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Some projects are lost causes
Feb. 11th, 2011 09:24 pmIt was with some disappointment that I heard last week that Yann Martel has given up his book project.
I assume that most non-Canadians (and probably a lot of Canadians too) wouldn't heard about this odd little one-sided book club. Yann Martel is a pretty famous Canadian author who wrote Life of Pi*, among other things. In 2007, Yann was in the visitor gallery of the House of Commons to witness the official celebration of fifty years of the Canada Council for the Arts. There was a short speech by the Minister for Canadian Heritage... and that was it. As Yann says: "Fifty years of building Canada's dazzling and varied culture, done with in less than five minutes."
Reportedly, our prime minster, Stephen Harper, did not even look up during this brief speech. His Conservative government treats the arts as optional add-ons to the serious business of life; mere entertainment that should only be funded in the most minimum of ways. Yann was embarrassed to see that the politicians could not manage even a good semblance of caring on the anniversary of the Canada Council.
As a direct result of that day, Yann started What is Stephen Harper Reading?. Every two weeks, he mailed Stephen Harper a book with an inscription. The books are incredibly varied, include poetry, classics from all around the world, Canadian novels, and even kids books (Where the Wild Things Are). I believe almost any reader can probably find one book on the list that they've read, or at least one they'd want to read. Each book came with a letter explaining why he chose it.
He published all these letters on his website, along with all the responses he received. Over almost four years, he (and a few others with him) sent 100 books to Stephen Harper. This elicited exactly seven responses, all from the prime minister's office and none from Stephen himself. On the website, the vast majority of the letters are followed by a sad little "Pending..." in the reply section.
Besides following the website, I also bought Yann's first 55 letters in book format (which he also mailed to the prime minister) and intend to buy the second edition when/if it comes out with the last 45 letters.
I was taken with Yann's project for several reasons. First, I am in favour of arts funding. Second, I am in favour of creative protests. Third, I love reading other people's personal correspondences and diaries, and there are aspects of both in these letters. And, finally, I like reading about books. I will happily read descriptions of books I never intend to read (just as I love movie previews, even for movies I would never watch).
I love the 100th/last letter. It is perfectly artsy, a bit academic, and just a little snarky**. I'm still contemplating his comments about being tired of using books as political bullets and grenades.
I hope he gets a personal response to this last letter. Perhaps I have old fashioned manners, but the lack of a single thank you note from the recipient of all these wonderful gifts offends me. But besides that, I am genuinely curious as to what Stephen Harper would say in response to the final comment Yann makes on this whole project:
Yann Martel, should you stumble across this for some reason and feel the need to start mailing books again, I will gladly provide my address and I promise to read every book. Also, I write very nice thank you notes.
* Random side story about either the psychology of readers or the nature of marketing: I saw Yann Martel read at the Writers and Readers Festival. In the discussion after, Yann mentioned people often say of "Life of Pi" that "I know it is highly commercial, but I enjoyed it". This amazes and confuses him because there's no way that novel, with all its symbolism and heavy themes like religion, etc., could possibly be considered to a commercial piece of writing. He considers it something of a bizarre miracle that it became a bestseller. I think there's a bit of something like (warning: TV Tropes link) It's Popular, Now it Sucks going on.
** "One hundred is a nice round number and a good number to end on. (The number of times you personally have written back to me is also a nice round number, by the way: 0. That's zero, naught, nada, zilch.)"
I assume that most non-Canadians (and probably a lot of Canadians too) wouldn't heard about this odd little one-sided book club. Yann Martel is a pretty famous Canadian author who wrote Life of Pi*, among other things. In 2007, Yann was in the visitor gallery of the House of Commons to witness the official celebration of fifty years of the Canada Council for the Arts. There was a short speech by the Minister for Canadian Heritage... and that was it. As Yann says: "Fifty years of building Canada's dazzling and varied culture, done with in less than five minutes."
Reportedly, our prime minster, Stephen Harper, did not even look up during this brief speech. His Conservative government treats the arts as optional add-ons to the serious business of life; mere entertainment that should only be funded in the most minimum of ways. Yann was embarrassed to see that the politicians could not manage even a good semblance of caring on the anniversary of the Canada Council.
As a direct result of that day, Yann started What is Stephen Harper Reading?. Every two weeks, he mailed Stephen Harper a book with an inscription. The books are incredibly varied, include poetry, classics from all around the world, Canadian novels, and even kids books (Where the Wild Things Are). I believe almost any reader can probably find one book on the list that they've read, or at least one they'd want to read. Each book came with a letter explaining why he chose it.
He published all these letters on his website, along with all the responses he received. Over almost four years, he (and a few others with him) sent 100 books to Stephen Harper. This elicited exactly seven responses, all from the prime minister's office and none from Stephen himself. On the website, the vast majority of the letters are followed by a sad little "Pending..." in the reply section.
Besides following the website, I also bought Yann's first 55 letters in book format (which he also mailed to the prime minister) and intend to buy the second edition when/if it comes out with the last 45 letters.
I was taken with Yann's project for several reasons. First, I am in favour of arts funding. Second, I am in favour of creative protests. Third, I love reading other people's personal correspondences and diaries, and there are aspects of both in these letters. And, finally, I like reading about books. I will happily read descriptions of books I never intend to read (just as I love movie previews, even for movies I would never watch).
I love the 100th/last letter. It is perfectly artsy, a bit academic, and just a little snarky**. I'm still contemplating his comments about being tired of using books as political bullets and grenades.
I hope he gets a personal response to this last letter. Perhaps I have old fashioned manners, but the lack of a single thank you note from the recipient of all these wonderful gifts offends me. But besides that, I am genuinely curious as to what Stephen Harper would say in response to the final comment Yann makes on this whole project:
We've become slaves to our work and have forgotten that it's in moments of leisure and stillness, when we're free from working with a hoe or at a keyboard, that we can contemplate life and become fully ourselves. We work, work, work, but what mark do we leave, what point do we make? People who are too beholden to work become like erasers: as they move forward, they leave in their wake no trace of themselves. And so that has been the point of my fruitless book-gifting to you: to raise my voice against Canada becoming a nation of erasers.
Yann Martel, should you stumble across this for some reason and feel the need to start mailing books again, I will gladly provide my address and I promise to read every book. Also, I write very nice thank you notes.
* Random side story about either the psychology of readers or the nature of marketing: I saw Yann Martel read at the Writers and Readers Festival. In the discussion after, Yann mentioned people often say of "Life of Pi" that "I know it is highly commercial, but I enjoyed it". This amazes and confuses him because there's no way that novel, with all its symbolism and heavy themes like religion, etc., could possibly be considered to a commercial piece of writing. He considers it something of a bizarre miracle that it became a bestseller. I think there's a bit of something like (warning: TV Tropes link) It's Popular, Now it Sucks going on.
** "One hundred is a nice round number and a good number to end on. (The number of times you personally have written back to me is also a nice round number, by the way: 0. That's zero, naught, nada, zilch.)"
