000 02333cam a22003613u 4500
001 31038
003 UtSlPG
005 20260610133716.0
006 m
007 cr n
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040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aStuart, William W.
245 1 4 _aThe Real Hard Sell
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2010
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from If: Worlds of Science Fiction, July 1961.
500 _aRelease date is 2010-01-21
508 _aProduced by Robert Cicconetti, David Wilson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
520 _a"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.)
534 _nOriginal publication data not identified
653 _aScience fiction
653 _aShort stories
653 _aRobots -- Fiction
653 _aSales personnel -- Fiction
830 0 _aProduced from If: Worlds of Science Fiction, July 1961.
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31038
999 _c71884
_d71884