Archive for June, 2012

The Future Margaret Laurence Wanted

Posted: June 26, 2012 in Brazil, Debra Martens, International Events, London
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Planet Earth, NASA

Are you disappointed by the results of Rio+20, the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development? Here are some uplifting words from a wise woman who once lived in Knightsbridge, not far from here. This is from her memoir Dance on the Earth. Margaret Laurence is talking about the end of the Second World War.

“A new and better and more just social order had to emerge. We would make sure that it did. The world could and would be a better place. Poverty could be eliminated. People could be free in a free and peaceful world. We were not mouthing clichés. These things mattered…. Forty years on, I could weep for how naïve we were in so many ways. Yet the death of hope is the death of the will and perhaps of the spirit. I continue to believe, all evidence to the contrary, that it is not too late to save our only home, the planet earth, and that it is not too late, even at this very late date, to learn to live on and with the earth, in harmony with all creatures. Part of that belief is social belief, part of it is religious faith. Even after all the failures – the wars, the pollution, the radioactive waste, the real possibility of nuclear reactors melting down, the slaughter of whales and dolphins – even after all these atrocities, I believe that we cannot and must not give up.

I never look back at my younger self and smile wryly, thinking how curiously simple-minded we were. We were naïve and idealistic, but we were on the right track. We cared, and we must continue to care. Each generation must believe it can change the world for the better, whatever the odds are against us.”

I should mention here that Laurence got through only a first draft of her memoir before she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and that her revisions were dictated and the book finished with her daughter’s help. The memoir was given to me by a friend in Nairobi with whom I have lost touch. Losing touch happens to we wanderers, despite our best intentions.

cover for reprinted The Prophet’s Camel Bell

Like Sara Jeannette Duncan, Margaret Laurence lived with her husband abroad, and then settled for a time in London while he worked elsewhere. I will write more about this when I’ve done my research. It is only fitting, given that the conference was in Brazil, that I close with an excerpt of a poem by P.K. Page, who lived in Brazil with her diplomat husband, and wrote about it in her memoir, Brazilian Journal (another of my books left in storage…).

 Planet Earth

It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet,

has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness;

and the hands keep on moving,

smoothing the holy surfaces.

     ‘In Praise of Ironing’, PABLO NERUDA

It has to be loved the way a laundress loves her linens,

the way she moves her hands caressing the fine muslins

knowing their warp and woof,

like a lover coaxing, or a mother praising.

It has to be loved as if it were embroidered

with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it.

It has to be stretched and stroked.

It has to be celebrated.

O this great beloved world and all the creatures in it.

It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet.

…

Follow the link for the complete poem, or better, buy her book, Planet Earth: Poems Selected and New.

Is there a Canadian writing in Brazil, or about Brazil, or about P.K. Page, who would like to contribute to this post?

P.K. Page, CBC

Love Literary London

Posted: June 19, 2012 in Letter from, London, United Kingdom
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There are many things to love about London, but my favourite is its celebration of literature. Besides theatre, Sherlock and Doctor Who. Dead authors appear on blue plaques on walls of buildings they occupied (with other famous people, artists, architects, illustrators). You probably already know about the Guardian Books section, the Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books. Have heard of the second-hand bookstores on Charing Cross Road. Maybe you have planned a visit to such independents as Foyles and the Folio Society bookshop. Here is a good example of the literary life in London. Last night I went to the Royal Society of Literature’s discussion with Michael Ondaatje. Yes, there’s a Royal Society of Literature; it was founded by King George IV in 1820, to “reward literary merit and excite literary talent.” I am a paying member — but not a Fellow.

Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje, CBC

Michael Ondaatje was made a Fellow last year, and as a result, yester evening he was asked to sign the roll book, which dates back to 1820, using either Dickens’s quill or Byron’s pen. (He took the pen.) How cool is that? Or is it silly? They’ve had those writing implements since they started. The person who was supposed to engage Ondaatje in discussion couldn’t come, so Colin Thubron, President of RSL and renowned travel writer, asked another person to step in: Fiammetta Rocco, Editor of Books and Arts at The Economist, and master of six languages. Not that he lacked choice; he could have asked any number of approximately 500 literati (Fellows) from the Society to fill in, such as the Director, Maggie Fergusson, the literary editor for Intelligent Life, or the biographer Victoria Glendinning (a Vice-President) historical novelist Hilary Mantel (a Vice-President). The Fellows represent all genres of writing: fiction, poetry, travel writing, biography, scriptwriting, history, playwrights and literary critics. Literary critics? Ok, the AGM is coming up; what if the critic who skewered the novel in a recent review ends up beside the novelist? Some RSL articles can be read online.

What about Ondaatje? Best known for The English Patient, best loved for In the Skin of a Lion and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, he returned to Sri Lanka, the place of his birth, with Running in the Family and Anil’s Ghost. He has written and edited yet more: you can find out about his work on his agent’s website or buy his books from Random House. The evening’s discussion turned into more of an interview in which he answered questions he’s answered before, and then he read from The Cat’s Table.  Listen here. During the audience questions, a woman mentioned that he has beautiful feet, but he wouldn’t take off his shoes and socks. Here is a PEN conversation between him and Colum McCann in 2008.

