KAMN Show #17: The Demolished Man

by Summer
August 29, 2006, 7:30 am | In Books, Shows |

Welcome to Show #17!

Summer, Joe and David tackle the first novel to win the Hugo Award, Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man. The story is on the surface a pulp police procedural where a weary yet tenacious detective must catch a killer. What sets this story apart from typical pulp novels is the incorporation of telepaths and telepathy as integral necessities of society, for business and commerce, lifestyle quality, and for deterring crime.

The Demolished Man is generally recognized as the first novel to delve into telepaths and society, and many stories that followed, in both literature and television, borrowed heavily from the telepath behaviors Bester set up in this story.

Did you know that there is a feature film currently in production? I didn’t at the time we recorded this show back in July…

Listener feedback: We discuss a comment from an anonymous caller about Ninja work habits. Since this show is being posted almost a month later than I’d wanted to get it out, I really have nothing to say, except that after Dragon*Con, we’ll be back on our regular schedule of every other week.

If you have a comment on anything we’ve discussed, let us know! You can call us at 206-666-5266, or send us an email us and let us what you think.

Books mentioned:

Promo: Holly Lisle : Holly Lisle On Writing podcast
Link: Wikipedia: The Demolished Man

 

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13 Comments »

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1. In regards to the Voicemail and Hitchikers TV series, there is a wiki entry at:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker’s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(TV_series)

   It also seems available to buy in the US from Amazon.com (and also in the UK). I prefer the TV series to the movie, for the simple reason that the book sections work so much better (even though they used tradional cell animation)and most of the `jokes’ don’t have their punchlines cut as they do in the movie. Oh and if do an episode for HH, don’t forget the original radio series or you will probably have a mob of hardcore HH fans after you.

   Great show as usual, and hopefully you will do an episode covering The Stars My Destination (I don’t think Bester ever surpassed his first two novels..the later ones were not as good) one of these days.

   Some suggestions for future shows:

   The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
   2001 a Space Odyssey - Arthur C Clarke
   The Mountains of Madness - HP Lovecraft
   The Stainless Steel Rat series - Harry Harrison
   Any Gerry Anderson TV series (UFO, Thunderbirds, etc)

   Comment by Vanamonde — August 29, 2006 #

2. Those are good suggestions, Vanamonde, but I don’t think I could take watching 2001 again. I’m not that into pain.

   Comment by Joe — August 29, 2006 #

3. Of course, you could be talking about the book, I suppose.

   Comment by Joe — August 29, 2006 #

4. Actually, I’m about to compile a list of potential new topics for future shows. After we talk about “V”, we’re going to need some new books/movies/shows to chat about.

   Comment by Summer — August 30, 2006 #

5. I think that I made this suggestion before, but I still vote for, the incredible, indomitable, inimitable..

   MEGAFORCE!!!

   See! Barry Bostwick…in action tights!
   See! Flying attack motorcycles!
   See! That blond actor from The Warriors and Xanadu!
   See! Dunebuggies of flaming death!

   All and more in the greatest movie ever…Megaforce!

   Comment by Michael — August 30, 2006 #

6. It is always a pleasure to listen to the ninjas! Thank you for your efforts to put together such entertaining and informative podcasts. I especially enjoy your analyses of story structure, strengths and weaknesses, and the influence of earlier works on later ones. I’ll nominate a few possible subjects for future shows…

   Books:
   Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation stories/trilogy;
   Larry Niven’s Ringworld or his and Jerry Pournelle’s The Mote in God’s Eye;
   Arthur C. Clarke’s first Rama book (Rendezvous with Rama) or his The Fountains of Paradise;
   John Brunner’s dystopias e.g. The Jagged Orbit or Stand On Zanzibar;
   Walter M. Miller, Jr’s A Canticle for Leibowitz

   Movies:
   Colossus: The Forbin Project is fun with its 1960s style, tech, and a surprisingly strong performance by Eric Braeden;
   THX 1138 by George Lucas;
   The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the Eighth Dimension!

   TV:
   The miniseries of Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles with Rock Hudson, Darren McGavin, et al.

   As for V, I haven’t seen it since its premiere, but I do have a memory of a climactic moment where one female alien opens her mouth wider and wider for what I believe was a cat snack.

   Comment by Granger — August 30, 2006 #

7. Summer I was surprised you didn’t mention that Bester is the author’s name and also the telepath on B5 coincidence I think not.:)

   As for future topics how about looking at a sci-fi magazine between a couple of years and just talk theme, trends, notable authors or the like…

   Comment by Thomas — August 31, 2006 #

8. Great job on the review guys!

   Here’s a fun piece of information for you. If you search on Google with “Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man” you guys are the #3 hit. The #1 hit is SFF Audio which links to your cast.

   Comment by ditto — September 1, 2006 #

9. I agree with the criticism that the ‘psychic assault’ sequence toward the end of the book seemed out of place, but my dissatisfaction with the ending concerns the whole idea of ‘Demolition.’

   So they don’t imprison or execute a criminal like Reich because he’s obviously very smart and could be a useful member of society if rehabilitated. But the description of ‘demolition’ seemed to be a total erasure of personality, identity and memory. In which case his particular skills, talents and intelligence would likely be erased as well.

   It’s an interesting philosophical point that Bester could have further explored, given the novel’s title.

   Comment by PaulJ — September 3, 2006 #

10. Although I could list other books and movies, I simply have to second (or third) Vanamonde and Granger’s suggestions for future shows.
    I’ve been wondering when somebody would mention 2001: A Space Odyssey (the book, first and foremost, but a show that ignores the film would really be rather incomplete). The fact that 2001 is so firmly ensconced in the collective global sci-fi psyche might explain that one often overlooks it, but its influence is just way too important in so many different ways for KAMN to relegate it to some far future show.
    Ringworld, THX1138…it would be so incredibly satisfying to get KAMN shows on any and all of those.

    And thanks so much for the great great output. You’ve got a totally committed fan here.

    Comment by Carlos — September 3, 2006 #

11. Bester took the rehabilitation of criminality through phychological breaking from the old Doc Savage pulps. The Man of Bronze was running his finishing school for ex-criminals a good 15 years before this book was published.

    Comment by J.G. White — September 5, 2006 #

12. SUGGESTIONS
    2nd vote for Buckaroo Banzai - get a hold of the dvd, they actually went back and made extra features for it.

    Zelazney’s Amber series might be nice . . .

    Comment by Rita in Hood River — September 6, 2006 #

13. Here’s an obscure sci-fi movie from the 1970’s; Silent Running. This was an early environmental “message” movie where Bruce Dern is serving in a fleet of spaceships containing the last remaining flora from a completely deforrested Earth. The fleet receives news that their budget has been cut, so they are summarily ordered to blow up all the last remnants of Earth’s greenery. Dern’s character character kills all his shipmates and flees, only to slowly go completely insane. It also has music featuring Joan Baez.

    Comment by Michael — September 11, 2006 #

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