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Not from Concentrate
Internet lawlessness, smartphone love triangles, zombie video gamers, gender role ambivalence and the demise of television—these changes infuse our existence. Borrowing from science fiction, fantasy and magic realism, the collected stories of Not from Concentrate take contemporary issues of relationships and technology head-on!
Stories:
1. Robot Famous 2. The Corporate Afterlife 3. The Natural Celebrity 4. Father Internet 5. Yuppie Marooned 6. Microcosmic Romance 7. The Infidelity Detector 8. Girl Fistfights Boy 9. I Want to Stand in My Cubicle 10. Digital Girlfriend 11. The Download Punisher 12. Goodbye, My Television
Stories:
1. Robot Famous 2. The Corporate Afterlife 3. The Natural Celebrity 4. Father Internet 5. Yuppie Marooned 6. Microcosmic Romance 7. The Infidelity Detector 8. Girl Fistfights Boy 9. I Want to Stand in My Cubicle 10. Digital Girlfriend 11. The Download Punisher 12. Goodbye, My Television
- GenresShort Stories
240 pages, Audiobook
First published January 1, 2011
1 person is currently reading
750 people want to read
About the author
David Wallace Fleming
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David Wallace Fleming is a satirist with a wicked sense of humor. His love for comedy has led him to write in a variety of genres, all using his wit and sarcasm. David is a classic man who writes the sort of tales he'd like to read. His works have appeared in Out of the Gutter, Escape Velocity, and the Bizarro Press. His one goal is to give the readers something unique and special yet also reflective of the exciting times we live in.
Mailing List
David Wallace Fleming is a satirist with a wicked sense of humor. His love for comedy has led him to write in a variety of genres, all using his wit and sarcasm. David is a classic man who writes the sort of tales he'd like to read. His works have appeared in Out of the Gutter, Escape Velocity, and the Bizarro Press. His one goal is to give the readers something unique and special yet also reflective of the exciting times we live in.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 30, 2013
Featuring twelve stories from "technical satirist" David Wallace Fleming, Not from Concentrate nevertheless manages to distill the very essence of modern life in all its pulpy, alienating bewilderment. Covering such banal subjects as work, leisure, and love, DWF considers all the different ways in which our ubiquitous media and gadgetry serve to amplify and exasperate our hopes, our fears, and the minutiae of our daily lives, following those trajectories to their logical conclusions and usually to great tragicomic effect.
In this 2012 interview, DWF explains that "we've reached a saturation point in society where it doesn't make sense to write fiction that predicts the future if we can't already understand the technology of the present." Ergo, his stories don't deal with time travelers as much as they do with telecommuters. They're not about phaser beams; they're about Facebook. The overall effect is less fantastical than most science fiction out there (a genre in which some of these tales might fall), but it's certainly more insightful from a present day perspective. Without giving away too much plot-wise, here are a few things that stuck out to me:
In the not too distant future, human actors are routinely barred from the roles they once played, lacking the emotive range of their robotic rivals. Can't hang with the "turbulence quotient" required by today's television audience? Don't worry, you'll still be famous -- just not "robot famous."
In the afterlife, there's nothing to do but play video games all day long, and you'll never get less than full bars wherever you go. Worried about your loved ones back on Earth? Just look 'em up online, duh!
In the meantime, we drink Cokes to caffeinate ourselves into the future, and Rolling Rocks to drunken ourselves into the past. Bonking bonkers will bonk all night bonking long, as western science shakes hands with the asian spirit world. Your perfect digital girlfriend may not have perfect digits in reality, but you'll still want to marry that little bitch regardless.
One of my favorite stories in this collection, "Goodbye, My Television", centers on the experience of the titular appliance come to life, fully personified with the same issues and anxieties dogging his legions of viewers. Whatever you do, don't mention his weight -- "You know what they say, brah, reality adds like ten mother-bleeping lbs and shit."
On a cross-country road trip to find the woman he loves, TV finds it difficult to change channels in the midst of so much unchanging scenery. Since he hasn't taken human form since 1984, TV does not know that all places in America are now basically the same. And since he's too busy out gallivanting around to do his job of entertaining the masses, the populace doesn't exactly know how to react, either. "People don't know how to feel anymore, and so they rely on TV, but all he ever shows them is garbage." Hence the garbage that is their lives.
