Thoughts on culture, education, and having been a Canadian in the US

Will Richardson’s weblogg-ed is one of the best around, especially if you’re interested in the role of blogs in education.

Overlooking for the moment that I’m currently an assistant professor at a great school, I can’t say that I disagree with Will’s advice to his children. Maybe my kids will go to Cappucino U. Maybe we’ll go together!

More blogging to follow in the coming days during the WEEK-LONG American Thanksgiving Break here at UVM. After a super-long week of grading and teaching, I can only say “God Bless America, eh?”

Too busy grading to blog much this week, but thought I’d put this up to keep the blogmonster fed….

Got a follow-up question today from someone who interviewed me a couple of weeks back for a piece she is doing on blogging at UVM.

She had asked me about which blogs I read, so I thought I’d share here a list of some of my favourite regular reads:

Here are a few of my faves:

• Michael Bérubé
• professorial confessions
• scribblingwoman
• librarian.net
• Blog of a bookslut
• The Literary Saloon
• The Elegant Variation
• 43 Folders
• The Battle of Alberta
• Seen Reading
• Rick Mercer’s Blog
• Book Ninja
• Heidi’s café

Registration for fall classes begins for seniors on November 15th, and over the days to follow for everybody else. Make sure to check the UVM Registration schedule to see when you may begin registering for Spring classes.

I’m setting aside a several days over the next week and a half to meet with you to review your choice of courses for the spring semester. English majors and minors can find the list of spring 2007 courses from the Department of English online at the department’s website. On that same page, you will also find the list of courses that fill the A, B, C, D, and senior seminar requirements. It’s also worth checking the spring course listings from Continuing Education



Here are few quick links that will help you plan your spring courses.

• Click here for the complete list of Arts and Sciences Distribution Requirements
• Here’s a link to the course listings from the Registrar’s website
• Spring enrollment listings (updated hourly)

BEFORE COMING TO SEE ME, ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE A GRADUATING SENIOR, MAKE SURE TO RUN A “CATS REPORT” TO SEE WHAT REQUIREMENTS YOU STILL NEED TO FILL. If possible, print a copy and bring it with you to our meeting. That will speed up the process considerably. Please do your best to pick your courses before our meeting.



ALL ADVISING MEETINGS WILL TAKE PLACE IN MY OFFICE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, 321 OLD MILL



A couple of other things. If you’re looking to get into a course that usually fills up (English 086, or Shakespeare for instance), I’d suggest e-mailing the instructor ASAP to ask if they will enable you to register early for that course or to ask that you be put on a waiting list for the class.



If you’re looking for a Category D class for the spring, I’ll be teaching a night class for Continuing Education. The course, taught on Monday nights, is English 182: Topics in Postcolonial/Colonial literatures. I’m focusing in this course solely on First Nations writers, so even if you have taken another version of 182 from me before, you can still take this one if you wish. Over the “Winter Session” I’ll also be teaching a one-credit online course on Michael Ondaatje. That runs over the first two weeks of January and it’s a great way to pick up an extra credit without having to set your foot on campus.



I look forward to seeing you soon!

Here are the available time slots I have for next week. Please e-mail me right away and book an appointment. I’ll fill in the taken spots on this form as I hear from you on a first-come, first-served basis.

ALL ADVISING MEETINGS WILL TAKE PLACE IN MY OFFICE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, 321 OLD MILL

Wednesday, November 8:

9:00: Beth Slater

9:30:

10:00: Chris Palmer

10:30: Trisha B

11:00: Emma M

11:30: Beth Totten

13:00: Zack I.

13:30: Hannah M.

14:00: Elise M.

14:30: Molly K.

15:00: Amanda H

15:30: Eric

Friday, November 10
9:00:

9:30: Travis L

9:45:

10:00:

10:30:

11:00:

11:30:

13:00: John L

13:30: Jen Heins

14:00: Emma M

14:30: Emily P

15:00:

15:30: Mike C.

Monday, November 13
9:00:

9:30: Lauren F.

10:00:

10:30:

10:45: Rudy

11:00:

11:30: Julie B



13:00:

13:30:

14:00:

14:30:

15:00:

15:30: Shauna B.

ALL ADVISING MEETINGS WILL TAKE PLACE IN MY OFFICE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, 321 OLD MILL

[My editorial from this month’s Northwest Passages newsletter]

Burlington, Vermont, USA (in body)
Somewhere on the Canadian Prairie (in heart and mind)

October 30th, 2006

It’s Giller and GG season again in Canada, the tenth such awards season we’ve seen from up close since we launched Northwest Passages way back in 1996, a time when we had to work hard to persuade publishers to let us sell their books online. Although the face of publishing and bookselling has changed tremendously, the debates that ensue once the finalists for these major awards are announced are usually pretty much the same. Readers, booksellers, and the media are quick to note the big names left off the lists (notable absences this year include Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, and David Adams Richards) and then scramble to find out all they can about the lesser known writers and books that have made the final cut.

