Headlines

These was a week of curious headlines: An interview I did with Hot Press in Dublin, well specifically Anne Sexton and thoroughly enjoyed was published with the headline The Milf and the Fury. It’s a striking headline and reflects some of the content of the interview. I liked it. The summary was less striking. I’m described as having “firmly-held” opinions. That’s as opposed to what type of opinion? The “vague half-screwed in flickering lightbulb opinion?” The interview (and thank you to Anne Sexton for her thoughtful work) has disappeared behind a paywall, but I will upload it to a page on my website shortly.

More peculiar, nay downright peculiar and patronizing, was the print edition of the Camden New Journal which possessed a most thoughtful piece of criticism written by Kate Webb but was given the bungling headline Cervix With A Smile. I kid ye not. I’d suggest to the person who wrote such a daft headline in future they ask themselves would they put such a headline on a John Banville or Julian Barnes review and if not then apply the same standards across the board. Clearly the headline writer didn’t read Malarky because they would have noted such a headline is inaccurate.

Writers do not write their own headlines or summaries on articles or interviews. Editors write them.

I noticed Eleanor Catton has recently been subjected to several pretty stupid articles (“unassisted blond hair”) and a loathsome op-ed in the Toronto Star which had passport control overtones, was deeply regressive and embarrassing, hence I am not providing a link. You’ve better ways to waste time than read this man’s bilge.

Perhaps the cold weather is causing brain-cell seize ups?

querencia (n)

Everyday with Spanish word of the day a word lands. I read them in clumps rather than daily. Many days ago this one made me smile:

querencia [n]: a large cave or a large chamber in a cave.

In the event I find myself or you find yourself in a large cave or a large chamber in a cave (a government building of a cave? ) in Spain we are now equipped to welcome visitors. Ole!

Nippy nip nip

Our weather has gone nippy, nip, nip or as one Dublin 9 friend would call it “blue-tit weather”.

We are in the minus overnight and wake up to lift your head off cold but the most beautiful sunlight. Is this what it is to live in Winnipeg? Edmonton? Do you wake to bright sun and -35? I was ever so surprised by the wind in Edmonton and St Albert — a North Westerly wind. I had never factored it would be windy there. It’s a very particular wind. I’ve never encountered that wind before and I have to say the plants outside at the greenhouse, where i had lunch also seemed like they could happily refuse it.

Literary Unsinkables piece in The Guardian

Over at  The Guardian I have piece up on literary unsinkables in which I posit young folk or for that matter all folk, myself included, should learn Worstward Ho by heart. Some years ago I made a New Year’s resolution to learn to sing the Ave Maria, which I never quite accomplished. This year my New Year’s Res will be to put away the laundry that I have folded. I love to fold laundry. I rarely succeed in stowing it as carefully as I fold it. 2015 may be the year of Worstward Ho by heart.

Click here to read my collection of suggested titles  Since I find it virtually impossible to find anything on The Guardian book blog, I’m glad to see they’ve collected my pieces now under my name.

Anyone looking for a copy of Helen Potrebenko’s Taxi can order one from Lazara Press here as it is out of print and only sold by Lazara now.

It was gratifying to see people engaging with the list on social medja, with a number of comments to the positive on the inclusion of Anne Truitt. That was delightful as I read Truitt’s book about 15+ years ago and it was a case of lifting it from somewhere in a bookshop, where another shopper had misplaced it. A completely chance encounter, which then led me to the artist’s work. I love tripping over books this way.

“Meaning is often tantalizingly reticent…” Camden Review on Malarky

Before I spring to the matter of last night’s windstorm here is Kate Webb’s insightful piece of criticism on Malarky. I discovered Webb’s criticism in the TLS and beyond and her critical blog earlier this year and feel fortunate my novel was contemplated and reviewed by her, since I admire her critical work very much. So thank you to both Kate Webb and The Camden Review.

