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metaphorosis's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews
Advertising runs the world, and Mitch Courtney is a Star Class Copysmith. Sure, he faces trouble with his contract wife, who has Conservationist sympathies, and refuses to move in with him, but Mitch is a man on his way up. When he's assigned the task of selling hot, inhospitable Venus as a settlers' paradise, things start to go wrong, and he finds out just what it's like to be on the outside for once.
The Space Merchants is everything you could want in a satire of the advertising industry, and of corporate power in general. Yes, its attitudes are considerably dated, but then it's over 60 years old: Mitch is clever and resourceful; his wife is beautiful and clever; his secretary is adoring and loyal. It all works pretty well regardless, with a neat skewering of brand idolatry, fear of communists, and other themes that work just as well today as they did in the mid-20th century. Pohl and Kornbluth make a few missteps in characterization - Hester, the secretary, gets a much thinner treatment than she deserves, but largely the concept works.
This is a deserved classic of science fiction, and one that deserves rediscovery. Plus, it's a light quick read. Recommended.
Advertising runs the world, and Mitch Courtney is a Star Class Copysmith. Sure, he faces trouble with his contract wife, who has Conservationist sympathies, and refuses to move in with him, but Mitch is a man on his way up. When he's assigned the task of selling hot, inhospitable Venus as a settlers' paradise, things start to go wrong, and he finds out just what it's like to be on the outside for once.
The Space Merchants is everything you could want in a satire of the advertising industry, and of corporate power in general. Yes, its attitudes are considerably dated, but then it's over 60 years old: Mitch is clever and resourceful; his wife is beautiful and clever; his secretary is adoring and loyal. It all works pretty well regardless, with a neat skewering of brand idolatry, fear of communists, and other themes that work just as well today as they did in the mid-20th century. Pohl and Kornbluth make a few missteps in characterization - Hester, the secretary, gets a much thinner treatment than she deserves, but largely the concept works.
This is a deserved classic of science fiction, and one that deserves rediscovery. Plus, it's a light quick read. Recommended.
wynwicket's review against another edition
4.0
What was science fiction in 1952 could almost read as contemporary fiction today: a world in which big business controls the wealth and the government, advertisements in the media control people's minds, and interpersonal relationships are based on what someone can do for you... In the middle of this, one corporation is trying to colonize Venus as a publicity stunt.
Very cynical, very prophetic -- a good, if not a happy read. And definitely does not feel like it's 60 years old.
Very cynical, very prophetic -- a good, if not a happy read. And definitely does not feel like it's 60 years old.
bloodravenlib's review against another edition
4.0
I read this back in 2004. It was one of those scifi classics I had meant to read for a while. I finally got to it, and it was definitely worth it. As it often happens, the edition I have does not match the covers here, so I just picked one that looked nice. I got my copy second hand, a nice one with a nice cartoon-like character on the cover that looks like a very good ad man. Very appropriate. Overall, this is one to read, and it is still very relevant today.
crowcity's review
adventurous
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
larsinio's review against another edition
4.0
Started off as 5 stars, 4 by the end.
Pleasantly surprised - fun & interesting story, vivid characters and settings, cool future extrapolation and satire that roughly looks like the hypercapatalist USA of today.
Too many juggling plot threads and not enough satire by the end disrupts an otherwise enjoyable book. A lot of story here in a very short space.
Pleasantly surprised - fun & interesting story, vivid characters and settings, cool future extrapolation and satire that roughly looks like the hypercapatalist USA of today.
Too many juggling plot threads and not enough satire by the end disrupts an otherwise enjoyable book. A lot of story here in a very short space.
jenn_the_unicorn's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
scottsterpa's review against another edition
4.0
Obviously, this book is significantly dated, people of the time just on the verge of imagining some amazing things. Very little of what we'd currently call science fiction is in this book; the scifi elements are mostly the backdrop against some incisive social commentary which is very relevant for both that time and this. Purely as scifi I'd score this only 3/4 stars, but it's what the authors are saying as social criticism that pushes it higher.
