THE GAS
A Novel of Sex and Violence
by Charles Platt
Not For Sale To Minors.
Pick any author, from Terry Southern to Samuel Beckett, and you're likely to
find an erotic novel lurking somewhere in his past. From the 1950s through
to the 1970s, dozens of novelists were tempted to write erotica in a spirit
of playful rebellion. Most of their work was commissioned by Maurice Girodias
of Olympia Press, the man who gave the world Vladimir Nabokov, William
Burroughs, and a huge number of less distinguished “fuckbooks.” Most of
these novels were published under pseudonyms, and most of them disappeared
without a trace. The Gas by Charles Platt is a rarity: it
appeared under the author's real name and has refused to die.
Described by Platt as “slapstick sadomasochism,” The Gas
is a bizarre mixture of deadpan humor and blood-soaked depravity. Published
originally by Girodias, it went through several printings in the United
States before Olympia Press ceased operations. A new edition of The
Gas appeared in England in 1980, was seized by the Director of
Public Prosecutions and was used as evidence in a trial which put the publisher
behind bars for three months. Now Loompanics presents an entirely new,
revised edition of this classic which has remained unavailable in the United
States for twenty years.
In unflinching detail, the book describes the comic and horrific consequences
when a cloud of toxic gas is accidentally released from a biological warfare
laboratory and wafts across southern England. The gas has two effects:
it relaxes inhibitions and accelerates hormone production in men and women.
Within a matter of hours, “British reserve” becomes a thing of the past.
Businessmen, housewives, farmers, priests, shopkeepers, and teenagers are
soon ripping off each others' clothes and partying in the street.
Platt notes that he wrote the book in an attempt to exorcise his own
British inhibitions before he finally gave up on his homeland and emigrated
to the United States. The Gas bears no resemblance to the
author's current work for respected publications such as Wired magazine.
Still, its iconoclastic energy and its insistence on violating every social
norm have earned it a unique, enduring status. Loompanics is proud to include
this specially revised edition in its fiction list.
1995, 5½ x 8½, 200 pp, soft cover.
THE GAS: $12.95
(ORDER NUMBER 94262)
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