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The Quantity Theory of Insanity
This is an alternate cover edition for isbn 9780140234015
A collection of short stories by the author of the novellas "Cock and Bull" and the novel "My Idea of Fun". The book won the 1993 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.
A collection of short stories by the author of the novellas "Cock and Bull" and the novel "My Idea of Fun". The book won the 1993 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
109 people are currently reading
1990 people want to read
About the author
Will Self
171 books985 followersWilliam Self is an English novelist, reviewer and columnist. He received his education at University College School, Christ's College Finchley, and Exeter College, Oxford. He was married to the late journalist Deborah Orr.
Self is known for his satirical, grotesque and fantastic novels and short stories set in seemingly parallel universes.
Self is known for his satirical, grotesque and fantastic novels and short stories set in seemingly parallel universes.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews
August 28, 2014
The Quantity Theory of Insanity is a fun sextet of loosely interconnected stories that tackle several of the themes - madness, medical misbehavior, time, boredom (sadly, this freshman feel at fiction doesn't include Self's flair for violence and sexual depravity) - which will go on to be the bread and butter of his later works. Most of these stories operate as Ballardian "what ifs?" (: e.g., What if when people die they don't go to Heaven or Hell but instead just move to a different suburb? What if there is a tribe in South America peopled with the most boring wretches in the world? What if there is a theory that propounds the notion that insanity is a quantifiable element with its own laws about how it is distributed throughout any given group of people? What if there is a mental institute in which the distinctions between patient and physician are nonexistent?) that usually end with clever punch lines (the rimshot is implied). While a completely enjoyable read, with all of the author's alliterative and verbose writing quirks that you'll either pleasure in or sniffle at, most of these stories take a beat too long in lifting off from slow set-ups. But even so these inventive meshings of science fiction, horror, and satire make for a great place to start for any first-time Self reader.
July 9, 2012
This book is a waste of time, even if you're bored out of your mind and have no life whatsoever. Whenever I read a blurb that says a book is hilarious I know I can count on it to be unbearable. There's a story about running into his deceased mother, who is happily alive after death in the London suburbs. It's the kind of throwaway metaphor anyone with half a brain has made a hundred times at a bar: death is the London suburbs. But then we move on, because we have things to do and we know writing a story that drags this metaphor along to nowhere will waste our time even worse than it wastes the reader's time. Each story is like that, a marginally cute or clever idea that bumbles along pretentiously, preciously, annoyingly, unendingly ... god, it's bad. But, hey, what do I know? Plenty of reviewers, eager to pump up a "talent" they've been sold on, tell us it's great, so it must be, right? Will Self got kicked off Tony Blair's press plane for shooting smack in the bathroom. Bad boy = genius, as we all know. Just don't use your own brains to evaluate this piece of dogshit and you'll like it just fine.
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November 12, 2020"'What if...' I thought to myself, 'What if there is only a fixed proportion of sanity available in any given society at any given time?' No previous theory of abnormal psychology had ever assumed such a societal dimension. For years I had sought some hypothesis to cement the individual psyche to the group; it was right in front of me all the time. But I went on, I elaborated, I filled out the theory, or rather, it filled out itself. It fizzed and took on form the way a paper flower expands in water. 'What if,' I further thought, 'any attempts to palliate manifestations of insanity in one sector of society can only result in their upsurge in some other area of society?'"
Will Self's debut short story collection, The Quantity Theory of Insanity: Together with Five Supporting Propositions plays with the themes of psychopathology, institutionalization, modern consciousness, and the individual in modern society. I don't think "plays" is too jaunty of a word, as Self was clearly having a lot of fun with these stories. By investigating these themes, by pushing the conditions until they are outrageous, the satire does what satire is supposed to do: make the reader see things differently. Self continually holds up a funhouse mirror to institutions/fields/thoughts/beliefs and we are left seeing them differently. Naturally, the satire is always tethered, however loosely, to real pathos.
Whether it's an anthropologist that spends years studying a tribe in South America that proves to be the most boring culture on Earth, a woman that dies but that doesn't wind up at the pearly gates but rather living in a flat in a different suburb of London, or a newly hired art therapist working at a psychiatric ward that seems blur the lines between patients and employees, there is a type of humor that by now is very recognizable. And, of course, there are plenty of moments where Self likely had to stop typing away at his typewriter as he gave himself a laughing fit:
"The form of this project took me away from the precincts of Aston (to which I was nominally attached) and into the ambit of the Institute of Job Reductivism, at that time being run by John (later Sir John) Green, who went on to become Director of the Institute of Directors."