Now to bring this post back to the Olympics. The Cultural Olympiad offers 12,000 events and performances across the United Kingdom, in parallel with the Olympics. For example, Southbank Centre’s Poetry Parnassus brings together poets and spoken-word artists from competing Olympic nations to read and give workshops. This is part of the Southbank Centre’s Festival of the World.  Even better, Poetry Parnassus will have a souvenir. Poets submit in their native tongue for the World Record Anthology. The Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference will also have a book to offer as a souvenir, which will gather highlights of a global discussion broadcast online in August into a book about writing today. It will be published after the final conference session in the autumn of 2013.

Did you know there is a storyline for the opening ceremony of the Olympics? It is based on The Tempest. Frank Cottrell Boyce, screenwriter and children’s books author, wrote the storyline and is working with Danny Boyle on the ceremony. Frank Boyce has recently been appointed Professor of Reading at Liverpool Hope University. Yes, reading. He was also involved in the Reader Organisation.

Speaking of readers, Canadian Writers Abroad has readers in Afghanistan, Alaska, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. That’s just on the days that I noticed. One of those readers is also a writer (Malaysia, Netherlands) — Alison has offered to write something for CWA. Which is great, because there’s so much going on this summer that I’m going to Canada. So if any of you readers are also writers, and would like to write a “Letter From” or a book review or something, please drop me a line at canadianwritersabroad(at)gmail(dot)com.

What TV show is filmed in Cardiff?

Olympic rings at Cardiff City Hall, http://www.london2012.com

T.C. Haliburton and the Olympics

Posted: June 13, 2012 in Canada, Debra Martens, London
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The London Chapter of the Haliburton Society is joining the Olympics, in the same way that the Cultural Olympiad is running in parallel with the London 2012 Olympic Games. It’s hosting “From Canada’s East Coast to London’s East End – in time for the Olympics!” Four participants are confirmed for this verbal Olympic event at the Leytonstone Library Hall in London from August 1-3, 2012. (No one is paid but authors are able to promote and sell their books at the event.) The library hall holds eighty people and the Society will offer wine and beercover of The Clockmaker.

Two alumnae of University of King’s College in Halifax started the London Chapter of the Haliburton Society in 2006: writer John Stiles and and Chris MacNeil, who is involved with Network Canada. Stiles explains where the notion to start a London branch came from: “The seed of the idea was born when I saw an article in The Times mentioning that Nonsuch Classics were republishing, The Clockmaker or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, as well as its follow-up: The Attaché or Sam Slick in England. [“Dickens’ rival judged fit for return” by Dalya Alberge, The Times: 06 February 2006.] This republication seemed like an event worth celebrating, particularly as the Times article indicated that Haliburton was a rival in popularity to Dickens.”

Established in Windsor in 1884 in honour of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, the Haliburton Club’s mission was to promote the knowledge not only of the works of Haliburton but also of Canadian literature. Proud of being the oldest literary society on a campus in North America, today’s Haliburton Society is a literary club at the University of King’s College that meets to read and discuss texts. The Society also organizes an annual essay contest.

There is another connection between Haliburton and the (winter) Olympics: some claim that Haliburton’s “hurling on ice” is proof that hockey’s origins lie in Nova Scotia.

Here’s an excerpt of The Clockmaker: “Politics makes a man as crooked as a pack does a pedlar; not that they are so awful heavy, neither, but it TEACHES A MAN TO STOOP IN THE LONG RUN.  … It beats cock fightin, I tell you, to hear the Blue Noses, when they get together, talk politics. They have got three or four evil spirits, like the Irish Banshees, that they say cause all the mischief in the Province—the Council, the Banks, the House of Assembly and the Lawyers. If a man places a higher valiation on himself than his neighbors do, and wants to be a magistrate before he is fit to carry the ink horn for one, and finds himself safely delivered of a mistake, he says it is all owing to the Council. The members are cunnin critters, too; they know this feelin, and when they come home from Assembly, and people ax ‘em “where are all them are fine things you promised us?” why, they say, we’d a had ‘em all for you, but for that etarnal Council, they nullified all we did. The country will come to no good till them chaps show their respect for it, by covering their bottoms with homespun. If a man is so tarnation lazy he wont work, and in course has no money, why he says its all owin to the banks, they wont discount, there’s no money, they’ve ruined the Province. If there beant a road made up to every citizen’s door, away back to the woods (who as like as not has squatted there) why he says the House of Assembly have voted all the money to pay great men’s salaries, and there’s nothin left for poor settlers, and cross roads. Well, the lawyers come in for their share of cake and ale, too; if they don’t catch it, its a pity.”

Thomas Chandler Haliburton, NYPL

Stiles is especially appreciative of Sam Slick’s expressions: “As a native writer from the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, I have always been interested in witty and funny sayings and have tried to incorporate Nova Scotian expressions, such as “tighter-than-a-mouse’s-hole stretched-over-a-barrel,” into my works.” He is the author of the poetry collection Scouts are Cancelled and the novel The Insolent Boy, among others. Sam Slick’s sayings are still popular today. Have a look at this list.