Though this book was written in the early '50s, my mind couldn't help but go forward more than a decade, to the set of television's "Bewitched." I watched that show a lot as a kid. You'll recall that the husband, Darren Stevens, worked as an advertising executive. I got nearly as many laughs from the zany ad campaigns Darren and Samantha cooked up as from any of the magic-related hijinks I saw.
Push the McMann & Tate ad firm into the future, and make them sinister. Now you have a picture of Fowler Schoken Associates. This ad agency goes beyond the art of punchy slogans; they employ psychological manipulation and drugs in their products which make you addicted to them, and to other products they sell. Culture, literature, and true education are deviant and blasphemous; decent people just consume and they're content with it. The advertising elite have the real power in society; even the President of the United States defers to them. They have enslaved a consuming underclass that lives in brutish conditions and virtual slavery. What's worse is that the elite has convinced them to be more or less happy in their slavery, except for a few, like the "Consies" (conservationists), that dare to see beyond the illusion and call for a richer, simpler, more purposeful life.
I couldn't help but think about a few mega-retailers in our own time who seem to have permeated every aspect of our lives. The movie "WALL-E" also forced itself into my memory, as a mega-conglomerate so corrupted the public and the earth that the planet was made uninhabitable by enormous mountains of trash. This book apparently sounded the warning first, a call to seriously re-examine our materialism before it's too late. Well, actually, Thoreau was saying this sort of thing long before, but this is the first time I know of that the warning was presented in the scifi genre.
All in all, a very worthwhile book to read; I see why Library of America (I read this book in their "American Science Fiction": vol. 1) published it as a classic. For our time, it's really archaic, but for the '50s it was great scifi and timeless social commentary.
Though this book was written in the early '50s, my mind couldn't help but go forward more than a decade, to the set of television's "Bewitched." I watched that show a lot as a kid. You'll recall that the husband, Darren Stevens, worked as an advertising executive. I got nearly as many laughs from the zany ad campaigns Darren and Samantha cooked up as from any of the magic-related hijinks I saw.
Push the McMann & Tate ad firm into the future, and make them sinister. Now you have a picture of Fowler Schoken Associates. This ad agency goes beyond the art of punchy slogans; they employ psychological manipulation and drugs in their products which make you addicted to them, and to other products they sell. Culture, literature, and true education are deviant and blasphemous; decent people just consume and they're content with it. The advertising elite have the real power in society; even the President of the United States defers to them. They have enslaved a consuming underclass that lives in brutish conditions and virtual slavery. What's worse is that the elite has convinced them to be more or less happy in their slavery, except for a few, like the "Consies" (conservationists), that dare to see beyond the illusion and call for a richer, simpler, more purposeful life.
I couldn't help but think about a few mega-retailers in our own time who seem to have permeated every aspect of our lives. The movie "WALL-E" also forced itself into my memory, as a mega-conglomerate so corrupted the public and the earth that the planet was made uninhabitable by enormous mountains of trash. This book apparently sounded the warning first, a call to seriously re-examine our materialism before it's too late. Well, actually, Thoreau was saying this sort of thing long before, but this is the first time I know of that the warning was presented in the scifi genre.
All in all, a very worthwhile book to read; I see why Library of America (I read this book in their "American Science Fiction": vol. 1) published it as a classic. For our time, it's really archaic, but for the '50s it was great scifi and timeless social commentary.
shiprim's review against another edition
4.0
Sandığımdan çok daha sevdim, reklamcılık ve tüketim alışkanlıkları, şirketlerin hukuku hiçe saymaları, hiç fark etmiyor, hâlâ.
"B sınıfı iş sözleşmesinin mantığını kapmıştım. Ne yapıp etsen borçlanmaktan kurtulamıyordun. Kolaylıkla verilen krediler sistemin bir parçasıydı, insanı bu kredileri kullanmaya mecbur bırakan simsarlar da öyleydi. Her haftayı on dolar açıkla kapatırsam sözleşmemin bitiminde Chlorella'ya bin yüz dolar borçlu olacak ve borç silinene kadar da çalışmak zorunda kalacaktım. Ve çalışırken de yeniden borçlanıyor olacaktım."
