Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature

by Margaret Atwood | Nonfiction |
ISBN: 184408082X Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 10/1/2011
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Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, October 1, 2011
I got this fair-condition softcover from Better World Books; it's a collection of lectures by author Margaret Atwood about myths and legends of the Canadian North. Her style is delightfully chatty - in her introduction she talks about planning the lectures: "a greater inspiration soon struck. The English, I knew, were very fond of cannibalism. If I could put some of that in, I was off on the right foot."

The first lecture deals with the Franklin Expedition, which set out to search for the Northwest Passage in 1845 and disappeared - it was thought, at first, without a trace, but after tremendous effort and many additional expeditions their tragic story was pieced together. Atwood touches on the influences of this event in song and story, including the efforts of one Canadian poet who wanted to write about Franklin but wound up writing about the Titanic sinking instead. I've read quite about about Franklin so I recognized many of the references, including mention of Frozen in Time. And I was pleased to find the late singer/songwriter Stan Rogers' "Northwest Passage" (which mentions Franklin among the many others who blazed trails) cited here.

The second lecture is "The Grey Owl Syndrome"; turns out that Grey Owl was one Archie Belaney from England, who moved to Canada and re-invented himself as a Native American naturalist and writer. Atwood discusses the reasons why people attempt to "go native" in this peculiarly authorial way, and touches on delicate subjects such as the re-telling of native myths by people who do not understand the culture they came from.

"Eye of Blood, Heart of Ice: The Wendigo" deals with the myth of the cannibalistic monster from the frozen North - not without touches of humor, as when Atwood cites an Ogden Nash (!) poem about "The Wendigo" whose "eyes are ice and indigo", and "I saw it just a friend ago" {grin}. The more serious discussion has to do with whether the wendigo was ever meant to be a supernatural being or if some/most/all of the stories really refer to a kind of starvation/isolation-induced madness... [That very question was addressed in the novel Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey; one of the main characters holds out that the wendigo of the title was simply a very sick man, while the other is convinced that there was something more mysterious going on. The book's too recent to be mentioned by Atwood here, and besides, the author's not Canadian, but the book touched on many of the points made in the essay.]

The final essay, "Linoleum Caves", switches from specific subject matter to the discussion of women authors, from why Canada seems to produce so many of them to differences in the ways women might write about the frozen wilderness.

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, April 5, 2012

Released 11 yrs ago (4/6/2012 UTC) at Nashua, New Hampshire USA

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I'm adding this book to MaryZee's Bookish bookbox, which I plan to hand off to eponine38 on Friday. Hope someone enjoys the book!

Journal Entry 3 by wingmaryzeewing at Taneytown, Maryland USA on Monday, May 14, 2012
This book came home in my Bookish bookbox today. I think I may give this one a pass, but thanks to GoryDetails for sharing.

Journal Entry 4 by wing6of8wing at Westminster, Maryland USA on Sunday, June 3, 2018
Sadly, MaryZee passed suddenly in September 2012. MaryZee's daughter is now ready to rehome her mom's books and I was willing to collect and redistribute them to keep her literary legacy alive.

Journal Entry 5 by Ixion at Starbucks - Frontier Drive in Springfield, Virginia USA on Sunday, June 24, 2018

Released 5 yrs ago (6/23/2018 UTC) at Starbucks - Frontier Drive in Springfield, Virginia USA

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Left at the BC in DC Official Bookcrossing Zone (OBCZ) in the Starbucks.


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