"If you won't let it be merger, then I'll make it murder."

American author Alfred Bester's 1953 zooming supersonic science fiction crime thriller The Demolished Man features power- hungry Ben Reich, corporate tycoon a la Jonas Cord from The Carpetbaggers, moving and shaking and shooting he way through 24th Century New York City and beyond. Action and more action - enough unexpected zigzags to keep any reader guessing. A batch of highlights from this future world:

Brain Peepers: Many thousands of men and women known are Espers and that's "Esper for Extra Sensory Perception," have the unique power of reading minds. These Telepaths take up many roles in society, such as physician and police commissioner. The Espers influence is pervasive - on nearly every page of the novel, these peepers are peeping into the minds of "normal people" (author's language here) or conversing amongst themselves, mind to mind, without the need for speech.

To add complexity to this brain peeping, the Espers are categorized by the level they can penetrate: 3rd Class Espers can peep the conscious mind to discover what the person is thinking at the moment, 2nd Class Espers can peep below the conscious level to the preconscious and 1st Class Espers can peep all the way down to the unconscious, the deepest levels of the mind.

Incidentally, in this 24th century world such Extra Sensory Perception isn't the consequence of specially endowed individuals or futuristic chemical or electrical brain zapping; rather, all women and men have the potential to become Espers but only a sliver of the population receives exotic ESP training from childhood.

If all this peeping sounds like an invasion of privacy, you are spot-on - it most certainly is an invasion of privacy! However, counted among the social benefits is the fact that there hasn't been a premeditated murder in many, many years since peepers can peep the intent to murder in members of society and thus prevent the murder from happening in the first place.

Deep Psychology: Coupled with brain peeping, the characters in the novel pepper their conversation with Freudian terms like id, ego, superego. Sigmund Freud was a huge influence back in the 1950s and Alfred Bester picks up on the prevailing psychological theory in a major way.

The Big Shot and His Specter: Ben Reich (as in Third Reich, perhaps?) has a recurrent nightmare where The Man With No Face constantly appears. The further the story progresses, the more this sinister apparition is connected with Freudian theory. Also connected (ah, Freud!) is Ben's drive to control the financial/business/commercial world, not only in his capacity as head of his Monarch organization but by murdering his main competitor, old man D'Courtney.

But, again, with all the peepers peeping into people's minds, premeditated murder is nearly impossible nowadays. Ben Reich needs help from powerful 1st class Espers to cancel out those other damn Espers working for the police. To this end Ben strong- arms Augustus Tate, one of the world's most powerful Espers, to run interference for him.

Since Tate can only exert his Esper powers when in the same room with Ben, our passionate tycoon with "the killer instinct" requires an additional shield for his murderous mind - an especially potent advertising jingle he can repeat over and over when in the presence of an invasive peeper. Thus he seeks out one of the key creators of such jingles, Duffy Wyg& (more about the crazy spelling below).

By the way, back in the 1950s companies hired psychologies and put heaps of energy into making certain their advertising jingles would be unforgettable, especially when broadcast on that new piece of mind-controlling technology, the television.

Lincoln Powell, Ph.D: Police Perfect and upper-grade Esper (author's term) - Powell is one smart cookie who isn't about to let Ben Reich get away with murder. Following the evil deed, here's an exchange between Powell and Reich that kicks off their cat and mouse game:

Powell shrugged angrily. They both arose. Instinctively, their hands met in the four-way clasp of final farewell.
"I lost a great partner in you," Reich said.
"You lost a great man in yourself, Ben."
"Enemies?"
"Enemies."
It was the beginning of Demolition.

Super Judge: One piece of science fiction technology injected into the mix is the police force's Mosaic Multiplex Prosecution Computer, termed "Old Man Mose," a 24th century stationary robot that calculates a perpetrator's three key elements: motive, method, opportunity to determine the percentage for a successful conviction. Back in the 1950s the computer was in its infancy but forward-thinkers envisioned infinite possibilities for the new calculating tool.

The Unexpected: One of the many unanticipated events in the story is a case of female hysteria. And those 24th century futuristic psychologists give a new twist in their treatment to what was known in the 19th century as déjà éprouvé. Certainly one of the more fascinating bits of Bester's tale.

Nabokov Allusion: I would be remiss if I didn't note how Alfred Bester gives a nod to VN when he characterizes down on his luck former Esper Jerry Church: "The bend sinister of ostracism was the source of his hunger."

Innovative Language: With his sentences in non-liner curlicues and names with both letters and signs - @#%& - it is as if Alfred Bester wanted to underscore his speaking to a new readership rebelling again old pre-1950s mindsets.

Disgusting Cultural Assumptions: Unfortunately, Bester falls into the trap, so pervasive at the time, in his treatment of women and minorities. Growing up in the 1950s myself, I had firsthand experience of such appalling attitudes.

Innovative Novel: The Demolished Man has inspired many sf writers in both New Wave and Cyberpunk. Robert Silverberg judges Bester's novel as among the ten greatest sf novels ever written. I'm relatively new to sf but I can see this is a novel not to be missed by fans of the genre. Also, in its portrayal of 1950s America, not to be overlooked by more general readers.

Two outstanding book covers:





Alfred Bester, 1913 - 1987