Herhalde bunun günümüzden tek farkı, kredileri kullanmak için artık gönüllü olmamız.
"B sınıfı iş sözleşmesinin mantığını kapmıştım. Ne yapıp etsen borçlanmaktan kurtulamıyordun. Kolaylıkla verilen krediler sistemin bir parçasıydı, insanı bu kredileri kullanmaya mecbur bırakan simsarlar da öyleydi. Her haftayı on dolar açıkla kapatırsam sözleşmemin bitiminde Chlorella'ya bin yüz dolar borçlu olacak ve borç silinene kadar da çalışmak zorunda kalacaktım. Ve çalışırken de yeniden borçlanıyor olacaktım."
Herhalde bunun günümüzden tek farkı, kredileri kullanmak için artık gönüllü olmamız.
oleksandr's review against another edition
4.0
This is a SF novel, originally published in 1952, which contains several surprisingly modern ideas.
The title, [b:The Space Merchants|392566|The Space Merchants (The Space Merchants, #1)|Frederik Pohl|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1407594017s/392566.jpg|953666], led me to assume it will be a kind of space opera about interstellar trade. Actually, it is about a copysmith (advertisement specialist), who should sell the idea of Venus colonization to public. Unlike, say, [b:The Man Who Sold the Moon|16688|The Man Who Sold the Moon|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1406525754s/16688.jpg|527886], the protagonist is not the ephemeral ideal of the author’s views on how things should be done but the opposite. This future USA is a plutocracy (“Our representative government now is perhaps more representative than it has ever been before in history. It is not necessarily representative per capita, but it most surely is ad valorem.”) and advertisement is the king (the protagonist’s desire is to put it on “its rightful place with the clergy, medicine, and the bar in our way of life.”) At the same time it is an entrenched plutocracy, where persons on the top see themselves as a new nobility, which would duel anyone, who they thought slighted their honor. Their only opposition are the Consies (short for Conservationists), who fight spurious consumption that plunders the planet.
A nice short read.
"You're on the inside now," I said simply. "That's the way we work. That's the way we worked on you."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're wearing Starrzelius Verily clothes and shoes, Jack. It means we got you. Taunton and Universal worked on you, Starrzelius and Schocken worked on you—and you chose Starrzelius. We reached you. Smoothly, without your ever being aware that it was happening, you became persuaded that there was something rather nice about Starrzelius clothes and shoes and that there was something rather not-nice about Universal clothes and shoes."
"I never read the ads," he said defiantly.
I grinned. "Our ultimate triumph is wrapped up in that statement," I said.
"I solemnly promise," O'Shea said, "that as soon as I get back to my hotel room I'll send my clothes right down the incinerator chute—"
"Luggage too?" I asked. "Starrzelius luggage?"
He looked startled for a moment and then regained his calm. "Starrzelius luggage too," he said. "And then I'll pick up the phone and order a complete set of Universal luggage and apparel. And you can't stop me."
"I wouldn't dream of stopping you, Jack! It means more business for Starrzelius. Tell you what you're going to do: you'll get your complete set of Universal luggage and apparel. You'll use the luggage and wear the apparel for a while with a vague, submerged discontent. It's going to work on your libido, because our ads for Starrzelius—even though you say you don't read them—have convinced you that it isn't quite virile to trade with any other firm. Your self-esteem will suffer; deep down you'll know that you're not wearing the best. Your subconscious won't stand up under much of that. You'll find yourself 'losing' bits of Universal apparel. You'll find yourself 'accidentally' putting your foot through the cuff of your Universal pants. You'll find yourself overpacking the Universal luggage and damning it for not being roomier. You'll walk into stores and in a fit of momentary amnesia regarding this conversation you'll buy Starrzelius, bless you."
***
Of all the self-contradictory gibberish—but it had a certain appeal. The ad was crafted—unconsciously, I was sure—the way we'd do a pharmaceutical-house booklet for doctors only. Calm, learned, we're all men of sound judgment and deep scholarship here; we can talk frankly about bedrock issues. Does your patient suffer from hyperspasm, Doctor?
