Ha! Nobody had really heard of Tim Pool when I wrote this. President Pool was my name for the random Anglo president who got assassinated by a group of militant sex work activists in the story.
Thank you! I am glad it is being so well received now. When I initially wrote it in 2015, few people were able to see what was going on. Now it seems like far more people are aware.
I had to laugh in a few instances and nod my head. You're so on point in your story. I started noticing it to the moment I moved to the US in 2013 (I lived in Canada and it wasn't cray cray then as it is now, even worse in some cases than in the US today though). And gosh, it did take a crazier turn in 2015.
Wait, were you not around in 2015 when they were getting everyone, including mainstream feminists, cancelled in the name of sex workers rights? They had the entire media world under their spell that year. One of them was even promoting her own little fund for teenagers to get into sex work, and anyone who dared to oppose her was getting banned for being “anti sex worker.”
" . . . training us attractive women (unattractive women were now labeled as “men”) " . . . well, not entirely futuristic.
"If you were a woman who refused to charge for sex, you were forced to get a sex change operation at the age of 18." Sort of a twisted Handmaid's Tale in reverse . . .
Can't help but wonder, what Ted Cruz and his comrades might make of this, at least privately.
Anyway, loved it, you've outdone yourself. Some sort of twisted sci-fi movie, even a short for the DUST channel could come out of this . . . OK, it's a concept.
Bleak but good. But where female beauty is a commodity, powerful people expropriate it and sell it for their own benefit. Possessing a swiftly wasting asset like female beauty is not the same as power. Also, if preserving the monopoly is so critical, why are the women permitted the ability to turn off the meter voluntarily? Still, nicely done tale, and the concept, if thought through more deeply to second order effects and told by the interactions rather then exposition, and recast that way, it could be much better.
Thank you. The story is written from the perspective of a woman who is forcefully imprisoned for turning off her money-meter. Her quest is to get out of prison for breaking the law against this tyrannical government.
“It was the night I decided that I would no longer charge men for my interactions with them. It was the dreadful night I became an enemy of the state.”
“My money-meter was flashing like a giant robot-hive, but I decided to shut it off. I shut if off with the flick of my wrist, breaking the law in order to obey myself.”
Your feedback helps me make this more explicit for a polished version in the future, though. Appreciate the comment about interactions vs. expositions.
I understood that. Not clear why turning it off would be an option.
On interaction versus exposition, I recently reread an old favorite: Robert A. Heinlein, The Past Through Tomorrow, Future History Stories. Heinlein's stories from the 40s and 50s invented the Science Fiction genre, and he invented the method of dropping the reader into a future world where the technology was taken for granted. It is similar to Hemingway's admonition to decide what a story is about, then never SAY anything about what the story is about. So, in a future iteration of this story, it could all seemingly be about why she is miserable in prison, and only incidentally talk about how she got there, in ways that assume the listener know all about her world and its rules, and institutions and technology. Then the reader gets a series of "ah ha!" mental hits of discovery as the story goes along.
Is it really an option if it lands her in prison? Yet you’re right. I should make the very process of her turning it off next to impossible. Almost like a fight scene.
Well said about the dialogue. I want her introspection to be more Heinlein in this regard. This is deeply constructive criticism.
More than just landing her in prison, why is it even physically possible or permitted to turn it off? A plot element could be the effort she has to make to try to turn it off?
It reminds me of the telescreens in 1984. Outer Party members cannot turn them off. Winston is shocked when O'Brien can turn his off. Of course, O'Brien is a member of the Thought Police, so we don't know if anything that occurred in that meeting was real.
You have a good core idea here, think about how it would ramify out. Then think about how it would change everyone's behavior, and think about how the whole society would be so pervaded by it that the very words and thoughts of the character are shaped by it. Then when she talks to us we will be in an alien world we have to discover bit by bit.
I am working on a novel and I face similar challenges.
