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Oct. 13, 2006
What it means to be Canadian
Noah Richler puts forward a theory on storytelling and the impact
of stories on a society.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
When you read a novel, you are engaging in a political act. Whether
it's a trashy romance, a run-of-the-mill mystery or a literary masterpiece,
the novel is a "proselytizing instrument" that "makes
it our business – makes it humanity's business – to strive
toward the best of all possible worlds. And the world it has in
mind is a fair, tolerant, secular and progressive one."
So writes Noah Richler in This Is My Country, What's Yours? A
Literary Atlas of Canada. Richler is one of the many writers
featured at this year's Vancouver International Writers Festival,
which takes place Oct. 17-22. His focus will be Canadian literature,
in particular what our country's contemporary writers tell us about
Canada and what it means to be Canadian.
He garnered this knowledge while creating This is My Country,
which is the result of interviews with almost 100 authors that Richler
conducted on a two-year journey across Canada. He asked such noted
writers as Margaret Atwood, Wayne Johnston, Jane Urquhart, Alistair
MacLeod, Sharon Butala and Michael Ondaatje about the places and
ideas that are most meaningful to their work.
A son of the late Mordecai Richler, Noah Richler was raised in Montreal
and London, England, before settling once more in Canada. In addition
to being surrounded by authors all his life, he has made documentaries
and features for BBC Radio, served as books editor and literary
columnist for the National Post and has contributed to numerous
publications in Britain and Canada. Given his history, it seems
natural that his first book attempts to define a sense of place
with the help of storytellers.
"Certainly, the experience of my family did not put much emphasis
on geographical or family roots – not conventionally, at any
rate – and that could explain my holding borders in such shallow
regard," he writes. The fact that neither of his parents liked
to speak about their own upbringing added to his skepticism about
ideas of nationhood, he says. However, one of his reasons for returning
to Canada from England was that he "wanted to contribute to
a place where citizens can make a difference, regardless of their
class or heritage." This secular ideal frames his analysis
in This is My Country.
"I am a Jew and no Jew denies his heritage," Richler told
the Independent in an e-mail interview. "And so Jewish
culture played a very significant part in my upbringing, just as
my once-Anglican mother's more Catholic tastes did. However, I am
vehemently opposed to the role that any kind of faith-based orthodoxy
plays in conflicts and believe in Canadian society, certainly, as
a secular one."
In the press material accompanying the release of his book, Richler
describes Canadians as "decent, sympathetic, humanistic for
a good reason." Actually, there are many reasons, and it is
these that he lays out in This is My Country, which is organized
in three sections, according to his belief that there are three
narrative ages. In his view, there are parallels between how a territory
is mapped and of how stories are told.
"A human sees perhaps an animal, a tree or a rock and identifies
it with the drawing he makes," he writes. "As soon as
he paints a second object, or puts himself in the painting, then
distance is implied and a map has been made. When the map is complete,
then further maps contribute other kinds of information or contest
the points the first map has made."
Stories behave in a similar way, according to Richler. First, there
is invention, "in which stories grapple with the very idea
of place and wish it into existence." Then there is the mapping
stage, during which "novelists and storytellers chart the history,
geography and imagination of a country" so that the territory
can be thought of as a coherent mass. Once this landscape is determined,
"there is no longer the expectation or the necessity of a unanimity
of views" and the "task of stories is one of arguing versions
of the society in question." The literature of this final stage
"is the canon at its most secure," writes Richler, who
believes that Canada is in this third stage.
While his theory applies to all countries, Richler explained to
the Independent its relevance to Canada.
"I believe that there are particular reasons why Canadians
turn to their storytellers that have to do with the legacy of the
Hudson's Bay Company and the fact of this country having been organized
across such vast distances (so that wherever one is, one can feel
distant from the place where important, life-affecting decisions
are made – whether that place be London, Washington or Ottawa),
so that we have tended to turn to those among us, rather than government
or the heads of business, to tell our story ... [but] the basic
cyclei (that's what it is, a repeating cycle) of stories
going through stages of invention, mapping and argument as we use
them to chart our world, is true of all societies."
Even in our technology-driven era, stories remain important.
"I don't know that I believe everyone needs a story,"
Richler said, "but the evidence is certainly that we all cling
to them and, more so every day, that we present our lives as narratives,
whether in a book or on YouTube. A story makes sense of our place
in the world by the ties and directions it provides. 'Stories,'
as the poet Robert Bringhurst said, 'are the first maps.'"
