Short story by Sheckley about a man from the future who radiates love and lust











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When I was young, I read a collection of Robert Sheckley's short stories. I know it contained "Can you feel anything when I do this?", but that's not the story I'm looking for. It's been a long time since I read it.



I believe in the story in question, a police detective (or maybe a pair of detectives) have in custody a man who seemed to be at the center of a rash of disturbances. Seems that everywhere the man went, people loved him or started making love to each other in public.



I believe it's implied, he comes from the future, or maybe another world, but wherever he's from, it's an utopia of love and sex.



When the detective(s) return, the man has escaped, been released by guards and officers who are now happily fornicating publicly.










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    up vote
    12
    down vote

    favorite
    2












    When I was young, I read a collection of Robert Sheckley's short stories. I know it contained "Can you feel anything when I do this?", but that's not the story I'm looking for. It's been a long time since I read it.



    I believe in the story in question, a police detective (or maybe a pair of detectives) have in custody a man who seemed to be at the center of a rash of disturbances. Seems that everywhere the man went, people loved him or started making love to each other in public.



    I believe it's implied, he comes from the future, or maybe another world, but wherever he's from, it's an utopia of love and sex.



    When the detective(s) return, the man has escaped, been released by guards and officers who are now happily fornicating publicly.










    share|improve this question









    New contributor




    Joshua LaLanne is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.






















      up vote
      12
      down vote

      favorite
      2









      up vote
      12
      down vote

      favorite
      2






      2





      When I was young, I read a collection of Robert Sheckley's short stories. I know it contained "Can you feel anything when I do this?", but that's not the story I'm looking for. It's been a long time since I read it.



      I believe in the story in question, a police detective (or maybe a pair of detectives) have in custody a man who seemed to be at the center of a rash of disturbances. Seems that everywhere the man went, people loved him or started making love to each other in public.



      I believe it's implied, he comes from the future, or maybe another world, but wherever he's from, it's an utopia of love and sex.



      When the detective(s) return, the man has escaped, been released by guards and officers who are now happily fornicating publicly.










      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Joshua LaLanne is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.











      When I was young, I read a collection of Robert Sheckley's short stories. I know it contained "Can you feel anything when I do this?", but that's not the story I'm looking for. It's been a long time since I read it.



      I believe in the story in question, a police detective (or maybe a pair of detectives) have in custody a man who seemed to be at the center of a rash of disturbances. Seems that everywhere the man went, people loved him or started making love to each other in public.



      I believe it's implied, he comes from the future, or maybe another world, but wherever he's from, it's an utopia of love and sex.



      When the detective(s) return, the man has escaped, been released by guards and officers who are now happily fornicating publicly.







      story-identification short-stories time-travel






      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Joshua LaLanne is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.











      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Joshua LaLanne is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.









      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited 15 hours ago









      Jenayah

      12.8k46497




      12.8k46497






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      asked 17 hours ago









      Joshua LaLanne

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      612




      New contributor




      Joshua LaLanne is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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      New contributor





      Joshua LaLanne is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.






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      Check out our Code of Conduct.






















          1 Answer
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          It looks like it may be "The Future Lost", which appeared in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley (1991). Leonard Nisher, the protagonist, travelled from the past to the future, and back to the past. He relates what happened there to a doctor.




          Nisher saw that a lot of people had stopped. They were looking at
          him, smiling.



          "Now wait just a minute," he said, automatically taking up the
          cockroach posture.



          But by then a woman had hold of his leg, and another was snuggling up
          under his armpit, and somebody else was pinching his fingers. Nisher
          got a little hysterical and shouted at Ogun, "Why are they doing
          this?"



          "It is a spontaneous demonstration of our great pleasure at the
          novelty and poignancy of your presence. It happens whenever a man
          from the past appears among us. We feel so sorry for him and what he
          has to go back to, we want to share with him, share all the love we
          have. And so this happens."



          Nisher felt as though he were in the middle of a Cinemascope mob
          scene set in ancient Rome, or maybe Babylon. The street was crowded
          with people as far as the eye could see, and they were all making it
          with one another and on top of one another and around and under and
          over and in between. But what really got to Nisher was the feeling
          that the crowd gave oft. It went completely beyond sex. It felt like
          a pure ocean of love, compassion, and understanding. He saw Ogun's
          face receding in a wave of bodies and called out, "How far does
          this thing go?”



          “Visitors from the past always send out big vibrations," Ogun shouted
          back. "This will probably go all the way."



