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Canada Reads
Ready, Set, Read! Canadians have until February 6-9, 2012, to work their way through five riveting true-to-life tales that begin with the sound of a pleading political prisoner in a Tehran jail, transform into a revolutionary shout of protest against Pinochet’s rule in Chile, crescendo into the scream of a thousand hockey fans, simmer down to…
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Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live by Ray Robertson
Reviewed in this essay: Why Not? Fifteen Reason to Live by Ray Robertson. Biblioasis, 2011. It is November in Toronto. I could use fifteen or so reasons to live right now. Ray Robertson implies a big answer with his new title. Having just completed a draft of a novel and experiencing an OCD-induced depression, Robertson…
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The Future of Religion in a Secular Age
If you’ve read the news recently, you’ll know that modern times are tough times for people of faith. With the politicization of fundamentalist religion worldwide and the rising popularity of trenchant critiques penned by the New Atheists – not to mention plain old apathy – where’s a person with a penchant for the numinous supposed…
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A Book is a Book
The other day at work I had an impassioned conversation with a customer over what characterizes a book – that is to say, a solid, tangible, paperbound object – versus an e-book, that increasingly popular digital commodity that is poised to take over the world of literature, if it has not already done so. One…
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“Creeping into the house”: Talking about Writing at The International Festival of Authors
Most events at Toronto’s International Festival of Authors feature authors reading from their finished novels, their glossy dust jackets sprinkled with glowing reviews, as though these works effortlessly materialized through sheer brilliance. In contrast, on Sunday October 23rd, the “Writer’s Craft” panel met at the Festival’s stage on Queens Quay West to discuss honestly the writer’s…
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TRB Podcast: The Beginnings of Poetry, Virginia Jackson at the University of Toronto
On Friday, October 21, the UC Irvine Chair of Rhetoric and Communication Professor Virginia Jackson spoke at the University of Toronto on “The Beginnings of Poetry.” As the organizers of this fascinating talk said, Professor Jackson is one of the most exciting and innovative people writing about poetry in any field today. Prof. Jackson is…
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Franzlations at the Ossington
A small crowd gathered last Thursday night at The Ossington for the book launch of Franzlations: The Imaginary Kafka Parables (New Star Books, 2011). A collaborative work between poets Gary Barwin and Hugh Thomas and featuring illustrations by Craig Conley, the book – as its title suggests – takes the paradoxical and absurd prose of…
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Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: Cold War artifact
The shift to e-books is underway, and it will make our reading lives easier in many ways. But it will also bring losses – especially over time, as books age. A new book can easily be replaced by an e-book, but used books accumulate traces of their travels in a way that e-texts can’t easily mimic…
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Ride the Cyclone at Theatre Passe Muraille: Saskatchewan Ghost Cabaret a Rollercoaster Hit
Ride the Cyclone, from Atomic Vaudeville. Written by Jacob Richmond & Brooke Maxwell. Directed by Richmond & Britt Small. Until December 3 at Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Ave. 416-504-7529 or artsboxoffice.ca The final recital of a newly dead troupe of teenage choristers is a rollercoaster of a ghost cabaret in Ride the Cyclone, which…
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Time for Another Rewrite: The AGO’s General Idea: Haute Culture, A Retrospective 1969-1994
A review of General Idea: Haute Culture, A Retrospective 1969-1994, Art Gallery of Ontario, July 29, 2011–January 1, 2012, curated by Frédéric Bonnet, organized by ARC/Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Art Gallery of Ontario, catalogue published by JRP Ringier That a major survey of General Idea’s work is only now…
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Charles P. Pierce’s Sports Guy
Reviewed in this essay: Sports Guy by Charles P. Pierce. Da Capo Press, 2000. The stock image of a sportswriter is of a person wearing an ugly shirt, with strong opinions on football defences and who writes recaps of games that all seem to come from the same script: who won, who lost, who scored…
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Birgitta Jónsdóttir’s Call for Civil Rights Online
On Thursday an American judge decided that Twitter must release the details of TRB-contributor Birgitta Jónsdóttir‘s account in a case against WikiLeaks. She had this to say to The Guardian: “This is a huge blow for everybody that uses social media,” said Jonsdottir. “We have to have the same civil rights online as we have…