May 21, 2007
Interesting things included
Interesting things I read in newspapers this weekend included: a new anthology about fathers and daughters has this reviewer asking “Why do some writers treat the essay form like a therapy session instead of a piece of prose composed for a wider audience?” Which is the end too many anthologies have led me to, but then flipping through the original Dropped Threads the other day, I got the sense that the quality of essays contained there was much better. I could be wrong, didn’t read it so closely, but I wonder if that these essays were written before the craze of anthologies and creative-nonfiction means that they were less self-conscious, less prescribed. Now so many nonfiction essays appear to be based upon the same template, and so mediochre (remember the anthology that made me want to die?) Anyway.
I really loved Sheema Khan’s column this week, urging Muslim women to stand up against male domination. She closes with “Social injustices should be confronted head-on with spiritual conviction and the resolve to face stiff opposition. An echo from another era by a Canadian woman of faith, Nellie McClung, should inspire us: ‘Never retract, never explain, never apologize – get things done and let them howl.'”
A fascinating piece Post 9/11 Fiction. On gay lit, the biggest ghetto since “women’s fiction”. A blog entry on Zelda Fitzgerald (who I spent my late-teens absolutely obsessed with), but as always don’t bother with the comments (particularly the one in which the writer claims that F. Scott was not successful).
May 17, 2007
A little pocket of time
Do check out the third installment of What is Stephen Harper Reading? Politics aside (though not that they should be), Martel has enclosed a wonderful letter along with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, celebrating books and reading. He also has photos of the library at Laurier House in Ottawa, which was home to Sir Wilfrid and William Lyon Mackenzie King. Martel writes, “How did they manage to read so much? Perhaps Laurier and King were excellent at time management. Certainly television wasn’t there to inform them in part and otherwise fruitlessly devour their hours. Or was it that reading was a natural and essential element of being a respectable, well-rounded gentleman? Was it some ingrained habit of the privileged that gave these two prime ministers permission to spend so much time reading?”
Martel continues, “Reading was perhaps a privileged activity then. But not now. In a wealthy, egalitarian country like ours, where the literacy rate is high (although some people still struggle and need our help) and public libraries are just that, public, reading is no longer an elitist pastime. A good book today has no class, so to speak, and it can be had by anyone. One of the marvels of where I live, the beautiful province of Saskatchewan, is that the smallest town—Hazlet, for example, population 126—has a public library. Nor need books be expensive, if you want to own one. You can get a gold mine of a used book for fifty cents. After that, all that is needed to appreciate the investment is a little pocket of time.”
April 24, 2007
It's hard to find good music
Indeed, I successfully defended my Masters Thesis yesterday, and came home to this beautiful bouquet sent by my family. Lucky I, and luckier still for this Saturday afternoon Stuart and I are going out to celebrate the end of school in the fashion I have chosen, and it is a very special fashion. I can’t wait to tell you all about it.
Linkylink:
-Find an update over at my hobby blog Now Doing! Posted are pictures of the blanket I knit this winter, and my current patchwork project.
-I was thrilled to find out that the marvelous Saffrina Welch has started a blog. Saff is a friend of Stu’s from uni, and when she and her boyfriend Ivan came to stay with us in December, we had a brilliant time. So it will be fun to see what she gets up to online.
-Bookwise, I was happy to see that Karen Connelly’s The Lizard Cage has been nominated for the Orange Award for New Writers. As I expressed when I read it last March, The Lizard Cage is an extraordinary novel, and deserves so much recognition.
-I’ve never read Barbara Pym, but I feel like I ought to after having read this wonderful feature on the Barbara Pym Society Conference.
-And on an unrelated note: Kirsten Dunst is credited with saying: “I was brought up on Guns ‘N Roses, the Les Miserables soundtrack and anything my mother listened to. But it’s much harder to find great music these days.” Bless.
Still reading Happenstance very happily, though copy errors make my eyes bleed. I also picked up the new Hart House Review today and it’s absolutely beautiful. The ever-accomplished Rebecca Rosenblum took a top prize for fiction. Congratulations RR! Some poetry as well by other creative writing comrades. What a bunch.
April 22, 2007
Go outside
Lionel Shriver, you are so famous these days! And I am rather pissed that when I went to see you a few weeks ago I only brought your new book to sign, and not your very first book which I own and, according to this profile, is worth a good sum. I find people who arrive at signings with stacks and stacks a bit obnoxious, but perhaps there is method? Our national paper shamed me with its lameness this weekend, although Rex Murphy’s column was extraordinary. Celebrate Muriel Spark.
Now go outside.
April 17, 2007
Short Orange
Announced: the Orange shortlist. And we will be cheering for Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie all the way.
April 17, 2007
Or both
Curtis is back, and man, did he ever bring candy. We are pleased. In less pleasant news I’m in a state of high-agitation regarding my thesis defense next week, the undergraduate essays which are trickling in slowly conspiring to ruin the time I have left before my full-time job begins, wondering indeed about my passport application (“up to ten weeks” they’re saying? Well, we’ve arrived), arrangements for our trip to England in June, how I’ll manage driving on the wrong side of the road. Plus the sun has yet to make an appearance this April, which is sort of rubbish. I would prescribe myself a stiff drink, or a hot bath, or both.