          All the way? Nisher couldn't figure out what he was talking about.
          Then he got it and said, almost reverently, "Do you mean “ planetwide?”




          When the doctor is quite haunted by the story and decides to go back to ask Leonard for more, he is faced with the following scene of debauchery:




          "Where is Leonard?" cried Miles.



          "That guy musta hypnotized me," the policeman said, struggling into
          his trousers.



          "He preached a message of love," said the woman from Denver, wrapping
          herself in Leonard's wet pack.



          “Where is he?” Miles shouted.



          White curtains flapped at the open window. Miles stared out into
          the darkness. Nisher had escaped. His mind inflamed by his brief
          vision of the future, he was sure to be preaching his message of love
          up and down the country. He could be anywhere , Miles thought. How
          on earth can I find him? How can I join him?




          The story can be read on the Internet archive here.





          I found it by Googling "robert sheckley" short story police detective future custody love which yielded this webpage on the various works by Sheckley. As it seemed to contain a brief summary for all his short stories, I CTRL+Fed keywords such as "love", "lust", until "sex" did the trick ("sexual repression in "The Future Lost,").






          share|improve this answer























          • If this is the correct answer, you can accept it by clicking the checkmark button on the left.
            – Jenayah
            16 hours ago






          • 1




            Oh man, I was too slow. Sheckley's my favorite old school short story author. :p Best I can do now is an upvote. :)
            – Longspeak
            14 hours ago













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          1 Answer
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          1 Answer
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          up vote
          17
          down vote













          It looks like it may be "The Future Lost", which appeared in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley (1991). Leonard Nisher, the protagonist, travelled from the past to the future, and back to the past. He relates what happened there to a doctor.




          Nisher saw that a lot of people had stopped. They were looking at
          him, smiling.



          "Now wait just a minute," he said, automatically taking up the
          cockroach posture.



          But by then a woman had hold of his leg, and another was snuggling up
          under his armpit, and somebody else was pinching his fingers. Nisher
          got a little hysterical and shouted at Ogun, "Why are they doing
          this?"



          "It is a spontaneous demonstration of our great pleasure at the
          novelty and poignancy of your presence. It happens whenever a man
          from the past appears among us. We feel so sorry for him and what he
          has to go back to, we want to share with him, share all the love we
          have. And so this happens."



          Nisher felt as though he were in the middle of a Cinemascope mob
          scene set in ancient Rome, or maybe Babylon. The street was crowded
          with people as far as the eye could see, and they were all making it
          with one another and on top of one another and around and under and
          over and in between. But what really got to Nisher was the feeling
          that the crowd gave oft. It went completely beyond sex. It felt like
          a pure ocean of love, compassion, and understanding. He saw Ogun's
          face receding in a wave of bodies and called out, "How far does
          this thing go?”



          “Visitors from the past always send out big vibrations," Ogun shouted
          back. "This will probably go all the way."



          All the way? Nisher couldn't figure out what he was talking about.
          Then he got it and said, almost reverently, "Do you mean “ planetwide?”




          When the doctor is quite haunted by the story and decides to go back to ask Leonard for more, he is faced with the following scene of debauchery:




          "Where is Leonard?" cried Miles.



          "That guy musta hypnotized me," the policeman said, struggling into
          his trousers.



          "He preached a message of love," said the woman from Denver, wrapping
          herself in Leonard's wet pack.



          “Where is he?” Miles shouted.



          White curtains flapped at the open window. Miles stared out into
          the darkness. Nisher had escaped. His mind inflamed by his brief
          vision of the future, he was sure to be preaching his message of love
          up and down the country. He could be anywhere , Miles thought. How
          on earth can I find him? How can I join him?




          The story can be read on the Internet archive here.





          I found it by Googling "robert sheckley" short story police detective future custody love which yielded this webpage on the various works by Sheckley. As it seemed to contain a brief summary for all his short stories, I CTRL+Fed keywords such as "love", "lust", until "sex" did the trick ("sexual repression in "The Future Lost,").






          share|improve this answer























          • If this is the correct answer, you can accept it by clicking the checkmark button on the left.
            – Jenayah
            16 hours ago






          • 1




            Oh man, I was too slow. Sheckley's my favorite old school short story author. :p Best I can do now is an upvote. :)
            – Longspeak
            14 hours ago

















          up vote
          17
          down vote













          It looks like it may be "The Future Lost", which appeared in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley (1991). Leonard Nisher, the protagonist, travelled from the past to the future, and back to the past. He relates what happened there to a doctor.




