A very old disease, called Things Are Getting Worse

I gave up on Christopher Brookmyre’s Not the End of the World, after 48 pages. Here are some particularly annoying samples that illustrate why:

‘”Things fall apart,”‘ as Sophie put it, quoting that Irish poet she liked.
‘”The centre cannot hold.” All that stuff. “The falcon cannot hear the falconer.”‘
And the shit is hitting the fan.
This is an APB. All units in the Bethlehem area: be on the lookout for a rough beast with a slouching gait.

..

‘The Gazes Also, huh? Cute name for that sort of work.’ [..]
‘I hadn’t thought about it,’ she said. ‘We come across so many dumb names for boats, you stop wondering what they’re referring to. Most of the time it’s probably someone’s wife. Or their dog. What’s cute about this one?’
‘It’s Nietzsche,’ Larry told her, turning away again to stare at the vessel, the name etched on the bows and the life-safers. ‘”When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”.’
‘Jesus, they got cops quoting Nietzsche now?’ Jame said with a wry smile, nudging up the peak of her cap with her Coke can. ‘What, you gotta answer on philosophy for the seargent’s exam these days?’
‘No, I read it on my cereal box this morning. It’s a thought for the day deal. If I’d had Cheerios instead of corn flakes I’d never have known – Cheerios are still running their Gems of Kierkegaard series.’
‘Of course.’

It’s all like this. Überclever and superficial. A pose.