artificial limbs, and those who believe that the right thing to do is to be a quadriplegic in a basket, cared for by women. (Women aren't allowed to opt for the amputations.)
There are some undeniably original, interesting and disturbing ideas in this book. It's bizarre, and historically interesting. (Especially for the perspective it gives on post-WWII, Cold War attitudes toward US relations with Russia). But all of that gets lost in the welter of peculiar theorizing.
This would've been a much better book if it were: #1. much shorter (there was an abridged version published, but that is not the one I read.) #2. Left out the Freudian stuff, especially the wacko theorizing about female sexuality (well, and male sexuality too). #2a. Definitely left out the rapey stuff, especially the bit about women enjoying rape, and. #3. If it went further with its tendency toward the absurd and the grotesque, puns and all, and just went for the gonzo, rather than trying to be a Serious Philosophical Work (as it is, it just feels overserious and self-important).
December 7, 2017
There is no star rating in need of greater explanation than three. When I give a book three stars, it can mean anything from forgettable indifference to fatally flawed masterpiece. A three star read can merit a measly short paragraph review or a lengthy essay. In the case of ‘Limbo’, the three stars are a compromise between the four stars (perhaps five?) I thought it deserved at first and the two (even one) I determined to give it two thirds in. Make no mistake, it is memorable, interesting, and thoughtfully written science fiction. Unfortunately, it is also poisonously misogynistic throughout and includes a repellent rape scene. The narrator’s Freudian justifications for his hatred of and violence towards women viscerally disgusted me. Thus the three star compromise, which I resent having to make. Quite possibly Wolfe was trying to make a point about gender relations, as ‘Limbo’ includes a great deal of philosophical and psychological musing on violence and war more generally. That said, how often are male readers faced with a man’s sudden and gratuitous rape in the narrative of a novel they were enjoying? How often do they have to read pages upon pages explaining the psychological justification for abusing their entire gender? Not very fucking often, I reckon. The whole novel also denies women any voice in the issues it mulls over. The narrative acknowledges sexism and racism, while treating them as inevitabilities. Given the originality and intelligence shown in other respects, these massive blind spots are all the more maddening.
That, then, is how I feel about ‘Limbo’. First published in 1952, it depicts a 1990 recovering from the third World War that decimated the globe in 1972. Nuclear exchanges, which entirely wiped out Europe and Africa, happened thanks to computers in the US and USSR which automatically escalated the conflict. After the computers were destroyed, ending the war, a peculiar peace movement swept the remaining population, calling on young men to renounce aggression by voluntarily amputating their limbs. The narrator of ‘Limbo’ is an army doctor who deserted towards the end of the war and hid on an unmapped island for 18 years, performing lobotomies on its native inhabitants. He sees this as a safer substitute for the trepanning they previously performed. When the peaceful island is suddenly visited by outsiders, the narrator Dr Martine (ironically, when I first read the name Martine I assumed he was a woman) returns to what remains of civilisation. Thus the structure is similar to a 19th century utopia/dystopia such as Erewhon, in which an outsider arrives in a strange place and debates the merit of its idiosyncrasies with the inhabitants.
This also explains the length of the book: Dr Martine is garrulous in the extreme and starts argumentative discussions with everyone he meets. To Wolfe’s credit, he pulls off this potentially turgid structure by making the debates genuinely interesting. (Whenever sex is discussed, though, they become horrifying.) There is a great deal of punning, word-play, and some experimental-seeming conceptual oddness. The back cover quotes Thomas Disch as claiming Limbo ‘represents a straight arrow pointing from the cautionary dystopias of Orwell and Huxley to the postwar absurdist mode of Catch-22, Pynchon, and Phillip K Dick’. I would generally agree with that, as ‘Limbo’ definitely seems like a precursor to Dr. Bloodmoney, for instance. The treatment of game theory also reminded me of Lem’s Fiasco. Comparing ‘Limbo’ to Catch-22 definitely clarifies a flaw in the former, though: Dr Martine is too self-important a narrator. He describes a sense of being unique, a world saviour, etc and rather than condemning his hubris, the narrative seems to validate it.
Despite all this critique, ‘Limbo’ is a novel I can definitely imagine recommending, albeit with careful caveats. Early on, I was struck with that odd serendipitous linkage between books you happen to be reading at the same time. This seemed to chime very closely with NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity:
Those paragraphs could very well refer to autism, even be lifted from NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. Such thoughtful commentary initially made me warm to 'Limbo', until the misogyny really kicked in at the halfway mark. The second half then escalates events in a very compelling fashion. ‘Limbo’ explores the dynamics of aggression and pacifism in unique and weirdly fascinating style. The Freudian obsession with masochism is a bit much, however it seems to offer insight into the time of writing. Wolfe’s afterword shows a refreshing awareness that he’s writing about 1950’s problems rather than trying to predict 1990’s. Nonetheless, there is much that remains relevant today. As an example, the description of ‘neurotic aggression’ describes Trump supporters uncannily well: ‘Object of aggression is a ‘fantasised’ or artificially created enemy. Dosis: Slightest provocation - greatest aggression. Pseudo-aggression often used to provoke ‘masochistic pleasure’ expected from enemy’s retaliation. Defeat unconsciously expected.’
If it wasn’t for the dreadful hatred of women, I would have really enjoyed this novel. It's a distinctive piece of science fiction which asks the reader difficult questions. The misogyny isn’t just distasteful, though, it’s an intellectual flaw: what use is an examination of war and aggression if women’s voices are entirely ignored? Maybe one way to avoid apocalyptic world war might be to listen to the other half of the population for once. 'Limbo' doesn't bother to consider such a possibility.
