The Space Merchants

The Space Merchants was originally published in 1952, that’s 73 years ago, and it always boggles my mind to think about that. In this novel we follow the perspective of Mitchell Courtenay, a “star class copysmith” who is quickly rising to the top of an advertising company, that is pretty much ruling the world at this point.

Most people are consumers, with horrible lives and repetitive work, endlessly paying off debts that will only grow as they keep on existing. It is a sad reality that is not quite fiction in today’s world.

This book is a satire, a style I hadn’t really read before. Most events and characters are bizarre and somewhat foolish. The protagonist will say the most outlandish stuff as a matter of fact, when it comes to how humans can be controlled and suggested, it sounds ironic, and kind of funny, and at the same time, terrifyingly accurate. There were a few quotes I found quite thought provoking, which I’ll share later.

Courtenay’s next venture: a propaganda campaign to get people convinced that Venus rules. Even though the planet is absolutely not suitable for human life, he is doing everything to change public perception, so Venus is seen as the next frontier where Humanity shall expand to.

However, things will not go as planned, as there’s a conspiracy against him that will strip him of his identity and privilege, and he’ll end up at the the bottom of the barrel, forced to work as a slave and experience the life of a consumer.

Of course, as this guy is kind of smart, he’ll work his way up and try to uncover this conspiracy, by inflitrating the Consies, a faction of “terrorists” that opposes the consummerism of the modern world.

The way this book goes from A to B to C is quite remarkable. There will be some loose ends, but none of them matter that much. The point is how the protagonist evolves and changes after facing different sides of society and how it works.

A lot of the themes in the book remain incredibly relevant to this day, the idea of consummerism and corporations out of control, the overpopulation of the planet and the scarcity of resources, the inequality of the economic landscape and everything else. It has barely dated at all in those regards.

However, the science aspects of it can be a little hit or miss, although I think that’s just kind of charming. Computers don’t exist, basically everyone is addicted to smoking, phones just work as they did in the 50s. There are things I didn’t even understand because of how dated it is. According to some summaries I saw, rockets are being used as a transportation method within the planet? I didn’t even get that while reading, I just assumed they were regular planes. All those issues can be easily overlooked, if a little confusing some times.

The one thing I thought was kind of weird, is the romance, of course there’s a romance. However, it really isn’t that bad, and the satirical tone of the whole thing helps a lot to not take it super seriously either. I was barely annoyed by it, I’m only bringing it up because there’s little else to complain about.

Overall, I really got hooked by this book as soon as I returned to it, I think it’s worth checking out, entertaining, thought provoking, and a roller coaster filled with twists and turns that lead to pretty crazy places. I highly recommend it.

This 1952 novel has new currency in the age of surveillance capitalism. Pohl and Kornbluth conjure a dystopian future where the advertising industry has come to dominate human affairs. Politicians no longer represent districts, they are instead controlled by one of several all-powerful advertising conglomerates. Anyone who speaks against sales and marketing is immediately suspect as some sort of traitor or terrorist. When a new industrial project is developed, it is not owned by the traditional industrial leaders, like the factory maven or the shareholders. Instead, the company which advertises the product has control.

The biggest ad agency takes it to a new level when an international plan is hatched to modernise and industrialise India. The ad company ends up effectively running the country, which is now referred to as "Indiastries". Then they move on to the ultimate prize - the colonisation of Venus. The dream/nightmare is of a whole planet where all affairs are completely dominated by advertising from the very first day the colony is established.

In 1952 the authors couldn't conceive of the internet, but the coercive control advertising now has over populations hypnotised by their personalised social media feeds, is redolent of the world Pohl and Kornbluth describe. The Martian fantasies of certain ego-maniacal billionaires in the real world of 2023 also make the scenario in this novel seem prophetic.

I knock off a star because the second half of the book loses some of the compelling storytelling rhythm established in the opening. But for its prescience this is well worth a read.

Everyone said it before and I am saying it too... This is Mad men thrown into a pulp SF blender with glorious results. Frankly for it's writing I would give this book only 3 stars, but I was in the mood for some light SF cheese and anti corporate messaging and this book delivered.

I was greatly surprised to find the anti corporate and nature preservationist sentiments in a book from the 50s. "When we look back we also look down" (I can't remember whose quote this is so please tell me in the comments so I can add it). I always have to remind myself of this quote to remember that we are not dealing with all of this just now, it is a long fight, and not all of the people in the 50s were just repeating propaganda and ads instead of speaking. I mean People had to be aware of these issues back in the 50s in other to fight for them in the 60s. We have to commend Frederik Pohl for being in the forefront of these issues and viciously mocking both the "executives" and "consumers" all the while creating this particular type of dystopia in the 50s long before anyone could dream of Cyberpunk Hellscapes.

And to think he first started work on his novel during WWII set in New York featuring men working in advertising. Coming home he realized what he had written was quite bad and that he knew nothing about advertising, so he made sure to get a job in an advertising agency and he worked for 3 years for research purposes while writing SF on the side... What a Man!