I just re-read one of the classics of science fiction, Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, and I find it more disturbing than when I was younger and perhaps less critical. Specifically, I find the resolution of Linc Powell’s romantic problems to be a little icky.
Powell falls in love with Barbara based on little more than her face and figure, then acts as her Daddy as she’s proceeding through the regression therapy. At the end, he’s going to marry her, his “little girl”. I found this reverse Oedipus stuff to be a little unsettling.
Further, I’m not sure he successfully portrayed Linc’s character as someone who would do that; a failure of characterization.
Wow - haven’t read the book in years, so would need to re-read before I could comment. I just remember loving the book and finding the world it created to be fascinating and surprisingly relevant now, a few generations down the road from when it was written. Having said that, you description in the spoiler box does sound a little creepy…
It’s been a while since I’ve read this too, but I seem to recall that Linc was a “weak” man, and the ending would make sense for a man who had very little impulse control.
That being said, everything in that book was creepy. Bester’s view of gov’t makes “Big Brother” look absolutely benevolent.
The “telepathic” crosstalk at the party was great writing.
Now I have to dig it up again, haven’t read it since the early '70’s.
I thought it was really poorly written. I just read that book for the first time a few months ago, and in the end, demolishment didn’t bother me very much because I didn’t give two shits about any of the characters, due to the crappy development of same. The plot was interesting, and if it had been played out by “real” people, I would have been much more involved in the story.
I was never a big science fiction reader, but a few years ago I decided I should check out a few classics of the genre. For some reason, I settled on Bester’s book. The plot was nifty and it moved at a lunatic pace; the problem was it moved too fast. Started to feel like a bad comic book.
I understand its very highly regarded. Unfortunately, my quest for science fiction classics was temporarily aborted there.
If you want a “lunatic pace” you should try his other classic, The Stars My Destination. Which, incidentally, I liked much better; I think Gulliver Foyle is better developed than either Linc Powell or Ben Reich, and some of the concepts just blew me away:
Olivia Presteign, who is blind to visible light but sees in the electromagnetic spectrum
The Science People, a band of primitives who live in an artificial asteroid
The Commando rewiring (is this the first instance of a cyborg? Probably not)
The sensory cross-wiring that Foyle undergoes in the burning cathedral
But the pace is definitely hectic; I think a hectic pace is a defining characteristic of Silver Age science fiction. At least, I can only think of a couple "leisurely’ writers: Silverberg, perhaps, and the later Delaney, and some Vance.