          Nisher saw that a lot of people had stopped. They were looking at
          him, smiling.



          "Now wait just a minute," he said, automatically taking up the
          cockroach posture.



          But by then a woman had hold of his leg, and another was snuggling up
          under his armpit, and somebody else was pinching his fingers. Nisher
          got a little hysterical and shouted at Ogun, "Why are they doing
          this?"



          "It is a spontaneous demonstration of our great pleasure at the
          novelty and poignancy of your presence. It happens whenever a man
          from the past appears among us. We feel so sorry for him and what he
          has to go back to, we want to share with him, share all the love we
          have. And so this happens."



          Nisher felt as though he were in the middle of a Cinemascope mob
          scene set in ancient Rome, or maybe Babylon. The street was crowded
          with people as far as the eye could see, and they were all making it
          with one another and on top of one another and around and under and
          over and in between. But what really got to Nisher was the feeling
          that the crowd gave oft. It went completely beyond sex. It felt like
          a pure ocean of love, compassion, and understanding. He saw Ogun's
          face receding in a wave of bodies and called out, "How far does
          this thing go?”



          “Visitors from the past always send out big vibrations," Ogun shouted
          back. "This will probably go all the way."



          All the way? Nisher couldn't figure out what he was talking about.
          Then he got it and said, almost reverently, "Do you mean “ planetwide?”




          When the doctor is quite haunted by the story and decides to go back to ask Leonard for more, he is faced with the following scene of debauchery:




          "Where is Leonard?" cried Miles.



          "That guy musta hypnotized me," the policeman said, struggling into
          his trousers.



          "He preached a message of love," said the woman from Denver, wrapping
          herself in Leonard's wet pack.



          “Where is he?” Miles shouted.



          White curtains flapped at the open window. Miles stared out into
          the darkness. Nisher had escaped. His mind inflamed by his brief
          vision of the future, he was sure to be preaching his message of love
          up and down the country. He could be anywhere , Miles thought. How
          on earth can I find him? How can I join him?




          The story can be read on the Internet archive here.





          I found it by Googling "robert sheckley" short story police detective future custody love which yielded this webpage on the various works by Sheckley. As it seemed to contain a brief summary for all his short stories, I CTRL+Fed keywords such as "love", "lust", until "sex" did the trick ("sexual repression in "The Future Lost,").






          share|improve this answer























          • If this is the correct answer, you can accept it by clicking the checkmark button on the left.
            – Jenayah
            16 hours ago






          • 1




            Oh man, I was too slow. Sheckley's my favorite old school short story author. :p Best I can do now is an upvote. :)
            – Longspeak
            14 hours ago















          up vote
          17
          down vote










          up vote
          17
          down vote









          It looks like it may be "The Future Lost", which appeared in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley (1991). Leonard Nisher, the protagonist, travelled from the past to the future, and back to the past. He relates what happened there to a doctor.




          Nisher saw that a lot of people had stopped. They were looking at
          him, smiling.



          "Now wait just a minute," he said, automatically taking up the
          cockroach posture.



          But by then a woman had hold of his leg, and another was snuggling up
          under his armpit, and somebody else was pinching his fingers. Nisher
          got a little hysterical and shouted at Ogun, "Why are they doing
          this?"



          "It is a spontaneous demonstration of our great pleasure at the
          novelty and poignancy of your presence. It happens whenever a man
          from the past appears among us. We feel so sorry for him and what he
          has to go back to, we want to share with him, share all the love we
          have. And so this happens."



          Nisher felt as though he were in the middle of a Cinemascope mob
          scene set in ancient Rome, or maybe Babylon. The street was crowded
          with people as far as the eye could see, and they were all making it
          with one another and on top of one another and around and under and
          over and in between. But what really got to Nisher was the feeling
          that the crowd gave oft. It went completely beyond sex. It felt like
          a pure ocean of love, compassion, and understanding. He saw Ogun's
          face receding in a wave of bodies and called out, "How far does
          this thing go?”



          “Visitors from the past always send out big vibrations," Ogun shouted
          back. "This will probably go all the way."



          All the way? Nisher couldn't figure out what he was talking about.
          Then he got it and said, almost reverently, "Do you mean “ planetwide?”




          When the doctor is quite haunted by the story and decides to go back to ask Leonard for more, he is faced with the following scene of debauchery:




          "Where is Leonard?" cried Miles.



          "That guy musta hypnotized me," the policeman said, struggling into
          his trousers.



