The winner and new... by Ib Melchior
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The winner and new... by Ib Melchior is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. It satirizes mass media, consumerism, and politics through a high-stakes television quiz show where knowledge becomes spectacle and the ultimate prize is national power. A flamboyant emcee hosts a colossal live quiz in a stadium and before a vast TV audience, complete with glamorous ads and a computer that selects questions. The long-reigning champion,
a timid philatelist named Monroe, faces a confident challenger, James Burton, who chooses Mars as his category. Sealed in force-fields to prevent any outside help, they trade increasingly difficult questions—ranging from Martian geography and biology to obscure stamp lore—while the tension mounts. After hours, Monroe finally misses a deceptively simple stamp question, his force-field implodes, and he vanishes; the emcee then proclaims Burton “the Winner and New President of the United States,” revealing the show’s chilling premise and the story’s sharp critique of entertainment-driven governance. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Melchior, Ib, 1917-2015 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Moritz, Edward, 1903-1975 |
| Title | The winner and new... |
| Original Publication | New York: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1956. |
| Credits | Tom Trussel (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Luminist Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Television game shows -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78073 |
| Release Date | Feb 28, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 5995 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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