Popculture apocalypse
Well, what do they say about the plans falling apart? I’m sure “they” say something — possibly even meaningful or funny — but I’m afraid my brainpan is complete dry, so I’ll just have to allude to an expression I know exists, but don’t recall.
In any event, I have been insanely unproductive these past few months. Blame it on Tina and both girls getting ungodly sick, spending a weekend in the hospital with Anya, and then getting really, really depressed about it all. I’ve done very little work on Alberic Heresies, or any of my other projects, and I’ve struggled for nearly two months to finish reading Alan Steele’s “Coyote” — which isn’t even particularly challenging, or good. I look back to the halycon days when I read Jack McDevitt’s excellent “A Talent for War” at lunch every day and finished it in a month. Those were the days.
But I did marvel at the horrifically brilliant finale to Battlestar Galactica’s second season. I got sucked into Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on XBOX 360, at least for the few short minutes I’ve had the time to play it. Tina and I bid on a house and then withdrew that bid when it appeared we couldn’t afford it. We continue to look at junk houses going for prices that once were enough to secure the deed to a castle in Italy. But no more.
Back to “Coyote” — this book is dubbed “a novel of interstellar exploration,” featuring a ragtag group of Libertarians who steal a spacecraft from a future American government controlled by the right-wing “Liberty Party,” which very similar to the modern GOP that currently dominates all three branches of our own government. Unfortunately, the book turns into a frontier novel without the Indians, shoot-outs, or fun stuff. Big chunks are written from the perspective of flat, trite teenaged characters and adult ciphers. I have books by Russell Banks and Jack McDevitt waiting for me, but I can’t bear to quit, even though I read only a few pages a week. Must finish, must finish …