Haliburton is also a good example with which to continue the discussion on dialect. Fred Cogswell is the author of the Haliburton entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: “Haliburton’s use of language added American to Lowland Scots on the list of English variants which a writer could use with a fair chance of winning appreciation and acclaim. In this regard, he paved the way for that great democratic prose epic of America, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Furthermore, his gregarious and sociable nature enabled him to study at first hand the many individual and unusual types which were fostered by the isolation and social freedom of a frontier. At the same time, his knowledge, derived from both reading and experience, of traditional propriety and genteel British behaviour gave him a frame of reference within which to place these excesses. … It is ironic that Haliburton, the arch-tory, should have become the “father of American humour” in the most democratic sense. The success and popularity of Sam Slick established at the same time the vogue of the folk hero…”

Please contact John Stiles if you would like to sponsor or read at this event.

Haliburton’s residence, NYPL

Jubilee and Dialect

Posted: June 5, 2012 in Canada, Debra Martens, London
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In my last post I tried to start a discussion on the use of dialect and idiom in fiction. I expected people to exclaim Faulkner! and James Joyce! in the comments – those masters of voice. Although the teachers in the Masterclass that I attended cautioned us against excessive use of dialect, recommending a few exemplary phrases and then dropping them once into the story, it is not now unusual for writers to use voice, whether through dialect, idiom or rhythm, to establish character.

Canada's canoe in flotilla

Canada’s canoe in flotilla on Thames; we stood at back of crowd to left of balconies and didn’t see this. By http://lifeasthewife.co.uk/2012/06/04/photo-blog-diamond-jubilee-flotilla/

As I write, celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee are ongoing. On Sunday we went to the river to watch the crowds watching the flotilla and then went home and shivered in front of the TV to watch the rest. Which got me wondering how big the crowds were in 1897.

What can the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee have in common with dialect? Ah, well, it depends which queen and which jubilee. Have a look at this use of dialect, which I doubt would get published today. Here is the first verse of “The Habitant’s Jubilee Ode”:

I read on de paper mos’ ev’ry day, all about Jubilee

An’ grande procession movin’ along, an’ passin’ across de sea,

Dat’s chil’ren of Queen Victoriaw comin’ from far away

For tole Madame w’at dey t’ink of her, an’ wishin’ her bonne santé.

The habitant’s explanation covers the Plains of Abraham and likens the Queen to an adopted mother who is nice. The habitant goes on to say that with the new regime not much has changed: “w’y it’s jus’ lak’ it be before./Spikin’ Français lak’ we alway do, an’ de English dey mak no fuss…” You can read the whole poem here. The author, William Henry Drummond (1854-1907) was a doctor in Montreal. According to The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, his “distinctive dialect verse” was Canada’s most popular poetry at the turn of the century.”

This poem appeared in his first collection, published in 1897. In Drummond’s preface to his collection, he professes to have written this dialect not “with any thought of ridicule” but with love, having lived “side by side with the French Canadian people.” In 1884, Mark Twain also felt the need to preface his use of dialect in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, concluding “I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding.”

The Companion points out that not everyone saw the love, such as La Patrie in 1901, which called “cet idiôme bâtard” a travesty. Montreal poet Louis Dudek praised Drummond’s break with tradition, arguing that his use of dialect “made it possible to free language for the expression of real life and human character” (as quoted in the Companion, from his Selected Essays and Criticism 1978).

William Henry Drummond

Surely, though, the highest praise is to be imitated, as Drummond was by Alexander M. Rose, who also wrote a Jubilee poem, which pretends to be by Jean Baptiste Trudeau and begins: “W’en Queen Victoria calls her peup’s/ For mak’ some Jubilee,/ She sen’ for men from all de worl’ –/ And from her colonie.” I found this on one of my favourite online resources, University of Toronto’s Representative Poetry Online. I found other jubilee poems on www.canadianpoetry.ca, such as “Victoria,” written by William W. Campbell for the 1897 Diamond Jubilee.

Just as I was wondering what Campbell and Sara Jeanette Duncan thought of Drummond’s work, I came across the plodding rhyme of James McIntyre’s “Queen’s Jubilee Ode, 1887,” and flipped the question around. What did Drummond make of such Victorian poetry as McIntyre’s, as in the last stanza of the Ode: “Britain’s empire is extending,/ Truth and justice ever blending,/ May strife and discord ever cease,/ And jubilee inaugurate peace.” But hold, how can we fault McIntyre, who wrote “Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing over 7,000 Pounds”?  Was Drummond reacting to, or writing in opposition to, McIntyre’s dull verse?

Today we would likely agree that Drummond’s use of dialect was perhaps too much of a good t’ing. The fact remains that in 1887 and 1897, several poets in Canada were inspired by the Queen’s Jubilee to write a tribute in verse. Here in England, the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, released a commemorative volume of poems, Jubilee Lines, which selects 60 poets for 60 years. Thus I await the Canadian poems for the 2012 Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Who knows if there will ever be another?

Canada’s canoe in flotilla of 1000 boats, Ottawa Citizen