TV does not understand sex, but he DOES understand long guns, explosions, and trains pounding into tunnels. He's never been able to depict a woman's grace through pixels, although he's certainly tried his best. TV used to hypnotize us all, but now he's starting to believe his own bullshit. No one really cares though, just so long as he tells us what rich people are doing right now.
In this 2012 interview, DWF explains that "we've reached a saturation point in society where it doesn't make sense to write fiction that predicts the future if we can't already understand the technology of the present." Ergo, his stories don't deal with time travelers as much as they do with telecommuters. They're not about phaser beams; they're about Facebook. The overall effect is less fantastical than most science fiction out there (a genre in which some of these tales might fall), but it's certainly more insightful from a present day perspective. Without giving away too much plot-wise, here are a few things that stuck out to me:
In the not too distant future, human actors are routinely barred from the roles they once played, lacking the emotive range of their robotic rivals. Can't hang with the "turbulence quotient" required by today's television audience? Don't worry, you'll still be famous -- just not "robot famous."
In the afterlife, there's nothing to do but play video games all day long, and you'll never get less than full bars wherever you go. Worried about your loved ones back on Earth? Just look 'em up online, duh!
In the meantime, we drink Cokes to caffeinate ourselves into the future, and Rolling Rocks to drunken ourselves into the past. Bonking bonkers will bonk all night bonking long, as western science shakes hands with the asian spirit world. Your perfect digital girlfriend may not have perfect digits in reality, but you'll still want to marry that little bitch regardless.
One of my favorite stories in this collection, "Goodbye, My Television", centers on the experience of the titular appliance come to life, fully personified with the same issues and anxieties dogging his legions of viewers. Whatever you do, don't mention his weight -- "You know what they say, brah, reality adds like ten mother-bleeping lbs and shit."
On a cross-country road trip to find the woman he loves, TV finds it difficult to change channels in the midst of so much unchanging scenery. Since he hasn't taken human form since 1984, TV does not know that all places in America are now basically the same. And since he's too busy out gallivanting around to do his job of entertaining the masses, the populace doesn't exactly know how to react, either. "People don't know how to feel anymore, and so they rely on TV, but all he ever shows them is garbage." Hence the garbage that is their lives.
TV does not understand sex, but he DOES understand long guns, explosions, and trains pounding into tunnels. He's never been able to depict a woman's grace through pixels, although he's certainly tried his best. TV used to hypnotize us all, but now he's starting to believe his own bullshit. No one really cares though, just so long as he tells us what rich people are doing right now.
May 19, 2024
The title, taken from advertising, indicates more than just another collection of pulp fiction. "Not from Concentrate" is a phrase often employed to vaunt the quality of fruit juice which is boasted as being fresher, healthier, and less processed. But the phrase is so often used that it has become clichéd and thus liable to suspicion.
Likewise in these stories, many of the characters are anxious about how they appear to others, and this obsession with image can often be open to doubt and scrutiny. This is a theme which flows through most if not all of the stories. These individuals are frequently facing tensions with the opposite sex, competition in the workplace, or conflicts they have created themselves.
It was enjoyable to listen to the author reading this. He has a good reading style, and has fun with his text. For the most part, he is able to give his characters distinctive voices. I must say that, occasionally his falsetto for female characters is quite similar to his falsetto for male nerds, but that's a minor quibble.
Some of the stories were a little on the silly side (particularly "Microcosmic Romance"). But in others (particularly "Robot Famous" and "The Infidelity Detector" to mention only two) the social commentary was very profound.
Likewise in these stories, many of the characters are anxious about how they appear to others, and this obsession with image can often be open to doubt and scrutiny. This is a theme which flows through most if not all of the stories. These individuals are frequently facing tensions with the opposite sex, competition in the workplace, or conflicts they have created themselves.
It was enjoyable to listen to the author reading this. He has a good reading style, and has fun with his text. For the most part, he is able to give his characters distinctive voices. I must say that, occasionally his falsetto for female characters is quite similar to his falsetto for male nerds, but that's a minor quibble.
Some of the stories were a little on the silly side (particularly "Microcosmic Romance"). But in others (particularly "Robot Famous" and "The Infidelity Detector" to mention only two) the social commentary was very profound.