Great questions. My thinking is that her going through a long and heroic process of torture and resilience to turn it off, only for her empowering act to land her immediately in prison, would be even more dystopian. An all of this for nothing kind of vibe. Yet what you are saying about the telescreens in 1984 makes a lot of sense. My mind is buzzing with a million ideas now.
One thing I find helpful is to sketch out a timeline of the future you’re thinking about, with multiple columns, politics, technology, the personal history of the character. They can all be in the background. Anyway, I’m gonna stop hovering over your story, and get to work on my own professional employment as well as my own fiction! Standing by for future dystopian visions from this world you have started to build.
In prison, her naive act of rebellion us scoffed at by the hardened criminals, who say she should have known she'd be instantly caught. But she is smart, and learns her way around in prison, and becomes part of a gang, and learns the hardcore resistance skills and criminal savvy she needs when her prison sentence ends to become an effective resister, and she ideologically motivates some of the initially cynical inmates, one of whom becomes her foil and companion, and these former convicts form the core of the resistance ...
This is not a story, it's a novel, maybe a trilogy.
Also, you could build the backstory off stage, then set a group of stories in the same basic dystopian future, looking at the social and technological effects from different perspectives. The science fiction old timers did this, so they made good use of their inspirations, again Heinlein's future history, and Asimov's robot stories.
“You ever get the feeling that obeying the law is disobeying something inside yourself?” We’d venture to guess that this resonates with many souls in the modern era, strewn with a myriad of laws that never sunset but only multiply. 🖤
Interesting writing, but I’m personally confused as to why so many speculative fiction writers think all women will be sex workers in the future, like Handmaid’s Tale, Camp Zero, and more, when I think sex workers will likely be replaced by robots in the future.
Also, women have arguably more agency than ever so why would we all be sex workers in the future? I guess it’s meant to be a dystopian vision, but... thoughts?
You’re right. I wrote this as an exploration of what would happen if radical sex work activists gained control of our society. This was during a time when people were losing their jobs for speaking out against even teenagers doing sex work, and my story was meant to explore the dystopian conclusion of that type of cancel culture. They were preaching empowerment while stripping away the freedoms of others.
I’d love to see a well-written sex robot dystopia story too. Have you seen Altered Carbon?
I do like the activist twist! I watched season one of Altered Carbon and loved it but then fell off and didn’t get past first episode of season two.
I actually wrote the beginning of a short story literally yesterday about a woman who frequents a robot companion establishment, but then one of her robot boyfriends appears to become sentient and it turns into a Bonnie and Clyde type runaway situation with her and the robot as she tries to free him from being a sex slave.
Haha thanks. Taking name suggestions for the robot store. Currently calling it Loverman which sounds wrong. lol.
I was def somewhat inspired by Margaret Atwood’s book The Heart Goes Last, which I finished recently. It wasn’t the greatest novel, but features celebrity sex bots, including tons of Elvis impersonator sex bots, which seemed so antiquated to me, lol like who would actually want Elvis? Margaret Atwood, apparently.
I really like the idea behind this premise and dystopian world. It reminds me of an uncanny mix of Brave New World, Handmaid's Tale, peppered with the sort of capitalist debauch one might find in Repo! The Genetic Opera.
Whoreocracy is a fascinating idea for a system of government.
As to the president, would that be Tim Pool?
Ha! Nobody had really heard of Tim Pool when I wrote this. President Pool was my name for the random Anglo president who got assassinated by a group of militant sex work activists in the story.
An accidental psychic premonition perhaps ... although I suspect Tim Pool would have no real problem with the prostitarchs, in practice.
😂
Pretty sure that is what we have now. 10% for the Big Guy.
would that be Tim Pool?
Wow.....Burn.
I enjoyed it! Worldbuilding and details are 🤌
Thank you so much.
I love dystopian literature, in how reflective it is of our society today (or soon enough). This is a stunning, powerful short story.