Bringhurst contributes much to the first part of This is My Country,
which examines the role and nature of First Nations' oral traditions;
how myths differ in subject matter and purpose from novels. For
example, explains Bringhurst, protagonists in myths are not heroes,
they're just elements that get used up: myths are "constantly
showing up the weaknesses of humans and the dependency of humans
on the larger tissue of things," he says.
As well, writes Richler, the "Myth World ... is a morality
play with the health of the community, not the individual, at its
heart."
One of the book's more contentious hypotheses is that the novel
has conquered myth, in a manner of speaking, and is currently engaged
in a struggle with the epic.
"We can see a battle of stories being played out in the current
strife in the Middle East," writes Richler in This is My
Country, "where the narrative culture of the novel is embroiled
with that of the epic. It is a conflict that has been reiterated
at home and is being used to challenge the Canadian multiculturalist
ethic. The reigning forms of story of the Islamist cultures with
which the novel-reading countries of the West must contend are votive
religious texts advocating tales of unadulterated heroism (martyrs)
and outright villainy (the United States of America as the 'Mother
of All Evil,' the 'Great Satan,' etc.)."
In the epic world view, society is of the utmost importance and
"the individual does not register," according to Richler.
"It is not necessary, [it is] even counterproductive, to ask
– as the novelist dies – 'Why?' "
He continues: "Concerning terrorism, the debate about 'root
causes' is essentially one between the novel's liberal democratic
view (if we are fundamentally alike, then what is it that made you
the way you are?) and an epic view that allows for the existence
of an enemy, pure and simple. The rhetoric and storytelling that
President George Bush Jr.'s government has used, as well as ...
now the Canadian government that supports him, is an instance of
epic thinking being rallied against epic thinking."
Perhaps due to the recent publication of his book, Richler told
the Independent that he has not yet had to face much argument
about such contensions – but he'd be happy to do so.
"I believe that our ability to participate in discussion is
vital in the West and that our tradition of libraries and
not an epic interpretation of one single book is what underpins
the polyphony and democracy of nations in the narrative age of the
novel," he said. "But I am always looking for the fault
in such ideas. At the moment, with great interest, I am reading
Jonathan Littell's novel Les Bienveillantes (he is an American
living in France), a story told from the point of view of an SS
officer, to see if it contravenes my theory that the novel's political
precepts preclude it being able to address those we consider 'monsters'
because they are wholly evil and, therefore, outside the basically
empathetic reach of the novel."
What does all this have to do with Canada?
"It was my good fortune to have been born a Canadian,"
explained Richler, "and I have always felt – and this
is another of the points of the book – that those who have
enjoyed such chance (as Douglas Coupland puts it, being Canadian
in the 21st century is winning the lottery – what else is better?
nothing) have an obligation to make the best of it. Certainly that
was one of the motivations for me writing this book, and I would
go so far as to say that the approximately 100 writers and storytellers
I spoke to gave of their time and texts, in some cases, because
they believe it, too. But the book is not just about Canadian-ness,
though obviously that is our condition and important to the audience
I am addressing, it is about the way stories evolve and what purposes
myths serve in this, but also other societies.
"I also wanted to show," he continued, "how the essential
question that Canadians ask – 'What does it mean to be Canadian?'
– is actually a very sophisticated one. I believe that when
Canadians ask as much, they are really inquiring what it means to
be a responsible citizen in Canada – and by extension, of any
country in the world. That kind of habitual self-interrogation is
remarkable."
During his cross-country quest, Richler did not find a singular
definition of what makes a story "Canadian," nor did he
discover one "national myth" that unites us all, but he
certainly did succeed in compiling a fascinating book, complete
with wonderfully playful drawings by author Michael Winter.
"I thought about doing the illustrations myself," Richler
told the Independent, "but I am not stupid and I realized it
was a drawing that Michael had given me once when we had dinner
together in Newfoundland (it was an illustrated menu) that I had
in mind and so I asked him to do them."
It is with such quiet humor and humility that Richler takes readers
on a provocative journey across Canada – in time and space.
He obviously admires the writers he interviews and appreciates their
visions of Canada. There's so much more to being Canadian than being
"not American," starting with the fact that we can discuss
the nature of our nationhood without feeling threatened by the uncertainty.
It is definitely a discussion worth having. In This is My Country,
Richler presents various ideas as to what his country is, what's
yours?
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