In a world taken over by advertising, where a vote has more weight depending on the wealth of the person who cast it, nations only exist in order for trade to take place, and the Earth is almost used up, what's an adman to do?
Mitch Courtenay works for Fowler-Schocken associates, one of the more powerful PR companies in the futuristic world he inhabits. At one point, Mitch describes exactly how powerful they are to Jack O'Shea, an astronaut who insists that he doesn't fall for it.
All of Jack's clothes and luggage are Starr brand, the brand sold by Fowler-Schocken. Jack threatens to go straight home and throw his luggage away, replacing it with that of their rivals. Mitch doesn't doubt this, but he explains that the power of their advertisements means that Starr are viewed as the best. Although Jack may put up with his second rate luggage for a while, he'll start to notice problems, and one day, with an odd sort of amnesia relating to this conversation, he'll replace it all with Starr brand; the brand that's seen as more successful, more virile, and just better, all due to Fowler-Schocken. Jack doesn't disagree.
Later on, another example of this is shown. The Earth is slowly running out of it's natural resources, and things like real roast beef and coffee are expensive and difficult-to-obtain delights. Instead there is Coffiest, a cheap replacement which contains a small amount of an addictive drug. Completely legal, this will result in an addiction to the product in anyone who drinks it for any length of time. Another element of this is association. When someone drinks Popsie (something equivalent to a soft drink, apparently), they will crave Starr cigarettes. The cigarettes will spark a craving for a kind of confectionery. And the sweets will lead you right back to Popsie.
Because of all this, Fowler-Schocken are so powerful that they've been given what is possibly an advertisers ultimate coup - the rights to attract colonists to Venus.
Venus is, at first, an incredibly inhospitable planet. The first colonists will have to live in severe discomfort for generations, while the planet is terraformed, and Mitch's job is to make this concept seem attractive.
This job isn't easy, though. Although Mitch uses all the tools available to him - rumours, posters, subliminal adverts, rhymes, gossip, and more traditional techniques - he has other things to worry about. Like his companies rivals, who've been known to kill men for less. Like the Consies.
Consies are conservationists, and, in this world, they are akin to terrorists. Most people can't even comprehend the ideals that Consies believe in. After all, who cares if the topsoil of the Earth is destroyed? It can be replaced. Who cares if roast beef is now expensive? Chicken Little is cheap. Even the people who study the consies in order to avoid attacks and demonstrations don't understand them.
Speaking of Chicken Little, it's a cheap and ingenious replacement for other kinds of meat (along with soya substitutes). Chicken Little is a mass of living tissue around a heart. Keeping it fed with all the nutrients it needs and slicing off the meat which is ready is a dangerous job (although still safer than working in todays meat packing plants), and recruitment for it is akin to press-ganging with a touch of debtors hell to keep them there.
The book is told entirely in first person, and so a major focus of the book is Mitch's complicated and changing relationship with his wife and his boss, the owner of Fowler-Schocken, who could be said to think of Mitch as equivalent to a son.
The book is written by joint others, Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. This is relatively uncommon, for two authors to work together, although for Pohl and Kornbluth, it seems they worked together extremely well. They did so often, anyway. Unlike the Neil Gaimen/Terry Pratchett joint work, Good Omens, where, in the first few chapters at least, there was a clear difference between the two writing styles, Pohl and Kornbluth manage to create an invisible seam. Unfortunately, due to Kornbluth's tragically early death at the age of 36, the sequel to this book was written by Pohl alone. It'll be interesting to see how he manages it.
Although the book was written in 1952, there's a clear correlation between the events an the world shown in the book, and that of the film Fast Food Nation. Both contain an adman in a corrupt business, with conservations threatened and persecuted. The link obviously isn't intentional, but it's an odd and slightly scary coincidence.
In summary, I loved The Space Merchants. Pohl and Kornbluth are both masters of the sci-fi genre. The book is fairly short, but manages to get a good amount of plot into the space. The changes in Mitch's character are dramatic but perfectly logical and believable, and the book is way ahead of it's time, with it's discussion of issues which are only now beginning to achieve mainstream importance, such as the conservation of natural resources, and overpopulation.