I’m also bothered that I can’t find Miffy books anywhere in this city. I even ventured into the mean blue bookstore that dares not speak its name, and no dice. If anyone can tell me where I can find some Bruna lit, I would love the tip because I know two babies (newborn and about-to-be) whose libraries need starting.
Good lit-news: Lionel Shriver in The Globe, CanLit in Hungary, and UofT makes its contributions to the Internet Archive.
April 15, 2007
News of the world
I read so many interesting stories in the news this weekend! Our national paper in particular, I thought, was rife with goodness. I value preposterousity in a woman, which is why I enjoy reading Margaret Wente even when she’s wrong, but this time I thought she was right on the mark about Belinda Stronach. How brilliant were Susan Swan’s Tips for Stephen Harper, emerging writer? This wonderful interview with Michael Ondaatje. Yann Martel wants to know what is stephen harper reading? I liked Laura Penny’s column on idiot media. Across the sea, Jodi Picoult is profiled. What writers need to write (Douglas Coupland says chocolate). Most importantly India Knight on the royal break-up.
April 15, 2007
Home news
Big changes are a-coming around our house and it’s time to let the secret out: we’re expecting a new addition. This is the divide between our youth and adulthood, I suppose, and time for us to face up to our responsibilities, to begin to approach respectability. Never again, our salad days, but this change signifies a new era of possibility– aesthetically and ergonomically.
We bought a sofa. No more will our cheapest-in-the-shop futon be your sole option for asseyez-vousing when you come round. No longer will our apartment be outfitted like a college flat. A sofa: three seater, comfortable, classic. Our sofa: the most grown-up thing we’ve ever done.
And so the sofa was the point of yesterday. Luckily its purchase coincided with our need for a change of scenery, and we took the subway out to Main Street station to choose it. It is fortunate that Stuart and I have the exact same taste (good or bad, though he is less partial to tye-dye than I am) and so we picked it fast: exactly what we wanted. And then we walked the Danforth, all the way from Main Street to Chester to visit Erin-who-we-love. On the way we stopped off at the Chocolate Heaven Cafe (as heard on Metro Morning and as featured in the Globe last week).) We had dinner with Erin at Asteria Soulaki Place and it was the best Greek food we’ve ever had. Oishilicious. Today has moved at a slower pace, but highlights included She Said Boom for book purchases*, and Tealish to replenish our stock.
Book purchases: Happenstance by Carol Shields and Where I Was From by Joan Didion.
We are excited because tonight Curtis returns after two weeks of chaos in the United Kingdom. We are also excited because he might have brought us candy.
April 9, 2007
The perils of mimeograph
I am sure that I too once began essays with sweeping statements like “All societies since the dawn of time have had to struggle for identity, much in the same way that Canada struggles to define itself in Barometre Rising“. Therefore I will not roll my eyes too high. I will, however, take a quick break from marking to direct your attention toward two great pieces on personal expression and the internet.
Brilliant Globe and Mail columnist Ivor Tossell on the illusion of on-line privacy. The just-as-brilliant Heather Mallick takes the point further here. She writes of comments (moderated or otherwise) tacked onto articles in The Guardian (and the Globe has them too), asking: “Why should everyone have a voice? They don’t in daily life. There are some people you wouldn’t sit next to on the bus. Online, clever and perhaps sensitive letter writers with an actual point to make are driven away by the ignorance and sheer hatred displayed by the other posters.”
She’s right, for example check out the comments on Ivor’s article, like that charmer who says “rotten things online” just “to get everything thinking”. Thanks pal. Or the one who uses the term “techno weenie”. Oh my. If you judged our international IQ by the amount of rage expressed in these idiotic comments, I think that we could all be geniuses.
April 8, 2007
Woke up this morning feeling fine
Japan was in the news last week, mostly unfortunately through this murder which has been sensationalized by the red-tops in Britain. I appreciated measured responses to the hype here inThe Times. (Judging from reader comments, clearly not everyone appreciated the first article as much as I did. The venom it unleashed was sort of baffling, but then a lot of people don’t like to call racism by its name). More positively, Top Ten Books Set in Japan by Fiona Campbell who has just published Death of a Salaryman. (Incidentally, I’ve only read number 10 but plan to read Kitchen someday soon.)
Lionel Shriver happily reviews Nora Ephron. I want to read Julie Burchill’s book on Brighton. Rounding up responses to Didion on stage. This review makes me so excited to read the new McEwan. I love this: Sunday Morning Music.
Now rereading The Realms of Gold by Margaret Drabble, for kicks.
I’ve marked thirty essays, and as I’ve only done four and three today and yesterday, the weekend has contained some aspects of nice. Yesterday we partook in lattes over the paper in Kensington, and today we ate our delightful M&S Easter Treats from England. But otherwise, yes, not much has occurred. Life continues on hold. The notable event of the weekend continues to be that I brought a very large object into our home, oh and mustn’t forget the startling revelation (to the sound of Herman’s Hermits) that I dance like my dad.