He is adroit enough to know when to pull back on that kind of comedy and wordplay. But even when the work feels it's teetering on goofy, the agile prose and the unabashed style reassure us that we are in deft hands. You are continually reassured by the dialogue. Really, what an ear Self has for the voices that find their way onto the page. That feeling of reassurance builds in every story as there are interconnections and internal references throughout the collection, as well as recurring characters.
I read The Quantity Theory of Insanity for the absurdity. I was craving absurdity. I mean, truly. I needed my preoccupation with the news to be vandalized. I'm talking covered in obscene graffiti, dented with hurled rocks, defaced beyond recognition. And it delivered.
Speaking of sanity, I spend wayyyyy too much time thinking and deliberating over these damn star ratings. I feel ridiculous but I try to really analyze them and consider them thoughtfully. I believe I know the difference between "liked it" and "really liked it" but it's not so much that I don't like the scale as there are just so many ways to interpret and misinterpret ratings. I worry that I will convince a potential reader to not read something if I don't give it a 5-star "it was amazing" rating. Which of course isprobably ludicrous. But still, I don't want to talk anyone out of reading a book. And I don't want people to simply look at star ratings without reading reviews. They are supposed to be reflections of the reader, but they can also be seen as reflections of the given book. And they can reflect the reader's experience of the book that includes their conditions beyond the book. Frankly, it's a whole ball of yarn that I can't begin to unravel, nor can I even really articulate.
Anyways, I have no rating to give this book. But, I will say, because I strive to be the kind of person that is honest and upfront, that I likely won't read this book again. Maybe that will be a new rating system of sorts: books I will read again and books I won't read again. But perhaps a book is worth reading again because I'll appreciate it more down the road, or understand it more, at the very least. Also, that doesn't factor in reading it again for pleasure versus reading it again for, I don't know, reference. Maybe rating books is just inherently fraught with too much difficulty to practice it sufficiently. I guess it's possible that I'm overthinking the whole endeavor. But I don't think I am. Maybe it's not only possible but probable that I've simply spent a little too much time in Will Self's intelligent, droll, madcap world.
Will Self's debut short story collection, The Quantity Theory of Insanity: Together with Five Supporting Propositions plays with the themes of psychopathology, institutionalization, modern consciousness, and the individual in modern society. I don't think "plays" is too jaunty of a word, as Self was clearly having a lot of fun with these stories. By investigating these themes, by pushing the conditions until they are outrageous, the satire does what satire is supposed to do: make the reader see things differently. Self continually holds up a funhouse mirror to institutions/fields/thoughts/beliefs and we are left seeing them differently. Naturally, the satire is always tethered, however loosely, to real pathos.
Whether it's an anthropologist that spends years studying a tribe in South America that proves to be the most boring culture on Earth, a woman that dies but that doesn't wind up at the pearly gates but rather living in a flat in a different suburb of London, or a newly hired art therapist working at a psychiatric ward that seems blur the lines between patients and employees, there is a type of humor that by now is very recognizable. And, of course, there are plenty of moments where Self likely had to stop typing away at his typewriter as he gave himself a laughing fit:
"The form of this project took me away from the precincts of Aston (to which I was nominally attached) and into the ambit of the Institute of Job Reductivism, at that time being run by John (later Sir John) Green, who went on to become Director of the Institute of Directors."
He is adroit enough to know when to pull back on that kind of comedy and wordplay. But even when the work feels it's teetering on goofy, the agile prose and the unabashed style reassure us that we are in deft hands. You are continually reassured by the dialogue. Really, what an ear Self has for the voices that find their way onto the page. That feeling of reassurance builds in every story as there are interconnections and internal references throughout the collection, as well as recurring characters.
I read The Quantity Theory of Insanity for the absurdity. I was craving absurdity. I mean, truly. I needed my preoccupation with the news to be vandalized. I'm talking covered in obscene graffiti, dented with hurled rocks, defaced beyond recognition. And it delivered.
Speaking of sanity, I spend wayyyyy too much time thinking and deliberating over these damn star ratings. I feel ridiculous but I try to really analyze them and consider them thoughtfully. I believe I know the difference between "liked it" and "really liked it" but it's not so much that I don't like the scale as there are just so many ways to interpret and misinterpret ratings. I worry that I will convince a potential reader to not read something if I don't give it a 5-star "it was amazing" rating. Which of course is
Anyways, I have no rating to give this book. But, I will say, because I strive to be the kind of person that is honest and upfront, that I likely won't read this book again. Maybe that will be a new rating system of sorts: books I will read again and books I won't read again. But perhaps a book is worth reading again because I'll appreciate it more down the road, or understand it more, at the very least. Also, that doesn't factor in reading it again for pleasure versus reading it again for, I don't know, reference. Maybe rating books is just inherently fraught with too much difficulty to practice it sufficiently. I guess it's possible that I'm overthinking the whole endeavor. But I don't think I am. Maybe it's not only possible but probable that I've simply spent a little too much time in Will Self's intelligent, droll, madcap world.
