David Warren Lloyd's webfolio  
  • editorial column
• SEE Magazine
• MA thesis
• IASPM paper
• resume & publications
 • contact
• home 		Like it is

3 May, 2003
Canadian Literature and Culture

I recently received an e-mail, via the Writers' Guild of Alberta discussion group, that contained a link to a quiz on Canadian Literature. The 30-question quiz is hosted byHistory Television and it racks your score for you. You can take the quiz at Http://www.historytelevision.ca/quizzes/canadianAuthors/.

The guy who sent out the link scored eighteen right, and his livelihood is in Canadian Literature. I work in Canada's book business and I got fifteen right. These results got me to thinking about books, reading, Literature, literacy, and the "average" Canadian.

First of all, everyone who knew that Canada Book Week ended on April 27, raise your hand. Now everyone who knew that April is Canada's national poetry month raise your hand (if you have a hand up, raise the other one).

Now how many hands, do you figure, were raised as people read this paragraph? I would guess that it was not a very large number, as I have heard nobody outside my job mention either celebration.

In 1998, I was hired by a very large bookstore in St. Albert. The first interview for the job was a group interview. I was elated when the "test" we all had to write consisted not of such mundane questions as "Add these cash amount" and "What would you do if a friend pressured you to steal merchandise?", but rather asked us to name twenty Canadian authors and 10 Canadian Publishers. Nobody there could fill all thirty blanks.

How many Canadian authors can you names? OK, apart from Margaret Atwood and Timothy Findley. (Did you know that Findley passed away recently?) It is a tough questions for most. Brits and Yanks are easy to name. Stephen King, Danielle Steele, and of course, the heavy rotation queen J.K. Rowling. Even non-Canadian literary greats stand out, like Jack KErouac, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and Charles Dickens. Canada is no younger than the United States, so what gives?

The book business is huge in Canada. Last year the distribution giant General Distribution Services (the equivalent of Chapters/Indigo in distribution) went bankrupt. Many publishers lost a lot of money and books as their stock was tied up in warehouses which they were not permitted to access and bills went unpaid. The whole situation was seen as ridiculous by some, and I have heard more than once "This could only have happened in Canada."

Yet, the astonishing survival of almost every small publisher is another thing that I would liek to think could only happen in Canada.

Literary presses rode out the storm, and great literature continues to be published. In fact, Canadian literature is very much the hot read, internationally.Canada is the least identity-secure nation on the planet. Since this country's conception, the idea of what it means to be Canadian has gone undecided. In the heart of Edmonton, Canada Day recently amount to nothing more than imbeciles chanting a corporate beer slogan and breaking things.

I am reminded of a letter someone wrote to the Gazette, complaining about Canadian law restricting his access to American satellite television. The way I see it, if you don't like Canadian culture, move out of Canada. A good way to firm up your Canadianness may be to read Canadian books. Here is a test for those pondering their Canadian identity: read some Canadian "greats" (Mordecai Richler or Barbara Gowdy, for instance) and watch some CBC. If you find yourself bored and craving something more immediate, like FOX, Hollywood, or The Shining, the answer to your crisis may lie just south of the world's longest undefended border.

[top]


 




Content and design of this web site ©2004 David Warren Lloyd