Angela Carter

The  infernal desire machines of Doctor Hoffman

This book is pretentious and weird and yet I couldn't put it down. Carter's writing is so mesmerizing, although the book needs a content warning as she covers topics that are sensitive.

Kyle S

John Balek

I really didn't know what to expect going into this. This is my first time reading an Angela Carter book and didn't even really know who she was before starting this. I mainly picked up this book after reading the synopsis and recognizing the reference to LSD by having characters Dr Hoffman and Albertina Hoffman featured. Albert Hofmann was the first person to synthesize LSD back in 1943. This combined with my interest in 70's, absurdist Sci Fi had me interested reading this.

After reading the first chapter I thought I had a good grasp on what this book would be about. Dr Hoffman, a sort of mad scientist, looking for world domination through producing mass hysteria in the vast population on a nondisclosed Latin American city with his machines that cause hallucinations. At this point I thought "Oh, this is a reference to the Nixon paranoia of the early 70s, this book is working as an allegory for psychedelics and how they were viewed as harmful to general public." Unfortunately, my assumptions were far off and this book took a wild turn and never steered back on course.

Each suceeding chapter follows Desiderio, an agent for the city government looking to stop Dr Hoffman and restore order to their world. Desiderio, has quite an adventure meeting tribal cultures practicing their customs, fantastical creatures, carnival performers with alterer motives, and overall anything that can warp reality and our sense of normality. While this book didn't follow my inital assumptions it definitely incorperates these psychedelic and surreal themes.

You'd think this book would have a lot going for me to like it. While there were elements I really appreciated I have to say this is one of the most ugly and dismal books I've read. As someone who really likes William S Bourrough's Naked Lunch you would think I would enjoy this but unlike Naked Lunch, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman lacks the real sense of charm and greater refection on our society. Granted it's been a few years since I read Naked Lunch, I really enjoyed it for it's ability to subvert our expectations and go against everything else of the late 1950's, when it was published. Eventhough 1959 and 1972 are only 13 years apart, culture shifted immensly during those 13 years. While a story like Infernal Desire Machines was far from acceptable by mainstream standards of the time, there was clearly an established audience and demographic for this kind of book by the early 1970's. 

The grotesque nature of this book really just comes off as shock value to me rather than making a legitimate commentary on society. There is so much sexual violence and overall description of taboo sexual themes in this book, honestly it gives Naked Lunch a run for its money in this department. I almost gave up reading this book part way through due to just how painful it was to read about these actions without any really reasoning or weight. 

Our main character's name is Desiderio, desire, this is to point out the desires enacted by those influenced by Doctor Hoffman's desire machines. While Desiderio's desires for Albertina Hoffman are clearly exlained many of these other "desires" just fall flat in how they are related to our main character. Having to read about Desiderio going through acts of rape or pedophilia with mainly indifference leads to a very frustrating read. He often shrugs off the situation and doesn't really reflect of it or show change from it throughout the entire book. I think this is my main issue with the book. I'm fine with exploring a character that is dispicable, honestly I usually prefer it to virtuous characters, but this just felt like a waste of time for the most part.

I'm also not the biggest fan of Carter's writing style. Many passages are longwinded and highly elaborate to specific parts of the story. She will give you all of the background of the world and describe a setting in painful detail but often glosses over character developement or motivation. She has thought of a lot of wild and intense situations but not really a compelling story to tie them together.

I would have rated this lower but I've been thinking about this book nonstop trying to decipher what inspired her to write this. I respect a book that can get me to think about it outside of reading it, even if it is one I don't like. I haven't really been able to find anywhere where she speaks about this book or an in depth analysis of this book. I've spent a lot of time learning about Angela Carter and her life but I'm still not sure I have an answer. A possible theory I like to believe in is that this is her reflection on an acid trip. Psychedelics affect everyone differently and these feelings of fear, violence, and violation could have been the takeaway of a bad trip influenced by a negative environment and mindspace. If that is the case, this is a masterpiece in it's ability to convey those feelings within a narrative but as far as it stands right now this is just shock value and a display of the grotesque, not really my thing unless some greater reasoning is behind it.

The infernal desire machines of Doctor Hoffman

Reviews