SCI FI PI

THE SPACE MERCHANTS (1953) by Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth

The Space Merchants is essentially a parable on modern life and on the invasive and pervasive effects of advertising on the modern mind, the way it creates wants and needs within us, and also the way it separates us into haves and have nots. Relevant and stinging (if not downright revolutionary) fifty years ago, it's stunning just how applicable its 'them and us' theme applies to today's society. It is perhaps even more damning that we as a society have come closer to the book's dystopian slavery that big businesses in The Space Merchants would like us to endure.

If you've ever wonder at how accurate extrapolation can get, just see what someone who allows the thought 'capitalism with no stops' to run to its natural conclusion. For example, the book's notion that the US parliamentary system no longer represents geographical areas, but companies, is in its self darkly humorous and deeply disturbing.



The Space Merchants covers from around the globe.

FREDERICK POHL

Born in 1919, he became friends with Isaac Asimov whilst living in Brooklyn. They remained friends for life. He began working life as a literary agent in 1937, and began his science fiction career as an editor - of Astonishing Stories in 1939 and simultaneously, Super Science Stories. Many of his stories looked at the effects of Capitalism on society. Not that surprisingly, he was a member of the Young Communist League in 1936, but left in 1941, after the Hitler/Stalin Pact dissolved the ideology from the movement.

In the fifties and sixties he was editor of Galaxy and if. In the seventies he re-emerged as a writer, with Man Plus and the Heechee series, winning the 1976 and 1977 Nebula awards for Man Plus and Gateway (the first Heechee novel), which also won the Hugo in 1978. He was till going strong with Jem in 1980, and has published books as recently as 1998's O Pioneer!.

Pohl was still juggling his two careers of literary agent and editor in 1951 when he wrote the first half of The Space Merchants. Pressured to finish it for serialisation in Galaxy Science Fiction, he sought the help of noted Sci Fi author Cyril Kornbluth, who added a middle, had a go at the beginning and then the two worked back and forth on the ending. The result was initially published in its serial form as The Gravy Planet.

Pohl had a great deal of trouble getting the finished novel published, but managed to secure a deal with a new SF imprint established by Ian Ballantine in 1952. The resulting book was a spectaclar success, to say the least.

THE STORY

The story is straightforward in terms of its plot. Mitchell Courtenay is a clever and astute VP on the rise in one of the world's great Advertising agencies. His new account - an entire planet - Venus. He must also look after Jack O'Shea, the sexually ferocious midget celebrity who returned triumphantly from landing on the surface of Venus.

His worries are many - trying to entice the love of his life back into a second marriage contract, avoiding the occasional sanctioned business murder and working his way to the top of the corporate tree. The perks are great - special travel allowances, special food, special housing and a special status as one who literally runs the world.

Which is great, until Mitchell finds himself at the wrong end of corporate skullduggery and finds himself out of the loop, declared dead. Effectively a non-person, he must somehow get back from the revolting and back-breaking work in the far off bio-food factories of Costa Rica. He must team up with the ridiculous but dangerous Conservationists (who want to save the planet and look after its resources rather than rape and pillage as much as possible as quickly as possible - as if!) to have any hope of getting back to New York and the real world.

His adventures are many, his travails often life-threatening, but with a finale that stretches all the way to the moon, it's one heck of an enjoyable ride.

THE IMPACT

As an experience, it's not that dissimilar to The Fugitive, where the outsider must clear his name, so to speak, to get back on the 'in'. But it's the little details of life in a society where capitalism and class distinction mean the same thing that the novel really stands out.

If you've ever been somewhat troubled by the concept of corporate sponsorship of your local member, or your local school, or the way that 'corporate responsibility' seems to be nothing but an oxymoron, or that 60% of the news is nothing more than advertising for a product, the themes of the book will ring true as the sound of nails being driven into a very expensive coffin.

Told in a straightforward and elegant style, it's part thriller, part social commentary, and is remarkably free from the dating of technology and concepts that seem to go hand in hand with Sci Fi from the fifties. Despite its subject matter, the tone is surprisingly fresh and non-preachy, (often quite noirish) which means this has more in common with a John Grisham than a Noam Chonsky. It's meant to be read for enjoyment, but it still makes you think.

Since its first publication, The Space Merchants has been translated into 25 languages and sold 10 million copies. If you've never read it, do.

FUN SCI FI FACTS

1.Frederick Pohl's The Tunnel Under The World, made as a feature film in Italy, also bears a striking resemblance tothe plot of Alex Proyas' Dark City.

2.Whilst remarkably prescient of the state of our current society, The Space Merchants falls a little flat when discussing the selling Venus - whilst admitting atmospheric 'difficulties', it's not quite up to the 480 degrees celsius and horrific atmospheric pressure that destroyed multiple Russian Venera probes.

3.Frederick Pohl has won the Nebula award six times (the only person to have won as an author and as an editor).