Canadian literature...

[fajrdrako]

I always enjoy the way Amazon sends me messages advertising books they think I might like, and dammit, half the time they're right. They know my weaknesses. They offered me an Annie Dillard book yesterday, one I didn't already know about. I was thrilled.

So today they sent me a message beginnig, "As someone who has bought Canadian literature or fiction at Amazon.ca, you might like...."

I did? What? When? I never buy Canlit! I'm allergic to Canadian literature, partly because of bad experiences with it in high school, partly because of bad experiences with it in general. (No, I am not a Margaret Atwood fan. How'd you guess?)

Not that there aren't Canadian writers whom I love: Guy Gavriel Kay, Karen Lowachee, Antonine Maillet, Jane Rule.... but I haven't bought any of them from Amazon.

Maybe I bought something by a Canadian I didn't know was Canadian. Or maybe they made it up.

Comments

[dejla.livejournal.com]

If any ordinary writer had written The Handmaid's Tale, then it would have been stuck in science fiction and nobody but science fiction would read it--cf Sherri Tepper's GRASS. But because Margaret Atwood wrote it, it's literature and people have to read it in school.

That's one of the books I think is vastly overrated--The Handmaid's Tale.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The Handmaid's Tale is possibly my favourite of Margaret Atwood's books - but it's terribly depressing.

Overrated, too, I agree.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

You're a Canadian. You read literature. OBVIOUSLY you read CanLit. :-) :-) :-)

I would add Jo Walton and Robert Charles Wilson to a list of good Canadian SF/F authors.

In fact, there are some CanLit authors you'd like, even if you're allergic to Atwood. And lots and lots and lots of good Canadian non-fiction authors.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're a Canadian. You read literature. OBVIOUSLY you read CanLit. :-) :-) :-)

LOL. Of course! Amazon has no way of knowing I am an Internationalist!

I would add Jo Walton and Robert Charles Wilson to a list of good Canadian SF/F authors.

So far I haven't been able to get into Jo Walton, and the only Robert Charles Wilson book I read, I didn't like the story - though the style was good.

I know there are others I've liked. Just can't think of them.

[lunacy-gal.livejournal.com]

CanLit never fails to depress me.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's one of its problems.

Another is that it tends to make mountains out of molehills, and/or to be about rather shallow, boring people.

There isn't much passion in CanLit, and I tend to read for emotional exploration.

[lunacy-gal.livejournal.com]

You've hit it on the head. I've found very few characters in CanLit with whom I can identify.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've found very few characters in CanLit with whom I can identify.

If I think for a while maybe I'll come up with a few... I mean, it's easy for the few writers I mentioned about. And L.M. Montgomery. And... um...

Um...

I'm not coming up with much.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

One time I bought a romance book and a gardening book, so their suggestion was an S&M manual with "Roses" in the title. O.o

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Roses

LOL - that's actually very creative thinking!

Many years ago I ordered Dark Shadows videotapes for a friend, and I've been getting Dark Shadows suggestions from them ever since. The misunderstanding is an obvious and simple one, though.

[filkferengi]

Do you like mysteries? Mary Jane Maffini is quite good; I've enjoyed books in two of her series. [ http://www.maryjanemaffini.ca/ ]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I've ordered the first one at the library. I love a good mystery.

[filkferengi]

I look forward to hearing what you think.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I think they took your mailing address and made a leap of faith with it: you are a Canadian, therefore they can tell you they know you've read Canadian authors. The marketing version of a form letter....

Great about Annie Dillard. What is the book?

I am also not a Margaret Atwood fan. I was disgusted by The Handmaid's Tale, and bored by her other stuff. Great for her that she's famous, yay. But... couldn't care less, myself. One thing that bothers me -- she happens to be at the center of it, but couldn't know this -- is that some professors at IUP got into the habit of assigning that book to introductory sociology students. Now, I have a deep problem with forcing anyone to read something this sexually atypical -- not everyone can deal, especially not at age 18 or 19. Yet still the practice continues. Feh! (And so says the person who read Stranger in a Strange Land at twelve, and is happy to have done so.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

you are a Canadian, therefore they can tell you they know you've read Canadian authors.

That's probably it. A polite way of saying, "Ah-hah! you sucker, we know they made you read "Two Solitudes" in high school."

The Annie Dillard book is called Give it All, Give in Now: One of the Few Things I Know About Writing (http://www.amazon.com/Give-All-Now-Things-Writing/dp/159962060X/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1238160731&sr=8-10). I also got another book called A Life in Time and Space (http://www.amazon.ca/Life-Time-Space-Biography-Tennant/dp/1844546365/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238160805&sr=8-1") by Nigel Goodall - a biography of David Tennant.

I was disgusted by The Handmaid's Tale,

I wasn't exactly disgusted, just depressed by it.

I have a deep problem with forcing anyone to read something this sexually atypical -- not everyone can deal, especially not at age 18 or 19. Yet still the practice continues. Feh! (And so says the person who read Stranger in a Strange Land at twelve, and is happy to have done so.)

I don't think 18 is too young. I think if you are taking English at a university level, you should be prepared to deal with any literature. Which doesn't mean I see the value of reading it; just that one should be prepared, because that's how you learn to 'deal'.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Well, that was in sociology introductory classes, and it was done with the intent of shocking the students into realizing that other than hetero and monogamous lifestyle arrangements could be made. I see the goal behind it, I just don't like the idea.

That David Tennant biography sounds utterly delightful. Just the title alone! Does the book itself live up to the title? (We already know the actor does.)