That, then, is how I feel about ‘Limbo’. First published in 1952, it depicts a 1990 recovering from the third World War that decimated the globe in 1972. Nuclear exchanges, which entirely wiped out Europe and Africa, happened thanks to computers in the US and USSR which automatically escalated the conflict. After the computers were destroyed, ending the war, a peculiar peace movement swept the remaining population, calling on young men to renounce aggression by voluntarily amputating their limbs. The narrator of ‘Limbo’ is an army doctor who deserted towards the end of the war and hid on an unmapped island for 18 years, performing lobotomies on its native inhabitants. He sees this as a safer substitute for the trepanning they previously performed. When the peaceful island is suddenly visited by outsiders, the narrator Dr Martine (ironically, when I first read the name Martine I assumed he was a woman) returns to what remains of civilisation. Thus the structure is similar to a 19th century utopia/dystopia such as Erewhon, in which an outsider arrives in a strange place and debates the merit of its idiosyncrasies with the inhabitants.
This also explains the length of the book: Dr Martine is garrulous in the extreme and starts argumentative discussions with everyone he meets. To Wolfe’s credit, he pulls off this potentially turgid structure by making the debates genuinely interesting. (Whenever sex is discussed, though, they become horrifying.) There is a great deal of punning, word-play, and some experimental-seeming conceptual oddness. The back cover quotes Thomas Disch as claiming Limbo ‘represents a straight arrow pointing from the cautionary dystopias of Orwell and Huxley to the postwar absurdist mode of Catch-22, Pynchon, and Phillip K Dick’. I would generally agree with that, as ‘Limbo’ definitely seems like a precursor to Dr. Bloodmoney, for instance. The treatment of game theory also reminded me of Lem’s Fiasco. Comparing ‘Limbo’ to Catch-22 definitely clarifies a flaw in the former, though: Dr Martine is too self-important a narrator. He describes a sense of being unique, a world saviour, etc and rather than condemning his hubris, the narrative seems to validate it.
Despite all this critique, ‘Limbo’ is a novel I can definitely imagine recommending, albeit with careful caveats. Early on, I was struck with that odd serendipitous linkage between books you happen to be reading at the same time. This seemed to chime very closely with NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity:
The lobotomists could not be acting purely out of altruistic desire to help the worried. No, they did not know enough to be sure that they were curing or alleviating anybody’s worry. So this was not entirely science; it was magic as well. Any ceremony performed in the absence of reasonable knowledge of cause and effect is magic. And in magic the need of the victim is less important than the need of the victimiser - medicine man, witch doctor, lobomist, or whatever.
[...]
Is deviation from locally approved norms always and everywhere to be taken as disease? Is it possible that in some communities the norms are defined too narrowly and severely, thus placing the onus of sickness on what are often non-pathological variations? Couldn’t many of these variations, stemming from unique subjective powers, enrich the life of a village, giving it a stimulating complexity, if the village were tolerant enough to see them as differences rather than diseases? Doesn’t the rigidity and narrowness of a village’s norms often drive a deviant from difference to disease?
Those paragraphs could very well refer to autism, even be lifted from NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. Such thoughtful commentary initially made me warm to 'Limbo', until the misogyny really kicked in at the halfway mark. The second half then escalates events in a very compelling fashion. ‘Limbo’ explores the dynamics of aggression and pacifism in unique and weirdly fascinating style. The Freudian obsession with masochism is a bit much, however it seems to offer insight into the time of writing. Wolfe’s afterword shows a refreshing awareness that he’s writing about 1950’s problems rather than trying to predict 1990’s. Nonetheless, there is much that remains relevant today. As an example, the description of ‘neurotic aggression’ describes Trump supporters uncannily well: ‘Object of aggression is a ‘fantasised’ or artificially created enemy. Dosis: Slightest provocation - greatest aggression. Pseudo-aggression often used to provoke ‘masochistic pleasure’ expected from enemy’s retaliation. Defeat unconsciously expected.’
If it wasn’t for the dreadful hatred of women, I would have really enjoyed this novel. It's a distinctive piece of science fiction which asks the reader difficult questions. The misogyny isn’t just distasteful, though, it’s an intellectual flaw: what use is an examination of war and aggression if women’s voices are entirely ignored? Maybe one way to avoid apocalyptic world war might be to listen to the other half of the population for once. 'Limbo' doesn't bother to consider such a possibility.
dropped
June 16, 2025Always. Check. The. Goodreads. Reviews. First.
July 2, 2024
I conclude (or so I hope) my season of laziness and lethargy of comments on books that I have finished.
What a shame, I finished this one four months ago! The worst part is that I don't know what to comment on, but in my defense, I must say that it is a complex and quite unclassifiable book.
I'll start with the basics: Is Limbo science fiction? Undoubtedly yes: a novel written in 1952 and set in 1990. Furthermore, the main premise deals with certain technological advances that drive the plot. Is it a dystopia? Yes, among other things, it depicts a nightmarish future, although I believe the author's intention went beyond presenting a simple dystopia.
In short: written in the midst of the rising Cold War and the nuclear threat (the USSR obtained the atomic bomb in 1949), the author imagines a future where a nuclear war has already occurred. Apparently, the great powers have learned their lesson and found the perfect solution: “dis-armament”, through the amputation of limbs! (hence the novel's title, with its double meaning, one of many in the text). I know it sounds absurd, but in the context of the novel, it makes sense, contributing to its status as an undisputed classic of science fiction.
