Something unusual happened as I was reading Michael Helm’s new novel, Cities of Refuge. I stumbled upon a couple paragraphs which I realized alluded to real events. At least I thought they alluded to real events.
Tag: Books
Should racist book be banned?
The Guardian reports that a Congolese man, Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, now living in Belgium, has applied to the Belgium courts to have Hergé’s Tintin in the Congo banned. He alleges that it is racist. Hergé created the cartoon in 1930 when the Congo was a Belgian colony.
Alice Miller Dies – It Was Her Mother’s Fault
I note that the psychoanalyst, Alice Miller, has died at the age of 87. You can find her obituary in the New York Times. One of my funnier moments—though you’d have to be a complete nerd to appreciate the humour—happened fifteen years ago when I gave my mom a copy of Miller’s book, The Drama…
The Necessary Blindness Of Focused Writing
If a god were to blog, I think the result would look a lot like mine, i.e. not very good, at least not very good when measured by worldly standards where traffic is king.
Scots and Toronto Tourists
I’ve always assumed that Scots are just naturally hospitable. Then I read Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and stumbled on a passage (you won’t find this scene in the film) that causes me to wonder if maybe I haven’t met the right Scots yet.
Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway
The Roman Catholic Church appears to be in crisis with the continued outing of homosexual pedophile priests and revelations of abuse. The sad thing about this is that the abuse is not the crisis. Given that abuse has been happening since the days of St. Peter, one can hardly call the status quo a crisis.
Beyond Explanation
We tend to think of reading as an advanced form of cryptography. At least that’s the default approach for a rational soul like me. The poet has a thought or feeling he wishes to communicate, so he takes that thought or feeling and wraps it in a coded packet called a poem.
The Other Sister by Lola Lemire Tostevin
The Other Sister is a story of twins and, perhaps necessarily, a story of personal identity. It concerns Julia, a freshly admitted resident of Evenholme, a home for the aged. At 97, Julia is sound in her mind, but growing frail in her body. Her daughter, Rachel, has given her a laptop computer and so Julia reluctantly agrees to spend a little time each day typing her recollections on this new machine.
The Convalescent, by Jessica Anthony
Have you ever wondered what would happen if Franz Kafka had written William Goldman’s The Princess Bride? Neither have I but I just thought I’d ask.
Love, etc., by Julian Barnes
Do you remember Michael Apted’s documentary Seven Up! He follows fourteen kids from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and poses (to the viewers) a simple question: is there truth in the Jesuit dictum “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.”
Attachment and Truth
Here is a story which Thich Nhat Hanh recounts in his book, The Art of Power:
The Art of Power, by Thich Nhat Hanh
I note three things distinctive about the writing style of Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist monk and founder of the Order of Interbeing): The first is its simplicity.
What Is America? by Ronald Wright
In the forward to What Is America? A Short History of the New World Order, Ronald Wright points out that his book arises from the final chapter of an earlier work, A Short History of Progress. There, he planted the seeds of a simple thesis with far reaching consequences. It is his latter book which expands upon these consequences.
Soviet Kitsch – An Aesthetic Of Shit
I had never heard of Regina Spektor until my daughter asked me for a lift downtown to a concert on Queen’s Quay. I asked who Regina Spektor is and my daughter loaned me a CD called Soviet Kitsch. It was one of those odd occasions when I encountered something in pop culture without realizing it was a literary reference.
Ninety Pounds of Piss and Vinegar
When Lois Wilson submitted a request to transfer her church membership, board members of the receiving church asked the minister: “Who is Lois Wilson?” The minister, Rev. Doug Norris, answered: “She”s 90 pounds of piss and vinegar.”