I’m trying to find the title and author of an old science fiction short story. It came up in this discussion.
Women. Women are the problem; women and their evil commodification of love.
There was a science fiction story I read on that topic a long time ago. Can’t remember the title or author. The story opens with a guy passing a shooting gallery where you could shoot a replica woman. He was thinking, “Why would anyone pay for that?” Then he goes to the love vendor. The vendor guaranteed real love for a week. The guy gets real love for a week and then it stops. He ends up at the shooting gallery plinking away. With great satisfaction.
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Update: 6 Jan 2015 0013z
Commenter Man Mountain Molehill nails the author. The story is “Love Inc.” A couple of reviews to get the flavor: “Pilgrimage to Earth” (original title, “Love, Inc.”), Robert Sheckley, 1956 and Middle Shelf Story: Robert Sheckley’s “Pilgrimage to Earth”.
From Amazon: Pilgrimage to Earth
Comments
6 responses to “Love For Sale”
Might be an old Robert Sheckley story. I don’t remember the name.
Yup. You nailed it:
“Pilgrimage to Earth.” Also called “Love Inc.”
We need a sub-genre of misogynist sf. With an award. The Harlan, possibly.
I think there was also a story with a shooting gallery with women targets in Dangerous Visions. Might have been Norman Spinrad. The rest of the plot had something to do with the protagonist being infected with food yeast or something like that. Ring a bell?
MMM,
It is not misogynist if it describes how women really are.
http://therationalmale.com/2015/01/02/commodifying-love/
And the desire to shoot her after a break up – while frowned upon – is not unknown.
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None of the plot lines you mention ring a bell.
Read the article. So, bitches be fickle, yo. Dump you like a sack of moldy potatoes if you can’t keep them in Cadillacs and mink.
Which is only apparently a problem since romantic elements in the west decided that romantic love was a good basis for marriage. Around the world, for most of history the feelings associated with love were considered a form of mental illness, best cured with a liberal application of the nearest chamber maid. It’s just churning hormones.
Yup. Mental illness.