May 24, 2018
The Quantity Theory of Insanity is Will Self's first book, and although I had previously read Cock and Bull before I picked up this text, I felt as though I was starting over with his oeuvre. Reading Self from the start, in sequence, is not a bad strategy - after all, his fiction is littered with intratextual references, recurring characters, and little in-jokes that build from one book to the next.
Self is a polarizing writer whose reputation usually precedes him. He tends to be either loved or hated as a consequence, which is unfortunate, because authors should not be judged solely on the emotional reactions they provoke. You see, Self is clever and witty and erudite in a way that only the English seem to be able to pull off. Personally, I was captivated by the stories in The Quantity Theory of Insanity. Self is not merely showing off here: his satire has real teeth, and is grounded in a fierce intellect that attempts to be revolutionary even as it acknowledges such precursors as Kafka and Chekhov.
My experience of reading the first story in here, "The North London Book of the Dead," is a perfect example of the unsettling yet amusing nature of Self's texts. What appears at first to be a tragic tale of how a man loses his mother to cancer gradually transforms itself into minor pathos. The dead don't go away altogether, the narrator discovers, they merely move to a different part of London. I was, by turns, confused and then amused as I realized the true purpose of the metaphor that Self was creating.
This biting caricature of the dullness of English life is replicated in other stories, such as "Understanding the Ur-Bororo." The story follows the career of Janner, an aspiring anthropologist who dedicates his career to studying this obscure tribe, the Ur-Bororo, winning a special grant dedicated to this specific purpose. What Janner discovers, however, is that the romance surrounding the tribe derives purely from their obscurity. In reality, they are the most boring people in the world, whose culture shows a remarkable indifference to sex and whose conversations consist of bland observations about the weather. Janner marries one of the tribe and, in a brilliant satirical twist, brings her back to England, where she fits right in.
The stories in The Quantity Theory of Insanity thus typically explore one of two themes: the unexciting, self-limiting way in which humanity tends to live life, as exemplified by the two stories mentioned already as well as the book's closer, "Waiting," and Self's exploration of madness, rationality, and power. It is in this book, for instance, that we first meet Self's most important recurring character, the experimental psychiatrist Dr. Zack Busner, together with his notorious mentor Alkan (a not-too-subtle but utterly enjoyable caricature of Jacques Lacan). This latter theme is by far the most profound and interesting, and I particularly liked "Ward 9″ (an inversion of Chekhov's "Ward 6″) and the title story, which engages in a brilliant deconstruction of psychology's attempts to legitimize itself through "objective" testing, a message that few will appreciate and even fewer will understand.
On the whole, I loved The Quantity Theory of Insanity with only a couple of reservations. The first is that I didn't like the story "Mono-Cellular," a testament to the occasional tendency of English fiction writers to overreach their abilities (I'm looking at you, A.S. Byatt). The second is that this book at times felt strangely dated, in the same way that reading literary and critical theory from the same period feels dated. I get a similar feeling when I read Self's other books, too, as if he is still trying to push the boundaries of 1980s postmodernism without realizing that the rest of the world has moved on. Nonetheless, it's wickedly clever stuff, for all its strange anachronisms, and I highly recommend it if you are in the mood for something intelligent and anarchic.
Self is a polarizing writer whose reputation usually precedes him. He tends to be either loved or hated as a consequence, which is unfortunate, because authors should not be judged solely on the emotional reactions they provoke. You see, Self is clever and witty and erudite in a way that only the English seem to be able to pull off. Personally, I was captivated by the stories in The Quantity Theory of Insanity. Self is not merely showing off here: his satire has real teeth, and is grounded in a fierce intellect that attempts to be revolutionary even as it acknowledges such precursors as Kafka and Chekhov.
My experience of reading the first story in here, "The North London Book of the Dead," is a perfect example of the unsettling yet amusing nature of Self's texts. What appears at first to be a tragic tale of how a man loses his mother to cancer gradually transforms itself into minor pathos. The dead don't go away altogether, the narrator discovers, they merely move to a different part of London. I was, by turns, confused and then amused as I realized the true purpose of the metaphor that Self was creating.