As I mentioned, it is a complex narrative, written in a distinctive language that the reader becomes familiar with (though a rereading wouldn't hurt), full of double meanings and open to multiple interpretations. Thus, I must note that it is not an easy read for today's audience (at least it wasn't for me).
In summary, the author goes beyond a simple dystopia, addressing topics in a way more akin to European (continental) science fiction than to the English or American tradition. Among many subjects, the book explores the causes of violence and war and their inseparability from human nature. It also crítiques the abuse of power, the madness of consumer society, and inequality based on sex and race.
What a shame, I finished this one four months ago! The worst part is that I don't know what to comment on, but in my defense, I must say that it is a complex and quite unclassifiable book.
I'll start with the basics: Is Limbo science fiction? Undoubtedly yes: a novel written in 1952 and set in 1990. Furthermore, the main premise deals with certain technological advances that drive the plot. Is it a dystopia? Yes, among other things, it depicts a nightmarish future, although I believe the author's intention went beyond presenting a simple dystopia.
In short: written in the midst of the rising Cold War and the nuclear threat (the USSR obtained the atomic bomb in 1949), the author imagines a future where a nuclear war has already occurred. Apparently, the great powers have learned their lesson and found the perfect solution: “dis-armament”, through the amputation of limbs! (hence the novel's title, with its double meaning, one of many in the text). I know it sounds absurd, but in the context of the novel, it makes sense, contributing to its status as an undisputed classic of science fiction.
As I mentioned, it is a complex narrative, written in a distinctive language that the reader becomes familiar with (though a rereading wouldn't hurt), full of double meanings and open to multiple interpretations. Thus, I must note that it is not an easy read for today's audience (at least it wasn't for me).
In summary, the author goes beyond a simple dystopia, addressing topics in a way more akin to European (continental) science fiction than to the English or American tradition. Among many subjects, the book explores the causes of violence and war and their inseparability from human nature. It also crítiques the abuse of power, the madness of consumer society, and inequality based on sex and race.
December 9, 2012
A post-apocalyptic book that examines the propensity of humans to war and the ideal of pacifism, Bernard Wolfe takes the notion of "disarmament" to an unprecedented level. Although Limbo is an excellent book for exploring how violence and pacifism can escalate to extremes, both on a personal and a national level, it unfortunately fails to acknowledge any kind of alternative viewpoints such as the principle of non-aggression. Thought-provoking and quotable, this book rates favorably against similar books of its era, including 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
December 24, 2013
Apart from its other serious and manifest flaws (preachiness and tiresomely repetitive philosophizing being the most obvious) this book has serious issues in its portrayal of women and sexual relationships. This vision of the future is mired in rape fantasies and misogyny. Very uncomfortable reading.
June 12, 2012
I read this dystopian novel because its author, Bernard Wolfe, had been one of Leon Trotsky's secretaries during his Mexican exile and had written The Great Prince Died (1959) about him.
April 28, 2019
This was an incredibly unusual and engaging work of speculative fiction, where the mindset of 1950 is let loose to evolve 40 odd years into the future. The anti war sentiment grows into a literal disarmament movement where men voluntarily become ‘amps’, removing their arms and legs so they are unable to take up arms in the future, based on the satirical writings of a disillusioned medic heartsick of patching up the boys from the frontline who have blown off arms or legs. His defection is accidentally and perfectly timed with the surprise end of the war, so he is painted a hero lost in the final battle rather than branded the runaway he is. His subsequent ‘return’ to civilisation where he discovers his own scribblings have become the scriptures for a new society both horrifies and fascinates him.
As terribly clever and well thought through this novel is, I can’t help prickle that the imagination of the author allows so much post-war societal ‘evolution’ in his novel while no change takes place for either women or minorities in his invented society. The paternalistic writers of early sci-fi could imagine many a strange world but the equality of gender and race was utterly beyond them. However, in the society where only white men have the ‘privilege’ of becoming voluntary amputees, women and minorities unsuccessfully campaigning for the right to join them in this show of wealth and power is ultimately a good thing.
Written in rambling half crazy style only a stream of consciousness confessional diary style of a novel can be, this work can be a little hard going at times, however, it is utterly worth it. I only discovered it as part of my quest to collect the complete Sci-Fi Masterworks series. It’s not become a well-known classic of the era and yet it entirely deserves a place on the future-warning pedestal with 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 and the like.
As terribly clever and well thought through this novel is, I can’t help prickle that the imagination of the author allows so much post-war societal ‘evolution’ in his novel while no change takes place for either women or minorities in his invented society. The paternalistic writers of early sci-fi could imagine many a strange world but the equality of gender and race was utterly beyond them. However, in the society where only white men have the ‘privilege’ of becoming voluntary amputees, women and minorities unsuccessfully campaigning for the right to join them in this show of wealth and power is ultimately a good thing.
Written in rambling half crazy style only a stream of consciousness confessional diary style of a novel can be, this work can be a little hard going at times, however, it is utterly worth it. I only discovered it as part of my quest to collect the complete Sci-Fi Masterworks series. It’s not become a well-known classic of the era and yet it entirely deserves a place on the future-warning pedestal with 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 and the like.
