Kallocain (Library of World Fiction) |
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Karin Boye
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Pages: 220 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0299038947
Pub: University of Wisconsin Press
Pub date: 2002-04-30
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 417175
Reader Reviews:
A little sister to Orwell’s Big Brother (4/5 people found this helpful)
1984 may be behind us, but the future of Kallocain is still before us, and it does not look
bright for those who love freedom. And who doesn’t, really?
The story is told by Leo Kall, once a chemist who developed the truth drug Kallocain in order
to reveal the thoughts of all citizens to the almighty World State. With the new drug, secrets
will become an impossibility. Betrayal will be revealed instantly.
The future society of Kallocain is very dark, overshadowed by the threat of war. Citizens are
not supposed to have any feelings, any wishes or longings. But is it humanly possible to be
entirely without feelings? And how do we react when we are faced with the truth about
ourselves and our loved ones?
Kallocain was published in 1940, just months before Karin Boye, one of Sweden’s foremost
modern poets, was found dead in a forest. She may have chosen suicide because she could no
longer bear to be a bisexual person in a condemning society. Maybe she had lost her faith in
the good powers of the world, at a time when Hitler and Stalin looked like the winners in the
raging world war.
Her vision of the world overtaken by these dictators, and the dictator that lies in each and
everyone of us, is her last testimony.
Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback
Books -> Refinements -> Condition (condition-type)