This biting caricature of the dullness of English life is replicated in other stories, such as "Understanding the Ur-Bororo." The story follows the career of Janner, an aspiring anthropologist who dedicates his career to studying this obscure tribe, the Ur-Bororo, winning a special grant dedicated to this specific purpose. What Janner discovers, however, is that the romance surrounding the tribe derives purely from their obscurity. In reality, they are the most boring people in the world, whose culture shows a remarkable indifference to sex and whose conversations consist of bland observations about the weather. Janner marries one of the tribe and, in a brilliant satirical twist, brings her back to England, where she fits right in.
The stories in The Quantity Theory of Insanity thus typically explore one of two themes: the unexciting, self-limiting way in which humanity tends to live life, as exemplified by the two stories mentioned already as well as the book's closer, "Waiting," and Self's exploration of madness, rationality, and power. It is in this book, for instance, that we first meet Self's most important recurring character, the experimental psychiatrist Dr. Zack Busner, together with his notorious mentor Alkan (a not-too-subtle but utterly enjoyable caricature of Jacques Lacan). This latter theme is by far the most profound and interesting, and I particularly liked "Ward 9″ (an inversion of Chekhov's "Ward 6″) and the title story, which engages in a brilliant deconstruction of psychology's attempts to legitimize itself through "objective" testing, a message that few will appreciate and even fewer will understand.
On the whole, I loved The Quantity Theory of Insanity with only a couple of reservations. The first is that I didn't like the story "Mono-Cellular," a testament to the occasional tendency of English fiction writers to overreach their abilities (I'm looking at you, A.S. Byatt). The second is that this book at times felt strangely dated, in the same way that reading literary and critical theory from the same period feels dated. I get a similar feeling when I read Self's other books, too, as if he is still trying to push the boundaries of 1980s postmodernism without realizing that the rest of the world has moved on. Nonetheless, it's wickedly clever stuff, for all its strange anachronisms, and I highly recommend it if you are in the mood for something intelligent and anarchic.
April 9, 2025
A collection of loosely connected short stories (a few characters reoccur). Some funny bits, and clever, crazy ideas (after death you just are relocated to another London suburb; the ur-bororo, the most boring tribe in the world, a psychiatric hospital where patients and staff take turns being the therapist and the title story, the theory that if you reduce insanity in one part of the population it will increas in another). I enjoyed the read , the earlier stories are better than the last two.
January 24, 2019
Ditto: another reread, this time some prequel aspects of Self's arch character Dr. Zack Busner, whose lifetime work is summarized in "Umbrella" - "Shark" - "Phone" trilogy and encapsulates the author's obsessive preoccupation with mental illness and the behaviors of its inhabitants. The titular story "TQToI" rests comfortably in the nexus of all Self's world of the not quite right as central theme of requisite madness in proportion to numbers in any given set or grouping. It's a well thought out mind experiment employing algebraic methodology and adducing contingency sets for conferring outcomes in game theory postulates. The Self world is a caldron of bubbling confusion and few arbiters to sort the mess so usually it's left unintended with an eye to observation. As such there's lots of 'whingeing' going on - while that may unnerve it never fails of bathos fueled inanity as quid pro quo epiphanic rest of a dharma bum. Nuts!
April 1, 2014
Despite being a huge fan of satire, the works of Will Self have somehow managed to pass me by until now. On a whim, I picked this up from a charity shop and I must declare that it's the best 50p I've ever spent! This edition of short stories are weird and wonderful, full of jaded wit and offbeat goodness. You read them knowing that something doesn't feel quite right, and the prose just gets under your skin like an itch, but it's one you can't stop scratching/reading. My favourite story was Ward 9 which has both depressing and brilliantly sarcastic moments in it. If you like writers like Martin Amis, you'll get on very well with Will Self.
Read
April 21, 2022Will Self is a short story writer at heart – The Book of Dave bored the hell out of me, by and large – and the stories here are perfect for both a magical realist sort of imagination and Self's witty, quippy voice, the multilayered metaphor stacks being representative of the best type of British humor, not too different from David Thewlis' screaming monologues in Naked (the worst kind, of course, being self-consciously cheeky innuendo as performed by former Cambridge footlights on cheap, stagey BBC sets). Each conceit is well-rendered enough, and many are downright brilliant – I don't know why I loved the story about the most boring tribe in the Amazon as much as I did, but it has continued to stick with me as each day passes.
