The Years of the City by Frederik Pohl
"The Years of the City" is a novel by Frederik Pohl that explores a future New York City transitioning from a state of chaos to an ideal urban society. The narrative unfolds through five interconnected stories, each portraying the lives of various characters against the backdrop of a city grappling with severe issues like crime, pollution, and poverty. The first chapter sets the tone, depicting a city in turmoil, with a government struggling to maintain order amidst escalating violence and corruption. The introduction of innovative ideas, such as the Universal Town Meeting (UTM), emerges as a pivotal moment for citizen engagement and decision-making, allowing residents to influence changes in their environment.
As the story progresses, the UTM becomes a powerful mechanism for implementing large-scale modernization projects aimed at revitalizing the city, such as energy conservation measures and an updated justice system. The characters represent a cross-section of society, demonstrating how collective action and transparency can combat corruption and promote social progress. By the final chapter, the once-dystopian landscape has evolved into a functioning utopia, where a new judicial system reflects the values of the community and fosters a spirit of cooperation during crises. Overall, the novel presents a hopeful vision of urban transformation driven by civic involvement and moral commitment.
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Subject Terms
The Years of the City
First published: 1984
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—utopia
Time of work: The twenty-first century
Locale: New York City
The Plot
Frederik Pohl’s The Years of the City comprises five distinct yet connected stories that tell about a future New York City as it is transformed from a nearly dystopian existence to an idyllic urban society. Guided by the premise of civitas as civilization, Pohl zooms in on the lives of characters to focus briefly on their lives, providing the reader with literary snapshots. As the novel unfolds, the reader is shown how positive change is achieved and how gradual, progressive changes manifest themselves in the creation of a rather utopian city.
In the first chapter, “When New York Hit the Fan,” New York is depicted as a city suffering from seemingly irreversible problems of large cities, such as violent crime, pollution, and poverty. As the title of the first chapter implies, life in the Big Apple is reaching a point of absolute chaos and destruction, with terrorist bombs possible on any given street corner, sudden riots, and grossly overfilled prisons. Amid the chaos, there exists a democratically run, albeit corrupt, government that, among other things, is still in the business of finding solutions to the ailments of the city. One member of a powerful think tank, Shire Brandon, develops several components of a plan to lead New York out of its despair. He hopes to create a forum for citizen decision making through the so-called Universal Town Meeting (UTM), redistribute goods more fairly through a Five Percent Solution, and establish a better system of governmental checks and balances through a Citizen’s Grand Jury.
These ideas must and do compete with other, more tangible plans to better New York through enormous development projects. When the social approach is in danger of being discarded completely, the influential wife of the director of the think tank takes an interest in one of Brandon’s ideas, namely the UTM. Her intent is less to facilitate problem solving, as in New England town meetings of the past, than to drive certain political agendas of her own. The UTM becomes a reality and, as seen in the following chapters, proves itself to be the central vehicle for citizen participation in decision making.
The subsequent chapters depict a slow progression of physical and social changes, seen through the eyes of characters from a broad social spectrum. In the second chapter, New York is still characterized as a city almost on the verge of self-destruction. With the introduction of the UTM, decisions to implement large-scale modernization projects, such as an underground, self-sufficient prison system, have to be sanctioned by a majority of New York’s citizens. This forum becomes the most powerful vehicle for change, because decisions are made through real citizen input.
One such development project is the building of clear domes around New York to conserve energy and monitor air pollution. In this pivotal time of change in the book, the politically corrupt unions have merged into one big union. Although the government is still characterized by corruption, one of the chapters follows a couple who, through various circumstances, expose the corrupt parties. It later becomes clear that this exposure represents the turning point in the operation of the government. The possibility for corruption is limited through the replacement of the Supreme Court with the Citizen Supreme Court.
In the final chapter, readers find the utopian ideals developed at the beginning of the book now institutionalized and functioning. This chapter follows the life of a woman who works as one of the judges of the Civilian Supreme Court. As she explains it, she signed up for civil service duty, then was tested and placed accordingly for six years of duty. By this time, the judicial system has been revamped. There are fewer laws, and most legal disputes are resolved at the scene. Only a few cases go to the Citizen Supreme Court, the members of which resemble street-smart citizens rather than lawyers. Societal progress is well illustrated in the case of a plague that threatens the entire city. New York’s citizens band together through the civil service program and respond humanely and effectively to the city emergency.