Preferred Position — A Reader’s Guide

A Future of Enforced Leisure

The story’s premise is established through the couple’s morning routine. Les complains there is “not a darned thing to do,” and Janet worries that inactivity will lead to accusations of suicide—a crime punishable by slavery. The threat of slavery is treated as both absurd and desirable: Les muses that “slavery’d at least be a change,” while Janet reminds him that slaves are tortured. This exchange reveals a society where the only alternative to boredom is a worse fate. The characters are trapped not by technology but by a social system that has outlawed meaningful effort. Dryfoos does not explain how this world came to be; instead, he lets the dialogue imply a history of solved problems that have created new ones.

Domestic Automation as Satire

The automated home is a source of irritation rather than comfort. The bed’s cooing voice, the marionette’s theatrical coffee delivery, and the “film-dress” Janet wears all point to a world of superfluous design. Les calls the dolls “a nuisance” and prefers a “plain, automatic dispenser,” but Janet finds that even more boring. Their argument over appliances mirrors their larger dissatisfaction: they have the power to customize their environment, but no desire to engage with it. The technology is not malevolent—it is simply tiresome. Dryfoos uses these details to critique a consumer culture that has perfected convenience to the point of meaninglessness.

Marriage as a Mirror of Stagnation

The couple’s dynamic is central to the story’s tension. They bicker over trivialities—whether to get up, whether to eat—but their arguments are a ritual that fills time. Janet accuses Les of selfishness for complaining about his sixty-five remaining years, while she has seventy and cannot yet have her first child. This detail, dropped casually, hints at a world where reproduction is delayed and longevity is guaranteed. Their conflict is both petty and profound: they have no external challenges, so they turn on each other. The story’s title, Preferred Position, may refer to their desire for a different role in life—one that the future has denied them.

Dryfoos’s story is a satire of a utopia gone flat. It does not offer a solution or a dramatic escape; instead, it lingers on the small, sharp exchanges that define a marriage under the pressure of too much time. Readers should pay attention to how the author uses domestic details—the bed, the doll, the pills—to build a world that feels both familiar and alien. The humor is dry, the tension real, and the ending, though not included here, is likely to be as ambivalent as the opening.