December 23, 2013
I wanted to admire this novel for a few reasons: the author's backstory is fascinating (he was a pornographic novelist, was immersed in the blues-jazz music scene and wrote about it, and he was a secretary or guard for Leon Trotsky in Mexico); I enjoyed a couple of his short stories in Ellison's DANGEROUS VISIONS series, and the novel LIMBO has made a number of Top 100 Best Sc-fi novels consistently. But, alas, this massive novel was a massive disappointment.
LIMBO is a post-WWIII novel of one Idea (the post nuclear war desire for extreme pascifism/disarmament that manifests itself literally in a new society) that is repeated, philosophized upon, lectured about and punned endlessly. Wolfe himself is the main problem, getting in the way of the plot to insert philosophical treatises and long lectures. At one point he has his main character Dr. Martine, visit several university lecture halls to sit and listen to 5 lectures. And the reader sits and reads these 5 lectures. And this reader wanted to tear his swollen eyes out. There are about 300 pages of outright lecturing/philosophizing and about 130 pages of plot.
Wolfe seems to have loved puns, and a fine punster he is. But, like the lecturing, he overdoes them, too. Wolfe seems to be unable to edit himself inserting puns everywhere even in serious, emotional moments in the novel which deflate those serious scenes.
I probably would have loved this quirky novel if it had been 250 pages or less. But as it is it is a big bore.
LIMBO is a post-WWIII novel of one Idea (the post nuclear war desire for extreme pascifism/disarmament that manifests itself literally in a new society) that is repeated, philosophized upon, lectured about and punned endlessly. Wolfe himself is the main problem, getting in the way of the plot to insert philosophical treatises and long lectures. At one point he has his main character Dr. Martine, visit several university lecture halls to sit and listen to 5 lectures. And the reader sits and reads these 5 lectures. And this reader wanted to tear his swollen eyes out. There are about 300 pages of outright lecturing/philosophizing and about 130 pages of plot.
Wolfe seems to have loved puns, and a fine punster he is. But, like the lecturing, he overdoes them, too. Wolfe seems to be unable to edit himself inserting puns everywhere even in serious, emotional moments in the novel which deflate those serious scenes.
I probably would have loved this quirky novel if it had been 250 pages or less. But as it is it is a big bore.
September 13, 2011
Parts of it seem a little bit drawn out, the psychology-based sections really lost me, and the misogyny didn't really age well. But the book's other aspects, from its examination of the cyborg figure to its discussion on the role of the machine in modern culture are all amazingly prescient for its time. It's classic, somewhat psychedelic 50s sci-fi.
Read
May 16, 2018A madcap post-apocalyptic cybernetic thriller, an early depiction of the perils of nuclear apocalypse, an exploration of the dualities of humankind, the only problem with this text is that is absolute awful dogshit. This is an (admittedly early) example of that brand of science fiction in which the world and the characters serve exclusively to advocate for or against various philosophical/political points, and while Wolfe has an appreciably broad range of knowledge the text is unreadably pedantic and incredibly repetitive, and at bottom I simply did not feel he had much to impart, let alone anything requiring 500 pages.
January 12, 2021
Wow, what a great read. I almost hesitate to place this on my sci-fi shelf because it hardly seems a fitting label for it. Still, it's a much different view on the cyborg notion than I'm used to, and it's valuable to have perspective. Really it was just fascinating all of the way through. Yes, some parts did drag a bit, and Wolfe can be a bit talkative at times, but it was all worth it.
July 16, 2008
One of the great forgotten classics of dystopian literature. He managed to predict the modern primitive movement in 1953.
September 11, 2010
I read this book many years ago. I want to see if it's as good as I thought it was when I was in college. Yep, still enjoyed this book. Wonder why they never made a movie out of it.
July 30, 2025
(2,5)
Comenzaré por los aspectos positivos del libro: teniendo en cuenta el momento de su publicación, supone una excelente muestra del sentir tras la IIGM y durante la Guerra Fría. También incorpora elementos de ciencia ficción originales como la sociedad mandunji o el desarrollo de las prótesis enfocado a la mejora de los seres humanos. Además, algunas de las cuestiones que plantea me parecen tremendamente interesantes: ¿es posible el pacifismo real? ¿Está el ser humano inevitablemente ligado a la violencia? ¿Es un objetivo realista la coexistencia libre a la vez que pacífica? ¿Supone la mecanización una merma de la humanidad de las sociedades? etc. La prosa es, en general, accesible.
Sin embargo, es una obra que ha envejecido muy mal, en mi opinión. En muchos momentos parece más una disertación sobre psicoanálisis (con teorías a día de hoy ya superadas) que una novela de ficción; y el texto rezuma misoginia. Las mejores ideas no se desarrollan y son reemplazadas por una larga terapia de autodescubrimiento y redención para un protagonista con el que tampoco resulta especialmente atractivo empatizar.
En definitiva, tenía grandes expectativas sobre esta distopía que había visto clasificada a la altura de otras grandes obras del género a principios del S. XX, pero considero que está en un lugar completamente diferente.
Comenzaré por los aspectos positivos del libro: teniendo en cuenta el momento de su publicación, supone una excelente muestra del sentir tras la IIGM y durante la Guerra Fría. También incorpora elementos de ciencia ficción originales como la sociedad mandunji o el desarrollo de las prótesis enfocado a la mejora de los seres humanos. Además, algunas de las cuestiones que plantea me parecen tremendamente interesantes: ¿es posible el pacifismo real? ¿Está el ser humano inevitablemente ligado a la violencia? ¿Es un objetivo realista la coexistencia libre a la vez que pacífica? ¿Supone la mecanización una merma de la humanidad de las sociedades? etc. La prosa es, en general, accesible.
