Synopsis
This collection of satirical short stories chronicles a rich journey across American technology and culture in the form of confused and frantic people feverishly trying to understand what the intersection of technology, cardboard culture, and human behavior actually mean.
Drawing from his background in internet marketing, Lucey brings to life everything from social media and ebooks, smartphones and robots... as well as celebrity worship, the mendacity of marriage, and the ritualistic trivialization of poltiics.
Better yet, there are seventeen stories and the collection itself is three dollars. That's about 17 cents a story.
WARNING: Some of this satire will bite and leave a mark. A few of these stories are extremely dark.
The Breakdown:
1. Digitally Remastered Classics: Professor Educht is despairing over the book market these days and is frightened of ebooks, until he comes up with a brand new idea on how people should read, consume, and create literature.
2. Scarecrows, Behind Glass: Forget FaceSpace, Samantha Henderson has an even more revolutionary idea for social media: holes in everyone's windows! Anonymity is truly obsolete in the new age of this brand new age of the internet.
3. Clouds: Lisa Koning is a third-grade student being taught what clouds are by a whirring device that resembles a trashcan, but can't quite figure out whether they're the things in the sky or the things that store a lot of data.
4. Memory Board: Sarah Bellingham is obsessed with the first boy she fell in love... even though she's now 43. Thanks to her myPhone , she can relive every moment in increasingly subjective detail.
5: Luddites, Cubed: A dramatic letter left behind from a despairing luddite.
6. The Cruise: Mark & Linda go on a cruise to repair their marriage and the secret problem they both share, trying to escape crazy, everyday life in favor of a surreal voyage where no on seems to be in charge.
7: Destination Inc: Destination #42 is a peaceful tourist resort that becomes a hotspot for protest and self-realization as a child with leukemia, a disillusioned thirtysomething woman, an executive, and a troubled couple all meet at the same spot at the asme time.
8. A New Kind of Truth: Tina Point, the latest teen sensation in music runs into trouble when she pushes her boyfriend and the media goes into a frenzy. She has to rely on a mysterious spin doctor to repair her reputation and, more importantly, her reputation in the eyes of the public.
9. Election Season: Jade Swendal, the daughter of a sister to the husband of a Senatorial candidate, gets to feel exactly what it's like to be in an election season when mass media is pervasive, lawyer-reporters run rampant looking for stories, and news merchants buy facts and social media posts from friends, relatives, and ex-therapists.
10. Marketocracy: A small group of American emissaries is in charge of making the once-tyriannical Nordic Empire into a fledgling democracy, but, since the United States has long ago become a marketocracy, they don't really remember how.
11. Noise At Twilight: Illegal immigration is a hot topic for radio pundit Glenn Limbog, Republican hopeful Dario Lombardi, and incumbent Ralph Mackey, but none of them quite know what it means until it literally hits them in the face.
12. Aliens: When do culture & resources turn us into different species?
13. Route 501: Dark.
14. The Dig: In the foreign land of Altara, Susan and David try to relax and meet up with friends. Unfortunately, Altara holds dark secrets that are close to bursting.
15. The Scavengers: Edward Spiral is put in a zoo by people that look human, but don't understand him.
16. Scorpion: A boy & his family go to a villa in the mountains, where the boy looks for scorpions and for secrets.
17. Radiance River: Walter goes on a family reunion for the first time ever, but realizes his children have outgrown him & life has outran him. It's up to him to remember how to be new.
Drawing from his background in internet marketing, Lucey brings to life everything from social media and ebooks, smartphones and robots... as well as celebrity worship, the mendacity of marriage, and the ritualistic trivialization of poltiics.
Better yet, there are seventeen stories and the collection itself is three dollars. That's about 17 cents a story.
WARNING: Some of this satire will bite and leave a mark. A few of these stories are extremely dark.
The Breakdown:
1. Digitally Remastered Classics: Professor Educht is despairing over the book market these days and is frightened of ebooks, until he comes up with a brand new idea on how people should read, consume, and create literature.
2. Scarecrows, Behind Glass: Forget FaceSpace, Samantha Henderson has an even more revolutionary idea for social media: holes in everyone's windows! Anonymity is truly obsolete in the new age of this brand new age of the internet.
3. Clouds: Lisa Koning is a third-grade student being taught what clouds are by a whirring device that resembles a trashcan, but can't quite figure out whether they're the things in the sky or the things that store a lot of data.
4. Memory Board: Sarah Bellingham is obsessed with the first boy she fell in love... even though she's now 43. Thanks to her myPhone , she can relive every moment in increasingly subjective detail.
5: Luddites, Cubed: A dramatic letter left behind from a despairing luddite.
6. The Cruise: Mark & Linda go on a cruise to repair their marriage and the secret problem they both share, trying to escape crazy, everyday life in favor of a surreal voyage where no on seems to be in charge.
7: Destination Inc: Destination #42 is a peaceful tourist resort that becomes a hotspot for protest and self-realization as a child with leukemia, a disillusioned thirtysomething woman, an executive, and a troubled couple all meet at the same spot at the asme time.
8. A New Kind of Truth: Tina Point, the latest teen sensation in music runs into trouble when she pushes her boyfriend and the media goes into a frenzy. She has to rely on a mysterious spin doctor to repair her reputation and, more importantly, her reputation in the eyes of the public.
9. Election Season: Jade Swendal, the daughter of a sister to the husband of a Senatorial candidate, gets to feel exactly what it's like to be in an election season when mass media is pervasive, lawyer-reporters run rampant looking for stories, and news merchants buy facts and social media posts from friends, relatives, and ex-therapists.
10. Marketocracy: A small group of American emissaries is in charge of making the once-tyriannical Nordic Empire into a fledgling democracy, but, since the United States has long ago become a marketocracy, they don't really remember how.
11. Noise At Twilight: Illegal immigration is a hot topic for radio pundit Glenn Limbog, Republican hopeful Dario Lombardi, and incumbent Ralph Mackey, but none of them quite know what it means until it literally hits them in the face.
12. Aliens: When do culture & resources turn us into different species?
13. Route 501: Dark.
14. The Dig: In the foreign land of Altara, Susan and David try to relax and meet up with friends. Unfortunately, Altara holds dark secrets that are close to bursting.
15. The Scavengers: Edward Spiral is put in a zoo by people that look human, but don't understand him.
16. Scorpion: A boy & his family go to a villa in the mountains, where the boy looks for scorpions and for secrets.
17. Radiance River: Walter goes on a family reunion for the first time ever, but realizes his children have outgrown him & life has outran him. It's up to him to remember how to be new.
Release date: February 19, 2013
Publisher: Blaise Lucey
Print pages: 284
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