The Quantity Theory of Insanity

Will Self's 'The Quantity Theory of Insanity' overflows with (unsurprisingly) dark humor mixed with academic flair. The stories often seem to lack a clear and definitive finishing point, as if one is reading a manuscript of a story half-written. This, of course, may be a purposeful attempt; that by not offering conclusion, Will Self is in essense prodding the reader into personal deliberation over the concepts presented. Unfortunately, if this be the case, these same concepts have seen so much activity in modern psychology that for the author to not thoroughly conclude his own insights leads one not into pondering personal beliefs in the matter, but what the author might have been trying to convey. A fruitless task as Self, undoubtedly, tries to be as enigmatic as possible.Luckily Self's mastery of language and metaphor, even during points where one might feel unsatisfied with the content, makes this book hard to put down. He easily achieves the daunting task of having a work sopping with verbose floridity while still being both easily readable and completely coherent. The development of his characters and concepts is quite clear and clean, an intimidating feat while having to develop both observations as well as descent into 'madness' on the same pages. Self is able to portray lunacy with impecable flair, often times the feeling of madness transposing itself from prose to reader with every turn of the page.'The Quantity Theory of Insanity' should be read for it's unequaled portrayals of the subject matter as well as the interesting, albeit fragmentary, social commentary. Positions and answers however, should not be sought here.

Will Self's book 'The Quantity Theory of insanity' is a frightening leap into the bizarre. He takes mundane, ordinary situations from suburban life and in his uniquely pleonastic way subverts them. Quantity Theory is less mature than some of his later books, and some of the short stories come across as overly contrived. He also suffers from a journalistic pedigree, he is more interested with style and form, than plot; and his content tends to be intellectual puzzles and mind-games, which though frequently amusing, are often insubstantial.

I think it is a thrilling experience to actually be able to read this book. You get a lot out of it, especially in everyday matters and other situations. A most inspired pulp fiction inspiring novel that will cause the same feelings to all those who have and are about to read it

Will Self constructs a highly believable, yet completely ludicrous set of situations and then welds them together to form one composite cache of imaginative and insightful thought

Back in college in the late 60's I remember talking with a philosophy professor about Roman Polanski's early film "Repulsion." He said that it helped him to understand that when some of the mad and troubled people he worked with (no, not his philosophy students) said that they saw monsters outside, hiding behind the trees, they really did see monsters. Will Self's book of short stories provides such revelations. Epiphanies of the absurd. Each page turns over a rock under which mental illness is spawning--slowly and quietly and inexorably. The title story is as slow a descent into societal madness as I've ever taken. You get infected somewhere along the way but you're not sure where. Like touching a doorknob that's been contaminated with lunacy. The next thing you know, you sneeze, and when you look up you see a monster peering at you from behind a tree. Will Self is an accomplished stylist with a following of both avid fans and vocal detractors. Read "The Quantity Theory of Insanity" and you'll be one or the other.