Sargeant_Fox
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2009
- Messages
- 249
After a streak of horror and fantasy I decided to try some sci-fi for a change. I had been meaning to read The Demolished Man for over a decade; the appeal was the mix of noir and sci-fi. Also, I was curious to see how the author would pull off the premise of plotting a murder in a society where murderers' thoughts are scanned by telepaths. I love a good crime story that breaks off the beaten realist path.
I'm somewhat on the fence. I wasn't bored but I was never fully at ease either. I liked Reich and Lincoln's cat-and-mouse game, that was riveting. The characterization's a miss though: Ben Reich is too hysterical most of the time; Barbara is poorly developed and, personality-wise, exists to be little more than Linc's love interest. Also, all that Freudian stuff is so of its time
What I didn't expect was all the typographical playfulness to show the peepers' powers; maybe it's the old lit major in me but I was impressed by a 1950s sci-fi novel going crazy with dadaist typographical layouts.
Also, the "Mass Cathexis Measure" chapter was incredible! Gave off similar vibes to Ubik, which I'm reading at the moment. I honestly thought, "Ah, this must be the Demolition process". I thought Bester had abruptly shifted into non-linear storytelling here to catch the reader off guard and then the next chapter was going to fill in the missing steps. Because it's such a great idea, slowly emptying one's reality until the self is left with nothing but itself. Afterwards when I got to the actual Demolition my reaction was, "Is this it? This is what the ominous Demolition was leading up to all along? A mere re-education of the criminal?"
So I thought the novel could have been better, but all in all I'm glad I read it.
I'm somewhat on the fence. I wasn't bored but I was never fully at ease either. I liked Reich and Lincoln's cat-and-mouse game, that was riveting. The characterization's a miss though: Ben Reich is too hysterical most of the time; Barbara is poorly developed and, personality-wise, exists to be little more than Linc's love interest. Also, all that Freudian stuff is so of its time
What I didn't expect was all the typographical playfulness to show the peepers' powers; maybe it's the old lit major in me but I was impressed by a 1950s sci-fi novel going crazy with dadaist typographical layouts.
Also, the "Mass Cathexis Measure" chapter was incredible! Gave off similar vibes to Ubik, which I'm reading at the moment. I honestly thought, "Ah, this must be the Demolition process". I thought Bester had abruptly shifted into non-linear storytelling here to catch the reader off guard and then the next chapter was going to fill in the missing steps. Because it's such a great idea, slowly emptying one's reality until the self is left with nothing but itself. Afterwards when I got to the actual Demolition my reaction was, "Is this it? This is what the ominous Demolition was leading up to all along? A mere re-education of the criminal?"
So I thought the novel could have been better, but all in all I'm glad I read it.
