The Demolished Man (Alfred Bester)

‘The Demolished Man’, set in the 24th century (2301-2400), pre-meditated murder has been abolished. It is not that people do not have murderous thoughts, crimes of passion still occur. Mankind has begun to harvest latent abilities in the human mind. Telepaths, known as Espers, are globally recognized and have formed a society inside our own.

It is the existence of these telepathic individuals that deters murder. How can you avoid being “demolished” if the details of the murder you commit are easily read by a man standing next to you? How can you commit the murder in the first place, if someone walking down the street can hear your mind as you plan the details?

Ben Reich, owner of Monarch Enterprises, contacts his rival businessman Craye d’Courtney and requests that they merge corporations. It would be of benefit to them both, and makes sense. Unfortunately, after d’Courtney responds, Reich misinterprets the coded positive reply. In a fit of anger, Reich has decided to find a way to kill d’Courtney.

The concern is how to do this with out being caught. If he can beat out the telepaths, keep? the police off balance, and avoid tainting himself.. it could all work out.

There are a number of elements that really stood out for me while reading this-

The Existence and organization of Espers:
Seemingly an amalgam of various worker’s unions, the Espers (telepaths) have adopted a bastardized Hippocratic Oath to keep their society and selves in line. Nicknamed “Peepers” for their ability to Peep into the brains of others, they walk a fine line of being loathed and revered. They need these structures for safety sake.

Peepers work in all branches of life. Class 3 peeps (the lowest ability) work as assistants, secretaries, and a number of other positions where additional clarity and quick response times are appreciated. Level2 Espers find work as researchers, policemen, corporate anti-piracy bagmen, private dicks, etc. Level1 being the more obscure of the three, is highly sought after they are the peepers that other Espers cannot read the minds of (easily).

Ear Worms:
Ear Worms are what we call songs, and jingles these days that get stuck in your head for long periods of time. Not referred to in this manner in the book, they do serve as an interesting tool. It has to be pretty difficult to filter through all the garbage in people’s minds. How hard would it be for a mind reader who has to combat against addictive loops of structured words and jingles?

Typeset and book lay out:
This would be a difficult book to read in digital format. At points, the layout and structure of the page is imperative. For example, in one scene, a room of telepaths are having a party. They are excited and having telepathic discussions, but none of them are following a standard protocol for communication. the page show the cluttered way in which words are mashed together if they fail to work together, reading each others minds in tandem-

Frankly                     Canapes?                    Why
   Ellery                     Thanks    delicious     yes,
      I                           Mary, they're     Tate,
       Don't                                      I'm
         Think                                treating
           You'll          Canapes?           D'Courtney.
 We            Be                                    I
brought         Working                             Expect
  Galen           For                                  him
    along          Monarch                                in
       to           Much   Canapes?                        town
help him celebrate     Longer.                              shortly.
                He's      The
          just taken his Guild
                         is   exam
                      just       and
                     about         been
                     to              classed

After they realize exactly how disorganized they are, they solidify into a more structured thought process, even playing games where thoughts would be drawn out into designs and images.

Sorry, Lincoln.    We weren't party-minded   Enough
Tate               thought                   Esper
but                Alan                      Men
I'm                Seaver                    remaining
Not that a Pres    was ever elected still    unmarried

Hugo Award:
‘The Demolished Man’ is the first book to ever receive the Hugo Award for science fiction in 1953. The relevancy of this is pretty awesome as this book was very much ahead of it’s time.

• Mass Market Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: New American Library / A Signet Book; 3rd printing of 1st PB ed.; edition (1953)

About the Author:
from Wikipedia- "Alfred 'Alfie' Bester (December 18, 1913 - September 30, 1987) was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. Though successful in all these fields, he is probably best remembered today for his work as a science fiction author [...]"

Having written a small grip of books, but primarily short stories and scripts, you can find reference to his work all over the science fiction genre. Typically these references are pretty slueth, but in some cases, they are right out in the open. For example, the Psi-Cop on Babylon-5 named "Alfred Bester" (played by Walter Koenig) or the original mechanic of the Serenity (on Firefly) who was also named Bester. Stephen King references Bester's work in a number of places. Basically, if you are a genre fan and not familiar with his work, you should become familiar, as you will not regret it.

Bester lost a significant portion of his eye sight by the mid seventies and slowly limited his work. Health became more of an issue as years progressed. Bester died in 1987 due to complications with a hip injury.

Two of his novels were published posthumously, including one which was co-authored by Roger Zelazny, and published after he died, making a double post-death collaboration..