At a glance:
- Author: Thomas M. Disch
- First Published: 1968
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—inner space
- Time of Work: The near future
- Setting: A disused gold mine in Colorado
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Novel
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Immortality, Future, West, U.S., Colorado, Southwest, Syphilis, Intellect, Gold mines or mining
- Locales: United States, Colorado, North America
The Plot
Louis Sacchetti is told by General Haast, the camp commandant, that he has been moved to Camp Archimedes to record what he sees. Dr. Aimée Busk, the camp psychiatrist, further explains that as those around him are dying of syphilis induced by the strain Pallidine (which kills in about nine months), they undergo stunning increases in intelligence, which the military hopes to employ.
In his diary, which forms the bulk of the narrative, Sacchetti reports meeting the other men at the camp. Among them is George Wagner, the first prisoner Sacchetti meets and the first...
(The entire page is 936 words.)
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