Eli Mandel on Literary Criticism

      Eli Mandel Criticism: the Silent Speaking Words (1966) A transcript of eight CBC talks given by Mandel (then a professor in the English Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton). He explores the central problem of literary and other arts criticism: What good is it? Does it have a legitimate purpose? His answer asserts that criticism is as legitimate an intellectual pursuit as any other

     This was a time when English Departments were attempting to reconstruct criticism as an objective analysis of literary works. In 1957 Northrop Frye had published his Anatomy of Criticism,  which argued that literature could be classified in terms of it content or “matter”, and its form or “plot”. Since these are objectively observable aspects of any work, Frye’s analysis liberated criticism from the subjective shackles of biography, sociology, psychology, and so on, which had dominated literary scholarship since the 18th century and had made criticism a matter of opinion and schools of thought.
     Mandel finally agrees with Frye, but takes a long and roundabout route to get there. His agreement is qualified by his admiration for Matthew Arnold and Alfred Tennyson, both of whom urged that literature is speech from one generation to another: that the “silent speaking words” on the page convey to us another mind, a person, and therefore create, preserve, and even enrich relationships with the dead.
     I think that Frye’s anatomy is accurate: it is a theory of literature that can be tested by examining and comparing different works. I think Mandel is also right: a piece of writing is made by a human, and to whatever extent the writer’s honesty and skill can do so, it records that person’s mind, that person’s experience. By reading their words, we encounter that person.
     Or as someone has said: The imagination is the only method we have to understand each other. I would add ... and the world in which we live.
     Eli Mandel was my teacher and then my colleague at U of A, Edmonton. He was man who never let a good idea stop him from exploring another one. I remember him with respect and affection. See the Wiki entry.
    On the Poetry page you’ll find a poem I wrote during and after listening to Eli at a workshop put on for high school teachers in Ontario.
    ***

British pound and US dollar heading towards parity

The Guardian has a story today about sterling's possible parity with the US dollar following a hard Brexit.

Fact is, measured in purchasing power, the pound has been close to parity with the US dollar for years. Any American and Canadian tourist can tell you that British prices in pounds are in the same range as US and Canadian prices in dollars. Which makes the UK an expensive place to visit, and a very expensive place to live. No wonder so many Brits are fed up with their politicians.

So why has the exchange rate exceeded the domestic purchasing power of the pound? The UK's refusal to use the euro is the usually cited culprit. But that isn't a reason, it's a consequence. The root cause is the pound's role as an international currency, along with the US dollar and the Swiss franc. All three currencies are used for money laundering.

Two Cartoon Collections

Bill Stott. The Crazy World of Gardening (1987) Any gardener will enjoy these cartoons, and non-gardeners who read this book will be glad they’ve avoided the pastime. One of my faves: Garden expert to troubled customer: “Yes, it’s a very common condition in plants that have been over-watered and kept in drafts. It’s called ‘dead’”. ***





Gary Larson. Wildlife Preserves (1989) The cover shows why Larson’s cartoons are still considered classics. I pretty sure he’s an acquired taste, though: the mix of logic taken to absurdity, disingenuous literalism, bland suburbanisms applied to non-human animals, allusions to scientific oddities, riffs on old movie cliches, and so on, doesn’t appeal to everyone. It does appeal to me. ****

Larson's Far Side (Gallery 5)

      Gary Larson. Far Side Gallery 5 (1995) I like Gary Larson’s cartoons. The absurdity of logic, the silliness of literalness, the effects of shifts in point of view, visual puns, send-ups of cliches – Larson was master of them all. Reading one of his collections expands your mind, twists it into new shapes, makes you laugh, and gives your imagination the kind of workout that liberates. We have a few of his collections, not nearly enough. More at his website.
****

Hitchens essays: And Yet (2015)

