SYMBOL

Symbol

Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland

One of the good things about belonging to a book club is reading a writer new to me. The prize in this category for last year (2007) goes to Douglas Coupland’s HEY NOSTRADAMUS! It was my first Douglas Coupland, a much-published Vancouver writer and artist. This is the same Douglas Coupland credited with coining the ‘Generation X’ label. His GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA has been waiting in my TO-READ stack for several months, and his JPod is currently a series on CBC. How have I missed Coupland, reading as I have in CanLit for several decades? That fact that he seems somehow to be outside the CanLit sphere is a sad comment on our Left Coast and how disconnected we often feel to life east of the Rockies.

Although you would not guess as much from the title, HEY NOSTRADAMUS! is set very particularly in Canada, specifically in North Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. What is even better is the way Coupland uses place for purposes of plot, character development, and theme. His setting is the “Bible belt” and one of his themes seems to be the connection between religion and evil events in society (in this case, a school shooting in North Van and its effects on the four point-of-view characters). The shooting which initiates the action of the novel reminds us of Columbine but is certainly also alluding to similar shootings in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta. This strikes me as a comment upon how the American-media filter through which we view pop culture and current events distances and separates us from our own Canadian reality.

The crucial role religion plays in the emotional and physical violence of HEY NOSTRADAMUS! is a brave theme for any writer. The title, linking us to a sixteenth century European visionary, forces us to confront the puzzle which many cultures ponder--whether we control our own destiny or whether everything is pre-ordained. The way Coupland has integrated the Sasquatch myth is also masterful. Sasquatch, the local Halkomelem name for the creature known elsewhere as Bigfoot, is part of the culture of the First People of this place and seems to represent, as it does in Eden Robinson’s MONKEY BEACH, the survival of Spirit / Magic / Wonder in a non-believing world.

Reading this book, enjoying it as much as I did, makes me wonder: Why isn’t Douglas Coupland even more celebrated? I did see him once, at a function at the Vancouver Museum, and realized as I listened in on a private conversation that it was the first time I had ever heard him speak. More recently, because of JPod and a new novel release, THE GUN THIEF, I’ve heard him interviewed on Sounds Like Canada and The Hour. It’s about time; we need more of this. We need our own Canadian Charlie Rose, someone not ashamed of “talking heads”, who will invite creative people (more than celebrities), cultural builders, eccentrics, and engage them in intelligent conversation upon which the rest of us can eavesdrop. Hey, Canada!

Check out Amazon.com for a list of titles and Coupland.com for a reveal of what the cover image represents.

Oops! 500 words

AVERAGE

AVERAGE

The prompt for this first filing of 2008 is “average”. Aspiring to be average. It comes from that feeling of being somehow different, labeled the dreaded “eccentric”, somewhere between “off” (off centre) and “crazy”.

I was reading in a Globe & Mail at the coffee shop that the average Canadian reader read 34 books last year, 2007. That makes me almost “average”! The 36 books I read in 2007 means that my list is down by more than a dozen; my usual annual page-turning achievement hovers around 50. Why was this last year so “down” for me? Too busy? Too much TV? Both of the above, plus more days away from home than usual, and more days home but otherwise engaged. With the gift of guests. With joining the artists guild and all that goes with it--preparing photos to frame and hang, making cards to sell, prep for workshops and craft sale, attending meetings and openings. The second half of my year included a fascinating writing project, and, a new experience for me, hosting an international student here in Canada to learn English. Excuses. Excuses. But what they all have in common is “too busy living” to read about other people living. Resolve #1: this new year, I will make the time to read more.

I’ve been averaging, in previous postings, over 1000 words per blog. Perhaps length is one reason why sitting down to blog seems intimidating. Perhaps my average needs adjusting. Yet the most depressing thing I heard last year is that a blog should be 200 words long, 250 max. 200 words? You can not be serious. No, I mean, how can one be serious in 200 words. Not enough time to think; not enough space to develop a thought. 200 words is an ad. Amusing perhaps, manipulative, targeted, with one point. OK. Better than 2000 words with no point. Resolve #2: I will write 200 words. I will continue to protect the Eartha persona, and to honour the anonymity and dignity of family, friends, clients, and acquaintances. Resolve #3: I will post weekly.

Eccentric Quote: “Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.” – John Stuart Mill (79 words)

Canadian Thanksgiving

Canadian Thanksgiving

In Hope, on this Thanksgiving weekend (October 5 - 8, 2007), I attended the Rambo “First Blood” 25th anniversary celebrations. On Friday night at the Silver Chalice Pub, I watched the premiere showing of the documentary about making Rambo in Hope. The film producer from Seattle was there. Everyone laughed at the character on his quest, and listened to Hope people talking on the film. Inge from the visitor center and Tom, the fire chief, were interviewed.