Sin embargo, es una obra que ha envejecido muy mal, en mi opinión. En muchos momentos parece más una disertación sobre psicoanálisis (con teorías a día de hoy ya superadas) que una novela de ficción; y el texto rezuma misoginia. Las mejores ideas no se desarrollan y son reemplazadas por una larga terapia de autodescubrimiento y redención para un protagonista con el que tampoco resulta especialmente atractivo empatizar.
En definitiva, tenía grandes expectativas sobre esta distopía que había visto clasificada a la altura de otras grandes obras del género a principios del S. XX, pero considero que está en un lugar completamente diferente.
December 25, 2023
Oh is it Limbo like limbs?!
Somewhat philosophically interesting, but tonally confused and overly baggy.
I do like what they say about its place between dystopias like 1984 and the hysterical realism of Pynchon and Heller. And quite Vonnegut-esque too. I feel like reading this I came to understand why postmodernists write like this: it’s when the world’s narratives sped up and complicated themselves beyond human comprehension, combined with a feeling of fatigue and powerlessness towards the world’s confusing evils. Therefore, gallows humour and shared confusion, I guess. So in that respect I’m grateful for it. But as a piece of cultural connective tissue, I think you can skip it.
Somewhat philosophically interesting, but tonally confused and overly baggy.
I do like what they say about its place between dystopias like 1984 and the hysterical realism of Pynchon and Heller. And quite Vonnegut-esque too. I feel like reading this I came to understand why postmodernists write like this: it’s when the world’s narratives sped up and complicated themselves beyond human comprehension, combined with a feeling of fatigue and powerlessness towards the world’s confusing evils. Therefore, gallows humour and shared confusion, I guess. So in that respect I’m grateful for it. But as a piece of cultural connective tissue, I think you can skip it.
November 18, 2020
The first half of this book is terrible, I can’t lie. I almost DNF’d, however I persevered and the second half is better.
The idea is intriguing and interesting, but there is a LOT of philosophising about sex and masochism.
This novel had to the potential to be so much more than it actually was and that really disappointed me. For most of the first half I actually had no idea what I was reading 🤣
The idea is intriguing and interesting, but there is a LOT of philosophising about sex and masochism.
This novel had to the potential to be so much more than it actually was and that really disappointed me. For most of the first half I actually had no idea what I was reading 🤣
April 12, 2023
Hard read but i like
September 7, 2020
I came to Mr. Wolfe via an article about the book he co-wrote with Mezz Mezzrow -- 'Really the Blues'. I learned he once worked as a bodyguard for Trotsky and I was hooked. His best book was said to be 'Limbo' which he wrote in 1952 and for many years I chased after it at bookstores without success until one day there it was fat and shiny on the bookshelf at Moe's bookstore.
I'm not a SciFi fan and wasn't sure Limbo would be worth my effort. I also had to face the fact that I had been more interested in the chase for the book than the book itself. Come COVID-19 and it was Limbo now or never.
Our hero is a brilliant surgeon who crash lands a plane into an uncharted island at the very moment a nuclear holocaust ignites the world in 1972. Eighteen years later Dr. Martine is compelled to return to that world where men volunteer for amputation in order to both be powerless and powerful. The philosophy that fuels this world where they try to enforce a kind of bizarre permanent peace is based on the doctor's notebooks. Martine has become a martyr and he knows well enough to go around this futuristic world as Dr. Lazarus.
Yes, the plot isn't the books strong point but the ideas are. In particular, the cybernetics and vol-amp culture is fascinating. The prosthetics are extremely powerful but also difficult to learn. They run on a rare metal which the two sides of the world (USA vs. USSR) compete 'peacefully' to control the supply. The pros are also suppose to be used only for peace-loving activity but people are dubious. In particularly the anti-pros who are voluntary amps who are protesting the prosthetics they rightly believe will lead the world back into war.
My favorite moment is when Martine happens upon the Macy's like department store where hundreds of anti-amps are housed. They are like babies because they can't move and Martine has a fascinating conversation with one of them that embodies the empty space destination which is the goal of his kind - hence limbo. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Wolfe was big into hallucinogens when he wrote this novel. There is a passion and commitment to this bizarre world that seems only possible while having taken yourself somewhere completely alien.
"Limbo" maybe the worst most interesting novel I've ever read. The prose teeters on the edge of train-wreck banal. "However, prefrontal lobotomy does seem to have a genuine effect on malignant worry, not by bringing the patient nearer to a solution of his problems, but by damaging or destroying the capacity for maintained worry known in the terminology of another profession as the conscience."
And yet like a train-wreck it kept my attention. I found enough passion and imagination in the book to keep me reading. Unfortunately, it did re-enforce one of my stereotypes about sci-fi which is that its characters are two-dimensional which have no arc outside what the plot requires of them. I'm hoping Ursula LeGuin will cure me of that prejudice.
I'm not a SciFi fan and wasn't sure Limbo would be worth my effort. I also had to face the fact that I had been more interested in the chase for the book than the book itself. Come COVID-19 and it was Limbo now or never.
Our hero is a brilliant surgeon who crash lands a plane into an uncharted island at the very moment a nuclear holocaust ignites the world in 1972. Eighteen years later Dr. Martine is compelled to return to that world where men volunteer for amputation in order to both be powerless and powerful. The philosophy that fuels this world where they try to enforce a kind of bizarre permanent peace is based on the doctor's notebooks. Martine has become a martyr and he knows well enough to go around this futuristic world as Dr. Lazarus.
