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    The Quantity Theory of Insanity: Reissued
    Unavailable
    The Quantity Theory of Insanity: Reissued
    Unavailable
    The Quantity Theory of Insanity: Reissued
    Ebook293 pages5 hours

    The Quantity Theory of Insanity: Reissued

    By Will Self

    3.5/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook


    The fictional world of Will Self is unlike any other. In The Quantity Theory of Insanity, we learn, amongst other things, the dark and terrible secret of Ward 9, why you are right to think that London is full of dead people and that each and every human being is caught up in a colossal balancing act between the sane and the insane ... The Quantity Theory of Insanity is acerbic, satirical, hilarious and, most of all, utterly unique in imaginative vision.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateSep 11, 2012
    ISBN9781408838471
    Unavailable
    The Quantity Theory of Insanity: Reissued
    Author

    Will Self

    Will Self is an English novelist, journalist, political commentator and television personality. He is the author of ten novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas, and five collections of non-fiction writing.

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    Reviews for The Quantity Theory of Insanity

    3.5/5

    162 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Love the way Will Self engages with and creates his stories. Very interesting ideas and exploration of said ideas.
    • 4/5
      Love the way Will Self engages with and creates his stories. Very interesting ideas and exploration of said ideas.
    • 2/5
      Self knows a lot of big, old, underrated and little-used words and seems intent on using them. This collection of six short stories invites you to sample Self's rare intellect, but does so like an invitation to the gallery at the back of an auditorium for a lecture you've heard a lot about but soon realise have little hope of understanding.

      Like the narrator of 'Waiting', you start well, rapt even by the wordplay, wit and intelligence, but soon Self has lost you, the rest of the book an "increasingly involved, turgid and difficult" display. Like Stein's lecture, "the sheer weight of detail eroded my attention... I began to tune out."

      The copy of the book I own has a big fat stain on the back cover, a thick brown ring of coffee-tainted water. I concur that the book probably makes for a better coaster than an insight into anything Self might have to offer. Beyond the first two tales you might consider putting it to stain avoidance duties and consider yourself done with the business of reading.

      If I had the option to give this 1-and-a-half stars, I'd do it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't exactly like it either. I wouldn't recommend it, unless I wanted to put someone off reading Self for life. On the other hand, if I ever read any other books by him and find they raise the bar, I might suggest reading this to really put his brilliance into perspective. 'He can sink this low, yet rise to such incredible heights... Do you see?"
    • 4/5
      This is a collection of six short stories set mainly in Britain, in more or less contemporary times, and united by the theme of insanity. They range from the very good ("The Quantity Theory of Insanity", "Understanding the Ur-Bororo", "Ward 9"), the fairly good ("Waiting"), the mediocre ("The North London Book of the Dead"), to the truly awful ("Monocellular").Ward 9, a reference to Chekhov's Ward 6, follows a somewhat similar plot, but in a modern hospital. For those who have read Chekhov's work, the ending might not come as such a surprise, and for those who haven't the turn of events will be an unexpected surprise. Also somewhat like Chekhov's short stories, there is a theme of the academic world here, with three of these likely to be especially appreciated by those to whom this world is familiar.This was my first time reading Will Self, and I was quite impressed by some of these stories, they had me reading with intent interest, not only for the plots, but for the abstract ideas behind them. Though I was disappointed with 2 of the stories, if he has written whole novels as good as the good short stories then I would be glad to read a lot more from this author.
    • 4/5
      These stories seemed like episodes of 'The Twilight Zone'. I REALLY loved the 'Ward 9' story!! I'd give that one a 9 and the other stories a 7. But as usual with British books, the Britishisms probably hindered my enjoyment of the book since I didn't understand a lot of it. Will Self's writing reminds me of a ton of other writers (from what I've read): Valdimir Nabokov, Chuck Palahniuk, Neil Gaiman, Kurt Vonnegut, T.C. Boyle, Stephen Fry's Making History
    • 3/5
      This is a collection of short stories, loosely connected together, exploring ideas of mental health and psychotherapy with diversions into anthropology.The exceptions to the main theme are the stories, 'The North London Book of the Dead', which I'm guessing Self later expanded into the novel 'How the Dead Live', and the deeply bizarre 'Mono-Cellular'.In places, reminiscent of J.G.Ballard's books, Self is at home describing the plastic tea-stirrer, fluorescent strip lighting & vinyl flooring of the institutional environment and London's urban landscape. His work is dark and fantastic, despite being based in such apparently ordinary settings. I normally like Will Self's writing, so I was surprised to find this book heavier-going than I was expecting, but there were many memorable moments, and it ended on a high with the pre-millennial 'Waiting'. Also I can't finish this review without mentioning the 'Ur-Bororo', an unremittingly boring Amazonian tribe that their neighbours have long since given up trying to engage in tribal warfare, whose word for 'now' literally translates as 'waste of time'. Masters of small talk.
    • 4/5
      Love the way Will Self engages with and creates his stories. Very interesting ideas and exploration of said ideas.