January 31, 2024
Have been waiting for a reason to use the word verbose and this book was it - Weirdly too loose a link between the stories and over over descriptive language wasn’t it - more engaging stories first half but second was what some may say describe as crap
May 6, 2012
Self knows a lot of big, old, underrated and little-used words and seems intent on using them. This collection of six short stories invites you to sample Self's rare intellect, but does so like an invitation to the gallery at the back of an auditorium for a lecture you've heard a lot about but soon realise have little hope of understanding.
Like the narrator of 'Waiting', you start well, rapt even by the wordplay, wit and intelligence, but soon Self has lost you, the rest of the book an "increasingly involved, turgid and difficult" display. Like Stein's lecture, "the sheer weight of detail eroded my attention... I began to tune out."
The copy of the book I own has a big fat stain on the back cover, a thick brown ring of coffee-tainted water. I concur that the book probably makes for a better coaster than an insight into anything Self might have to offer. Beyond the first two tales you might consider putting it to stain avoidance duties and consider yourself done with the business of reading.
If I had the option to give this 1-and-a-half stars, I'd do it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't exactly like it either. I wouldn't recommend it, unless I wanted to put someone off reading Self for life. On the other hand, if I ever read any other books by him and find they raise the bar, I might suggest reading this to really put his brilliance into perspective. 'He can sink this low, yet rise to such incredible heights... Do you see?"
Like the narrator of 'Waiting', you start well, rapt even by the wordplay, wit and intelligence, but soon Self has lost you, the rest of the book an "increasingly involved, turgid and difficult" display. Like Stein's lecture, "the sheer weight of detail eroded my attention... I began to tune out."
The copy of the book I own has a big fat stain on the back cover, a thick brown ring of coffee-tainted water. I concur that the book probably makes for a better coaster than an insight into anything Self might have to offer. Beyond the first two tales you might consider putting it to stain avoidance duties and consider yourself done with the business of reading.
If I had the option to give this 1-and-a-half stars, I'd do it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't exactly like it either. I wouldn't recommend it, unless I wanted to put someone off reading Self for life. On the other hand, if I ever read any other books by him and find they raise the bar, I might suggest reading this to really put his brilliance into perspective. 'He can sink this low, yet rise to such incredible heights... Do you see?"
December 2, 2008
Just a feast of a short story collection -- it takes place in that cozy little intersection between the dark alleys of modern neurosis and the cobbled boulevards of the smug academic world. In the titular story, Self starts with a campus farce much like David Lodge's, taking it in a darker and I would say more incisive direction. The narrator finds his disappeared mentor by deciphering the "code" written in men's bathroom stalls, moves on to working for an agribusiness magnate who would like to prove that men and cows can coexist as equals, and of course uses a small hippy commune to run a first experiment in proving the titular theory. It only gets stranger from there, and in each story in the collection, the line between mental health professionals and their patients becomes increasingly blurry, before metastasizing and encircling all of England.
In addition, I was delighted to find tropes from much of Self's later work riddling these stories, and anyone who's ever delighted in getting from point A to point B in a particularly clever fashion will love "Waiting." Especially if they've ever taken stimulants.
In addition, I was delighted to find tropes from much of Self's later work riddling these stories, and anyone who's ever delighted in getting from point A to point B in a particularly clever fashion will love "Waiting." Especially if they've ever taken stimulants.
March 9, 2025
Will Self is the strangest and funniest man I have seen. He spoke at the Cathedral Quarter Festival in Belfast several years ago. I was laughing so much that I was at risk of having an embarrassing accident. I was reduced to a state of gibbering hysterics, gulping down air and incapable of speech.
It was something about his sardonic tone, his lugubrious manner and the obsession with mundane detail and the grotesque essence of ordinary things: reproduction Queen Anne furniture, pvc shoes that squeak, harmless obsessions that unfurl into derangement.
Self is a very odd indeed. He’s the English ripose to Ireland’s Flann O’Brien or America’s Hunter S Thompson. He’s been treated for mental illness and he’s had a serious heroin habit. A lot of people don’t like him or his writing. He doesn’t care.
The Quantity Theory of Insanity - written in 1991, is a selection of short stories, all exploring aspects of derangement - marked his extraordinary literary debut.
Here was a unique and disturbing voice that was grotesque, wildly funny profoundly disorientating. I loved it. Others won’t.
It was something about his sardonic tone, his lugubrious manner and the obsession with mundane detail and the grotesque essence of ordinary things: reproduction Queen Anne furniture, pvc shoes that squeak, harmless obsessions that unfurl into derangement.
Self is a very odd indeed. He’s the English ripose to Ireland’s Flann O’Brien or America’s Hunter S Thompson. He’s been treated for mental illness and he’s had a serious heroin habit. A lot of people don’t like him or his writing. He doesn’t care.
The Quantity Theory of Insanity - written in 1991, is a selection of short stories, all exploring aspects of derangement - marked his extraordinary literary debut.
Here was a unique and disturbing voice that was grotesque, wildly funny profoundly disorientating. I loved it. Others won’t.
June 28, 2021
Satire. So that's what that looks like. Guess I'm not a fan then.
Six successive short stories, not quite related yet have recurring characters, about droll "what-ifs" that might make for an interesting insider drinking game but not so much for reading. If I were to base my opinion of Will Self's writing and any future books to be read, I would have to say "Hard pass." Even if they were free.
Interesting story premises then nothing to support the purchase of the book. I didn't think I needed reference media for the London motorways to understand the story (although the final entry could have been in any major metropolitan city and still suck as a story.)
Will Self does indeed tip over banal surfaces of everyday existence, only to find more banality beneath, not the hideous, the hilarious, or the bizarre as claimed on the jacket. Just go read a math book, solve a few problems including word problems, then move on with your life. Skip this one.
Thanks for reading.
Six successive short stories, not quite related yet have recurring characters, about droll "what-ifs" that might make for an interesting insider drinking game but not so much for reading. If I were to base my opinion of Will Self's writing and any future books to be read, I would have to say "Hard pass." Even if they were free.
Interesting story premises then nothing to support the purchase of the book. I didn't think I needed reference media for the London motorways to understand the story (although the final entry could have been in any major metropolitan city and still suck as a story.)
Will Self does indeed tip over banal surfaces of everyday existence, only to find more banality beneath, not the hideous, the hilarious, or the bizarre as claimed on the jacket. Just go read a math book, solve a few problems including word problems, then move on with your life. Skip this one.
Thanks for reading.
November 11, 2009
Will Self is so British, jaded, clever, and often hilarious. This collection of short stories comes across as very smart, if at times a little misanthropic. In one story we are presented with the afterlife only consisting of having to live in a different London neighborhood. In another, a man becomes so tired of "waiting" in his life that he finally snaps. And of course there's the title story where a group of psychologists play around with the theory that in any defined group, a set amount of sanity exists collectively. One person suffering from manic episodes keeps other people living stable lives. Scientific phrases permeate the stories, and characters or information from one story often shows up in another
August 29, 2016
When I first read The Quantity Theory of Insanity back in 1999 I was confused by Will Self's polysyllabic language but after a second reading I enjoyed this collection tremendously and spent a good number of my uni years reading his books.
This collection lays the foundation for characters that are found in Self's novels, namely the psychiatrist Zac Busner, who features in a couple of these short stories but the real highlight here is The Understanding of the Ur-Bororo, a civilisation who thrive on being boring. Saying that this entry into the zany and mundane world of Will Self is great AND he got better at the short story format with subsequent publications.
This collection lays the foundation for characters that are found in Self's novels, namely the psychiatrist Zac Busner, who features in a couple of these short stories but the real highlight here is The Understanding of the Ur-Bororo, a civilisation who thrive on being boring. Saying that this entry into the zany and mundane world of Will Self is great AND he got better at the short story format with subsequent publications.
September 24, 2020
If the worst you can say about a guy is that he’s a show off, then it’s clear British grandstander Will Self has never had anything to worry about. The Quantity Theory of Insanity is an early—as in 1991—collection of semi-connected mockery stories all exhibiting, in an exhibitionistic way some might say, Self’s dexterity with fancy-snide vocabulary, whip-like sentence segmentation and superiorly soured sarcasm. Shades of H. P. Lovecraft and O. Henry may recognize Self’s appropriation of their shticks from a tamer time and will be prudent to keep their polite objections to themselves. Just let Will do whatever the fuck Will wants.
December 7, 2008
Self has a very dry wit and I'm sure a lot of it went right over my head. I found some of his passages to be rather tedious, also. I did however get a few good chuckles, and very much liked how the stories were interconnected.
May 14, 2018
Somehow just not my style. Interesting ideas are buried in language that seems to kick me out of the story rather than pull me in.
January 17, 2025
Embarking on Will Self's collection of short stories is like attending a sophisticated dinner party thrown by a friend of a friend where each course is more bizarre and delightful than the last... or so yu think. The first four stories are a perfect blend of surreal and cerebral, with the right amount of social satire to keep you smirking into your soup. Each narrative unfolds with twisted charm, leaving you eagerly anticipating the next dish.
And then comes the fifth story - a course too rich and abstract for my palate that feels like the chef suddenly decided to serve quantum physics on a platter. While the first four stories had me savoring every bite, the fifth left me grappling with the complexities of Self's unhinged narrative. Which I think was the point, his way of saying "let's see who's still with me," and I was not.
