The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman

The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, published in the US as The War of Dreams, is a novel by Angela Carter, first published in 1972. This picaresque novel is heavily influenced by surrealism, Romanticism, critical theory, and other branches of Continental philosophy. Its style is a amalgam of magical realism and postmodern pastiche. The novel has been called a theoretical fiction, as it clearly engages in some of the theoretical issues of its time, notably feminism, mass media and the counterculture.

Related Topics:
Novel - Angela Carter - 1972 - Picaresque - Surrealism - Romanticism - Critical theory - Continental philosophy - Magical realism - Postmodern - Pastiche - Feminism - Mass media - Counterculture

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Set in an unspecified Latin American country, the novel features Desiderio, a government minister in the main city when it comes under attack from Doctor Hoffman's reality machines, which gradually distort reality. He is sent to find Hoffman's former physics teacher and embarks upon a journey which eventually brings him to Hoffman's castle. Rejecting a caged, but nevertheless eternal fulfillment of his (sexual) desires in the form of Doctor Hoffman's sexually ambivalent daughter Albertina, he kills both the doctor and his lover-to-be, thereby restoring reality.

Related Topics:
Latin America - Machine - Reality - Physics - Castle

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