Oliver, a young man from Germany who has a rambotown.net website, was on the film and at the pub. One man sitting at the table, Ray, from Cold Lake, Alberta, makes Rambo knives. Another man at the table had flown all the way from Ukraine.

On Saturday, we walked around the town for five hours and stopped everywhere a scene in the movie was shot. "All I wanted was something to eat." A Rambo-look-a-like stalked us through the woods. "Give it up! Give it up!" At night in the theatre hundreds of people listened to memories of the time the movie people were here in town and then we watched the movie together on the big screen.

On Sunday, I was too tired to hike to the tunnels or to go to the pig roast so I had a Thanksgiving dinner with friends—one from Taiwan, one from the Czech Republic, and one from Scotland. In a way, it was a typical Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. The world had come to visit us here, and we had so much for which to be thankful.

Cult Fiction

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Cult Fiction I: 25th Anniversary of Rambo FIRST BLOOD

Cult Fiction I: 25th Anniversary of Rambo FIRST BLOOD


Hope, BC celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the premier of the movie First Blood on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, October 5 – 7, 2007.

First Blood introduced movie audiences to John Rambo, a Vietnam vet who cannot stop fighting for what he believes is right. In the twenty-five years since its release and the thirty-five years since the publication of the novel, Rambo has become an icon. Hundreds of travellers inquire about Rambo at the Hope visitor information centre every year.

In the twenty-five years since it premiered, First Blood has become a cult classic. Fans on amateur review sites such as imdb.com or blogcritics.org rave about it:
“One of the best action movies ever made.”
“One amazing movie.”
“Simply one of the best films ever made.”
“Stallone is about as good as he has ever been here.”
“This small film by Carolco is about as perfect a film as you can get.”
“This movie has kept me entertained for years.”
“A classic and powerful action film and one of the best out there.”
“An under-rated classic.”

What is it about this film that elicits such superlatives from fans? What inspires such passion? What are the good reasons to watch it again?

The Hope community celebration includes: a Rambo look-alike contest, film location tours, a Rambo art contest, a premier showing of a REEL Places documentary on the filming of First Blood, an anniversary screening of First Blood at the town cinema, and (how appropriate!) a wind-up Pig Roast.


Read more about the movie and the book in Cult Fiction II, III, IV, V, and VI.

Cult Fiction II: The Literature of Our Time

Cult Fiction II: The Literature of Our Time


In the words of Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison, “Film is the literature of our time.” But what is literature? If we accept that film is, or can be, literature, and that literature is different from non-literature (journalism, biography, documentary, or junk), what qualifies as literature?

Literature is the art of writing incorporating imagination and emotion. Prose literature implies telling a story (narrative) in which something happens (plot) to certain people or creatures (characters) about whom the audience cares, set in time (past, present, or future) and places (real or imaginary), told in a way that suggests meaning beyond the action or character development (ideas, issues, values, motivations, themes) and using techniques associated with storytelling and writing (allusion, foreshadowing, flashback, imagery, symbol, metaphor, pathetic fallacy, etc.) Stories may vary in plotting structure (chronological, cause and effect, flashback, shattered time lines) and points of view (from the all-seeing “I am a camera” inside-the-head-looking-out to an internal or external narrator).

Films may be adaptations of stories or books, or written directly for the screen. Additional techniques including casting, acting, costume design, sounds of music, special effects, and voice-over, lighting, or camera work are used to help tell the film story. Films may be emotionally uplifting or depressing, depending upon plot, characters, and themes. Contrary to some popular definitions, it is possible for literature to have a happy ending as well as inconclusive or sad resolutions of the plot.

Films and novels as literature are forms of entertainment. Films in the Action genre tend to appeal to audiences with masculine and adolescent interests because of their conventions--thrills through speed, chases, explosions, weapons, and anger triggering retaliation and revenge. Feature films as literature target an audience for whom explorations of feeling and thinking are part of the enjoyment. Literary entertainment implies depths of meaning or elements of style which continue to give pleasure when re-visited, in memory or conversation, or by re-viewing or re-reading. A film as literature is a banquet; it offers courses, layers of life experience, with a dessert of idea or theme that viewers enjoy long after they have left the theatre or turned off the power switch. A good film provides a lingering glow, like wine, that makes us feel good to be human, glad to be alive. Literature, no matter which medium transmits it, highlights our shared experiences and celebrates what it means to be here, human, of this Earth.

Surprisingly, for some viewers, First Blood meets the literature criteria. Although undoubtedly an action movie, John Rambo is a rounded character, troubled, idealistic, who reluctantly confronts injustice when it will not leave him alone. Rambo’s character develops; he himself changes as his actions change the world around him. A closer reading also detects literary allusion, imagery, metaphor, symbolism, and the inclusion of serious themes which help make this movie a feast worthy of celebration. ©

Read more about John Rambo and his creator, David Morrell, in Cult Fiction III, IV, V, and VI.