The Thanatos Syndrome (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Walker Percy
- First Published: 1987
- Type of Plot: Science fiction
- Time of Work: The 1990’s
- Setting: Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
- Principal Characters: Tom More, Lucy Lipscomb, Bob Comeaux, Ellen More, John Van Dorn, Father Simon Rinaldo Smith
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: 1980’s, Child abuse, Drugs, Ethics, Medicine, Drug trafficking or dealing, Government, Hospices, Euthanasia or right to die, Medical ethics, Psychiatry or psychiatrists, Behavior modification, Brainwashing, Experiments, Water
- Locales: Louisiana
The Novel
The Thanatos Syndrome is in some ways an extension of Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World (1971), also narrated by Tom More. In The Thanatos Syndrome, More confronts a plot to adulterate the drinking water for his area with heavy sodium. Although the chemical has the desirable effects of reducing crime rates and teenage pregnancy, it causes people to revert to childlike thinking and speaking patterns and also changes women’s bodies from a menstrual to an estrous cycle. The...
[The entire page is 2811 words long]
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