August 10, 2016
Featuring twelve stories from "technical satirist" David Wallace Fleming, Not from Concentrate nevertheless manages to distill the very essence of modern life into all of its pulpy, alienating bewilderment. Covering such banal subjects as work, leisure, and love, DWF considers all the different ways in which our ubiquitous media and gadgetry serve to amplify and exasperate our hopes, our fears, and the minutiae of our daily lives, following those trajectories to their logical conclusions, and usually to great tragicomic effect.
In this 2012 interview, DWF explains that "we've reached a saturation point in society where it doesn't make sense to write fiction that predicts the future if we can't already understand the technology of the present." Ergo, his stories don't deal with time travelers as much as they do with telecommuters. They're not about phaser beams; they're about Facebook. The overall effect is less fantastical than most science fiction out there (a genre with which some of these tales awkwardly flirt), but it's certainly more insightful from a modern day perspective.
Without giving away too much plot-wise, here are a few things that stuck out to me:
In the not too distant future, human actors are routinely barred from the roles they once played, lacking the emotive range of their robotic rivals. Can't hang with the "turbulence quotient" required by today's television audience? Don't worry, you'll still be famous — just not "robot famous."
In the afterlife, there's nothing to do but play video games all day long, and you'll never get less than full bars wherever you go. Worried about your loved ones back on Earth? Just look 'em up online, duh!
In the meantime, we drink Cokes to caffeinate ourselves into the future, and Rolling Rocks to drunken ourselves into the past. Bonking bonkers will bonk all night bonking long, as western science shakes hands with the asian spirit world. Your perfect digital girlfriend may not have perfect digits in reality, but you'll still want to marry that little bitch regardless.
One of my favorite stories in this collection, "Goodbye, My Television", centers on the experience of the titular appliance come to life, fully personified with the same issues and anxieties dogging his legions of viewers. Whatever you do, don't mention his weight — "You know what they say, brah, reality adds like ten mother-bleeping lbs and shit."
On a cross-country road trip to find the woman he loves, TV finds it difficult to change channels in the midst of so much unchanging scenery. Since he hasn't taken human form since 1984, TV does not know that all places in America are now basically the same. And since he's too busy out gallivanting around to do his job of entertaining the masses, the populace doesn't exactly know how to react, either. "People don't know how to feel anymore, and so they rely on TV, but all he ever shows them is garbage." Hence the garbage that is their lives.
TV does not understand sex, but he DOES understand long guns, explosions, and trains pounding into tunnels. He's never been able to depict a woman's grace through pixels, although he's certainly tried his best. TV used to hypnotize us all, but now he's starting to believe his own bullshit. No one really cares though, just so long as he tells us what rich people are doing right now.
In this 2012 interview, DWF explains that "we've reached a saturation point in society where it doesn't make sense to write fiction that predicts the future if we can't already understand the technology of the present." Ergo, his stories don't deal with time travelers as much as they do with telecommuters. They're not about phaser beams; they're about Facebook. The overall effect is less fantastical than most science fiction out there (a genre with which some of these tales awkwardly flirt), but it's certainly more insightful from a modern day perspective.
Without giving away too much plot-wise, here are a few things that stuck out to me:
In the not too distant future, human actors are routinely barred from the roles they once played, lacking the emotive range of their robotic rivals. Can't hang with the "turbulence quotient" required by today's television audience? Don't worry, you'll still be famous — just not "robot famous."
In the afterlife, there's nothing to do but play video games all day long, and you'll never get less than full bars wherever you go. Worried about your loved ones back on Earth? Just look 'em up online, duh!
In the meantime, we drink Cokes to caffeinate ourselves into the future, and Rolling Rocks to drunken ourselves into the past. Bonking bonkers will bonk all night bonking long, as western science shakes hands with the asian spirit world. Your perfect digital girlfriend may not have perfect digits in reality, but you'll still want to marry that little bitch regardless.
One of my favorite stories in this collection, "Goodbye, My Television", centers on the experience of the titular appliance come to life, fully personified with the same issues and anxieties dogging his legions of viewers. Whatever you do, don't mention his weight — "You know what they say, brah, reality adds like ten mother-bleeping lbs and shit."
On a cross-country road trip to find the woman he loves, TV finds it difficult to change channels in the midst of so much unchanging scenery. Since he hasn't taken human form since 1984, TV does not know that all places in America are now basically the same. And since he's too busy out gallivanting around to do his job of entertaining the masses, the populace doesn't exactly know how to react, either. "People don't know how to feel anymore, and so they rely on TV, but all he ever shows them is garbage." Hence the garbage that is their lives.
