Concentration

Have you heard about the latest craze in reality TV? It's this show called Concentration. Contestants were chosen by lottery, then dragged off to a recreation of a Nazi concentration camp. The highlight of the broadcast is when the prisoners line up for review, and the weakest are chosen for the gas chamber.

Who is responsible for this inhumane fiasco? The prison guards who use the contestants for slave labor? Or the studio execs who thought up and financed Concentration?

No. Prissoner CKZ 114 was right. YOU are responsible for this program. You and every single viewer who tunes in to Concentration.

Fortunately, Concentration is not the brainchild of CBS- but of Amelie Nothomb writing her latest book, Acide Sulfurique. Though many of the francophone author's books have been translated into English ( Fear and Trembling , The Life of Hunger, and my personal favorite, The Life of Rain) those who don't speak French will have to wait a little while to read Acide Sulfurique.

In addition to studying with horrified fascination the public's participation in Concentration, Nothomb uses protagonist CKZ 114 to explore some themes familiar from her other novels: the power of beauty, the power of a name, and the ease with which an innocent girl can mistake herself for God.

For those who have been following Season One of Dr. Who in the U.S., you might remember that Part I of the final episode dealt with a theme similar to that of Acide Sulfurique. Each of the three main characters found themselves in the middle of deadly game shows. The Doctor was locked in a house in a Big Brother type show. Rose was playing the Weakest Link for her life. Captain Jack is getting a makeover with a chain saw.

Reality TV has become as prevalent in European culture as it has in America (when I lived in Italy Grande Fratello, the Italian version of Big Brother, was all the rage). Future extrapolations of reality TV, at least by European authors, tends to be very dark, indeed.