The Quantity Theory of Insanity offers a feast for the mind and a refresher of GRE vocabulary words. Be warned: the fifth story is not for the unprepared. But again, isn't that the point?
And then comes the fifth story - a course too rich and abstract for my palate that feels like the chef suddenly decided to serve quantum physics on a platter. While the first four stories had me savoring every bite, the fifth left me grappling with the complexities of Self's unhinged narrative. Which I think was the point, his way of saying "let's see who's still with me," and I was not.
The Quantity Theory of Insanity offers a feast for the mind and a refresher of GRE vocabulary words. Be warned: the fifth story is not for the unprepared. But again, isn't that the point?
September 25, 2018
I don't know whether to give this book a 2.5 stars or a 3 stars. Though the good stories were really good, so I will give it a 3 stars (for now). But let me say that I recommend reading everything in this book EXCEPT the title novella. The title novella is not only bad, it is AWFUL. Avoid at all costs. Other than that, this is a decent dose of bizarre storytelling and pretentiousness that I am kind of a sucker for!
I am giving this one a 3 out of 5 stars
I am giving this one a 3 out of 5 stars
March 3, 2024
A collection of loosely connected short stories, this has been a fascinating first dive into Self’s writing for me. Teetering carefully on the line between societal critique and hilarious absurdity, some of the stories took a while to grip onto, but ultimately it was the acutely detailed writing style and irregular storytelling that made me want to finish each one. I particularly liked the last story of the bunch, “Waiting”. I look forward to reading more of his work.
June 30, 2024
Will Self is undeniably a great writer with a great descriptive range.
This was his first book. A short collection of short stories. Some more diverting than others, shot through with humour. A couple didn't hit the mark but 'Waiting' and 'Ward 9' were worth the entrance fee.
He goes on to achieve better.
This was his first book. A short collection of short stories. Some more diverting than others, shot through with humour. A couple didn't hit the mark but 'Waiting' and 'Ward 9' were worth the entrance fee.
He goes on to achieve better.
February 28, 2024
Mixed feelings about it. I first read this about 30 years ago and remember enjoying it but, aside from the first story, “The North London Book of the Dead”, I found it a bit irritating and over clever. Some of the stories suggested clever links and connections and I kept expecting more but they failed to deliver.
March 11, 2018
A really thought provoking and incredibly well written collection of short stories by Will Self.
The first two stories - 'The North London Book of the Dead" and "Ward 9" are far more accessible than a lot of Self's works and I enjoyed them both. The first one imagines that, when we die, we simply move to a different part of London, whereas "Ward 9" focuses on an Art Therapist who begins to work in a hospital where the distinction between doctor and patient becomes a little blurred.
On the downside I found the satirical "Understanding the Ur-Bororo" a little slow and the monologue of "Mono Cellular" a little dense and, at times, unclear which detracted from my enjoyment.
Finally "Quantity Theory of Insanity" is a typical Self work, based around an interesting, but unlikely theory - that people believe that the amount of insanity in a society is fixed. Therefore, as some people suffer mental illness, others suffer less to keep the overall level the same. The story follows the original hypothesis of the theory, the research and the aftermath as the theory is abused by a number of different self-serving individuals. Interesting, enjoyable and the type of short story that you think about days after reading.
Overall, four out of five. Well worth a read, but not Self's best work.
The first two stories - 'The North London Book of the Dead" and "Ward 9" are far more accessible than a lot of Self's works and I enjoyed them both. The first one imagines that, when we die, we simply move to a different part of London, whereas "Ward 9" focuses on an Art Therapist who begins to work in a hospital where the distinction between doctor and patient becomes a little blurred.
On the downside I found the satirical "Understanding the Ur-Bororo" a little slow and the monologue of "Mono Cellular" a little dense and, at times, unclear which detracted from my enjoyment.
Finally "Quantity Theory of Insanity" is a typical Self work, based around an interesting, but unlikely theory - that people believe that the amount of insanity in a society is fixed. Therefore, as some people suffer mental illness, others suffer less to keep the overall level the same. The story follows the original hypothesis of the theory, the research and the aftermath as the theory is abused by a number of different self-serving individuals. Interesting, enjoyable and the type of short story that you think about days after reading.
Overall, four out of five. Well worth a read, but not Self's best work.
November 21, 2022
Great concepts, so slow moving that I had to force myself to continue reading each line. Wish I had my time back for the 4th and 5th stories.