TV does not understand sex, but he DOES understand long guns, explosions, and trains pounding into tunnels. He's never been able to depict a woman's grace through pixels, although he's certainly tried his best. TV used to hypnotize us all, but now he's starting to believe his own bullshit. No one really cares though, just so long as he tells us what rich people are doing right now.
July 13, 2011
Once again, I was asked by the author to review this work. The book is a collection of short stories that examine relationships and technology in stories that are nearly science fiction - but not always. Fun, thought provoking, and fast to read.
As with his other work, the audience for FLeming's work is 20 to 30 something years old. Readers should be familiar with the technology that seems to be all around us - ipods, cell phones, satellite TV, etc. Even though I am outside of both the age range and technology spheres of influence, I enjoyed these stories very much.
Discover the short stories of David Wallace Fleming.
As with his other work, the audience for FLeming's work is 20 to 30 something years old. Readers should be familiar with the technology that seems to be all around us - ipods, cell phones, satellite TV, etc. Even though I am outside of both the age range and technology spheres of influence, I enjoyed these stories very much.
Discover the short stories of David Wallace Fleming.
May 8, 2015
I won a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads.
If you don't have time to read a full book or to start a new book serie then this book, featuring 19 short stories, is for you. And even if you have time for something longer, you should read it.
The recurring themes are mostly technology, social and the in-between, often showing an obsession with image. Sometimes you'll feel like "Wait, what the hell is happening ?" but the story will whisper soft words to you and tell you all is fine. I just love this feeling.
I think there is two way to read this book, as a collection of (mostly) bizarre stories or as a reflection on what we are doing and where we are going. Seriously, it made me think so much on our overuse of technology, on the cult of image going on in our current society and how it affects our lives that I feel like we all need to take a step back to look at what's happening.
But don't worry, you don't have to think, just accept what is told to you, let yourselves be guided and appreciate what the stories have to offer.
If you don't have time to read a full book or to start a new book serie then this book, featuring 19 short stories, is for you. And even if you have time for something longer, you should read it.
The recurring themes are mostly technology, social and the in-between, often showing an obsession with image. Sometimes you'll feel like "Wait, what the hell is happening ?" but the story will whisper soft words to you and tell you all is fine. I just love this feeling.
I think there is two way to read this book, as a collection of (mostly) bizarre stories or as a reflection on what we are doing and where we are going. Seriously, it made me think so much on our overuse of technology, on the cult of image going on in our current society and how it affects our lives that I feel like we all need to take a step back to look at what's happening.
But don't worry, you don't have to think, just accept what is told to you, let yourselves be guided and appreciate what the stories have to offer.
April 27, 2012
full review, in two parts!!!
Part One
Part Two
I had a lot of fun with these stories, some more than others but obviously that's gonna happen. I've never listened to an audio book, and while I did enjoy this, I don't think it's the right media for me. I'm a print kinda guy (or digital, but in either case I like reading rather than listening). Particularly "Goodbye, My Television" I really wish I had a print version of the stories because I found myself losing parts of the story and not really being able to go back and re'read' it again.
Part One
Part Two
I had a lot of fun with these stories, some more than others but obviously that's gonna happen. I've never listened to an audio book, and while I did enjoy this, I don't think it's the right media for me. I'm a print kinda guy (or digital, but in either case I like reading rather than listening). Particularly "Goodbye, My Television" I really wish I had a print version of the stories because I found myself losing parts of the story and not really being able to go back and re'read' it again.
March 26, 2012
From loony to profound, this collection of bizarre short stories is bound together by excellent writing. My favorite, ‘Girl Fistfights Boy’, is a brilliant allegory of the passion, misunderstanding and potential for transformation that underlie male / female courtship rituals with a clever twist. Some might say gender roles are swapped but I don’t. ‘Fistfight’ alone is worth the price of the book and earns a place among my all time favorite short stories.
July 20, 2011
Way Modern. Excellent variety and creative ideas. Liked it.
Merged review:
Nice variety of Syfy short stories.Interesting stories,way modern topics. Kept me interested.
Merged review:
Nice variety of Syfy short stories.Interesting stories,way modern topics. Kept me interested.
December 12, 2015
Kind of weird to read, but very good.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews