2003-04-23 - 10:02 p.m.

Escapism

We need a new word for certain sorts of moods. I hate to call myself "depressed" now because there's been so much talk of what a serious mental illness it can be and its deadly hazards and what not. I had that sort of depression once, and I definitely *don't* have it now. So this can't be called depression anymore. Maybe it's just a case of moo-ah, as Frank Zappa once said.

It's work that's doing it, I think. There's work I'd like to be doing, but I don't have time to do it because I'm too busy fighting people who think that the answer to bankruptcy is to make it harder to do things. I want to work for a purely meritocratic company that will recognize my skills and be eager to grant my slightest work-related whim. Is that too much to ask?

Since the real world hasn't been engaging my enthusiasm, I've been reading a lot lately. Over the weekend I read Kushiel's Avatar. I'm glad that trilogy is ending; Avatar didn't suck, but Phedre's destiny was starting to get a little cloying. If I'd been editing this book I might have asked Carey to rework the plot a bit, but I'd still give it a B+ or an A-, depending on my mood.

I'm still not quite sure what I think of Jo Walton's The King's Peace. I very much like fantasy that treats its fantastic premises realistically, which Peace tries to do, but it doesn't quite get it done. Magic does too many things in the book for people to make as little fuss about it as they seem to. Aside from that, though, I liked it a lot. Once it got moving, I found it hard to put down.

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