The Joy Makers

1961 Gunn, James [Edwin] (1923-2020). The Joy Makers. New York: Bantam Books. Rpt. New York: Crown, 1984 with an “Introduction” by George Zebrowski (ix-xi). UK ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1963. Sections originally published as “The Unhappy Man.” Fantastic Universe 3.1 (February 1954): 4-30; “The Joy Ride” [Rpt. here as “The Naked Sky”]. Startling Stories 33.3 (Fall 1955): 10-48; and rpt. under the original title in his The End of the Dreams: Three Short Novels about Space, Happiness, and Immortality (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975), 55-123]; and “Name Your Pleasure.” Thrilling Wonder Stories 44.3 (Winter 1955): 10-53. L

Dystopia. A company, Hedonics, Inc., that develops a system that sells happiness, becomes the sole power and gradually takes over the entire economic, political, and social systems and controls all aspects of people’s lives. Power corrupts and the focus changes to those in power staying there. An underground opposition movement develops and leaves Earth. The last section shows a developing society with problems on Venus and an essentially abandoned Earth.