It was an appeal to reason, and they're always dangerous. You can't trust reason. We threw it out of the ad profession long ago and have never missed it
The title, [b:The Space Merchants|392566|The Space Merchants (The Space Merchants, #1)|Frederik Pohl|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1407594017s/392566.jpg|953666], led me to assume it will be a kind of space opera about interstellar trade. Actually, it is about a copysmith (advertisement specialist), who should sell the idea of Venus colonization to public. Unlike, say, [b:The Man Who Sold the Moon|16688|The Man Who Sold the Moon|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1406525754s/16688.jpg|527886], the protagonist is not the ephemeral ideal of the author’s views on how things should be done but the opposite. This future USA is a plutocracy (“Our representative government now is perhaps more representative than it has ever been before in history. It is not necessarily representative per capita, but it most surely is ad valorem.”) and advertisement is the king (the protagonist’s desire is to put it on “its rightful place with the clergy, medicine, and the bar in our way of life.”) At the same time it is an entrenched plutocracy, where persons on the top see themselves as a new nobility, which would duel anyone, who they thought slighted their honor. Their only opposition are the Consies (short for Conservationists), who fight spurious consumption that plunders the planet.
A nice short read.
"You're on the inside now," I said simply. "That's the way we work. That's the way we worked on you."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're wearing Starrzelius Verily clothes and shoes, Jack. It means we got you. Taunton and Universal worked on you, Starrzelius and Schocken worked on you—and you chose Starrzelius. We reached you. Smoothly, without your ever being aware that it was happening, you became persuaded that there was something rather nice about Starrzelius clothes and shoes and that there was something rather not-nice about Universal clothes and shoes."
"I never read the ads," he said defiantly.
I grinned. "Our ultimate triumph is wrapped up in that statement," I said.
"I solemnly promise," O'Shea said, "that as soon as I get back to my hotel room I'll send my clothes right down the incinerator chute—"
"Luggage too?" I asked. "Starrzelius luggage?"
He looked startled for a moment and then regained his calm. "Starrzelius luggage too," he said. "And then I'll pick up the phone and order a complete set of Universal luggage and apparel. And you can't stop me."
"I wouldn't dream of stopping you, Jack! It means more business for Starrzelius. Tell you what you're going to do: you'll get your complete set of Universal luggage and apparel. You'll use the luggage and wear the apparel for a while with a vague, submerged discontent. It's going to work on your libido, because our ads for Starrzelius—even though you say you don't read them—have convinced you that it isn't quite virile to trade with any other firm. Your self-esteem will suffer; deep down you'll know that you're not wearing the best. Your subconscious won't stand up under much of that. You'll find yourself 'losing' bits of Universal apparel. You'll find yourself 'accidentally' putting your foot through the cuff of your Universal pants. You'll find yourself overpacking the Universal luggage and damning it for not being roomier. You'll walk into stores and in a fit of momentary amnesia regarding this conversation you'll buy Starrzelius, bless you."
***
Of all the self-contradictory gibberish—but it had a certain appeal. The ad was crafted—unconsciously, I was sure—the way we'd do a pharmaceutical-house booklet for doctors only. Calm, learned, we're all men of sound judgment and deep scholarship here; we can talk frankly about bedrock issues. Does your patient suffer from hyperspasm, Doctor?
It was an appeal to reason, and they're always dangerous. You can't trust reason. We threw it out of the ad profession long ago and have never missed it
brizreading's review against another edition
4.0
Took me a while to warm up to it - given its very Golden Age, good ol' boy sci-fi style - but it eventually won me over with its awesome, scathing worldbuilding.
This is like good Phillip K. Dick, or excellent M.T. Anderson, or even the ur-text The Machine Stops. That is, Frederik Pohl (whose Gateway I ADORED) extrapolates forward from current trends - and it's horrifying. I would recommend this to (a) any libertarian/person who took Econ 101 and never learned about negative externalities in Econ 102, and (2) all social media users. Apropos, I would also shelve this by The Attention Merchants.