Yes, the plot isn't the books strong point but the ideas are. In particular, the cybernetics and vol-amp culture is fascinating. The prosthetics are extremely powerful but also difficult to learn. They run on a rare metal which the two sides of the world (USA vs. USSR) compete 'peacefully' to control the supply. The pros are also suppose to be used only for peace-loving activity but people are dubious. In particularly the anti-pros who are voluntary amps who are protesting the prosthetics they rightly believe will lead the world back into war.
My favorite moment is when Martine happens upon the Macy's like department store where hundreds of anti-amps are housed. They are like babies because they can't move and Martine has a fascinating conversation with one of them that embodies the empty space destination which is the goal of his kind - hence limbo. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Wolfe was big into hallucinogens when he wrote this novel. There is a passion and commitment to this bizarre world that seems only possible while having taken yourself somewhere completely alien.
"Limbo" maybe the worst most interesting novel I've ever read. The prose teeters on the edge of train-wreck banal. "However, prefrontal lobotomy does seem to have a genuine effect on malignant worry, not by bringing the patient nearer to a solution of his problems, but by damaging or destroying the capacity for maintained worry known in the terminology of another profession as the conscience."
And yet like a train-wreck it kept my attention. I found enough passion and imagination in the book to keep me reading. Unfortunately, it did re-enforce one of my stereotypes about sci-fi which is that its characters are two-dimensional which have no arc outside what the plot requires of them. I'm hoping Ursula LeGuin will cure me of that prejudice.
April 11, 2011
Solo uno scrittore con una laurea in psicanalisi poteva concepire una visione così allucinata: una società in cui si cerca la pace tramite l'immobilità, indotta dall'amputazione volontaria degli arti e dall'eventuale sostituzione con protesi ipertecnologiche. La gerarchia sociale è influenzata proprio dal numero di arti rimossi, pertanto i quadri-amp sono i più rispettati, seguiti dai tri-amp e dai bi-amp. I più radicali arrivano alla castrazione e vivono, senza alcun arto, dentro a ceste di vimini, inevitabilmente accuditi in tutto e per tutto.
Quella che per noi è una distopia, risulta essere una condizione di vita a cui la maggior parte delle persone aspira e che è raggiungibile nel corso degli anni acquisendo sempre maggior abilità nel controllo delle protesi, che rendono di fatto i possessori dei super-uomini dalle capacità irraggiungibili sia nella vita quotidiana, sia in guerra.
Il processo che ha portato all'evoluzione (?) della razza umana è spiegato in una maniera tale da parere quasi credibile poiché fondato su basi filosofiche ben costruite, nonostante siano assurde per i nostri canoni. I continui riferimenti a questioni filosofiche, per quanto profondi, rendono la lettura talora faticosa, soprattutto a chi non mastica Freud ed altri.
Protagonista del romanzo è il Dr. Martine, un medico che, durante la Terza Guerra Mondiale del 1972, si rifugia su di un'isola non riportata su alcuna mappa, mentre il mondo intorno a lui cambia notevolmente. Nei quasi vent'anni di permanenza sull'isola viene a contatto con la tribù che la abita, si fa una famiglia ed inizia a praticare lobotomie agli indigeni più aggressivi e violenti, perfezionando la loro tradizione del Mandunga.
Il ritorno alla "civiltà" di Martine è frutto dell'arrivo fortuito di una squadra olimpionica di super-atleti le cui protesi lo incuriosiscono a tal punto da fargli intraprendere un viaggio nel nuovo mondo ed un ben più complesso percorso nella psiche umana che lo porterà a scontrarsi con un terribile scherzo del passato.
Una storia sicuramente originale e talora disturbante che merita di essere letta per le riflessioni davvero estreme che porta ad affrontare.
La recensione si legge meglio presso il mio blog: http://www.jhack.it/blog/2011/04/11/l... .
Quella che per noi è una distopia, risulta essere una condizione di vita a cui la maggior parte delle persone aspira e che è raggiungibile nel corso degli anni acquisendo sempre maggior abilità nel controllo delle protesi, che rendono di fatto i possessori dei super-uomini dalle capacità irraggiungibili sia nella vita quotidiana, sia in guerra.
Il processo che ha portato all'evoluzione (?) della razza umana è spiegato in una maniera tale da parere quasi credibile poiché fondato su basi filosofiche ben costruite, nonostante siano assurde per i nostri canoni. I continui riferimenti a questioni filosofiche, per quanto profondi, rendono la lettura talora faticosa, soprattutto a chi non mastica Freud ed altri.
Protagonista del romanzo è il Dr. Martine, un medico che, durante la Terza Guerra Mondiale del 1972, si rifugia su di un'isola non riportata su alcuna mappa, mentre il mondo intorno a lui cambia notevolmente. Nei quasi vent'anni di permanenza sull'isola viene a contatto con la tribù che la abita, si fa una famiglia ed inizia a praticare lobotomie agli indigeni più aggressivi e violenti, perfezionando la loro tradizione del Mandunga.
Il ritorno alla "civiltà" di Martine è frutto dell'arrivo fortuito di una squadra olimpionica di super-atleti le cui protesi lo incuriosiscono a tal punto da fargli intraprendere un viaggio nel nuovo mondo ed un ben più complesso percorso nella psiche umana che lo porterà a scontrarsi con un terribile scherzo del passato.
