The Squares of City

In the new South American capital city of Vados (think Brasilia or Curitiba) the perfect clarity of its plan is being smirched by peasants trying to get a piece of the good life from which they were designed out. Hakluyt, a worldly traffic planner, is called in to make the new slums unlivable by subtly tweaking the road system. He becomes a center of conflict between the founders of the sparkling city and those who would accomodate the countrymen. Gradually he realizes that the Mayor's party does not want a long-term solution but only the status quo, to chase the settlers out again. He is being pushed around like a pawn to achieve that end against his own best intentions. The two sides here parallel the splits between haves and have-nots in most countries. Whatever the virtues of the two causes-and Brunner is at some pains to lecture on what they are-his preference becomes clear almost from the start, despite developing the "bad" side more fully and interestingly. This is thoroughly sociological SF, when that was still the coming wave (originally published by Ballantine in 1965). It reflects the contemporary concern with thought control (see The Hidden Persuaders). Brunner takes "subliminal persuasion" from advertising, the original fear, and explores its application to a city government in this story. It is eerily prophetic of the future total dominance of politics by televised sound-bites, advertising, and mass persuasion. (It is lacking only the diversion of war, as practiced by Clinton and Bush.) For example, as the city begins to break down, Brunner writes, "The political atmosphere was of the hothouse kind. The least incident capable of being made to bear political fruit was being nurtured, protected from the frost [of contrary information] and fed with manure until it blossomed out of all proportion." Sound familiar?Although one of my favorite SF stories, Brunner's prose style now seems a little naive. The fact is, however, you do not feel the plot has been forced to conform to the 1892 chess game on which he based it-and that is its genius (see the appendix for the white and black character-pieces). Unlike much contemporary SF, Brunner adds no graphic sex scenes and constructs the mere underpinnings of what could become Hakluyt's heartfelt love. My one disappointment was the ending, for I really wonder what Hakluyt could do next to retrieve the end-game. But that would have to be another story, not another game, indeed. Enjoy.

Vintage Brunner. Squares of the City portrays a frightening picture of puppet mastery in a modern country. Set in the present or near future in a Latin American state, the story follows an urban planner, called in to remove shanty towns from an 'ultramodern' city, and clean up its image. He starts to suspect that things are not all they seem...A great adventure, with Brunner's powerful social comment.