Realini Ionescu's Reviews > The Alteration

The Alteration by Kingsley Amis, author of Russian Hide And Seek http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/07/r... and another seventeen masterpieces

10 out of 10





His Serenity Sir Kingsley Amis is mesmerizing in everything he has written, from Science Fiction – Russian Hide and Seek is one example – to comedy http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/t... Take A Girl Like You and with The Alteration, dealing with alternative history.



In this novel, The Reformation has not taken place, and therefore The Catholic Church rules the world and the pope is the most powerful man in the world – this may seem farfetched to some readers, but the reality is not far from the book, notwithstanding the fact that the Holy Father has no divisions (if this is not a mistaken paraphrase, Stalin has asked once ‘how many divisions does the pope have’, dismissing the notion that someone who does not have an army could yield power) he does have great sway.

Many regions of the world see a decline in religious activity, people go to church much less often than they used to, and in surveys, there is an increasing number of atheists, some statistics which vary, there is a revival in parts of the world, Latin America and Africa have new, Pentecostal faiths that are gaining new adherents, with vibrant festivities, music, dancing and if I am allowed to be sardonic (and yes I am, for the audience [hahaha, what an arrogance, pfui, as if we have a small crowd] quite often a pathetic show, however dangerous this can be at times when the leaders are villains.



Nathaniel Branden, the ultimate expert on self-esteem, author of the classic The Six Pillars of Self Esteem, has written The Psychological Effects of Religion http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/p... in which he argues that the effects of religion are well, catastrophic, in particular The Catholic Church, with its insistence on the idea that sex is wrong no matter what, and it is there just for procreation – however, we must other fundamentalists and lunatics, such as the leaders of Indonesia, who have declared the other day that sex outside wedlock is an offence, and not just that, but those who copulate and are not married will go to…prison!

Then there is the example from Influence, another classic of psychology, by Robert Cialdini http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/05/i... where we find about a sect led by Moon (if that is not the wrong name) a vicious monster (an oxymoron probably, for a monster is vicious by definition on the face of it) who took his disciples from North America to Guyana, and in this unfamiliar territory they relied even more on their supremo, who gave the order at one point to…commit suicide.



And they did, almost all the followers took the plunge and killed themselves, following to an absurd extreme the Influence Rule of Social Acceptance (known in popular parlance as ‘when in Rome, do what the Romans do’) and one after another showed what the Effects of Religion can be – there are schools of psychology and otherwise that highlight the good sides, the socializing, belonging to a group that can offer support, the generosity that is often involved and other elements that contribute to the wellbeing of the flock

In The Alteration we see the ghastly side, for a young boy, the main character of the novel, Hubert Anvil, who is only ten and has the best voice ever heard (maybe with one exception) is going to be ‘Altered’, which is in the title of the novel and means the authorities want to castrate him, so that his voice will not change when he reaches puberty, and it is a decision that goes all the way to the pope, who wants the boy in Rome



Hubert’s father is willing to accept the situation, basking maybe in the glory of being the parent of one who will reach worldwide fame, for the son, once an adult, would enjoy the status of some of the most famous pop or rock stars, he would have been a Mick Jagger of this alternative history, wherein Martin Luther is reconciled with the Catholic authorities and he becomes…Pope Germanicus I

America is New England in this version of history, with a different territory, but with liberal views – well, progressive anyway when compared with the beliefs of the Catholics – and the Ambassador for that realm is the hope that Hubert has, when he is determined to try to avoid being castrated to escape the tyranny of the Catholic Church…



Being only ten, he does not really know what is involved in The Alteration, but he has some hints on the matter, he sees a boy having sex with a girl (not all the details, but the intensity, the cry of extreme pleasure involved) and then there are talks with his colleagues and friends, and though they are also too young, they can contribute and one of them gives the case of a fellow who was caught having sex, reprimanded and told that if this is repeated, he will be tortured (torn apart I think the punishment was) and he still opts for coitus, knowing the fate that awaits him, and he is indeed killed for this.

Ergo, this must be something extraordinary, the feedback from this story is and eventually, Hubert decides he does not want to be Altered, on his side, he has the confessor of the family – the rules dictated that for the castration to proceed, two signatures were needed, one from the father, and the other from the confessor, priest of the family and the latter is against the procedure and (spoiler alert) he is Altered himself, let to bleed to death from the removal of his testicles, after he has had an affair with Hubert’s mother

Ultimately, this is a virulent attack on the Catholic Church – when asked by a Russian poet about his view on god, Kingsley Amis has replied that it is not ‘so much that he does not believe, but that he hates Him’ – in this alternative history, the Catholic Church is responsible for countless abuses and monstrosities

http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u...