On Being a Serious Reader: A Response to Jonathan Franzen
Recently, Jonathan Franzen spoke about his opinion of ebooks at a Literature and Arts festival, saying: “I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change […] Will there still be readers 50 years from … Read more
Pitiful Parliamentary Poet Laureate
This past fall’s Parliamentary session did not fail to entertain. It featured both Peter MacKay and Tony Clement’s extravagant expenses being called out, Peter Kent announcing Canada’s withdrawal from Kyoto (and being called a piece of sh*t in the House), and the inhumane state of affairs in Attawapiskat. With such classless drama in the House, it’s easy to … Read more
Jesus and Hitler Duke it Out in Deep Space
Ender’s Game: the writing is plain, the concepts are clear, the characters uncomplicated. It’s completely likeable, totally addictive, and sometimes inconsistent, making it a solid sci-fi novel. As with any popular sci-fi novel, there is a wealth of strange interpretations to be found online. The more interesting critics are in either Jesus’s Camp and Hitler’s … Read more
Richie Tenenbaum ain’t nothing but Nadal
This Halloween Ross and I dressed up as Richie and Margot Tenenbaum from The Royal Tenenbaums. It seemed like an appropriate choice, since Ross and I are often confused for being siblings instead of a couple, and Richie and Margot are actually siblings that later become a couple (don’t worry, she’s adopted). It also doesn’t help … Read more
If Sigur Rós Was a Work of Literature
In Chuck Klosterman’s 2003 Radiohead interview, he asks Colin Greenwood if Radiohead’s music would be fiction or nonfiction if it was a work of literature. Greenwood said: “I think it would be nonfiction […] Thom’s lyrics are sort of like a running commentary on what’s happening in the world, almost like you’re looking out of … Read more
Art for the Art(ist’s) Sake
Gertrude Stein is largely known for two things: her involvement with artists like Picasso and Hemingway (whom she mentored), and for being the queen of repetition. Examples from The Geographical History of America: “I am I because my little dog knows me, but perhaps he does not and if he did I would not be … Read more
Poet-Priest-Doctor
Most writers (and almost all poets) have to maintain day jobs in addition to their craft to stay afloat. I’m always surprised by the lucrative career choices that creative people make. A small sampling in the field of medical practitioners turns up John Keats, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Conan Doyle, William Carlos Williams, Somerset Maugham, and … Read more
A Circus, a Theft, and a Feather Tattoo
Last night I attended a reading and table discussion with Michael Ondaatje and Joseph Boyden as part of the Ottawa Writer’s Festival. It was a packed event at the beautiful Ashbury College in Rockcliffe, and had my full approval as a reading done right: there was a bar. It began with a painfully awkward introduction … Read more