Una storia sicuramente originale e talora disturbante che merita di essere letta per le riflessioni davvero estreme che porta ad affrontare.
La recensione si legge meglio presso il mio blog: http://www.jhack.it/blog/2011/04/11/l... .
August 11, 2016
First off, I want to say it is not THAT good as George Orwell's 1984 as the blurb says. that's for sure!
The book sets us in a post apocalyptic world. The WW 3 had happened. The nukes and H-bombs wiped out Paris, Johannesburg, London, Roma and other European cities. During and after the war Nuclear technology reached its culmination. Now it is even possible to give a man, mostly injured after-battle soldiers or amputees, entirely artificial extremities working with implanted nuclear power plants. After many millions are dead, the armistice has come.
Main hero Martine is brain surgeon. He runs from the war and lives 18 years peacefully in one the African islands. He doesn’t give a damn about the war. He practices surgery, namely lobotomy, on island inhabitants. The purpose of it is to eliminate aggression from patients. He achieves good results and now many people in island are talking like a Pope)) But Martine achieved another unfavourable thing. With the elimination of aggression, He also removed what constitutes as a part of a man. He removed pleasures and among them, the sexual ones are highlighted in the novel. Operated women and men don't know what’s orgasm.
At the same time, those amputees with nuclear limbs reached the African island. At first sight they show no hostility, but even friendliness toward the locals. He wants to know why exactly they are here and what are their intentions. He flies back to the continent. There he learns that a new wave of bloody war is about to start. It’s known that for the effective working of the nuclear limbs it needs a very rare metal, columbium. They found that metal in that African island. Former Russia now the Union is accusing the former USA now the Strip Islands in monopolization of columbium. And the new war range with nukes has begun. There left only one intact territory at the end, the African island. Martine manages to save his island...
The book is full of the role of machines, in our life, the good sides of them and bad ones are told about broadly. I omitted much philosophical questions raised in the book to avoid boring.
The book sets us in a post apocalyptic world. The WW 3 had happened. The nukes and H-bombs wiped out Paris, Johannesburg, London, Roma and other European cities. During and after the war Nuclear technology reached its culmination. Now it is even possible to give a man, mostly injured after-battle soldiers or amputees, entirely artificial extremities working with implanted nuclear power plants. After many millions are dead, the armistice has come.
Main hero Martine is brain surgeon. He runs from the war and lives 18 years peacefully in one the African islands. He doesn’t give a damn about the war. He practices surgery, namely lobotomy, on island inhabitants. The purpose of it is to eliminate aggression from patients. He achieves good results and now many people in island are talking like a Pope)) But Martine achieved another unfavourable thing. With the elimination of aggression, He also removed what constitutes as a part of a man. He removed pleasures and among them, the sexual ones are highlighted in the novel. Operated women and men don't know what’s orgasm.
At the same time, those amputees with nuclear limbs reached the African island. At first sight they show no hostility, but even friendliness toward the locals. He wants to know why exactly they are here and what are their intentions. He flies back to the continent. There he learns that a new wave of bloody war is about to start. It’s known that for the effective working of the nuclear limbs it needs a very rare metal, columbium. They found that metal in that African island. Former Russia now the Union is accusing the former USA now the Strip Islands in monopolization of columbium. And the new war range with nukes has begun. There left only one intact territory at the end, the African island. Martine manages to save his island...
The book is full of the role of machines, in our life, the good sides of them and bad ones are told about broadly. I omitted much philosophical questions raised in the book to avoid boring.
August 2, 2025
Video review here - https://youtu.be/qIoahTOIJrQ
August 9, 2016
It took me a long time to get into the world of this book. Since it was written in 1950 and extrapolated that 1950's world into the world of 1990 along with all of the Cold War hysteria and the fear of the Bomb. The premise of the book was so far out there, I couldn't even get my mind into it. But to my amazement, Mr. Wolfe did actually make the world seem plausible.
The so called premise was; after an all-out 3rd world war and the major use of nuclear weapons, the few remaing habitable areas (The U.S. was a strip of land from about Montana down to New Mexico with some areas of the south that were still useable to a much lessened degree, and Russia was similarly cut down. The people were so sickened by war that when a Dr. started spouting half-truths from the notebook of a friend thought martyred, that the only true dis-armament was by literally having the limbs of men cut off. The prosthetics that were in use then were like super arms and legs. Men could jump amazing distances and lift unbelievable weights, but as they thought when and if they were ever tempted to raise their arms in violence, all they needed to do was remove them until cooler heads prevailed.
Now, as far fetched as all that sounds, the author does manage to make it seem plausible, through many long and dry pages of philosophical ramblings. This book is not an easy read, no, not at all. But if you stick with it, I guarantee that it will stick with you for a long time.
The so called premise was; after an all-out 3rd world war and the major use of nuclear weapons, the few remaing habitable areas (The U.S. was a strip of land from about Montana down to New Mexico with some areas of the south that were still useable to a much lessened degree, and Russia was similarly cut down. The people were so sickened by war that when a Dr. started spouting half-truths from the notebook of a friend thought martyred, that the only true dis-armament was by literally having the limbs of men cut off. The prosthetics that were in use then were like super arms and legs. Men could jump amazing distances and lift unbelievable weights, but as they thought when and if they were ever tempted to raise their arms in violence, all they needed to do was remove them until cooler heads prevailed.
Now, as far fetched as all that sounds, the author does manage to make it seem plausible, through many long and dry pages of philosophical ramblings. This book is not an easy read, no, not at all. But if you stick with it, I guarantee that it will stick with you for a long time.