The fact that there are always major surprises on these shortlists is a testament to the work done by the individual juries who, after reading all of the submissions, settle upon what they deem to be the most worthy books of the year. In so doing, they produce a shortlist which often differs greatly from the most popular or critically-acclaimed books of the year. In any case, what’s left off the list is usually far less interesting than what’s on it and this is especially true with this year’s fiction lists for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award. Each of these lists is notable in a number of ways, but both the English-language lists have received a lot of attention for the fact that many of the writers are not terribly well-known by most Canadians and all but one book on each list is published by a small press. There is also, for the first time in recent memory, a complete absence of women writers on the Governor General’s English fiction list – something that seems almost ludicrous in the country of Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Jane Urquhart etc., although Munro pulled her latest book, The View from Castle Rock, from Giller contention as she accepted the chance to be on this year’s jury. The fiction list that seems the least eclectic of the three and which includes three male and two female writers all in mid-career is the French language GG shortlist.

The most remarkable of these three shortlists, though, is undoubtedly that created by the jury of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, whose task it is to award $40 000 to “ the author of the best Canadian full-length novel or collection of short stories published in English.” This year’s jury, comprised of writers Alice Munro, Michael Winter, and the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Canada’s former Governor General and a writer in her own right, has made an interesting and controversial choice in selecting for the shortlist two works in translation: The Immaculate Conception, Lazer Lederhendler’s translation of Gaetan Soucy’s 1994 novel L’Immaculée conception; and A Perfect Circle, Sheila Fischman’s translation of Pascale Quiviger’s 2004 novel Le Cercle Parfait.

I’ve talked before in this newsletter about the importance of translation in this country and the real lack of awareness among anglophone and francophone Canadians of each others literatures. Ask the average English-Canadian about Québécois literature and you’ll most likely hear him or her fondly reminisce about reading “The Hockey Sweater” or seeing the animated short of that story by Roch Carrier; ask the average francophone Quebecker, and you’ll most likely hear the names Atwood or Richler, authors whose works were translated into French and published by publishers in France, not Québec. Despite the best efforts of publishers like Anansi and Cormorant in English-Canada and Boréal in Québec, the willful amnesia that allows each language group to overlook the incredible literary works produced every year by the other does not seem to have ameliorated much over the last thirty years.

In this respect, the decision made by this year’s Giller jury is a courageous and important one. First, it seems that the jury is hoping to bring greater attention to works in translation. Translated works are always a hard sell for publishers, especially in the English-speaking world. In 2004, for instance, less than half of one percent of all books published in the US were in translation, a much lower rate than in the rest of the world (sadly, I don’t have similar stats for Canada close by). The figures are higher in Canada, but one of the things that often draws potential buyers away from translations is the notion that somehow the translation is a lesser version of the original. This sentiment is so prevalent that in recent years Canadian and American publishers have publicly mused about omitting the names of the translators from the front covers of books, hoping that this will lead more readers to pick up these books and, in the process, discover how great translated works can be.

If, as I suggest above, this decision is both courageous and important, it is also, as André Alexis persuasively argues in the Globe and Mail of October 14th, unavoidably flawed. Alexis’ commentary entitled “Since when can the ‘best’ English novel be written in French” begins by highlighting the fact that both of the original versions of these two novels are deserving of recognition. Both won awards when they were published and Lederhendler’s translation of Soucy’s novel is also up for the this year’s Governor General’s award in the “Translation (French to English)” category, as is a translation by Sheila Fischman. Alexis argues — and I disagree with him here — that “taken from its original linguistic contexts, [a translation] does not have the same resonance, or the same meaning” as the original.” That’s true, but that doesn’t mean that a translation doesn’t have its own unique resonances and meanings in its own language (English, in this case). For us to recognize that, though, we also have to acknowledge the artistry of the translator and this, as Alexis astutely points out, is exactly what the Scotiabank Giller Prize nominations fail to do.

Alexis writes: “The members of the Giller jury, in nominating The Perfect Circle and The Immaculate Conection for this year’s Giller Prize have, I think, tacitly suggested that the original language of a novel is less than essential to the novel itself. At least, that seems to be what the jury is saying, in that the names of the translators [. . .] are nowhere near as prominent in the announcements/press releases for this year’s Giller Prize as the names of the writers of the French originals.” The only problem I see with Alexis’ complaints is that he lays the blame for this “great insult to the translators” on the shoulders of the jury, when it’s clear to me that what is really at issue here is the Canadian publishing industry and the media’s continuing unease at promoting the role of literary translation in this country. The translator for them seems to be merely a vehicle for transforming a French novel into an English one, as if the “essence” of a novel is “a story, a plot, characters” and not “the ‘language’ play of the originals”. If Sheila Fischman and Lazer Lederhendler were truly being recognized as artists, writers in their own right, then, as Alexis suggests, they should be receiving equal attention and an equal share of the prize money (all authors on the shortlist who don’t ultimately win the prize still receive $2500).

