The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman [Paperback] [1986] (Author) Angela Carter

Paperback, 1986

Status

Checked out

Publication

Penguin Books (1986)

Description

With a new introduction by Ali Smith 'One of the most original, radical and stylish fiction writers of the twentieth century' Independent Desiderio, an employee of the city under a bizarre reality attack from Doctor Hoffman's mysterious machines, has fallen in love with Albertina, the Doctor's daughter. But Albertina, a beautiful woman made of glass, seems only to appear to him in his dreams. Meeting on his adventures a host of cannibals, centaurs and acrobats, Desiderio must battle against unreality and the warping of time and space to be with her, as the Doctor reduces Desiderio's city to a chaotic state of emergency - one ridden with madness, crime and sexual excess. A satirical tale of magic and sex, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffmanis a dazzling quest for truth, love and identity.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member g33kgrrl
Angela Carter is often cited as a very well-thought of and influential author. I can see the technical mastery of her writing but I just can't enjoy it very much myself. It is just too dense and too unenjoyable for me. A lot of very bad things happen and no good things, and most of the people are
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pretty terrible. The general idea of a war against reality is very intriguing, and I wish I could have enjoyed it more than I did.
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LibraryThing member DieFledermaus
While many of Angela Carter’s short stories and novels are delightful, bizarre, and twisted takes on fairy tales and genre stories, some tend more towards the dark, disturbing, and random. I’d probably put a bunch of stories and The Passion of New Eve in the latter category as well as this one,
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The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman. It has a very episodic, random feel, like an old-timey picaresque. There are also a lot of disturbing elements – for example, there is more than one gang rape in the book (err…there’s a centaur gang rape, for those who want to avoid that). The Passion of New Eve had a random feel and lots of bizarre sex and violence, but in that one, I felt there was a strong feminist thread running through the narrative, the author upended a lot of stereotypes, and it was more coherent in its focus on various aspects of an apocalyptic America. There wasn’t as much of that in this one – the stereotypes stayed stereotypes. For example, although the two main characters and One True Lovers, the narrator and Albertina, are both described as non-white, there are multiple characters who are portrayed in a “stereotypical native” way. I also didn’t find the book as cohesive as The Passion of New Eve, even with links to the main Albertina/Dr. Hoffman plot. It was still involving and had Carter’s wonderfully descriptive language, but not her best effort.

I thought the first chapter, describing the War on Reality, was superb. I was expecting something random, but was still a bit disappointed that Carter didn’t focus on that thread. In fact, after the initial chapter, the narrator encounters people and groups who are pretty much unaware of what is going on in the city. The narrator, Desiderio, is a dedicated but rather colorless bureaucrat. He describes how things in the city turned topsy-turvey – a plague brought down by the formerly believed-dead mad scientist Dr. Hoffman.

“The Doctor started his activities in very small ways. Sugar tasted a little salty, sometimes. A door one had always seen to be blue modulated by scarcely perceptible stages until, suddenly, it was a green door.”

But there’s no denying this incident – “During a certain performance of The Magic Flute one evening in the month of May, as I sat in the gallery enduring the divine illusion of perfection which Mozart imposed on me and which I poisoned for myself since I could not forget it was false, a curious, greenish glitter in the stalls below me caught my eye. I leaned forward. Papageno struck his bells and, at that very moment, as if the bells caused it, I saw the auditorium was full of peacocks in full spread who very soon began to scream in intolerably raucous voices, utterly drowning the music so that I instantly became bored and irritated. Boredom was my first reaction to incipient delirium.”

Things rapidly degenerate, as the dead roam the streets, inanimate objects come alive, and phantoms invade everyone’s dreams.

