What Was All That in Aid Of?

I just read Black Bag by Luke Kennard. It is funny and good.

The book’s about an actor who must wear a black leather bag over his whole body (except for his feet) after precariat desperation leads him to take work as the subject of a psychological experiment.

Anyway, these quotes aren’t particularly representative of the book, but they’re nice as Escapological moments:

About a job (but not the black bag one):

I don’t want to do this forever … Too many people feel like they own a little bit of me — it’s like I accidentally sold 500 per cent of the shares in my soul. And I’m getting deeply sick of people and their bullshit. It’s not a good feeling.

And a retired man speaks:

Retirement feels rather like being expelled from a cult … Everything you measured your life by is proved to be utterly senseless and haphazard. You went along with a set of precepts because you had little choice in the matter once you’d signed up, and then it’s suddenly over and the prevailing feeling is, Well what was all that in aid of?

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New Escapologist Issue 19 and the anniversary edition of Escape Everything! are both available now.