I noticed something particularly odd, and sort of irking as I browsed through the local public library the other day. As I looked through the shelves of books, certain books had these big red maple leaf stickers along the spine, to indicate a Canadian author or a book about Canada.
Normally, I have no problem with the concept of patriotism – it’s great to be proud of your own country, and to represent yourself as such. But come on, these books have nothing particularly interesting about them, or even particularly special – it’s just that they’re from Canada. Will I read a book because it’s from Canada? No. I will read a book if it interests me, and I will read it if it’s good. I don’t care at all where it’s from, or where the author is from.
It’s kind of like that book I read for grade 12 english – The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. It was only on the reading list because she was Canadian. Sure, I live in Canada, and it’s important to know about Canada, but the book was terrible, to be honest. It was a boring monologue written from the perspective of a dying senile Canadian woman. That she was Canadian did not add anything to the story. It could have taken place in any countryside, anywhere in the world. And it would still have been an utterly boring read. Yet I read this book, because it was by a famous Canadian author.
This is a blatant case of patriotism for the sake of patriotism. It added no value, no history, nothing at all to the book. If you’re going to be patriotic, please do it with  something worthwhile and meaningful. Like, you know, be proud of being in the homeland of hockey, a worldwide sport. Or the world’s largest exporter of that really delicious maple syrup. Something like that. Please don’t give me a book and tell me to read it just because it’s Canadian. Tell me to read it if it’s good. If it happens to also be Canadian, then all the better – as long as it’s good.
Comments (11)
Robertson Davies is Canadian. His book Fifth Business would not be the same if it wasn’t Canadian. I don’t think it added too much to the story. But, Canada has some mystery, some little thing that makes it Canadian. It’s fun reading books that take place in Canada, I don’t know it’s a little more special than some countryside in US or England or something.
In any case, I always thought that those little maple leaves were fun =)
Yeah. I agree. They tell you to read it only because its canadian. And that is its only “value”. If canada wants to establish itself as a place of [good] writers, we need to get those good ones first. Same goes for any sort of art as well. A painter/writer should not be revered because he is Canadian; that has no effect on their skill. And besides, the “good” canadian authors barely scratch the surface of truly remarkable books. Being the best amongst a mediocre category simply because you fall under the same ancestry is not something to be elated about and force feed to school children.
Yeah. im angry. could have been reading such better books in english class. same goes for “women writers”.
Cnat we just judge by the writing and not by attributes that have no effect on the writing itself?
correction: heritage and gender can and sometimes do have an effect on your literary/art skills, but simply their presence in an artist does not entail a remarkable feat worthy of aknowledgement.
@Anonymous:
I’m not saying books that take place in Canada aren’t good, it’s just that promoting that book on the basis of it being set in Canada isn’t necessarily the best way to promote it. If it’s a good book, then the Canadiana would probably be used tastefully to add something to the book – most of the time, though, the library and bookstores don’t care about that stuff, they just slap on a maple leaf to attract attention to it.
darling, you hated reading for engrish.
yes, you hate ‘the stone angel,’ but think about all the other books you hated and disliked, all those critically acclaimed classics that you fail to appreciate.
so maybe you don’t see eye to eye with the education system. don’t blame canadian authors, they are only equally as bad as everyone else. =)
i don’t really have an issue with the stickers; they’re fairly easy to overlook if you’re not interested. they might, however, inspire an interest in a new author to those who *are* intrigued; that someone might find an appreciation for an author previously gone unnoticed seems justifiable enough.
in any case, they probably just paid a nerdy high school student minimum wage (or paid andrew bang nothing at all) to put those stickers on. Yay for going to the library!
Starrrrf! I so totally had no problem with reading Hamlet (he was crazy) or all those mad hax literary things, or the poems we did for the presentations (because they were ridiculous) or even my ISP novel! Okay, I hated the rest. But I <3 the course! I’ll write more about the course later
Gah. I typed a whole big long spiel and then accidentally hit back on my browser. Boo hiss whore.
Anyways, the point(s) was/were:
i. “Canadian” isn’t blind patriotism really when you consider it as a genre just like horror or fantasy or historical or godknowswhatelse. So what if countries aren’t really genres? Each genre has its own individual characteristics which make it recognizable and unique from others, same with countries. There is a marked cultural difference between, say, Canada and England. Authors, and subsequently their works, are hugely products of their culture. Thus, it stands to follow that literature produced in each respective country would be substantially different in tone, attitude, values, etc, than from that produced in the other. So it’s not irrelevant, really.
ii. “If you’re going to be patriotic, please do it with something worthwhile and meaningful.” What, so now books and literature in general aren’t worthwhile and meaningful?!?!?!? How else is culture and whatever the hell else we have to be patriotic about, conveyed? How can you dismiss it as irrelevant when… it is so much more meaningful and worthwhile than maple syrup!!!!
iii. “That she was Canadian did not add anything to the story. It could have taken place in any countryside, anywhere in the world. And it would still have been an utterly boring read. ” There are exceptions to every rule, and maybe this book was an exception to the one about how books are hugely influenced by their setting. But post-colonial literature (which I’m pretty sure Canadian literature falls under) is hinged upon the setting and history of their country. Imagine if Things Fall Apart, Wide Sargasso Sea, or Heart of Darkness were set somewhere else. There would be no story left to tell! And I’m sorry that it was a boring read, but I’m pretty sure that’s more the fault of the author than the nation. Can’t we just bitch and moan about her (it is a her, right?) abilities as a writer than about the country in which she wrote?
iv. they’re not promoting the book, really. It’s the library, they don’t really care if you read the damn book or not. Maybe they get more money from the government or something if they do stuff to promote Canadian history/awareness/thingy, like sticking little maple leafs (I refuse to spell it properly, it looks wrong) on the spines of their books.
v. “Please don’t give me a book and tell me to read it just because it’s Canadian. Tell me to read it if it’s good. If it happens to also be Canadian, then all the better – as long as it’s good.” Read “The Thorn Birds” by Colleen McCullough. It’s not Canadian, but that’s okay! It’s really really really really really really REALLY good. I’m in love with it, personally. Can you tell? =P
Too bad they weren’t advertising “Candian” as a genre… they just had lots of maple leaf stickers… and some of them covered half the title of the book. =(
uhhh…. I think this whole endorsing books with maple leaf stickers thing has more to do with promoting canadian spirit than anything else. Some lame politician at the top decides that it would be good for the country to slap a few stickers on Canadian written books so that Canadians can once again be reminded that they live in the beautiful and proud dominion of Canada… and presto! you have books with Canadian stickers.
I don’t think these stickers have anything to do with the quality of the writing at all. It’s just some lame politician promoting Canadian spirit — which is nationalism, not patriotism nor inventing a new genre.
Ray: stop trying to use words to confuse the subject matter. For all intents and purposes, nationalism and patriotism are synonyms. In fact, one can argue that nationalism is indeed an excessive form of patriotism.
So, whatever you were trying to say, you’ve managed to confuse your own vocabulary in the process.
All I’m saying is: those stickers do not make me want to read the book, and there are so many mediocre ‘Canadian’ books that putting those stickers on just turns readers off Canadian authors. Promote the book for the book’s merit, not because it’s Canadian. That’s all I want.
sorry… I have a thing with english vocabulary. I stand corrected.