          "He preached a message of love," said the woman from Denver, wrapping
          herself in Leonard's wet pack.



          “Where is he?” Miles shouted.



          White curtains flapped at the open window. Miles stared out into
          the darkness. Nisher had escaped. His mind inflamed by his brief
          vision of the future, he was sure to be preaching his message of love
          up and down the country. He could be anywhere , Miles thought. How
          on earth can I find him? How can I join him?




          The story can be read on the Internet archive here.





          I found it by Googling "robert sheckley" short story police detective future custody love which yielded this webpage on the various works by Sheckley. As it seemed to contain a brief summary for all his short stories, I CTRL+Fed keywords such as "love", "lust", until "sex" did the trick ("sexual repression in "The Future Lost,").






          share|improve this answer














          It looks like it may be "The Future Lost", which appeared in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley (1991). Leonard Nisher, the protagonist, travelled from the past to the future, and back to the past. He relates what happened there to a doctor.




          Nisher saw that a lot of people had stopped. They were looking at
          him, smiling.



          "Now wait just a minute," he said, automatically taking up the
          cockroach posture.



          But by then a woman had hold of his leg, and another was snuggling up
          under his armpit, and somebody else was pinching his fingers. Nisher
          got a little hysterical and shouted at Ogun, "Why are they doing
          this?"



          "It is a spontaneous demonstration of our great pleasure at the
          novelty and poignancy of your presence. It happens whenever a man
          from the past appears among us. We feel so sorry for him and what he
          has to go back to, we want to share with him, share all the love we
          have. And so this happens."



          Nisher felt as though he were in the middle of a Cinemascope mob
          scene set in ancient Rome, or maybe Babylon. The street was crowded
          with people as far as the eye could see, and they were all making it
          with one another and on top of one another and around and under and
          over and in between. But what really got to Nisher was the feeling
          that the crowd gave oft. It went completely beyond sex. It felt like
          a pure ocean of love, compassion, and understanding. He saw Ogun's
          face receding in a wave of bodies and called out, "How far does
          this thing go?”



          “Visitors from the past always send out big vibrations," Ogun shouted
          back. "This will probably go all the way."



          All the way? Nisher couldn't figure out what he was talking about.
          Then he got it and said, almost reverently, "Do you mean “ planetwide?”




          When the doctor is quite haunted by the story and decides to go back to ask Leonard for more, he is faced with the following scene of debauchery:




          "Where is Leonard?" cried Miles.



          "That guy musta hypnotized me," the policeman said, struggling into
          his trousers.



          "He preached a message of love," said the woman from Denver, wrapping
          herself in Leonard's wet pack.



          “Where is he?” Miles shouted.



          White curtains flapped at the open window. Miles stared out into
          the darkness. Nisher had escaped. His mind inflamed by his brief
          vision of the future, he was sure to be preaching his message of love
          up and down the country. He could be anywhere , Miles thought. How
          on earth can I find him? How can I join him?




          The story can be read on the Internet archive here.





          I found it by Googling "robert sheckley" short story police detective future custody love which yielded this webpage on the various works by Sheckley. As it seemed to contain a brief summary for all his short stories, I CTRL+Fed keywords such as "love", "lust", until "sex" did the trick ("sexual repression in "The Future Lost,").







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited 15 hours ago

























          answered 16 hours ago









          Jenayah

          12.8k46497




          12.8k46497












          • If this is the correct answer, you can accept it by clicking the checkmark button on the left.
            – Jenayah
            16 hours ago






          • 1




            Oh man, I was too slow. Sheckley's my favorite old school short story author. :p Best I can do now is an upvote. :)
            – Longspeak
            14 hours ago




















          • If this is the correct answer, you can accept it by clicking the checkmark button on the left.
            – Jenayah
            16 hours ago






          • 1




            Oh man, I was too slow. Sheckley's my favorite old school short story author. :p Best I can do now is an upvote. :)
            – Longspeak
            14 hours ago


















          If this is the correct answer, you can accept it by clicking the checkmark button on the left.
          – Jenayah
          16 hours ago




          If this is the correct answer, you can accept it by clicking the checkmark button on the left.
          – Jenayah
          16 hours ago




          1




          1




          Oh man, I was too slow. Sheckley's my favorite old school short story author. :p Best I can do now is an upvote. :)
          – Longspeak
          14 hours ago






          Oh man, I was too slow. Sheckley's my favorite old school short story author. :p Best I can do now is an upvote. :)
          – Longspeak
          14 hours ago












          Joshua LaLanne is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










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