“READING Anakana Schofield’s anarchic debut novel, Malarky, I was reminded of the underrated mid-century writer, Jane Bowles. Her comedies are full of people whose ideas of propriety are at odds with one another, having flummoxing, cross-purpose conversations.

Much of her unsettling humour is born of female paradox: women may be the conservative bearers of culture, passing on standards between generations, but they are also “natural outlaws”, disrupting patriarchal rule with their nonsense and malarky.

In the hands of skilled writers, like Bowles and Schofield, the tension between these two positions can lead to great hilarity, with characters who appear to conform to acceptable norms also pursuing undercover lives of heroic eccentricity and dubious, self-invented meaning…”

To read the entire piece please click here

I must, in turn, read Jane Bowles. 

I am still reading Inglorious and really appreciating the language, humour and ideas.

Pale

Today our weather is what I would describe as a pale blue day. The pale blue canopy of the sky allows the rust orange leaves to stand out. As I type this the pale blue may be in slippage towards a mild grey.

I’ve been contemplating the terrible state of affairs in the Philippines (and have yet to hear much about Vietnam) with Typhoon Yolanda. The sea surge appears to have caused much of the damage. The people who are cut off are utterly bereft of the basic ingredients of daily survival. Each time a catastrophic weather event hits we pause and attempt to rescue people, but move along to the next one without much contemplation of why or how things may be better managed or averted, if indeed such weather events can be averted at all.

It’s not that many weeks since the typhoon hit India and there’s narry a word about that one. I suppose like most things when it’s on your doorstep .. but upon whose doorstep does it need to be for action or longer term contemplation to take place ? Are humans to die or rebound in the event of weather catastrophes? And which humans will qualify for evacuation and a stab at survival? Unfortunately in our momentary “floodlit” online world, dramatic footage will make the rounds until it’s replaced by some scandal by a lousy politician or a footballer or a tidbit. And like of much of the muchness of human suffering the footage disappears, the world rolls over until the next cycle hits.

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It’s staggering to hear that doctors (Providence Health Care) and patients in Vancouver are having to take a court case against the federal government to continue to be able to access prescription heroin. I was listening to a doctor today on the radio pleading for the fact that his patients will die without access to this treatment. It begs the question whether the Harper government is engaged in an active cull of people with addiction, an acknowledged disease that needs treatment. And what’s driving such a cull: ideology, tinker toy morality. Meanwhile the Mayor of Toronto does not appear to be doing anything useful in talking about addiction issues. Here is a ripe opportunity for him to actually take a leadership role and acknowledge that people with such struggles like himself need support, treatment programs and God damn it access to the medication they need to support their recovery from this disease. It’s like denying a chronic smoker treatment for lung cancer because you disapprove of the fact they smoked. Who does this? The Harper government does this.

Here’s the CBC story on the ban on prescription heroin: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/b-c-health-provider-patients-file-lawsuit-over-heroin-access-1.2425356

Beset

We are beset with rain. Two rainfall warnings in latter days. I have been besieged by the flu and strep G. I have no idea what strep G really is, but feel special on account of the fact it is neither A nor B. I contracted the flu in Alberta I think and have in honour of frost temperatures in Edmonton named it the arctic penguin flu. It was worth contracting it because the conversations I had at Wordfest were so enlightening and engaging.

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Reading.

Last night I read Book 23 of the Odyssey (Robert Fagles translation). I like reading the books within this book entirely out of sequence. Beside Book 23 I read Joanna Kavenna’s Inglorious which I highly recommend for it’s humour and language.

Next week I’ve decided to try to make Audrey Thomas reading week. Her work has been recommended to me time and time again and she’s a BC author I must become acquainted with.

Thank you to STARfest in St Albert and to WordFest in Banff/Calgary for the wonderful time I shared at your festival with readers, writers and thinkers. Thank you Xiaolu for the walk up the mountain.

Yes I believe in the flu shot.