Pohl unveils the horror slowly: a world where government is subsumed by corporations, hideous inequality with a subclass of "consumers" and an almost priestly caste of "copysmiths" (Mad Men-style advertisers), sales and consumption and increasing GDP raised to moral ideals, the constant degradation of the environment and even just a humane life. E.g. being nickel and dimed by public 5-minute "salt showers", and being told this is a luxury! Brainwashing lifestyle commercials for products with addictive additives! I.E. PROCESSED FOOD, HELLO.
Anyway, much of this is now par for the dystopian near future course. My favorite example of a corporocratic eco-disaster Earth remains Kim Stanley Robinsons's magisterial Red Mars, since - while both Pohl and Robinson are discussing the same basic premise (corporocratic, eco-greedy Earth set to spoil another planet in our solar system) - Pohl feels tongue-in-cheek, whereas Robinson feels GRAVELY SERIOUS (heavy stare, Karl Marx eyebrows, gong noise).
But this story's great. In usual dystopian style, we follow a brainwashed (male) drone as he is awakened by a femme fatale/manic pixie dream girl emancipator. (Seriously, this is how all dystopias are structured: Brazil, Children of Men, Code 46, Gattaca, even The Lives of Others (about a real-world dystopia - Stasi East Germany!).) The drone is Mitch Courtenay, a totally brainwashed advertisement Mad Man, who's just been given the "Venus account" to manage - how to convince millions (billions?) of people to embark on a treacherous space journey to a known-shitty planet so that his employer, Fowler Shocken, can harvest great profits?
Everything is peeled back, layer by plot-like-a-freight-train layer, and so it's an easy, enveloping read. You're like omggggg through much of it. Now I get Cory Doctorow's semi-fanfic, Chicken Little, (which I remember LOVING) so much more.
Anyway, fun and fast, so: recommended!
This is like good Phillip K. Dick, or excellent M.T. Anderson, or even the ur-text The Machine Stops. That is, Frederik Pohl (whose Gateway I ADORED) extrapolates forward from current trends - and it's horrifying. I would recommend this to (a) any libertarian/person who took Econ 101 and never learned about negative externalities in Econ 102, and (2) all social media users. Apropos, I would also shelve this by The Attention Merchants.
Pohl unveils the horror slowly: a world where government is subsumed by corporations, hideous inequality with a subclass of "consumers" and an almost priestly caste of "copysmiths" (Mad Men-style advertisers), sales and consumption and increasing GDP raised to moral ideals, the constant degradation of the environment and even just a humane life. E.g. being nickel and dimed by public 5-minute "salt showers", and being told this is a luxury! Brainwashing lifestyle commercials for products with addictive additives! I.E. PROCESSED FOOD, HELLO.
Anyway, much of this is now par for the dystopian near future course. My favorite example of a corporocratic eco-disaster Earth remains Kim Stanley Robinsons's magisterial Red Mars, since - while both Pohl and Robinson are discussing the same basic premise (corporocratic, eco-greedy Earth set to spoil another planet in our solar system) - Pohl feels tongue-in-cheek, whereas Robinson feels GRAVELY SERIOUS (heavy stare, Karl Marx eyebrows, gong noise).
But this story's great. In usual dystopian style, we follow a brainwashed (male) drone as he is awakened by a femme fatale/manic pixie dream girl emancipator. (Seriously, this is how all dystopias are structured: Brazil, Children of Men, Code 46, Gattaca, even The Lives of Others (about a real-world dystopia - Stasi East Germany!).) The drone is Mitch Courtenay, a totally brainwashed advertisement Mad Man, who's just been given the "Venus account" to manage - how to convince millions (billions?) of people to embark on a treacherous space journey to a known-shitty planet so that his employer, Fowler Shocken, can harvest great profits?
Everything is peeled back, layer by plot-like-a-freight-train layer, and so it's an easy, enveloping read. You're like omggggg through much of it. Now I get Cory Doctorow's semi-fanfic, Chicken Little, (which I remember LOVING) so much more.
Anyway, fun and fast, so: recommended!