     And Yet... (2015) Posthumous collection of essays, mostly from periodicals such as Slate, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, etc. His book reviews are thorough and sometimes occasions for polemics. His polemics are always interesting. He was a libertarian who detested totalitarianism, including religion. He became an American citizen late in life, and immediately began digging into the history that is glossed over by the myths. He tried to be honest and rational; one of his heroes was Orwell, because Orwell tried to be as truthful as humanly possible.
     Picking any one essay as an example won’t do Hitchens justice, but here goes: Bah, Humbug attacks Christmas, not because it’s religious but because the relentless urging to buy gifts promotes hypocrisy. The holiday instills guilt: if you don’t lavish gifts upon your nearest and dearest, you obviously don’t love them. Along the way Hitchens reminds us that, as soon as Cromwell’s victories gave them the power, the Puritans banned Christmas in England. It was a pagan feast, not a Christian one. Thus those who wish to “keep the Christ in Christmas” betray both their historical and theological ignorance. In any case, what we now think of as time-honoured Christmas traditions were invented wholesale by the Victorians. Prince Albert and Dickens have a lot to answer for.
     Beware: if you start reading, you will want to read the next essay and the next and the next, and before you know it, you’ve spent a hour or so immersed in this book. ***

Doug Ford’s Cabinet shuffle

Thursday, 20 June 2019

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has shuffled his cabinet, demoting some of his most senior ministers, and bringing in untried and inexperienced new people. Why did he do this? Will it make a difference?

He did this because his popularity is now below that of the previous Premier, Kathleen Wynne, at the time of the last election. He was booed at three recent public events, the last being the victory celebration for the Toronto Raptors’ NBA championship win. His party is now in third place after the Liberals and the NDP, with the Greens coming fast behind them. A cabinet shuffle looks like he is doing something positive. At his news conference today he emphasised two points: his government’s achievements; and that he was going to do better.

Will this shuffle make a difference? No. Ford is a puppet. He’s beyond his depth as a Premier. He had no experience in Provincial politics, and I suspect he had close to zero knowledge of Provincial powers. His promise of a Buck-a-beer shows how little he knew and understood. I think that apart from his vendetta against Toronto, he is not in fact the originator of his government's policies. He has to rely on his political team for advice. That team is cabal of self-styled Libertarians who hate government and have attempted to inject their minimal-government philosophy into Canadian politics. They are using Doug Ford to carry out their political aims.

Moving people around the offices at Queen’s park will make no difference to the damage that’s been done to Ontario.

Update 10 July 2019: One of his demoted ministers misbehaved at a concert recently: she attacked the owner of the Ottawa Senators, blaiming him for their poor performance. The new Minister of Educatiion has said he wants to negotiate with the teachers' unions as soon as possible, and that he is willing to listen. In the meantime, several schoolboards, having crunched the enrolment numbers, have announced cuts to programs because of Doug Ford's raising the average high school class size to 28 from 22. Innumerate people tend to think of averages as typical. Does Ford hold this mistaken idea? I don't know.

Update 11 July 2019: Bombardier announced that it would be laying off half its Thunder Bay work force by November as the orders run out. Result: Douig Ford blames Ottawa, and  Federal Labour Minister Pat Hadju blames Ford. Doug Ford claims he's "signed the cheque" for Ontario's share of the infrastructure projects. Hadju released a number of letters from her ministry to Ontario asking Ontario to get with the program. Which they haven't done. Ford apparently doesn't want the Trudeau Liberals to get any credit for roadbuilding and such. Meanwhile, transit and other infrastructure in Ontario isn't being built.

Incompetence rules.

Eccentrics and obsessives: a clickbait book

     Eccentric Lives, Peculiar Notions. (1999) A collection of journalistic pieces about eccentrics, most of them British or American. Either other nations don’t produce and nurture their eccentrics as well as the Brits and Americans do, or else Michell has some difficulty reading other languages. Whichever, this is an entertaining look at a number of well-known daftnesses via mini-bios of their originators or publicisers. The book begins with an obsessed lover, who nowadays would be put behind bars as a stalker. The book ends with the beginnings of Ufology. In between we discover an arch-Druid,  Atlantis, Flat-Earthers, British Israelites, a Hollow Earth inhabited by left-over Atlanteans, or maybe star-people, etc.
John Michell.
     Michell has a soft spot for Baconians, Marlovians and other people who can’t believe that a mere country bumpkin could have so much learning in his plays. I guess they didn’t realise that Shakespeare was a great adaptor of other people’s work. He would have thrived in Hollywood.
     Adequate illustrations, which in the British manner are not keyed to the text. Workmanlike style, with occasional sparks of wit. A pleasant way to while away a couple of hours. Pretty well all the material in the book has been the stuff of many, many YouTube videos. **½