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|title=Sulphuric Acid

|author=Amelie Nothomb

|buy=Yes

|borrow=Yes

|pages=140

|publisher=Faber and Faber

|isbn=978-0571234936

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Sometimes I wonder if I'm from another planet. The quote chosen for the cover of this book says ''It's always fun to take a journey inside her extraordinary Belgian brain'' (Dan Rhodes). The inside blurb describes the book as ''blackly funny''.

I found no humour at all in these pages.

''The time came when the suffering of others was not enough for them; they needed the spectacle of it too.'' This is the premise. Reality television is passé.

{{amazontext|amazon=0571234933}}

{{commenthead}}

|name=Magda

|verb=said

However, one thing isn't really clear here - do the audience belive that

The other thing relates to watching versus reading, well, there IS a

difference, isn't there? A difference similar (although of somehow different magnitude) to one between reading de Sade, even if only for titiliation, and watching a snuff movie; or, going even further, between playing shoot-them-up game and going to school with a machine gun.

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{{comment

|name=Lesley

|verb=replied

What the audience really thinks is something - I believe deliberately - left to the reader to determine. Clues are given by way of reactions in terms of viewing figures, and what is said in the media, but the author does not give us a direct insight into the mind of any member of the audience. My interpretation of this is that "we" the readers in some sense "are" the audience....the unknown populace upon whom the presentation is released, the people who vote: either directly in the interactive versions, or passively simply by watching. What do we make of it? What would we make of it, if it hit the screens tonight?

I want to stress though that these are MY personal reactions. Nothcomb simply raises the questions...presumably to stimulate precisely this kind of debate. That she succeeds suggests that this might be one worth taking to your local Reading Group if you have one.

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