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

[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.)