May 12, 2009
After resolving to go back and re-visit this (and see if it still rates five stars) for many many years, I finally did so. If anything, Wolfe's 1952 masterpiece had more to offer me than it did in my younger days. Wolfe was a wonderful writer, cynical and puckish, and best of all for me, he loved puns. This book bristles with them. I discovered dozens of new cultural and historical allusions that probably made little or no sense to me back then (Vedanta, William James, Korzybski, Norbert Wiener, the newly-hatched dianetics). Wolfe's one foray into science fiction, "Limbo" concerns an irreverent and disillusioned doctor in a cataclysmic world war (at the time in the far future of 1990) who disappears but leaves behind a sarcastic journal. It would seem he is the last person with a sense of humor left in the world: his diary is found, taken quite seriously, and is used as the basis for a totally mad world ideology. The novel is a hilariously jaundiced look at the pitfalls of ideological obsession. My one bone with the book is that Wolfe tended to go off on tedious stream-of-consciousness tangents for too many pages. It's still a brilliant work, written with great, unsparing and unsentimental wit, and it's a shame it's disappeared into obscurity.
February 22, 2017
"- Que pourraient-ils en faire de mal ?
- Ce genre de connaissance peut prêter aux abus, ce ne serait pas la première fois.
- Tu as quelque chose à proposer ?
- Si tu me l'avais demandé plus tôt, je t'aurais fait une proposition tout ce qu'il y a de plus concrète, répondit gravement Martine. J'aurais dit : au lieu de détruire les lances, les flèches empoisonnées et les couteaux fabriqués en secret par les affligés, planquez-les et veillez à la rouille."
"Brusquement sa voix parut fléchir et s'éteindre. Pourquoi avait-il soudain la sensation pénible que, derrière son masque de conférencier olympien, c'était de soi qu'il parlait ? Au cours de ces dix-huit années dans la caverne avait-il fait autre chose que dormir ? Recroquevillé sur lui-même comme un foetus ? Le sommeil... le sommeil aussi était un rouleau compresseur. L'immobilisation, l'immobilisation imposée à soi-même, voilà le pire des rouleaux compresseurs, le pire de tous..."
- Ce genre de connaissance peut prêter aux abus, ce ne serait pas la première fois.
- Tu as quelque chose à proposer ?
- Si tu me l'avais demandé plus tôt, je t'aurais fait une proposition tout ce qu'il y a de plus concrète, répondit gravement Martine. J'aurais dit : au lieu de détruire les lances, les flèches empoisonnées et les couteaux fabriqués en secret par les affligés, planquez-les et veillez à la rouille."
"Brusquement sa voix parut fléchir et s'éteindre. Pourquoi avait-il soudain la sensation pénible que, derrière son masque de conférencier olympien, c'était de soi qu'il parlait ? Au cours de ces dix-huit années dans la caverne avait-il fait autre chose que dormir ? Recroquevillé sur lui-même comme un foetus ? Le sommeil... le sommeil aussi était un rouleau compresseur. L'immobilisation, l'immobilisation imposée à soi-même, voilà le pire des rouleaux compresseurs, le pire de tous..."
August 20, 2016
My sister is in an apocalyptic book club, and they're currently reading this book. I'll be in town for the discussion, so I read it, too. The quote on the cover comparing it to 1984 and Brave New World got my hopes up, but Limbo ended up annoying me.
I feel like Bernard Wolfe was just using the character of Martine to express his own brilliant ideas and clever witticisms, and I didn't find any of it that brilliant or clever. I felt at times like I was reading the bible of a religion I don't care about at all.
The only thing I liked about this book was the mental picture it gave me of the vol-amps. They seemed weird in an interesting way until Wolfe's writing got on my nerves.
I feel like Bernard Wolfe was just using the character of Martine to express his own brilliant ideas and clever witticisms, and I didn't find any of it that brilliant or clever. I felt at times like I was reading the bible of a religion I don't care about at all.
The only thing I liked about this book was the mental picture it gave me of the vol-amps. They seemed weird in an interesting way until Wolfe's writing got on my nerves.
January 13, 2011
A real curio of 50s dystopian writing, antiwar and skeptical of pacifism at the same time. The prose is uneven–elegant and ponderous by turn–and Wolfe is a little too fond of long streches of Freud and Weiner. Nevertheless, there are some indelible images and a good bit of solid literary thinking. If Wolfe had engaged a better editor, the book would not only be a classic of speculative fiction (JG Ballard cited it as the main inspiration for his own career), it would also be a classic of Western canon as well.
October 13, 2014
Un libro sesudo, lleno de referencias y explicaciones sociológicas y freudianas, que es un alegato en contra de la guerra, pero también contra el pacifismo. En sus páginas hay críticas a todo el sistema social basado en las mentes enfermas de sus componentes, y al tiempo un alegato a favor del desviarse de la norma.
Es un libro complejo, a veces se hace lento, pero sin duda es algo interesantísimo.
Es un libro complejo, a veces se hace lento, pero sin duda es algo interesantísimo.
August 9, 2017
This is an interesting satirical novel focussing on what life would be like if we were to chop off our limbs to prevent us from going to war. Clearly Wolfe thinks it wouldn’t work, but what he presents is an interesting concept. The idea that the actions of one man, albeit misinterpreted actions, could lead to such a movement is both funny and worrying, with a conclusion that really proves that mankind will go to war no matter how much they try not to.
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