Flawed as it may be, and I think Alexis is mostly dead on with his criticisms of the decision, I still think this was a positive decision by the jury. Placing works in translation alongside works in their original language should, ideally, lead us to ask these questions about translation (as Alexis has done) and to think differently about the role of the translator. In this year alone, the Giller has been more effective in getting us to consider these issues than any recent award or nomination in the translation categories of the Governor General’s Award, which recognize the importance of literary translation but also ghettoize it. More importantly, it has drawn our attention once again to the fact that many of this country’s most talented writers write in French. And, without the thankless and underestimated collaborative artistry of translators like Sheila Fischman and Lazer Lederhendler we might never get the chance to read their work. A translation might not help us to understand completely “the language and tradition” from which the original has emerged, but it always serves to remind us that our own “linguistic contexts” are not all that Canada has to offer.

The Giller Prize will be awarded on November 7 and the Governor General’s Awards on the 21st. Watch for the special Giller Prize and GG bulletins from Northwest Passages alerting you to the winners of the awards.

Works Cited
Alexis, André. “Since When Can the ‘Best’ English Novel Be Written in French?” The Globe and Mail October 14 2006, sec. R: 7.

I’m so glad that CBC has started showing The Hour on their main network, which we get on local cable here in Burlington. It’s too bad they don’t get CBC on the UVM network that runs through the dorms. I expect that students would really enjoy this show. Tonight’s show for instance had interviews with Bob Geldof, Margaret Trudeau, and The Killers. I’m still kicking myself for missing Sunday’s special show with The Tragically Hip….

Fortunately, from The Hour website, you can watch the most recent episode and also clips from previous shows. (This clip cracked me up, by the way) The archives of previous clips and interviews is one of the best you’ll find on any website. Just look at all the clips here in the interviews section alone, including George’s chat with Gord Downie from The Hip. How great is that?

Looks like Canadian lit is going to have a fairly prominent role on Canadian television next year. Guy Vanderhaeghe’s The Englishman’s Boy and Mordecai Richler’s St. Urbain’s Horseman are both being turned into mini-series. It might be interesting to see if I can teach both of these books at the same time as the mini-series are being shown in Canada. We’re reading The Englishman’s Boy in English 180 right now, and my students are weighing in on what they think about turning books into movies.

My sister and brother-in-law live in Windsor, Ontario, which is just south (!) of Detroit. I’ve been following my sister’s posts about the Detroit Tigers for the last few months as she and Dale attended the last 22 games of the regular season, and now a game from each of the playoff series. Go Tigers!

Her blog post today about the being the first Martin to see a world series game, a game my grandfather loved and played exceptionally well, took me right back to watching the World Series in the small tv room at the farm back in 1979, when the Pirates beat the Orioles in 7 games. I don’t remember much more than the couch, the brown leather lazy bow with the calfskin over the back, the fiddle on the wall, and baseball on one of the two channels we could get out there. It must have been harvest time, or Thanksgiving, as I’m not sure why else we would have been there in the middle of the school year. With all that goes on here, I don’t get much time to watch hockey, let alone baseball. This year, though, I’ll be doing my best to watch the World Series and will be thinking about more than one Martin as I watch.

Here’s just a bit of what Heidi wrote today….

As a writer, it’s distressing when words aren’t there for you when you think they should be. But, I’m starting to think that maybe it’s ok that words fail to appear sometimes. Maybe there are things that you don’t need words for. My Dad once quoted his Dad (my grandfather), as saying: “God gave us two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Thus we should always spend twice as much time listening or looking as we do talking.” My dad then reflected: “When we miss him, we remember his words and we remember to look and listen.” Next Sunday when I’m at what I assume will be the first World Series game ever attended by a Saskatchewan Martin, I’ll be cheering our team on. But I’ll also be there for my grandfather, looking, listening and taking it all in as he would have done.

I’ve been having a great time here at UVM bringing writers like Michael Ondaatje, Richard Harrison, Eden Robinson, and soon George Elliott Clarke to campus. Now, though, I think it’s time to try to find a way to bring Rick Mercer. This post on his blog had me laughing out loud in the office. Loved the bit last week with Bob Rae, too.

Citizens must want to be smarter about how to interpret the messages we encounter every day in government, in media, in the workplace, in business and advertising. – Roy Peter Clark

If I had to choose one thing that I hope my students take with them when they leave my classes it would be the ability to think more critically about the world in which they live. On his Writing Tools blog, I came across Roy Peter Clark’s fifteen steps that he suggests citizens of the USA in particular might follow to start to take their country back. (I’d argue that this applies to any country just as much as it does to Americans).

I particularly like steps six, seven, and eight:



6. Recognize the power of framing as a communication device. People may be telling you the truth, but only a part of the truth. They may be framing events to focus on some themes, but not others. In the immigration debate, for example, the “safety of our borders” is a frame, but so is “America opens its arms to immigrants,” and so is “there are jobs in America that Americans will not do.”

8. Learn the differences between forms of political persuasion that appeal to your reason as opposed to those that appeal to your fears or passions. Beware of slogans. They are a substitute for critical thinking.

This is great, and very well deserved. Read more here….