Quite a fun ramble! I'm assuming you've seen The French Dispatch? If not, you must.
Totally agree about Enid Blyton. The Castle of Adventure was my favourite novel of all time before I read Cue for Treason.
Love the genie cartoon. Aren't tropes necessary for visual gags? Oh, and your dentist's comments that made us so uncomfortable, but that we understood as good-humoured teasing rather than unintentional "microaggressions". I remember my dentist pumped a pedal to make his needle drill and grind; he'd tell me to imagine Santa Clause getting closer and closer ton the small town where I grew up. "He's at Port Elgin... Now, now, he's getting near Tiverton... He's at Underwood..." :)
No wonder she was so sour about Canada. She left when you had to to get a name. I expect being published in The New Yorker, gave her a sweet, "Ha! So there!" To which Canada replied, "Who does she think she is?"
And then coming back would have felt like failure, the way Richer first felt it, so she stayed away and got ignored by -- out of sight is out of mind -- with all the writers doing things here being celebrated because the were around for interviews and tours...
I remember her 1982 play at the Tarragon, "What Is to Be Done?" (a high-minded snore with beautiful language -- dialogue really wasn't her thing) and how she looked down her nose at our literary scene, dominated by grants which she'd never had. I remember feeling bad for her and thinking how she seemed like one of the loneliest most unhappy people I could imagine, despite her front of superiority.
Hi Allan, thank for reading and for being in touch. The play is fascinating; I've read it but never seen it produced. People writing about MG can make a lot about how she was either bemused or offended by not being recognized at home; at least, not for the first 25 years of her career. I'm not sure that's actually true - I mean, apart from anything else there was that mid-60's hour long documentary about her on the CBC, which is hardly indicative of lack of recognition. But you could argue that it wasn't until Doug Gibson took up her cause and until From the Fifteenth District was published here, that she really gained a foothold. Her relationship with the country, as a whole, was not straightforward, and, to further complicate things, there was the whole business of her being from Quebec, and of coming to the fore in the heyday of that cultural fracas, etc etc. I'm sure she and Mordecai must have had many long conversations about the state of the state. In any case, my business isn't to speculate about these things, I'm just a a fan writing about someone I admire, and am happy to hear from others who are as intrigued by her as am I. All the best, thanks for being in touch.
That's absolutely true about From the Fifteenth District, which is why it was a coup for Urjo to get What Is to Be Done for the Tarragon a couple of years later and the the Massey College residency, all of which were massive.
I love her work, your enthusiasm for her, but especially the interweaving of your personal life which shows how much a favourite writer can become a part of one's life and imagination. I can't wait to read more.
Craftily weaving anecdotes, surprises, memories and imagination is surely the work of a skilled and early-to-rise conjuror. I’m enjoying the ride. Thank you. Jhk
Quite a fun ramble! I'm assuming you've seen The French Dispatch? If not, you must.
Totally agree about Enid Blyton. The Castle of Adventure was my favourite novel of all time before I read Cue for Treason.
Love the genie cartoon. Aren't tropes necessary for visual gags? Oh, and your dentist's comments that made us so uncomfortable, but that we understood as good-humoured teasing rather than unintentional "microaggressions". I remember my dentist pumped a pedal to make his needle drill and grind; he'd tell me to imagine Santa Clause getting closer and closer ton the small town where I grew up. "He's at Port Elgin... Now, now, he's getting near Tiverton... He's at Underwood..." :)
No wonder she was so sour about Canada. She left when you had to to get a name. I expect being published in The New Yorker, gave her a sweet, "Ha! So there!" To which Canada replied, "Who does she think she is?"
And then coming back would have felt like failure, the way Richer first felt it, so she stayed away and got ignored by -- out of sight is out of mind -- with all the writers doing things here being celebrated because the were around for interviews and tours...
I remember her 1982 play at the Tarragon, "What Is to Be Done?" (a high-minded snore with beautiful language -- dialogue really wasn't her thing) and how she looked down her nose at our literary scene, dominated by grants which she'd never had. I remember feeling bad for her and thinking how she seemed like one of the loneliest most unhappy people I could imagine, despite her front of superiority.
Hi Allan, thank for reading and for being in touch. The play is fascinating; I've read it but never seen it produced. People writing about MG can make a lot about how she was either bemused or offended by not being recognized at home; at least, not for the first 25 years of her career. I'm not sure that's actually true - I mean, apart from anything else there was that mid-60's hour long documentary about her on the CBC, which is hardly indicative of lack of recognition. But you could argue that it wasn't until Doug Gibson took up her cause and until From the Fifteenth District was published here, that she really gained a foothold. Her relationship with the country, as a whole, was not straightforward, and, to further complicate things, there was the whole business of her being from Quebec, and of coming to the fore in the heyday of that cultural fracas, etc etc. I'm sure she and Mordecai must have had many long conversations about the state of the state. In any case, my business isn't to speculate about these things, I'm just a a fan writing about someone I admire, and am happy to hear from others who are as intrigued by her as am I. All the best, thanks for being in touch.
That's absolutely true about From the Fifteenth District, which is why it was a coup for Urjo to get What Is to Be Done for the Tarragon a couple of years later and the the Massey College residency, all of which were massive.
I love her work, your enthusiasm for her, but especially the interweaving of your personal life which shows how much a favourite writer can become a part of one's life and imagination. I can't wait to read more.
Craftily weaving anecdotes, surprises, memories and imagination is surely the work of a skilled and early-to-rise conjuror. I’m enjoying the ride. Thank you. Jhk
Love this and so glad you're doing it! Many thanks.