The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
SF masterworks Paperback, 244 pages
Published 2010
by Gollancz
(first published 1956)
During my early years of SF reading between the years when I was in middle school through my freshman year of college, I tried to read as many classics and canon of science fiction as I could. I had read Bester’s The Demolished Man at that time and while liked it I wasn’t sure I was ready for this one and kept putting it off. Two things really pushed me to finally read it. New Wave author Barry Malzberg who I have great respect for called Bester the best to have written in the genre. In our interview on Dickheads he also said “He was a son of bitch but he was also the best of us and I loved him.”
Then another guest of the podcast D.Harlan Wilson wrote an entire book as a critical companion to this novel, and I knew I would have to have him back. I believe in the canon of science fiction for the most part. I think everyone who takes the genre's history seriously as I do should read specific titles and know this was one. At first, I was a bit worried that the hype was going ruin this book for me. I do think I had my bar set very high.
For the first 60 pages or so I was totally sold, in the middle I felt it dragged a bit and then Bester absolutely stuck the landing with a powerful ending. Much has been said about the timeless nature of the text. Some SF novels show their era and that adds to the charm. City by Clifford Simak feels 200% a product of the 50s and out of date. Even in that decade, City had an old-school pulpy feel. It is part of the charm. The ideas come from a writer who was already an elder statesman of the community at that time. A Canticle for Lebowitz is an example of a novel that could’ve been written in the 50s, 60s, or today. Nothing about it feels dated. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is another one that besides the mention of the nuclear war of 1976 would otherwise feel timeless.
TSMD is somewhere in between but I think rooting it in 1955 is part of the charm. Let’s face it Bester who was not comfortable with the New Wave label but he was also as different from the Simaks and Heinleins of the scene as you could be. He was brash and allegedly left his literary rights to his bartender.
Considering that we are still in the era when Elvis shaking his hips was causing outrage this novel is punk as hell. I mean he has a guy with tribal tiger stripe tattoos and Nomad on his forehead. Teleportation and all kinds of other ahead of its time stuff. As an SF updating of the Count of Monte Cristo it works. It riffs on Frankenstein and the Island of Dr. Moreau. As a work of SF, the meta-commentary is one of the things that really makes the novel special.
“You can tell when a Hollywood historical film was made by looking at the eye makeup of the leading ladies, and you can tell the date of an old science fiction novel by every word on the page. Nothing dates harder and faster and more strangely than the future.”
That was a little on the nose, but most of the commentary is more subtle. Bester was not only telling the story he wanted to but he was commenting on the genre as a whole at the same time. At times TSMD pokes fun at or looks at the construction of SF in general. In this sense, it went over the heads of many readers and critics but was not lost on the next generation of writers inspired by it. Neil Gaiman and William Gibson are the most often quoted but their generation of writers just wouldn’t exist without TSMD. That is what we mean by canon when we talk about genres. It is one of the reasons Professor D.Harlan Wilson was able to quite easily fill 133 pages of a companion book that I am currently reading. The novel comments on the revenge story, the mad scientist, the magical supermen stories (that Campbell loved in SF), and flawed heroes.
At the same time, the book is at its worst when race and gender are involved. I make no excuses for this, it is the unfortunate nature of the book’s in the era. Even the otherwise really genius ones. Most Science fiction novels envision a clean progressive future when technology advances. Bester invents a world where teleportation (Jaunt) has become normal and this future is not clean as you might think.
The comparisons to cyberpunk that it clearly inspired come mostly from the connections Jaunting creates. The way our world becomes interconnected online, this future is connected to the mental power to move anywhere with the whim of a thought.
“This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living, and hard dying... but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice... but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.”
Many of the golden age authors were not able to give their novels the sharp edges needed for a work like this. It is clear that Bester was inspired by the same author as Philip K. Dick at the time, the difference between Bester, PKD and Van Vogt is coherence. Bester knew the novel he was writing and was not plotting by dreams or the IChing.
Early in the novel Gully's isolation and pain at being left to die hit me hard. Sure if the novel was a simple revenge tale I would have still enjoyed it. We have seen revenge tales before and on the journey Gully changes into a complete and totally different person. Along the way, his journey becomes a window to look at how humanity meets this future. He has to learn language, and in himself to become more than human.
