Idiots in the Machine

Infobox Book |
name = Idiots in the Machine
title_orig =
translator =


author = Edward Savio
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Babelfish Press
release_date = 2001
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-9706730-0-0
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Idiots in the Machine" is a darkly comic 2001 novel by Edward Savio about a man who is inadvertently dragged into the media spotlight. The central character, Noel "Satan" Dorobek, is a reclusive near-genius who gets his nickname because he believes there are people living inside the earth, and that this is the "Eden" we were cast out of. Because he believes wearing tin foil keeps him safe from harmful gamma rays, he becomes a media sensation by marketing a successful line of tin-foil hats. The story is set in the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois.

Notes

Savio was inspired to write "Idiots" after stumbling upon John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces". As Savio notes in his acknowledgement, the first two paragraphs of "Idiots" are an homage to Toole's opening.

"Idiots in the Machine" was actually sold as a movie before it was sold as a novel. Although it is common for film rights to be purchased before publication, Sony Pictures purchased the film rights for Academy Award-winning producer Wendy Finerman six years before the novel was published [Daily Variety. November 20th, 1995, Front Page.] . Savio has said in interviews that after writing several screenplay versions, he went back and rewrote the novel.

Film Adaptation

Although purchased by Sony Pictures in 1995 [Daily Variety. November 20th, 1995, Front Page.] , no film has yet been made. At one point Chris Farley was rumored for the lead role. He died in 1997, while Savio was completing the final screenplay draft. The pivotal scene in the novel takes place atop the John Hancock Center, which, coincidentally, is where Farley was found dead in his apartment on the 60th floor. [cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE6D81630F930A35752C0A96E958260|title=Chris Farley's Death Laid to Drug Overdose|date=1998-01-03|publisher="New York Times"|accessdate=2008-06-07]

ee also

* Tin foil hats in pop culture

Notes and references