TTHC 390: Manuscript received at SMLA Nov 19, 1953                                           

(1954 Jun): FUTURE {ill. by Luton}
(1980): THE GOLDEN MAN {Ed.: Hurst} Berkley, pb, 04288
(1984): ROBOTS, ANDROIDS AND MECHANICAL ODDITIES {Ed.: Warrick}
(1987) THE FATHER-THING
(1991): SECOND VARIETY, Citadel Twilight

THE GOLDEN MAN story notes by PKD

"Sales Pitch"

When this story first appeared, the fans detested it. I read it over, perplexed by their hostility, and could see why: it is a superdowner story, and relentlessly so. Could I rewrite it, I would have it end differently. I would have the man and the robot, i.e. the fasrad, form a partnership at the end and become friends. The logic of paranoia of this story should be deconstructed into its opposite; Y, the the human-against-robot theme, should have been resolved into null-Y, human-and-robot-against-the-universe. I really deplore the ending. So when you read the story, try to imagine it as it ought to have been written. The fasrad says, "Sir, I am here to help you. The hell with my sales pitch. Let's be together forever." Yes, but then I would have been criticized for a false upbeat ending, I guess. Still, the ending is not good. The fans were right.

SRG 52

... "Sales Pitch" with its multiform advertising intrusions startles with a threatening possibility that we cannot turn off with the flick of a switch the "fully automatic self-regulating android" designed for taking over all tasks, domestic, bureaucratic, and social. Here is the technological uninvited guest, fully programmed to integrate itself into the human world despite any resistance.