The Gas
by Charles Platt
List Price:
Our Price: $8.30
You Save: $4.65 (36%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Charles PlattEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-09
ISBN: 1559501316
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Loompanics Unlimited
Book Reviews of The Gas
Book Review: A disturbing blend of sex and satire
Summary: 3 Stars
Very few books are truly worth the adjective `notorious', but Charles Platt's The Gas might just be one of them. Originally written in the late 1960s for an imprint owned by Maurice Girodias - the publisher behind such classics as Tropic of Cancer and Lolita - it would be easy to dismiss it as a work of extreme pornography, and it is this reputation which led to copies of its 1980 reprinting initially being seized in the UK on grounds of obscenity, but there is, I think, something more to it than that. I'm not going to claim that it's in the same ranking as the two works I mentioned above, but the events described are, in places, so extreme as to defy definition as mundane means of arousal.
The plot is flimsy affair involving the escape of the mysterious gas of the title escaping from a secret laboratory somewhere in the south of England. Prevailing winds mean that it contaminates much of the southern half of the UK, sending everyone's sex hormones into overdrive while simultaneously lowering any inhibitions people might have preventing them from acting on their urges, and not surprisingly, civilisation implodes under the effects into orgy of perversion and violence. We witness these events through the eyes of Vincent, a scientist from the laboratory, seeking to escape to the relative safety of Scotland with his family. The scene is thus set for the description of a quite extraordinary gamut of sexualities: from commonplace heterosexual intercourse, through homosexuality, to incest and bestiality; and perversions ranging from coprophilia and cannibalism to ritual murder.
There is no doubting the extremity of the events and scenes described, but Platt lifts his work out of the realm of simplistic debauchery through careful choices of the characters with whom Vincent interacts: a priest, a young female hitchhiker, a science student; and by setting the climactic events of the novel in Cambridge, in and around the university. This enables him to inject a strong element of social satire into the novel, as each character reacts to the gas according to his, or her, type: the hitchhiker with the murderous fury of the oppressed, the scientist with a cold sadism worthy of Dr Mengele, and so forth. Through it all, Vincent just tries to survive, and avoid being dehumanised by the events he witnesses, and the acts he is forced to commit to get himself, and his family, to safety. Whether or not he succeeds is left open at the work's strikingly ambiguous conclusion, which challenges readers to make their own judgement.
Overall, then, The Gas is definitely not for the timid, or easily offended, but nor will it do much for those simply seeking a quick thrill - and a careful reading can be thought provoking.
Erotica Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Erotica Books
Indiscreet Memoirsby Alain Dorval
Nexus; Published: 1985-12-05; Paperback; Book
Voyeurby Phillip Mason
Hodder & Stoughton; Published: 1999-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Sensual Memoirs of Edwardian 2 (v. 2)by Anonymous
Hodder & Stoughton; Published: 1999-06; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Topping From Belowby Laura Reese
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 1996-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.94
Salt On Our Skinby Benoit Groult; Mo Teitelbaum
Hamish Hamilton; Published: 1992; Paperback; Book
Erotic Stories by Women, The Penguin Book ofby Various
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1997-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $396.81
The Seduction (Notorious)by Nicole Jordan
Ballantine Books; Published: 2010-05-25; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
Burning Up: Tales of Erotic Romanceby Nina Bangs, Kimberly Raye, Cheryl Holt, Patricia Ryan
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2003-07-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.20
Price in other shops:
In the Cut (Vintage Contemporaries)by Susanna Moore
Vintage; Published: 2007-08-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
The Average American Male: A Novelby Chad Kultgen
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-03-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops: