Sci-Fi Group Book Club discussion

This is the discussion thread for the first book of the month, or group read, for June. Please remember to use the spoiler tags where necessary.

I'll be reading the 1984 Penguin paperback edition: The Space Merchants.

I finished my copy a couple of days ago, very quick read. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but will hold off commenting until others have had a chance to read it. The one thing I will mention is that the plot is still very timely today, even though it was written over 65 years ago.

The edition I read was the Ballantine paperback

Read the first chapter this morning - I like the critique of the advertising industry, especially as this book was published four years before The Hidden Persuaders came out in 1957. The social critique about corporate power, privacy, consumer manipulation and the safety of industrial products continues to hold resonance today.

I thought the idea of "spherical trusts", created by the ad agencies to ensure consumer loyalty, was pretty brilliant, although pretty frightening too:

"And another day--an astonishing day.

I'd been paid again, and my debt had increased by eight dollars. I'd tormented myself by wondering where the money went, but I knew. I came off shift dehydrated, as they wanted me to be. I got a squirt of Popsie from the fountain by punching my combination--twenty-five cents checked off my payroll. The squirt wasn't quite enough so I had another-- fifty cents. Dinner was drab as usual; I couldn't face more than a bite or two of Chicken Little. Later I was hungry and there was the canteen where I got Crunchies on easy credit. The Crunchies kicked off withdrawal symptoms that could be quelled only by another two squirts of Popsie from the fountain. And Popsie kicked off withdrawal symptoms that could only be quelled by smoking Starr cigarettes, which made you hungry for Crunchies... Had Fowler Schocken thought of it in these terms when he organized Starrzelius Verily, the first spherical trust? Popsie to Crunchies to Starrs to Popsie?

And you paid 6 percent interest on the money advanced you."