Charlotte Gill | author site & blog

October 12, 2008

Desi Life

A short thing in The Toronto Star's South Asian section with some thoughts on writing, Indo-Canadian style. Also consulted are Farzana Doctor, Randy Boyagoda, Ameen Merchant, and the totally cool Pasha Malla.

October 7, 2008

Calgary Writers' Festival

Wordfest is coming, people. Very exciting. I'll be reading on Friday, October 17th at the Art Gallery with Claudia Dey, Genni Gunn and Beverley Stone. It's an Industry Insider event called Celebrating the Small Press.

September 30, 2008

The case for perfectionism

I'm sure some are sick of DFW tributes already, but what the hell. There are so many good ones kicking about this week. I suppose there's the old saw about how we learn more about him in death than we ever knew in life: stories emerge of an attention-deflecting, bullshit-averse teacher displaying great generosity and warmth of spirit:

He was always trying to impart the importance of communication, of its precision. The only way you can communicate at a high level, he taught, is to be conscious of everything you write--every comma, every pronoun, every word, and all their implications. He half-jokingly suggested we use Garner's Modern American Usage as bathroom reading. I called him when I was having, in his words, "an existential crisis about grammar" at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night. He was like Virgil in the Inferno; you knew he'd been there before and could guide you out of it. I'd never listened to anyone as intently as I listened to him.

To my mind it's this slavish respect for the details of meaning, not to mention the prodigious avalanche of words and sentences, that made him so unique. He made the word--and the world, I suppose--seem a little less lazy.

September 25, 2008

Ordinary Canadians

People are all miffed with Stephen Harper's statement that the arts don't matter to "ordinary Canadians" and that funding cuts are a "niche topic." He got a shuriken to the head today:

What amazes me is that more people aren't incensed that Harper thinks he knows what goes on in their living rooms. Ask the people in your lives (parents, siblings, friends) who might not consider themselves artists or cultural workers: Is this true? Do you not listen to music? Do you not watch movies? TV? What's on your walls? What do you not read? (Did you know non-fiction is part of "the arts"?) Ask them: When was the last time you saw me get dressed up and party at a gala? And then ask them, Do you think I'm not 'ordinary people'?"

What the hell is an ordinary Canadian, anyway? I take it SH means respectful, taxpaying folks who bust guts and whatnot for their paycheques. But I'll stop there. Because I'm an artist, right? And what do I know about sweat and tears? I swan about in ball gowns all week while everybody else is grunting it out on the job.

Tell you what, though. I might be a bit fazed by this whole "labour" concept, but I sure do know about scrimping! I can make a tube of toothpaste last for six months, a piece of aluminum foil go for a year. It's all part of the artist's training package, you see--it comes free with your M.F.A.

So go ahead and make more cuts. I'll just write in the dirt with a stick.

But, um, I'm pretty sure you still need a planet for dirt and sticks.

What's the strategy in your riding?