Reading List: Alfred Bester

"Reading List" is a new feature I just made up because I need to get my Spitball! quota out of the way. Whether or not it's a continuing feature is up to time and tide. Also, the link to the forum will take you to the "Books" section of the forum, because, well, that makes sense.

Alfred Bester (1913 - 1987) was a SF writer, best known for two seminal novels, The Demolished Man and The Stars, My Destination. Check out the Wikipedia entry for more info cuz the Shockah aint about no biographical sketches. Instead, Reading List is about how these books might inform The Screenplay.

The Demolished Man takes place in a world where the police force is made up mainly of telepaths, and they're powerful enough that they can tell when someone's going to commit a crime, and can stop them before they do it. (Yeah, it's kinda like Minority Report but with telepathy instead of precognition.) Anyway, the plot is about a billionaire businessman who decides to murder his closest rival, and the steps he takes to get away with it and not get caught by the lead telepathic detective. (Supposedly the guy who did Chopper was going to do a film version; I don't know what happened to it, but I saw it in my head with Michael Douglas and Denzel Washington in the leads. Of course, that would be hideous typecasting.)

The Stars, My Destination is about Gully Foyle, a grunt on a spaceship who survives the destruction of the ship when everyone else dies, and vows revenge on the passing spaceship that neglects to pick him up. Like everyone says, it's basically a riff on The Count of Monte Cristo, as this illiterate, violent man remakes himself into faux-royalty in order to get closer to his object of revenge. (It'd be perfect for Ving Rhames or that guy who played Kingpin in Daredevil. Or even the Rock, come to think of it. But not Vin; he's played out. Sorry, Vin.) Oh, did I mention that, along the way, he ends up on a Prison Planet?

Well, I don't recall the whole planet being a prison, but it's an interesting idea for one: it's a huge cavern network without any lights whatsoever, so the prisoners are functionally blind. And naked, as well. (Wait, maybe that's why Vin would't be such a great choice -- too much like that Riddick guy.) I don't remember how he gets out (I remember he has help from a woman prisoner -- it's coed), but that's kinda what both these Bester books are like -- impossible situations that could only exist in their SF worlds, and the remarkably clever solutions the protagonists devise to solve them. (How do you keep a telepath from learning you want to murder someone? Does "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" mean anything to you?)

So now I'm realizing that it's pretty damn hard to talk about these books in any detail without spoiling them, and they're too good to spoil. One thing, tho, that might be worth stealing being inspired by: Bester's visual imagination. Well, thing is, I don't remember a whole lot of expository description in his books, but I'm left with a definite look in my head. It's kinda Gilliamish, like maybe if Gilliam did Dune. Slightly comic-booky, with vibrant primary colors and basic geometric shapes -- ah! I just realized the look it makes me think of: Moebius. Anyway, for the time being, that's the visual sensibility I think I'll be bringing to Prison Planet. No doubt it will evolve into something else, but that's what I'm starting with. Oh, another thing possibly worth stealing borrowing: The style of his names. Some examples: Gully Foyle. @kins. Peter Y'ang-Yeovil. Presteign of Presteign. Robin Wednesbury. Keno Quizzard. It's like a cross between Dickens and Vonnegut.

Anyway, that's my Public Service Reading Announcement for the day, from a guy who reads like maybe five books a year. Look for my next Reading List installment in about a month -- it'll probably be Alistair Horne's book about the Paris Commune. That could provide a lot of interesting inspiration!