September 15, 2020
I generally avoid books by modern English 'literary' writers, having been put off by the posturing and lack of substance (Martin Amis is a particular offender). The Quantity Theory of Insanity is pretty much a typical example of the genre. Sorry, literature is a bit more than a smug tone and lots of funny words from the arse end of a thesaurus. The essence of Self's book is a kind of laboured sneering at the dullness of life in the south of England. Well, yes, life is quite contentedly dull if you are fortunate enough to live in the shelter of the USN and Trident missiles. It beats the dramas of places like Beirut. Is that really all he has to say? He was writing in the immediate aftermath of the Thatcherzeit and the Marchtergreifung by Imperial Finance. There were plenty of serious social and political issues he could have written about in nice, plain, deceptively simple prose like that of George Orwell.
There are a few choices of vocabulary that are achingly pretentious. In the second story, Self describes the haircut of a homeless mentally ill person as a 'tonsure'. Such a formal description might suit a religious zealot, but is utterly inappropriate here. Later in the same story, Self stumbles over his own cleverness by misspelling 'matutinal' as 'matidunal'.
For one so ardently determined to exhibit his cleverness, Self fails by his poor judgement of vocabulary and lack of anything very interesting to say. In these respects, he is a modern English 'literary' writer.
There are a few choices of vocabulary that are achingly pretentious. In the second story, Self describes the haircut of a homeless mentally ill person as a 'tonsure'. Such a formal description might suit a religious zealot, but is utterly inappropriate here. Later in the same story, Self stumbles over his own cleverness by misspelling 'matutinal' as 'matidunal'.
For one so ardently determined to exhibit his cleverness, Self fails by his poor judgement of vocabulary and lack of anything very interesting to say. In these respects, he is a modern English 'literary' writer.
January 31, 2010
After the promise of the first story, "The North London Book of the Dead," I found myself wanting to power through the rest of the stories, and several showed promise, but didn't deliver my imagination the payoff. However, there were elements I liked in a three of the remaining five stories, but I never felt any other story hook me. I understand there is a fantastical nature to Mr. Self's satire, but either I am lack insight into the current British perspective or we do not have similar tastes in humor. "Waiting," the last story of this collection, was almost to the same level of the first story, as I appreciated the theme, but the narrative plot and characters were a little too unbelieveable for me to digest. The book's eponymous story had a lot of promise, but again, I found myself lacking, and could not engage myself in the spirit of the tale. The story "Mono-Celluar" had me completely at a loss. Overall, Mr. Self's demanding vocabulary was a highlight, but his interesting themes did not pique my interest to read more. It is a wonder why this book sat on my shelf for nearly two decades after it was loaned/given to me by a waitress from Charlie Hoopers, whose name I can not remember now. Like a pretty face, the book's cover, and especially the title, was enticing, but the pages lacked what I desired (as a reader. :)
January 6, 2023
Short story collection is a perfect weekend grabngo, migrating around town situation. A couple were duds for me, just pushed through. But the rest brought sections so absurd and contrasting I'd start cackling in public.
Content wise: I picked this up in a used bookstore in Boston. Taking the Thames river spirit to the Charles made for a perfect export, what with the hyperbolic way it skewers academia, health institutions, and the ensuing society.
A couple of them feature some cameos and recurring characters, and I had a super fun red-string time trying to put them all together against each other. Definitely looking out for some of the authors other series ft Dr. Busner.
Content wise: I picked this up in a used bookstore in Boston. Taking the Thames river spirit to the Charles made for a perfect export, what with the hyperbolic way it skewers academia, health institutions, and the ensuing society.
A couple of them feature some cameos and recurring characters, and I had a super fun red-string time trying to put them all together against each other. Definitely looking out for some of the authors other series ft Dr. Busner.
January 22, 2015
I always imagine Will Self to be standing in the narrow alleyways of the city observing anything that is odd, bizarre or grotesque and then scuttling back to his abode to churn out brilliant prose delving into those parts of the consciousness where other writers fear to tread. The common thread running through this collection of stories is what if there is a limited amount of sanity in the world and the real reason people go mad is to maintain a kind of status quo. I know it sounds like the most pretentious shit you've ever heard but in the hands of a great writer
December 31, 2010
These stories are interestingly offbeat and unusual. They are definitely not the same sort of thing that everyone else is writing. Self has his own peculiar, yet intruiging, way of pondering and contemplating. All of the stories in this volume are worth the time to read, but "The North London Book of the Dead" has to be my favorite. I think it best showcases Self's ability to present life with a absurdly twisted angle in order to make it fresh and noticable again. Self is certainly a writer for thinkers.
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