I should have made this a group project. Yesterday's topic was such a dud. Or you all agreed. Or it was a nice day at the end of summer. But the proprietor of Canada's best looking blog, one Mr. Taylor, through twooting powers pointed me to this column about someone saying bad things about Canadian novels, an area of literature I have avoided for about a decade:
It seems in Canada that you only have to write a novel to get grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and from your provincial Arts Council, who are also thanked. Complaints were once voiced that most shortlisted Giller novels emanated from just three big-name publishers, all owned by Bertelsmann, and that virtually every winner lived in the Toronto area. Now, many of the submitted authors, and their rugged subject matter, hail from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland. That’s maybe because small publishers too are now subsidised, and they proliferate. If you want to get your novel published, be Canadian.
Brian Adams went on about CANCON standards a couple of decades ago based on a similar idea. Art that is subsidized - whether through exclusive access or cash - is compromised. But the converse is true as well. You will recall that blogging and the greater internet thing was supposed to fix all this. Millions of monkeys writing millions of blog posts will greate a bette way, right? Except there is no citizen journalist movement, there is no better fiction. There wasn't even a real crash of pop culture. The music machine is still going strong. And tipping points have jumped the shark.
But we love to subsidize in Canada and, frankly, are better off for it. Minor redistrubtion avoids major dislocation and continues the practice of colonial patronage upon which this country was founded. And without that, without the beast of offical identity, what else would artists have to react against - before they take the first step on their way to California and England and Paris to create their great works?
Comments
Chris Taylor - September 23, 2009 9:03 AM
It's defined by how boring it is. That's why it needs the subsidy.
On the other hand you have Canadian guys doing obscure but hilarious stuff in the style of 1930s radio serials; no subsidies, funded by listeners. That ain't half bad.
On the subject of books though, CanLit fiction has some serious boring-rot. It's usually about people having some kind of existential angst. Middle aged angsters having relationship or job satisfaction problems. Lovers separated by time/distance/class/race/familial feuds/societal conventions. Quirky, angsty urbanites lacking the courage to talk to their cute neighbour down the hall, so they communicate in unlikely, obscure and contrived ways, never quite crossing the line into getting together. The angsty immigrant or offspring of immigrants, not liking the old-world home life but not quite fitting in to the new environs. The angsty kid being raised in a parochial small town, not liking the boring home life but not old enough to flip their parents the bird and go live in an idealised Toronto tenement full of like-minded free spirits.
Each of us can probably name an actual human being in our circle of friends who has lived these experiences; we saw it happen, why would we want to read about it ad nauseam?
If you go looking through the Giller list you can probably name two or three stories you've already read that share the same premise/theme et cetera.
CanLit has few great adventures of the human spirit, nothing that spurs you on after reading to say "Damn I need to get out there and live like this. Honey we're selling the house, building a Roman trireme, and sailing the world."
Chris Taylor - September 23, 2009 9:08 AM
I forgot to include that I am not against subsidy per se, only subsidy of seriously mediocre product. Governments used to subsidise the hell out of air travel in the 1930s to try and bolster all of the associated aviation industries, and not coincidentally that was the era in which air travel was at its most luxurious.
So I'm not against art subsidies so long as we get top-drawer art in return. But when it's disappointing, well...
Seanie - September 23, 2009 10:48 AM
Well, have to agree with the Brit. Apart from Douglas Coupland and a few obscure writers of terribly not good but entertaining horror/sci fi that I occasionally have enjoyed, i'd rather read the box of cornflakes in my cupboard than most canadian fiction nowadays. Mowat was good in his day mind you, though a bit low brow to be considered high lit in my books.
Most canadian fiction is tedious "growing up in a city as an outsider" or "spouse/child of farmer/fisherman who decides to move home to small farm/fishing village after realizing the big city/US/ was not for a secretly flag waving maple swilling Canajun kid at heart.." ugh..
