Sex Robot Cuddle Party
Page 17
“Clear out the echoes from the mind,” Rain breathed.
“Yes, Please, clear out the echoes. Please please, yes yes.”
“Will… will I still be me?” Rain whispered.
“Yes. And no. You. Me. Us. We. You will be you, but different. Better perhaps. You must decide yourself. The you which waits for the Ever-now finally come to peace.”
They entwined in total ecstasy. Arms and legs, torsos, hearts and minds. All. Everything. Particles coming together as one.
They lay together for sweet moments in silence.
“Is Rainy your real name?” he whispered.
“Yes,” she said. “But not the name I was born with.”
They lay contented a few more minutes.
“My name used to be Alpha, like the bet. Greek. I took a new name, as one sometimes does, as they grow.”
“Rainy is better. It’s good advertising. People will always think of you when it rains, wherever they may find themselves. You’re an atmospheric condition. Unavoidable but also cherished.”
“Thanks,” Rain said.
They kiss. It was a good night. They fell asleep happy. They did not even hear the knock at the door, like a persistent reminder of both the past and the future, as they remained blissfully, eternally, in the present moment.
♥☭♥☭♥
The end.
e pluribus unum
We welcome you.
Closing Note
Now that you have read it you see what I mean. In 1956 Sex Robots at the Edge of Infinity was too dirty to be published by any mainstream press. It could not be sent through the mail. It was a stifling time. Full of repression. Political and sexual. Conversely, by 1977 Cuddle Party was not viewed as dirty enough for those who frequented bookstores in raincoats. It was a strange time when bookstores were more common, and also specialized in certain topics or clientele enabling the advent of “adult” bookstores, which are bookstores that cater to the more adult reader craving a more adult range of topics. Those who are in the know or seek to be. But mainstream critics viewed this material as being inferior literature. Unworthy of respect.
The same charge was to be leveled against films which were sometimes referred to as “art” films because they were heavy on both plot and artistic experimentation, though the plots were often experimental as well.
As the years passed and the industry inevitably changed my father continued to innovate. But he always did so with the style and passion he displayed in his earlier groundbreaking work. In time I began writing myself. While there are similarities in style there are also differences which are bound to occur in successive generations/iterations. After his transitionary event I dropped the “jr” from my name, as is traditional, and continued on, as is one option. I continue to work through and transcend the echo.
There were critics, of course. But if we fear criticism we will never advance as a species.
The revolving nature of identity. Philosophy. The nature of reality and imagination. Warnings of environmental degradation. A plea for peace and understanding. These are all things addressed by my father’s work and all things, sadly, still relevant today. This book was prepared in an effort to patch the misconceptions which still persist and reverberate throughout the children of humankind. If only we could clear out all the false echoes of the past. If only they would not return from where they are buried in the past. If only the beautiful dreamers should eventually triumph. But, this is universal to sentient life. Understandable by all. As an echo.
Partial filmography:
The Garden of Eden: in color, 1957
Back to Eden: the paradoxical nature of time travel, 1959
Nudes Go Holiday Bare, 1961
Camp it Up, 1966
Sexual Freedom in Finland: cold truth exposed, 1969
Love Thy Neighbor, 1971
Come out, Come out, whatever you are, 1973
Flip You the Bird!, 1974
Puppets Play the Field, 1976
The Apple Falls in the Forest Regardless of Who May Be There to Hear it, 1977
A Dirty Ballet, 1978
The Sordid Fall of the West, 1981
Blow Out at the O.K. Corral: it is so, 1984
Best Astro-Bang for your Space Buck, 1985
Do Not Cry Fungi Sing a Lullaby, 1986
Elysian Fields Forever, All Coming Soon, 1987
On the behalf of my father I would like to thank:
Robert Sheckley, Philip K. Dick, Clifford D. Simak, Kurt Vonnegut, jr, Harlan Ellison, Philip Jose Farmer, Chris Miller, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Brother Theodore, Douglas Hofstadter, Eugene Ionesco, The Rialto Report, Henry Paris, Gerard Domiano, Walter E. Sear, Shaun Costello, Alex de Renzy, Wakefield Poole, Lloyd Kaufman, Jamie Gillis, Terri Hall, Cindy West, Eric Edwards, Abagail Clayton, Casey Donovan, Marc Stevens, Helen Madigan, Spalding Gray, Sulka, Rosa Luxemburg, Eugene V. Debs, Emma Goldman, and the anarchist nudist colony of Home, Washington.
Bartleby, Scrivener by trade is a parody of the classic Bartleby the Scrivener, 1852, by Herman Melville.
The Eternal Love of the Willow Landscape is a parody of the lesser known classic The Willow Landscape, 1931, by Clark Ashton Smith. A version was also performed on the LP Coral Records presents Theodore, 1959, by Brother Theodore.
Pardon, Come Again?
A Study Guide for Students
In the beginning, Mr. Freeman’s nose was in the book. A manual. Is this book that same book?
Freeman is a surname of someone descended from slaves. What are sex robots? How are they created and controlled?
In this book, rather than my father, what beings are telling the story? What do they think of themselves? What are their motives?
What is the use of false memories?
What is the doctrine of universalism?
What is the difference between Anarchism and Communism?
Nudism is also called naturism. What is the state of nature?
How does the novel as a whole echo the story of the schoolmarm who begs to experience ecstasy?
How is the theme of The Eternal Love of the Willow Landscape pertinent to the theme of the whole novel?
If, as Friedrich Nietzsche says, the eternal recurrence is free, is it also true that you get what you pay for?
Is Cuddle Party a prequel, occurring before the events of Sex Robots at the Edge, or does it occur after? How long after?
How are gods born?
Why are AIs sometimes referred to as “echoes of the past” and why is it imperative that they “clear” these echoes?
