The Real Hard Sell

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stuart, William W.

Series:

Produced from If: Worlds of Science Fiction, July 1961.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource : multiple file formats

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg,

Summary:

"The Real Hard Sell" by William W. Stuart is a science fiction story published in the early 1960s. Set in a futuristic world dominated by robots and automation, it explores themes of identity, personal dissatisfaction, and the nature of salesmanship. The narrative follows the internal struggles of Ben Tilman, a salesman navigating his professional and personal life in a society where human roles are increasingly supplanted by robots. The story centers on Ben, who experiences a deep sense of dissatisfaction despite having a stable job, a loving wife, and a young child. As he prepares for a housewarming party meant to showcase a new sales approach, he grapples with feelings of emptiness and unresolved tensions about his life choices. During the party, Ben reveals a unique sales pitch involving a fully-automated home-a decision that ultimately leads him to reassess his desire for a less technology-driven, more meaningful existence. The end of the story sees Ben rejecting the suffocating comfort of a robotic lifestyle, opting instead for a more authentic and engaged way of living with his family. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Credits:

Produced by Robert Cicconetti, David Wilson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Notes:

Reading ease score: 85.6 (6th grade). Easy to read.

Release date is 2010-01-21