"Stop treating them like children. Explain the loaded gun to them. Bring it all out into the open." Foyle laughed savagely. "I've ended the last star-chamber conference in the world. I've blown that last secret wide open. No more secrets from now on.... No more telling the children what's best for them to know.... Let 'em all grow up. It's about time."
"Christ, he is insane."
"Am I? I've handed life and death back to the people who do the living and the dying. The common man's been whipped and led long enough by driven men like us.... Compulsive men... Tiger men who can't help lashing the world before them. We're all tigers, the three of us, but who the hell are we to make decisions for the world just because we're compulsive? Let the world make its own choice between life and death. Why should we be saddled with the responsibility?"
Science fiction at its strongest tells stories that balance character and ideas in a way no other genre can. It takes situations or settings impossible in the real world and holds a mirror up to the character and ideas. If novels don’t have that balance like say Foundation by Asimov it can present ideas but often people don’t finish reading that book. It needs characters.
TSMD is ALMOST the complete package. The problem comes in the things that have not aged well. The paper-thin female characters, the implications of rape are not OK ever. Bester himself dismissed the idea of love stories therefore the sexuality in his books has a cringe-inducing edge to them. These are minor parts so it could be easy to miss them. By the time you are done with the novel so many ideas have been thrown your way, it would be easy to forget the awful misogyny which is minor but sadly there.
Bester tries to handle race by suggesting that jaunting has put an end to racial divides by ending the differences. In the pages after suggesting that racial prejudice is gone, we see evidence of it in the author. Jisabella is described as Red, suggesting that she is Native American in a cringey way. Robin Wednesday is black, so for the lip service he gives to race is a thing of the past stereotypes are not.
TSMD is not forgiven for those moments, but someone reading for entertainment, not to write a detailed review, or record a podcast might not notice those elements. They are minor compared to the overall story. This book is a SF masterwork for sure, and for all the flaws the strengths outweigh them. This novel is canon and should be. In the end, Gully transcends space and time and becomes a god-like being. Few novels could pull off this ending, but as Gully’s journey which starts with him being left for dead, without language to a person who can with his mind can travel the universe is the ultimate SF pay-off. Remember Bester is looking at SF as a genre, so his character is like a science fiction writer, he is using his mind to travel time and space.
In the book's opening, Bester suggests that one needs faith to jaunte. Once Gully believes in himself and his own power he becomes limitless. Hero’s journey. Revenge tale. Genius science fiction years ahead of the genre.
D.Harlan Wilson's companion book is awesome...
Then another guest of the podcast D.Harlan Wilson wrote an entire book as a critical companion to this novel, and I knew I would have to have him back. I believe in the canon of science fiction for the most part. I think everyone who takes the genre's history seriously as I do should read specific titles and know this was one. At first, I was a bit worried that the hype was going ruin this book for me. I do think I had my bar set very high.
For the first 60 pages or so I was totally sold, in the middle I felt it dragged a bit and then Bester absolutely stuck the landing with a powerful ending. Much has been said about the timeless nature of the text. Some SF novels show their era and that adds to the charm. City by Clifford Simak feels 200% a product of the 50s and out of date. Even in that decade, City had an old-school pulpy feel. It is part of the charm. The ideas come from a writer who was already an elder statesman of the community at that time. A Canticle for Lebowitz is an example of a novel that could’ve been written in the 50s, 60s, or today. Nothing about it feels dated. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is another one that besides the mention of the nuclear war of 1976 would otherwise feel timeless.
TSMD is somewhere in between but I think rooting it in 1955 is part of the charm. Let’s face it Bester who was not comfortable with the New Wave label but he was also as different from the Simaks and Heinleins of the scene as you could be. He was brash and allegedly left his literary rights to his bartender.
Considering that we are still in the era when Elvis shaking his hips was causing outrage this novel is punk as hell. I mean he has a guy with tribal tiger stripe tattoos and Nomad on his forehead. Teleportation and all kinds of other ahead of its time stuff. As an SF updating of the Count of Monte Cristo it works. It riffs on Frankenstein and the Island of Dr. Moreau. As a work of SF, the meta-commentary is one of the things that really makes the novel special.
“You can tell when a Hollywood historical film was made by looking at the eye makeup of the leading ladies, and you can tell the date of an old science fiction novel by every word on the page. Nothing dates harder and faster and more strangely than the future.”