Ben (The Tiger) - September 23, 2009 2:11 PM
Is it time again to look at the most fun debate from 1988 -- Richler vs. Salutin?
http://archives.cbc.ca/economy_business/trade_agreements/clips/2799/
Lots of fun, that.
Jay Currie - September 23, 2009 4:41 PM
For a while I edited a tiny literary magazine and would get caselots of CanLit. While some of it was staggeringly dull, a lot of it was excellent. Obviously old warhorses like Atwood, Munro and Ondaatje can write compelling stuff, but there were plenty of people like Anne Marie MacDonald, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Billie Livingston, Timothy Taylor, Michael Turner, Anne Michaels or Barbara Hogson (an author who, I suspect, Chris would like) who all manage to write interesting work.
I suspect most of these writers would survive without subsidies. But whether the ever fragile Canadian publishing business would is a whole other question. The economics of publishing are even stranger than the economics of the music business as any visit to the remainder tables will tell you. Plus the creative destruction wrought by Chapters is still being felt throughout the book trade.
I bow to no man in my support for free markets, but so long as sports teams have stadiums built at public expense then I want my books to be on that gravy train.
Hans - September 24, 2009 9:56 AM
I agree with each paragraph Jay wrote.
Also, I don't think the Bryan Adams cancon debacle is quite analogous: There is a difference between subsidizing products and mandating how much of said product has to be aired.
Finally, Alan, I love this line: "And tipping points have jumped the shark."
Alan - September 24, 2009 9:58 AM
I blush.
Will O'Neill - September 24, 2009 1:50 PM
I think most of what gets subsidized in Canada on television, at least, is driven by a cabal of boring, risk-averse baby boomers all in influential and inflexible positions at the CBC.
http://thealbatross.ca/2009/09/ive-got-some-terrible-ideas/
Don't grow up like them, Gen X.
Matthew Fletcher - September 24, 2009 6:39 PM
It would be interesting for Chris and Seanie to actually list a few Canadian authors and their works that they have read recently that they can dismiss with the neat stereotypical terms they use to describe CanLit without actually ascribing them to anyone.
I agree more with Jay.
Also Joseph Boyden is one of the best new(ish) Canadian authors.
Chris Taylor - September 26, 2009 1:07 PM
Somewhat difficult, since I have been focusing on aviation- and travel-related histories and biographies almost exclusively over the summer. What CanLit fiction I have read is stuff my wife dragged home from the library.
Mistry, Rohinton. Family Matters. Tropes making an appearance: Middle aged angsters having relationship or job satisfaction problems. (Former) lovers separated by time/distance/class/race/familial feuds/societal conventions. The angsty immigrant or offspring of immigrants, not liking the old-world home life but not quite fitting in to the new environs.
Coupland, Douglas. The Gum Thief. Tropes making an appearance: Middle-aged and twentysomething angsters having relationship or job satisfaction problems. Quirky, angsty urbanites lacking the courage to talk to their cute neighbour in the same store, so they communicate in unlikely, obscure and contrived ways, never quite crossing the line into getting together.
Bissoondath, Neil. The Soul of All Great Designs. Tropes making an appearance: Lovers separated by time/distance/class/race/familial feuds/societal conventions and a whole crapload of lies and deception. Lots and lots of lies.
When I read fiction for pleasure (and not as a masochistic exercise to see if my antennae are still finely-tuned enough to discern the likely plot and character development based on plot formulas), it has to revolve around 1) aeroplanes, 2) travel and 3) history. CanLit tends to come up short on novels that focus on those three criteria. The closest thing to it is Splash One Tiger by RJ Childerhose.
Matthew Fletcher - September 26, 2009 11:49 PM
Chris:
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden meets all three of your criteria. I recommend it. Three Day Road, by same, is even better, but it only meets #2 and #3, but it substitutes trench warfare for aeroplanes quite well.
Chris Taylor - September 27, 2009 1:02 AM
Those two look very promising; thanks for the tip, Matthew!
And I will look into Barbara Hodgson as well—thanks Jay.