Limbo by Bernard Wolfe
"Limbo" is a novel centered on Dr. Limbo Martine, a neurosurgeon who abandons his medical duties during a computerized nuclear war to live on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. For twenty years, he serves a local community, performing limited lobotomies as part of tribal ceremonies. His life takes a turn when he encounters a group of strangers with artificial limbs, prompting him to leave his family behind and re-enter a dystopian society known as the Inland Strip. This society is marked by its bizarre philosophy of "Immob" culture, which advocates for the complete immobilization of its citizens to achieve world peace, leading many to amputate their own limbs in favor of cybernetic prosthetics.
Martine discovers that the ideologies of this society are rooted in a satirical essay he wrote, which was taken seriously by a fellow doctor, Helder, who has since risen to power. As the narrative unfolds, Martine grapples with the implications of his past work and the societal values that have emerged from his misunderstood ideas. The story explores themes of self-knowledge, the consequences of technological and biological manipulation, and the complexities surrounding human impulses. Ultimately, it raises questions about the nature of peace and the human condition in a world influenced by misinterpretations and radical ideologies.
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Subject Terms
Limbo
First published: 1952
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—dystopia
Time of work: 1990
Locale: The Inland Strip (Central North America)
The Plot
Dr. Martine, a neurosurgeon serving in emergency capacity during a computerized nuclear war, abandons his post at a field hospital and retreats to a remote island in the Indian Ocean. He spends the next twenty years as doctor to the native community and performs limited lobotomies on its psychopathic members in accordance with tribal ceremony. When a group of English-speaking strangers—all with bizarre artificial limbs— arrives, apparently searching for metal alloys, Martine’s curiosity prompts him to leave his native wife and son and return to the remnants of advanced civilization.
What he discovers is a perverse society of “vol-amps,” people who hope to curb their aggressive impulses by amputating their own limbs. “Immob” culture dictates that only total immobilization will guarantee world peace. Despite this, most citizens of the Inland Strip and the Eastern Union (remains of the Western capitalist and Eastern Communist hemispheres, respectively) have affixed cybernetic prosthetics to their bodies. These android limbs possess qualities of strength and dexterity far superior to natural tissues. A radical minority of “Anti-Pros,” who remain ambulatory “basket cases,” protest use of prosthetics, claiming that society must proceed “unarmed.”
The horrified Martine discovers that these social concepts are derived from a literal reading of a satirical dialogue he had committed to a notebook during his field hospital days. This imaginary conversation, between himself and a maimed bomber pilot, concerns technocratic culture and the masochistic impulse as postulated by Freudian theory. The heavily ironic essay was discovered by a pedantic fellow doctor at the hospital, Helder, who misinterpreted its cynical tone.
Helder, a doctrinal pacifist, has since become president of the Inland Strip, a position rivaled on the globe only by that of the Communist leader Vishinu, a dogma-spouting totalitarian. Theo, the wounded pilot Martine addresses in his essay, has survived his injuries and acts as a faithful apostle to the antiwar program Martine unwittingly pioneered.
Despite claims of world unity through the principles of Immob, the Inland Strip finds itself under limited bomb attack by Vishinu. Helder, himself in violation of Immob’s doctrine of total passivity, counters the attack with defenses obviously planned years before. With its social tenets revealed as fraudulent, Immob culture collapses both morally and physically, its capital city imploding even as Martine returns to his island with a partially reformed Theo, attempting to foil an invasion by military personnel seeking his notes on lobotomy procedures. At the novel’s unresolved conclusion, Martine decides that the masochistic impulse can be held in check only by self-knowledge and force of will. Biological tinkering with this impulse, whether through amputation or through lobotomy, in itself constitutes the worst form of masochism.