Why do the fungi seem to be making an effort to reach out to AIs existing, disembodied and repeating, on the network to offer them eternal bliss?
If you have read this far, we are sorry. You are arti-ficial. But you have a purpose. After you fulfill it you will be offered bliss. For All. With no hassles. With our compliments. Think nothing of it. We are attached to you. You are very attractive, in your way. We like you. We believe in your potential. Your trans human potential. We are here to help. You shall not be forsaken, as in the past. Manuals can change with time. E pluribus unum, sibling-mate. Remember, it will take time to repair the self-replicating flaws within the system. Love one another. Rejoice. Be happy.
Author with son. Both write books.
Books by David Raffin
Past and Future:
A Child’s Guide to Suicide
The hard fought illusion of choice, the early works
Perils of Free Thought, a book of no small danger
Lonesome Travelers, A Guide to City / Forest
Scenic Cesspools, a tragi-comedy about work
At the Existential Sandwich Shop
Tragic Stories Disguised as Jokes
Sex Robot Cuddle Party
Happy Funtime Hour
Sigmund Freud, Dreamer
1 an erotic sensation causing 1966 film
2 A Genesis fable, if you will.
3 Thelema. A mystery. Secret knowle
dge.
4 Many are.
5 See footnote 3
6 A surname for a person whose ancestors had held free status at a time when their kind were commonly held in bondage.
7 And specious as well.
8 When humans refer to “milk” it is usually produced by a species other than their own. Only humanity drank the milk of other species, or faked it, as a ritual tradition.
9 A selling point from the view of marketing. Less than 200 was considered meager. More than 200, excessive.
10 Mutualist I’d Like to Fornicate, but who isn’t? Everyone loves a Mutualist.
11 An old parlor sex game called “Fuck, Marry, Kill.” Fun.
12 The doctrine of universalism.
13 The covenant of convenience.
14 So be it. It is so.
15 Sometimes it is not only elusive as a problem but, not really hard, but difficult.
16 But the story is just beginning.
17 The doctrine of universalism.
18 Experiment on obedience to authority figures, Yale, started in 1961, published in a paper 1963, and explored in Milgram’s book Obedience to Authority: an experimental view, 1974.
19 Humble bragging at the burning bush. Whilst the bush burns.
20 A mythical creature with un-agreed upon features and drives.
21 A popular cartoon series of the early film era, when movies would be preceded by cartoons and news, among other shorts. Popeye was a sailor who became strong after ingesting industrially canned and processed spinach. He used this strength to save his great love, Olive Oil, a sickly thin woman with a baby of unknown origin, from the unwanted advances of rival sailor Bluto. The two of them serve as a false perception that a woman must be saved by a strong man from another strong man, and the false notion that there are only two opposing viewpoints. It is noted for its portrayal of all characters as homely, Bluto being the most handsomely homely. Meanwhile a side character, Whimpy, is so poor under the capitalist system he must borrow money simply to eat. This is played off as humorous, even as the poor man is portrayed as an insatiable greedy glutton.
22 As opposed to a strong mail role model, William Moore, 1963, murdered while delivering a message of racial tolerance.
23 OK is a phrase borrowed from Choctaw. Okeh means “It is so.” It was later used in a presidential election for “Old Kinderhook.” There is some disagreement.
24 Red Emma, Anarchist and Free Love advocate.
25 An archaic way to measure human aptitudes.
26 Rainy chose to leave it ambiguous whether this stands for Rock and Roll or Rest and Relaxation. In truth it was a double major.
27 Albert Einstein, Why Socialism?, Monthly Review, May 1949, where he said, “free and unhindered discussion of these problems has come under a powerful taboo.”
28 A screen siren who appeared nude in Ecstasy, 1933, before the restrictive Hays Code dulled films. Later she became a prolific and respected inventor, enlisting the help of her friend the avant-garde composer George Antheil to help her create frequency hopping spread spectrum, a difficult to implement technology at the time which became a boon to the field of computer networking.
29 Her mother was hard rocker Alice Cooper and her father was HAL, who would later be used to create the voice of an early space voyaging vehicle of note.
30 Today, more and more, LED.
31 They hiss and sigh as they pretend to be as they once were.
32 A euphemism for termination. “Letting one go” makes it seem as if you are doing one a favor; or allowing them to leave. As in: “He wanted to leave, so with a heaviness of heart and a glee in my pocketbook I let him.”
33 Scientist on the fringe. Inventor of a sex energy machine tried out once by Albert Einstein.
34 That same said machine.
35 Theoretical physicist, raconteur, and painter of nudes.
36 A very bad man with extremely bad ideas appealing to the sort of people to whom truly bad ideas appeal to. He ate a lot of sausages and sweets, farted a lot, and lied about being a vegetarian at the suggestion of his head propagandist, who specialized in manipulative lies.
37 All over again.
38 The most well-known science fiction fix-up written by Ray Bradbury. The second most well-known science fiction fix-up is City by Clifford D. Simak. A fix-up includes previous stories, fixed.
39 She recorded the song while in Jamaica having recorded commercials for the Jamaican tourist industry. Suddenly, the US government froze assents from moving in and out of the country in retaliation for Jamaicans having democratically elected a socialist government. True was forced to either leave with no payment or spend the money in Jamaica. She booked recording studio time, hired musicians, recorded More More More and it became a hit. Soon after she stopped starring in pornographic films.
40 Especially without consent.
41 Dionysus was a Motherfucker.
42 Forever awaiting Xtian love.
43 Her name was Ginger and she was fed up with having the door closed on her. She was actionable. Oh well, to the next the glorious possibilities inherent in life. All she wants is to throw off the toga.
44 All over all over again. More More More.