Thank you! I am glad it is being so well received now. When I initially wrote it in 2015, few people were able to see what was going on. Now it seems like far more people are aware.
I had to laugh in a few instances and nod my head. You're so on point in your story. I started noticing it to the moment I moved to the US in 2013 (I lived in Canada and it wasn't cray cray then as it is now, even worse in some cases than in the US today though). And gosh, it did take a crazier turn in 2015.
Damned Rachel, this is good. I mean REALLY good. Was able to lose myself in the story.
Well done 🫡🙇🏻
We've been warned that the Marxists would win.
Sex workers would be the perfect in.
Wait, were you not around in 2015 when they were getting everyone, including mainstream feminists, cancelled in the name of sex workers rights? They had the entire media world under their spell that year. One of them was even promoting her own little fund for teenagers to get into sex work, and anyone who dared to oppose her was getting banned for being “anti sex worker.”
In 2015, the Marxists weren't even on my radar. A lot has changed in the last 6 years.
But it wouldn't surprise me. I've seen a Marxist calling for allowing underage children to be sex workers since.
This is incredible. im so glad i found it.
Thank you. ❤️
" . . . training us attractive women (unattractive women were now labeled as “men”) " . . . well, not entirely futuristic.
"If you were a woman who refused to charge for sex, you were forced to get a sex change operation at the age of 18." Sort of a twisted Handmaid's Tale in reverse . . .
Can't help but wonder, what Ted Cruz and his comrades might make of this, at least privately.
Anyway, loved it, you've outdone yourself. Some sort of twisted sci-fi movie, even a short for the DUST channel could come out of this . . . OK, it's a concept.
Interesting dystopic vision.
Whorephobic -- nice touch.
Bleak but good. But where female beauty is a commodity, powerful people expropriate it and sell it for their own benefit. Possessing a swiftly wasting asset like female beauty is not the same as power. Also, if preserving the monopoly is so critical, why are the women permitted the ability to turn off the meter voluntarily? Still, nicely done tale, and the concept, if thought through more deeply to second order effects and told by the interactions rather then exposition, and recast that way, it could be much better.
Thank you. The story is written from the perspective of a woman who is forcefully imprisoned for turning off her money-meter. Her quest is to get out of prison for breaking the law against this tyrannical government.
“It was the night I decided that I would no longer charge men for my interactions with them. It was the dreadful night I became an enemy of the state.”
“My money-meter was flashing like a giant robot-hive, but I decided to shut it off. I shut if off with the flick of my wrist, breaking the law in order to obey myself.”
Your feedback helps me make this more explicit for a polished version in the future, though. Appreciate the comment about interactions vs. expositions.
I understood that. Not clear why turning it off would be an option.
On interaction versus exposition, I recently reread an old favorite: Robert A. Heinlein, The Past Through Tomorrow, Future History Stories. Heinlein's stories from the 40s and 50s invented the Science Fiction genre, and he invented the method of dropping the reader into a future world where the technology was taken for granted. It is similar to Hemingway's admonition to decide what a story is about, then never SAY anything about what the story is about. So, in a future iteration of this story, it could all seemingly be about why she is miserable in prison, and only incidentally talk about how she got there, in ways that assume the listener know all about her world and its rules, and institutions and technology. Then the reader gets a series of "ah ha!" mental hits of discovery as the story goes along.
Is it really an option if it lands her in prison? Yet you’re right. I should make the very process of her turning it off next to impossible. Almost like a fight scene.
Well said about the dialogue. I want her introspection to be more Heinlein in this regard. This is deeply constructive criticism.
More than just landing her in prison, why is it even physically possible or permitted to turn it off? A plot element could be the effort she has to make to try to turn it off?
It reminds me of the telescreens in 1984. Outer Party members cannot turn them off. Winston is shocked when O'Brien can turn his off. Of course, O'Brien is a member of the Thought Police, so we don't know if anything that occurred in that meeting was real.
