I put A Tourist's Guide to Glengarry on my list of books to read before I die a number of years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about my home turf, as it were. Or close enough. Two of my siblings went to "O'Connor" High School, I played soccer within that track on my community league and high school teams, and fished soccer balls out the front yards of those row houses.
What does it mean to have a local literature? The comments Neil's teacher left on his essay address this concern. "Your choice of topic and treatment show a lack of seriousness. Hopefully, you will one day find a theme worthy of your talent." Writing the local, especially when that local is Edmonton, is worthless. Good writing tackles great ideas and great cities.
Fruit, by Brian Francis, is a book also described as being about small ideas. Here's a synopsis: "It’s 1984 in Sarnia, Ontario, and 13-year-old Peter Paddington is mortified. He’s overweight, has few friends and a crazy family and, to top things off, he’s just sprouted a pair of talking nipples." Despite its unusual topic, Fruit was the runner up in the 2009 CBC Radio's Canada Reads. It beat out novels by David Michael Adams, Michel Tremblay, and Gil Adamson, and was beaten in the end by Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes. These other books were for the most part about big ideas, but Fruit held its own and nearly won the contest.
A worthwhile topic doesn't need to win awards. A well-written book about ice fishing on Lesser Slave Lake might appeal to only a small population of readers, but if it provides for them a sense of their own connectedness to their community, it's done good work. And if it's written as well as McGillis's book is, all the better.
Despite the best efforts of certain Russian novelists to the contrary, a worthwhile book is not determined by how big it is, inside or out. A worthwhile city isn't either.
Showing posts with label Edmonton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edmonton. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
What's your story, Calgary?
If you ever listen to 630 CHED on a weekday morning, you will hear a noticeable change in tone between 8:50 and 9:10. One minute you're being extolled to buy tickets to the Full House Lottery or advised to avoid Groat Road southbound, and then the top-0f-the-hour news clicks on. In the time it takes to learn about the latest gang troubles, Afghanistan updates, and city hall shindigs, the station transforms from Edmonton's source for news, sports, and weather together to a rurally-oriented Conservative kumbaya singalong. Why the 1 million citizens of Edmonton are entreated to shop at UFA and buy crop insurance is beyond me.
Actually it's not. Between 9 and 11 the program is beamed in from the Corus Radio station in Calgary, complete with commercials. (Why the 1 million citizens of Calgary are entreated to shop at UFA and buy crop insurance is open to question too.) The show's host is so completely entrenched in Alberta conservativism he denies the human contributions to global warming and has a signed poster of Stephen Harper tacked to the ceiling above his bed. I don't make this stuff up. (Actually I do.) Maybe all you folks who come from rural areas can tell me if the ultra-conservative (to me) sentiments frequently displayed on this show are well-received in rural Alberta and Calgary.
Goyette points out that the rivalry between Edmonton and Calgary and the cities' divergent politics are neither recent phenomena nor artificially constructed. She says it started with the trains running through Calgary and got an update when the capital and the university went to Edmonton. I've always thought it had to do with more Americans living in southern Alberta as well as natural jealousy on the part of Calgarians for Edmonton's supremely excellent hockey tradition.
I realize my understanding of the Edmonton-Calgary dynamic is shaped very much by a "history of events" and not a "history of people," as I think Sylvia put it today. After having read Edmonton In Our Own Words, I feel I have a much more nuanced understanding of Edmonton's history, traditions, politics, and people. This is Edmonton telling itself what kind of place it is, and what kind of people have peopled it. I now feel it's only fair for Calgary to have its own say. Does Calgary have a book that fills the same function? Is there a tome that can tell me what shaped Calgary into the conservative-voting, cowboy boot-wearing, head office-luring city it appears to be? Is there a record of what Edmonton's southern sister looks like under all the makeup and paint of stereotype?
Calgary, what's your story?
Actually it's not. Between 9 and 11 the program is beamed in from the Corus Radio station in Calgary, complete with commercials. (Why the 1 million citizens of Calgary are entreated to shop at UFA and buy crop insurance is open to question too.) The show's host is so completely entrenched in Alberta conservativism he denies the human contributions to global warming and has a signed poster of Stephen Harper tacked to the ceiling above his bed. I don't make this stuff up. (Actually I do.) Maybe all you folks who come from rural areas can tell me if the ultra-conservative (to me) sentiments frequently displayed on this show are well-received in rural Alberta and Calgary.
Goyette points out that the rivalry between Edmonton and Calgary and the cities' divergent politics are neither recent phenomena nor artificially constructed. She says it started with the trains running through Calgary and got an update when the capital and the university went to Edmonton. I've always thought it had to do with more Americans living in southern Alberta as well as natural jealousy on the part of Calgarians for Edmonton's supremely excellent hockey tradition.
I realize my understanding of the Edmonton-Calgary dynamic is shaped very much by a "history of events" and not a "history of people," as I think Sylvia put it today. After having read Edmonton In Our Own Words, I feel I have a much more nuanced understanding of Edmonton's history, traditions, politics, and people. This is Edmonton telling itself what kind of place it is, and what kind of people have peopled it. I now feel it's only fair for Calgary to have its own say. Does Calgary have a book that fills the same function? Is there a tome that can tell me what shaped Calgary into the conservative-voting, cowboy boot-wearing, head office-luring city it appears to be? Is there a record of what Edmonton's southern sister looks like under all the makeup and paint of stereotype?
Calgary, what's your story?
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