The Real Hard Sell by William W. Stuart
"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.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Stuart, William W. |
|---|---|
| Title | The Real Hard Sell |
| Series Title | Produced from If: Worlds of Science Fiction, July 1961. |
| Credits |
Produced by Robert Cicconetti, David Wilson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 85.6 (6th grade). Easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Robots -- Fiction |
| Subject | Sales personnel -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 31038 |
| Release Date | Jan 21, 2010 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 198 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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