This image is the cover for the book Irritation of the Eye in Darkness

Irritation of the Eye in Darkness

Imagine an island with the scientific knowledge we have today but technology not being shared with the general population, in fact science is replaced by pseudo-science and mysticism for the public. There is a religion without God led by a female pope and her bishops who mimicked her makeup what resulted in the mask-sect, officials painting artistic masterpieces on their faces. The administration of everything was taken over by the main computer Argus after the destructive civil war between red and blue, now all inhabitants have a guaranteed minimal income and entertainment provided freely by Argus, as well as food pills with extras caring for good digestion. Sex is ill-advised and euphory pills provide a great replacement, newborn babies, normally created by in vitro insemination, are taken immediately from the mother and raised in Argus nurseries by sociologists and psychiatrist, education is in standard schools following strict programs. The system is deeply established in the capital City but in the second largest city, Sodom there is some anarchistic system competing with the computer. In the semi-desert called the Delta (of the river Stiks) a community of cave-dwellers is surviving in very poor conditions, the area above the salt desert is supposed to be contaminated after the civil war by the use of mini neutron-bombs and chemical warfare. Now a blind street singer is hired in an Argus hunting team to find and kill a terrorist in the Delta…

Fred Van Oystaeyen

Fred Van Oystaeyen is a professor of mathematics at the University of Antwerp. He published over 300 scientific research papers and 27 research books as well as many proceedings of congresses he organized. He was also very active as a coordinator of many projects of the European Community. His work got international recognition, e.g. he became honorary professor at Beijing Normal University in 1985, and received the doctorate honoris causa at the university of Almeria (Spain) and also at the Free University of Brussels (Belgium). He started to write his only novel more than 50 years ago, gradually changing it by introducing a new philosophy based on some generic model of reality he developed scientifically. The book thus changed from a science fiction horror story into a philosophical and social fiction story which now became an original mixture of philosophy and adventure. Fred is married to his wife Danielle and they have three children and now also three grandchildren. As a young teenager, he began to collect Blues records and later organized some Blues concerts, some of his friends in Chicago named him Bluesfesser Fred, the name he uses on Facebook. Another hobby is growing caudiciform succulent plants and bonsai.


He never got a driver’s licence, even not a mobile phone and his office at the university was the only one without a computer in it, if possible he avoided using public transportation and preferred to walk, perhaps because he liked “the walking blues”.

Austin Macauley Publishers