Under Compulsion

by Thomas M. Disch

Vintage paperback

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Collections, Fiction, German Literature

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Thomas Michael Disch was an American science fiction writer and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book—previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book"—in 1999. He had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, a Rhysling Award, and two Seiun Awards, among others.

His writing includes substantial periodical work, such as regular book and theater reviews for The Nation, The Weekly Standard, Harper's, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Times Literary Supplement, and Entertainment Weekly.

As a fiction writer and a poet, Disch felt typecast by his science fiction roots. "I have a class theory of literature. I come from the wrong neighborhood to sell to The New Yorker. No matter how good I am as an artist, they always can smell where I come from".

Following an extended period of depression after the death in 2005 of his life-partner, Charles Naylor, Disch stopped writing almost entirely, except for poetry and blog entries, although he did produce two novellas. Disch fatally shot himself on July 4, 2008, in his Manhatten (NYC) apartment.

Naylor and Disch are buried alongside each other at Saint Johns Episcopal Church Columbarium, Dubuque, Iowa. His last book, The Word of God, which was written shortly before Naylor died, was published a few days before Disch's death.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much a collection of seventeen short science fiction stories from a writer of whom I had never heard before. The stories were better than I expected and was worth the time spent in reading them.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

some excellent stories here - especially the Casablanca one.

[Otis Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me tell ya, this Disch fellow doesn't write about happy little green men or heroic space rangers savin' the day. No sir, his stories are darker than a root cellar at midnight and sharper than a freshly honed razor. He looks at the future and sees a whole mess of psychological tricks and cruel ironies. Spookier than a haunted outhouse: Take a story like "The Roaches". It's about a lady who has an absolute, crawling-out-of-her-skin horror of cockroaches—only to find out she can control 'em with her mind! It'll make you want to check your boots for bugs before you put 'em on. Trapped like a raccoon in a cage: In "The Squirrel Cage," a fellow wakes up trapped in a room with northin' but a typewriter and copies of the New York Times. Or "Descending," where a guy gets on a department store escalator that just keeps goin' down, down, and down into the bowels of the earth forever. Disch loves makin' you feel claustrophobic, like you're stuck on a treadmill that you can't jump off of. Funny, but it hurts to laugh: There's a real mean, cynical streak of wit runnin' through this whole book. In "Casablanca," you've got a couple of regular American tourists vacationin' in Morocco who find out the U.S. just got completely blown off the map by nuclear bombs. They're stranded, and the way they deal with it is both downright terrifying and bizarrely hilarious. If there’s a hitch in the plow, it's that some of the more experimental "artsy" stories feel a bit too clever for their own good, like a city slicker tryin' to show off a fancy card trick that goes on five minutes too long. But when he hits the bullseye, he hits it clean. This ain't a comforting read to settle your stomach before bedtime. It's a highly intelligent, biting, and cynical collection that'll make you look sideways at your own television and your neighbors.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most short story collections this was a mixed bag, with a few good stories and some that were average or just forgettable. At his best, Disch is an excellent writer with few equals in the SF genre. Very pessmistic and literary.

"The Roaches" (hilarious and disgusting) "Descending" (a nightmare about an infinite stairwell) and "Casablanca" were all great. The latter is an unusual take on a nuclear apocalypse: an American couple on holiday in Morocco is stranded when the United States is basically wiped out overnight. What follows is dark and very realistic.

My favourite is the very short story "Fun With Your New Head" (which is also an alternative title for this collection in some editions). It is a story in the form of an advertisement promoting the new and improved "Head" (i.e. humans) as an entertaining toy for aliens. Unique, bizarre and disturbing.

[Joseph Sobanski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories from Thomas Disch, some quite excellent, while others I struggled to enjoy. If anything, this collection offers a fascinating overview of Disch's range as a writer, from science fiction to horror. My favorite story by far from the collection is "Descending," which is about a scammer at a mall who suddenly finds himself on an escalator descending far farther than it should. There is a great surrealist sense of horror, as the character begins to accept his fate trapped in this world of escalators. The final story "Casablanca" is another winner, as two American tourists find themselves marooned in Morocco after a nuclear war wipes out the USA. Disch is best when his darker side comes to the forefront, with both stories I mentioned reveal a sadistic side of Disch. I only wish more of the stories were in this manner.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this collection of strange, dark stories by Thomas Disch. A couple of the shorter stories feel like experiments that don't always work, but the best stories here more than make up for it. My favourites are Casablanca, where American tourists find their privilege evaporates in a cloud of smoke on holiday in Morocco, Come to Venus Melancholy, a tale of isolation, despair and human/cyborg gender relations, and 1-A, a brutal description of life in the army. The author describes the madness and despair of enforced solitude amazingly well, and that comes across in several of these stories. I believe this is more or less the same collection of stories as Fun with your New Head, perhaps with different edits but the same core collection of stories. Highly recommended.

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brutal collection of early Disch stories--grim, claustrophobic, desperate and despairing, but also brilliantly crafted, beautiful, and shot through with black humor.

My British edition starts with "The Roaches", "Come to Venus Melancholy", and "Linda and Daniel and Spike"--an unrelenting, devastating trifecta. Other knockouts: "Descending", "The Number You Have Reached", and "Moondust, the Smell of Hay, and Dialectical Materialism."

These are haunting masterpieces. I am now haunted and have been piece-mastered.

[Gregoire · Rating 3 out of 5]

une série de 17 nouvelles caustiques qui marquent le lecteur de leur vision pessimisme sur la nature humaine d'après DISCH

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

some cool funny stories. very black sense of humor