From the General to the Specific

Posted 5 August, 2008 in Literary Criticism, Writing | 1 comment

For all of you (*cough* Claire Cameron *cough*) who bemoaned my refusal to review Nathan Whitlock’s novel, A Week of This, August Bourré has posted a thoughtful review, which evolves into an eloquent defence of realism as a legitimate and viable fictional mode:

The argument that realism is stale and outdated may have some accuracy to it, if one were to speak only in generalities. The mode has been around in almost its present form for well over a hundred years, after all, and the seeds of it were around for at least a hundred years prior to that. But is this the same as stale and outdated? Absolutely not. One has to go from the general to the specific in order to find innovation. When a form has been established, like with graphic design or some other discipline, the challenge becomes, not necessarily to smash or challenge the form, but to create something unique and beautiful within its limits. I can think of dozens of beautiful and unique realist novels, but I can think of only a handful that smash those conventions entirely and remain compelling. Experimental fiction has been scrupulously predictable for most of my lifetime.

Kirshner on Character

Posted 28 June, 2008 in Writing | 1 comment

Toronto-based writer Lauren Kirshner, whose first novel, Where We Have to Go, is due out from McClelland & Stewart in spring 2009, has some thoughts on her blog about what makes a compelling character:

Maybe it’s the sticky air on College Street and the guys with shiny hair who stand outside the sports bars, looking like they will always be nineteen, leaning their lips into cans of Brio. Or maybe I’m just thinking of the way certain girls with bleached blonde hair look sexy and cool–read: not cheesy– in leopard print tube tops and red high heels with bows on the backs of them. Or then again, maybe I’m just thinking about what makes fictional characters live. By this I mean spring off the page like flames from brand new lighters.

In addition to displaying her own dab hand at characterization — how many writers do you know who could come up with a descriptive string of words as concisely perfect as “leaning their lips into cans of Brio”? — she evinces impeccable taste in the examples she chooses to illustrate her point: Flannery O’Connor, Denis Johnson, and Mary Gaitskill.

And, just as an aside, if you haven’t read Gaitskill’s collection, Bad Behavior, what are you waiting for?

“I Don’t Know Everybody, but I Think I Know Their Dogs”

Posted 20 June, 2008 in Writing Life, Awards, Writing | No comments

Open Book: Toronto has posted a short video of Trillium Award-winner Barbara Gowdy. In the video, shot by Ian Daffern, Gowdy discusses the genesis of her prize-winning novel, Helpless, as well as the experience of living in Toronto’s Cabbagetown neighbourhood (which gives rise to the quoted title of this post) and the setting of Margaret Atwood’s novel Cat’s Eye.

Foot Soldiers in the War against Bad Grammar

Posted 24 May, 2008 in Writing | No comments

My new heroes:

Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson have not wasted their lives.

They fight a losing battle, an unyielding tide of misplaced apostrophes and poor spelling. But still, they fight. Why, you ask. Because, they say. Because, they must.

For the last three months, they have circled the nation in search of awkward grammar construction. They have ferreted out bad subject-verb agreements, and they have faced stone-faced opposition everywhere. They have shone a light on typos in public places, and they have traveled by a GPS-guided ‘97 Nissan Sentra, sleeping on the couches of college friends and sticking around just long enough to do right by the English language. Then it’s on the road again, off to a new town with new typos.

(via Maud)