Desiderio faithfully assists the Minister, who is the only one willing to continue defending the city, but admits to himself that he is agnostic in the battle. He has strange dreams that are dominated by his ideal woman, Albertina, and she comes to be his only passion. The Minister sends him outside of the city on a mission related to Dr. Hoffman, but from then on, the narrator runs into one and another set of weird characters. He starts out in the creepy house of a missing mayor, finds refuge with boat-dwelling natives, joins a circus, falls in with a Marquis de Sade-like nobleman, and wanders a weird fantasy land. There are links to Hoffman and Albertina, but sometimes it feels like a stretch. Even when Albertina appears, there is still wandering and randomness. Carter’s writing makes everything very vivid and I was into the story enough, but this one was probably my least favorite of her works so far.
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LibraryThing member StellaSandberg
I love Angela Carter, but I don't think this is one of her better novels. I can definitely see why it's not among her most widely read. It has a lot of good ideas but that's the problem - it's essentially a vehicle for ideas and the quite dry, detached and summarizing way it's narrated doesn't make
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those ideas come alive as fiction. The plot and characters are essentially unengaging (which I think is done on purpose), though "interesting". It feels like this has sprung out of Carter's fascination with de Sade - some kind of feminist critique/rewriting that's nevertheless follows quite closely in the marquis' (horribly dull, I'm afraid) footsteps. This should have been an essay - or several - on the relations between language/fantasy/reality. As such I'm sure it would have come alive with lots of juicy examples, as fiction, they're not juicy or fleshed-out enough.
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LibraryThing member Sean191
My shortest review ever: pervy Kafka

Alright, I lied. Not about the pervy Kafka part, but about the length of the review. I owe more explanation. Carter's book messes with reality. It messes with gender roles, gender in general, kind of bestiality...or at least gets halfway there technically I
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suppose. Covers homosexuality and gang rape (in a few different instances) and was just really a weird book. Now with all the instances of sex and deviant sex (not judging all instances of sex noted above, but yeah...definitely some), it wasn't overly graphic, more just uncomfortable in an artsy way. Lolita level uncomfortable maybe?

Anyway, the book was well-written and pulled it off until the end. The end...oh, the end. It was as if she had to head out for a trip and she knew she'd be gone a while but she was on deadline. So she jotted down a quick wrap. The conclusion didn't do the rest of the work justice, hence, my rating reflects that.
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LibraryThing member BayardUS
Now this is an interesting novel, albeit not a great one. The book starts off in a city where the titular machine is picking away at the seams of reality, and through those openings pour illusions given form. The opening raised my expectations, as the story of a bureaucrat trying to work in a city
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being colonized by figments of imagination and where reality is in flux is a fascinating concept. Instead we are only in the city for a brief time before the bureaucrat is sent off on a mission, which sends him to circuses and pleasure houses, and riding on sleighs and riverboats. It's a bizarre tale, not without its beauty, but ultimately it felt like the best opportunity was missed and what was left is more style than substance.
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LibraryThing member markscarlet
this book is truly masterful - such inventive swoops of the imagination.
LibraryThing member arouse77
i thought this book was too big for its britches and fundamentally ill-suited to being a novel. the whole underlying notion is interesting, but seems to require a visual component to give it the heft the author tries to afford it with words unnecessarily long and cumbersome.
LibraryThing member datrappert
One of those rare books that is as excellent in execution as it is in conception. Carter's imagination is astounding, and nothing about this book is ordinary. Each episode, from the first where the protagonist's city is bombarded by waves of unreality sent by the mysterious Doctor Hoffman, to the
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last, where the protagonist finally confronts the doctor, is memorably brilliant. In fact, the ideas, the language, and the depth of meaning in each section are like a huge multi-course feast, and you'll probably need a break before proceeding to the next one. I'm sure there are some who try to take everything here literally and balk at some of Carter's more indecipherable passages, but those are all part of entire affect of this book and just need to be experienced, not understood. There are also violent and horrific scenes, rape, and various depravities you'll have to endure--but don't let those stop you either. This is the first of Carter's novels I have read and it won't be the last. I have read and been entertained by some of her short stories, but after this experience, I'll have to look at everything she wrote in a new light. You owe it to yourself to give this incredible book a chance to astound, amuse, and entertain you. Don't be one of those reviewers who expects everything to make sense; just appreciate how this book takes you into another world and makes you THINK.
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Original publication date

1972
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