Mitch Courtenay works for Fowler-Schocken associates, one of the more powerful PR companies in the futuristic world he inhabits. At one point, Mitch describes exactly how powerful they are to Jack O'Shea, an astronaut who insists that he doesn't fall for it.
All of Jack's clothes and luggage are Starr brand, the brand sold by Fowler-Schocken. Jack threatens to go straight home and throw his luggage away, replacing it with that of their rivals. Mitch doesn't doubt this, but he explains that the power of their advertisements means that Starr are viewed as the best. Although Jack may put up with his second rate luggage for a while, he'll start to notice problems, and one day, with an odd sort of amnesia relating to this conversation, he'll replace it all with Starr brand; the brand that's seen as more successful, more virile, and just better, all due to Fowler-Schocken. Jack doesn't disagree.
Later on, another example of this is shown. The Earth is slowly running out of it's natural resources, and things like real roast beef and coffee are expensive and difficult-to-obtain delights. Instead there is Coffiest, a cheap replacement which contains a small amount of an addictive drug. Completely legal, this will result in an addiction to the product in anyone who drinks it for any length of time. Another element of this is association. When someone drinks Popsie (something equivalent to a soft drink, apparently), they will crave Starr cigarettes. The cigarettes will spark a craving for a kind of confectionery. And the sweets will lead you right back to Popsie.
Because of all this, Fowler-Schocken are so powerful that they've been given what is possibly an advertisers ultimate coup - the rights to attract colonists to Venus.
Venus is, at first, an incredibly inhospitable planet. The first colonists will have to live in severe discomfort for generations, while the planet is terraformed, and Mitch's job is to make this concept seem attractive.
This job isn't easy, though. Although Mitch uses all the tools available to him - rumours, posters, subliminal adverts, rhymes, gossip, and more traditional techniques - he has other things to worry about. Like his companies rivals, who've been known to kill men for less. Like the Consies.
Consies are conservationists, and, in this world, they are akin to terrorists. Most people can't even comprehend the ideals that Consies believe in. After all, who cares if the topsoil of the Earth is destroyed? It can be replaced. Who cares if roast beef is now expensive? Chicken Little is cheap. Even the people who study the consies in order to avoid attacks and demonstrations don't understand them.
Speaking of Chicken Little, it's a cheap and ingenious replacement for other kinds of meat (along with soya substitutes). Chicken Little is a mass of living tissue around a heart. Keeping it fed with all the nutrients it needs and slicing off the meat which is ready is a dangerous job (although still safer than working in todays meat packing plants), and recruitment for it is akin to press-ganging with a touch of debtors hell to keep them there.
The book is told entirely in first person, and so a major focus of the book is Mitch's complicated and changing relationship with his wife and his boss, the owner of Fowler-Schocken, who could be said to think of Mitch as equivalent to a son.
The book is written by joint others, Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. This is relatively uncommon, for two authors to work together, although for Pohl and Kornbluth, it seems they worked together extremely well. They did so often, anyway. Unlike the Neil Gaimen/Terry Pratchett joint work, Good Omens, where, in the first few chapters at least, there was a clear difference between the two writing styles, Pohl and Kornbluth manage to create an invisible seam. Unfortunately, due to Kornbluth's tragically early death at the age of 36, the sequel to this book was written by Pohl alone. It'll be interesting to see how he manages it.
Although the book was written in 1952, there's a clear correlation between the events an the world shown in the book, and that of the film Fast Food Nation. Both contain an adman in a corrupt business, with conservations threatened and persecuted. The link obviously isn't intentional, but it's an odd and slightly scary coincidence.
In summary, I loved The Space Merchants. Pohl and Kornbluth are both masters of the sci-fi genre. The book is fairly short, but manages to get a good amount of plot into the space. The changes in Mitch's character are dramatic but perfectly logical and believable, and the book is way ahead of it's time, with it's discussion of issues which are only now beginning to achieve mainstream importance, such as the conservation of natural resources, and overpopulation.
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