That was a little on the nose, but most of the commentary is more subtle. Bester was not only telling the story he wanted to but he was commenting on the genre as a whole at the same time. At times TSMD pokes fun at or looks at the construction of SF in general. In this sense, it went over the heads of many readers and critics but was not lost on the next generation of writers inspired by it. Neil Gaiman and William Gibson are the most often quoted but their generation of writers just wouldn’t exist without TSMD. That is what we mean by canon when we talk about genres. It is one of the reasons Professor D.Harlan Wilson was able to quite easily fill 133 pages of a companion book that I am currently reading. The novel comments on the revenge story, the mad scientist, the magical supermen stories (that Campbell loved in SF), and flawed heroes.
At the same time, the book is at its worst when race and gender are involved. I make no excuses for this, it is the unfortunate nature of the book’s in the era. Even the otherwise really genius ones. Most Science fiction novels envision a clean progressive future when technology advances. Bester invents a world where teleportation (Jaunt) has become normal and this future is not clean as you might think.
The comparisons to cyberpunk that it clearly inspired come mostly from the connections Jaunting creates. The way our world becomes interconnected online, this future is connected to the mental power to move anywhere with the whim of a thought.
“This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living, and hard dying... but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice... but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.”
Many of the golden age authors were not able to give their novels the sharp edges needed for a work like this. It is clear that Bester was inspired by the same author as Philip K. Dick at the time, the difference between Bester, PKD and Van Vogt is coherence. Bester knew the novel he was writing and was not plotting by dreams or the IChing.
Early in the novel Gully's isolation and pain at being left to die hit me hard. Sure if the novel was a simple revenge tale I would have still enjoyed it. We have seen revenge tales before and on the journey Gully changes into a complete and totally different person. Along the way, his journey becomes a window to look at how humanity meets this future. He has to learn language, and in himself to become more than human.
"Stop treating them like children. Explain the loaded gun to them. Bring it all out into the open." Foyle laughed savagely. "I've ended the last star-chamber conference in the world. I've blown that last secret wide open. No more secrets from now on.... No more telling the children what's best for them to know.... Let 'em all grow up. It's about time."
"Christ, he is insane."
"Am I? I've handed life and death back to the people who do the living and the dying. The common man's been whipped and led long enough by driven men like us.... Compulsive men... Tiger men who can't help lashing the world before them. We're all tigers, the three of us, but who the hell are we to make decisions for the world just because we're compulsive? Let the world make its own choice between life and death. Why should we be saddled with the responsibility?"
Science fiction at its strongest tells stories that balance character and ideas in a way no other genre can. It takes situations or settings impossible in the real world and holds a mirror up to the character and ideas. If novels don’t have that balance like say Foundation by Asimov it can present ideas but often people don’t finish reading that book. It needs characters.
TSMD is ALMOST the complete package. The problem comes in the things that have not aged well. The paper-thin female characters, the implications of rape are not OK ever. Bester himself dismissed the idea of love stories therefore the sexuality in his books has a cringe-inducing edge to them. These are minor parts so it could be easy to miss them. By the time you are done with the novel so many ideas have been thrown your way, it would be easy to forget the awful misogyny which is minor but sadly there.
Bester tries to handle race by suggesting that jaunting has put an end to racial divides by ending the differences. In the pages after suggesting that racial prejudice is gone, we see evidence of it in the author. Jisabella is described as Red, suggesting that she is Native American in a cringey way. Robin Wednesday is black, so for the lip service he gives to race is a thing of the past stereotypes are not.
TSMD is not forgiven for those moments, but someone reading for entertainment, not to write a detailed review, or record a podcast might not notice those elements. They are minor compared to the overall story. This book is a SF masterwork for sure, and for all the flaws the strengths outweigh them. This novel is canon and should be. In the end, Gully transcends space and time and becomes a god-like being. Few novels could pull off this ending, but as Gully’s journey which starts with him being left for dead, without language to a person who can with his mind can travel the universe is the ultimate SF pay-off. Remember Bester is looking at SF as a genre, so his character is like a science fiction writer, he is using his mind to travel time and space.
In the book's opening, Bester suggests that one needs faith to jaunte. Once Gully believes in himself and his own power he becomes limitless. Hero’s journey. Revenge tale. Genius science fiction years ahead of the genre.
D.Harlan Wilson's companion book is awesome...
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