The Space Merchants is rightly considered a science fiction classic. Mitchell Courtenay is a successful ad-man in a world run by ad-men, who finds himself discredited and on the run. He avoids assassination attempts and suffers the unpleasant experience of learning how the "other" half (i.e., consumers) live. The book is a pretty blunt indictment of American consumerism, envisioning a dystopian society driven by corporations that use advertising to create consumer needs (for such useful things as "Kiddiebutt" cigarettes for kids).

When I first read it, I found it to be a reasonably entertaining yarn, but somewhat dated. But it's turned out to be one of those books with ideas and images that keep popping up in my memory ("Chicken Little", anyone?). Looking back, I wonder whether I wasn't a bit naive in my initial assessment--in a society where the government helps companies make record profits at the expense of taxpayers and the environment, and those companies and their executives turn around and give massive contributions back to the politicians who run the government, Pohl and Kornbluth's vision of "the Senator from Du Pont" doesn't really seem so far fetched. ( )

A great little known classic. All about
Captalism and marketing gone wild.You drink the soda,it makes you crave potato chips, which makes you want the candy bar, then you crave the chips again.
Very up to date for a book written over 50 years ago. ( )

A trenchant critique of the suffocating consumerism of 1950s America

The Space Merchants protagonist, Mitchell Courtenay, is a high-ranking 'copysmith' with Fowler Shocken Associates, rival of Taunton Associates, a brace of marketing machines which suffuse the 22nd century within which the narrative is set with all-pervasive adverts which suffocate the senses. A global underground resistance movement, the World Conservationist Association, or 'Consies', attempts to undermine their domination. The W.C.A. 'believes that reckless exploitation of natural resources has created needless poverty and needless human misery' which will 'mean the end of human life on Earth' if it continues unchecked. It believes the inexorable decline of humanity can only be reversed 'if the people of the Earth can be educated to the point where they will demand... reforestation, soil-building, deurbanisation, and an end to the wasteful production of gadgets and proprietary foods for which there is no natural demand' (pp. 86-7). In the interim, the race to market the colonisation of Venus is on.

The plot twists interestingly in the middle of the book, where Courtenay's identity is switched and his death faked by what he assumes to be a rival, with an accompanying fall from economic grace. He is recruited by the W.C.A., and rapidly works his way to the top of the organisation with the intention of rising to a point where he may gain access to his former associates and re-establish himself. Courtenay, however, experiences a Pauline conversion to the cause and the work concludes with an ending redolent of Casablanca.

Interesting as the work is as a whole, it is Courtenay's ideological transformations that will grip the 21st century reader. The authors convincingly portray the development of the protagonist from a high priest of consumerism to a clear-sighted critic of the same who learns to 'despise everything for which [he] stood' (p. 155). The former pities the 'sterile zealot' who rejects capitalism and could have 'played his part in the world, buying and using and making work and profits for his brothers all around the globe, ever increasing his wants and needs, ever increasing everybody's work and profits in the circle of consumption, raising children to be consumers in turn' (p. 89). The latter reaches the ineffable conclusion that 'the interests of producers and consumers are not identical... most of the world is unhappy... workmen don't automatically find the job they do best... entrepreneurs don't play a hard, fair game by the rules' (p. 147).

A short work at 186 pp., but one which makes its point economically (no pun intended). Evolution isn't over.

First published on http://sfandfantasymasterworks.blogsp...

Incredibly prescient and a damning indictment of our times. ( )

Awesome book! Hard to believe this was written like 50+ years ago, because it is so incredibly relevant to our modern times. For example: it takes a look at the dangers of imperialistic corporations & greed, the plight of workers and the ungodly conditions under which some of them have to work, the clear and unmistakeable division of class in society, the total lack of concern for the environment and the treatment of those who care about it and want change. Good grief! To say that it was way ahead of its time is an understatement; this man was nearly prophetic! I love when I find something like this. It's rare, but it happens.

here's just a little synopsis:
Mitch Courtenay is an incredibly savvy and successful ad man in a New York of the future. He and others like him have perfected the art of advertising so that you can't go anywhere or do anything without ads blaring at you or getting to you in some subliminal fashion, making you want to buy things. The "Consies" (conservationists) are a radical group of people who are all about saving the environment -- they are an illegal group who are somewhat along the lines of greenpeace: protesting regularly, trying to disrupt the work of corporations, and have members everywhere. Mitch's company has decided that they are going to make a fortune by convincing the public that they really want to go live on Venus, never mind that it's virtually uninhabitable. The boss puts Mitch in charge of the campaign, and this is where all of his problems begin.

I wont' say more, but I think this is probably a book worth reading -- very very relevant. Very well written. ( )