You have a good core idea here, think about how it would ramify out. Then think about how it would change everyone's behavior, and think about how the whole society would be so pervaded by it that the very words and thoughts of the character are shaped by it. Then when she talks to us we will be in an alien world we have to discover bit by bit.
I am working on a novel and I face similar challenges.
Great questions. My thinking is that her going through a long and heroic process of torture and resilience to turn it off, only for her empowering act to land her immediately in prison, would be even more dystopian. An all of this for nothing kind of vibe. Yet what you are saying about the telescreens in 1984 makes a lot of sense. My mind is buzzing with a million ideas now.
One thing I find helpful is to sketch out a timeline of the future you’re thinking about, with multiple columns, politics, technology, the personal history of the character. They can all be in the background. Anyway, I’m gonna stop hovering over your story, and get to work on my own professional employment as well as my own fiction! Standing by for future dystopian visions from this world you have started to build.
"An all of this for nothing kind of vibe."
Nah ...
No one likes a downer.
In prison, her naive act of rebellion us scoffed at by the hardened criminals, who say she should have known she'd be instantly caught. But she is smart, and learns her way around in prison, and becomes part of a gang, and learns the hardcore resistance skills and criminal savvy she needs when her prison sentence ends to become an effective resister, and she ideologically motivates some of the initially cynical inmates, one of whom becomes her foil and companion, and these former convicts form the core of the resistance ...
This is not a story, it's a novel, maybe a trilogy.
Also, you could build the backstory off stage, then set a group of stories in the same basic dystopian future, looking at the social and technological effects from different perspectives. The science fiction old timers did this, so they made good use of their inspirations, again Heinlein's future history, and Asimov's robot stories.
“You ever get the feeling that obeying the law is disobeying something inside yourself?” We’d venture to guess that this resonates with many souls in the modern era, strewn with a myriad of laws that never sunset but only multiply. 🖤
Interesting writing, but I’m personally confused as to why so many speculative fiction writers think all women will be sex workers in the future, like Handmaid’s Tale, Camp Zero, and more, when I think sex workers will likely be replaced by robots in the future.
Also, women have arguably more agency than ever so why would we all be sex workers in the future? I guess it’s meant to be a dystopian vision, but... thoughts?
You’re right. I wrote this as an exploration of what would happen if radical sex work activists gained control of our society. This was during a time when people were losing their jobs for speaking out against even teenagers doing sex work, and my story was meant to explore the dystopian conclusion of that type of cancel culture. They were preaching empowerment while stripping away the freedoms of others.
I’d love to see a well-written sex robot dystopia story too. Have you seen Altered Carbon?
I do like the activist twist! I watched season one of Altered Carbon and loved it but then fell off and didn’t get past first episode of season two.
I actually wrote the beginning of a short story literally yesterday about a woman who frequents a robot companion establishment, but then one of her robot boyfriends appears to become sentient and it turns into a Bonnie and Clyde type runaway situation with her and the robot as she tries to free him from being a sex slave.
This short story of yours sounds really sexy. I’m already in love with the concept.
Funny enough, I had the same exact experience as you with Altered Carbon. The first season was so damn good, though. Absolutely chilling.
Haha thanks. Taking name suggestions for the robot store. Currently calling it Loverman which sounds wrong. lol.
I was def somewhat inspired by Margaret Atwood’s book The Heart Goes Last, which I finished recently. It wasn’t the greatest novel, but features celebrity sex bots, including tons of Elvis impersonator sex bots, which seemed so antiquated to me, lol like who would actually want Elvis? Margaret Atwood, apparently.
😂
How about AIXXX?
I like it, I like it!
I really like the idea behind this premise and dystopian world. It reminds me of an uncanny mix of Brave New World, Handmaid's Tale, peppered with the sort of capitalist debauch one might find in Repo! The Genetic Opera.
Well done ma'am.