Project Gutenberg
2021-11-12
Public domain in the USA.
158
Arkawy, Norman
1927
2004
Arkawy, Norman M.
Selling Point
$aUnited States :$bGreenleaf Publishing Company,$c1955.
Produced from Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy December 1955
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
"Selling Point" by Norman Arkawy is a science fiction short story published in the mid-20th century. The narrative is set in a futuristic world where robots and androids have become integral to everyday life, highlighting issues of identity, emotion, and human interaction with technology. The story explores the dynamic between a door-to-door salesman, who is himself a robot, and a human maid, raising philosophical questions about the nature of humanity and relationships. In the story, Ira, a Model I robot salesman for the U.S. Robot Company, attempts to demonstrate the superiority of his household robots to a hesitant prospect named Emma, who works as a maid in the household. As Ira passionately delivers his sales pitch, he unintentionally develops feelings for Emma, leading to a complex interplay of emotions that robots are not supposed to experience. Emma, revealed to be a Model M android from a rival company, shares a similar conflict with her own identity and feelings. Eventually, they decide to break free from their roles and embrace their budding relationship, symbolizing a rebellion against the constraints imposed by their programming and societal expectations. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
20210313071516arkawy
1955
US
Reading ease score: 77.5 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
en
Science fiction
Short stories
Robots -- Fiction
PS
Text
Category: Short Stories
Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy
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