Canadian Literature

Well Canada is a country of over thirty million people and most people here read…

though not so many poetry, philosophy or the classics…

                          it is a different time…

the literature capturing the movement of the city much like jazz..

Review

subTerrain “Strong Words for A Polite Nation”  No. 57

(which is funded by all levels of government through five different organizations

The City Of Vancouver(City) , the BC Arts Council(Provincial) , the Canada Council for the Arts(Federal), and the Government of Canada through the Publication Assistance Program (PAP) and the Canada Periodical Fund.)

The first piece is a monologue by Tim Carlson entitled Fractional Jets…which is about a guy who invests a $100,000 and works for a sham company that sells fractional ownership in jets out of Pemberton, which is just outside Whistler…

the narrator is talking to the child of the conman.

He seems to be discussing an ethical situation where everyone is lying.

He takes some relief by watching the owners of these frauds spend time in jail.

I don’t read all of the magazine…

the second story is a bout the zipline ride in whistler and on the same page in the margins is an article titled

Sorting Hype From Reality: The true legacy of the 2010 Olympic Games…which includes the reality of homeless people being forced into “shelters” legally

The Olympic Resistance Network ran under the slogan “No Olympics on Stolen Native Lands”.

The article ends:

The Olympics is not only a symptom of unfettered capitalism, but also a part of its pathological trajectory…

is it people before profit or profit before people?…

will decisions be made by community or by the elected or worse yet by the unelected elite…?

in this sense being for or against the Olympic Games reflected irreconcilable world views…Which one will prevail…?

It sounds like the debate is between anarchy and a centralized government…since both the elected and unelected elite are seen as problematic and not acting in the best interest of the majority.

The next section is about “Regret” and one chick loses her virginity, some one is reminded of their father by driving, another chick becomes a hooker, advertising about a book called True Home: Life on a Heritage farm…another chick has psychological problems and is addicted to cough medicine and sees a psychiatrist who she doesn’t like…

then more about the Olympics and

i’ll never use the word chick again

but another one writes about being fat…

another one does a period poetry piece,

a dude writes about losing at poker and the shame…

then their are a couple of book reviews;

one about growing up in North Delta and then some adds for competitions  and then a quote from the premiere of bc at the time on the back cover 

“ It’s not always popular to do what’s in your heart you know is right.”                    

Gordon Campbell. 

That’s a slice of Canadian literature from the west coast…

where i believe their are

a large number of scribbling fools

who seem to be on an humanitarian bender…

which does not necessarily equate into good writing…