Cape Split

Ever since I moved to this area I've heard about the challenging hike to Cape Split, half a day's trek over rough terrain, uphill, and kind of wild! But, oh, when you come out of the woods into a meadow at the top and see the vast Bay of Fundy stretching before you and you gaze down from atop the cliffs, it will all be worth it as you relax with your lunch and listen to the gulls cry, and watch the changing tides! But, I've been told, don't go after a rainy period or the bugs will eat you alive, or alternatively, you'll be slogging through oozy black bogs. And don't go on a cold day or a foggy one because you won't see anything out there and you'll be disappointed.

Well, after several attempts to line up a group to go on "just the right day," I found it yesterday: the perfect day, not a cloud in the sky and not too hot, and the perfect group of three amenable companions. We were off bright and early and had the most wonderful day, arriving back home in late afternoon, tired but strangely energized. Perhaps it was climbing over the fallen trees, perhaps it was managing the boggy spots without disaster; perhaps it was simply getting there and back without twisting ankles on the tree roots covering the trail; or perhaps it was experiencing the awesome natural beauty of a stunning area of Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley: the day and the hike were a truly memorable experience.

Revolutionary Road

The novel I just finished for my book discussion group has the intriguing title Revolutionary Road. The book by Richard Yates was published in 1961, but has only recently been made into a major motion picture starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet. It will be interesting to see how the movie interprets the book, as I think there are many angles and perspectives that can be taken. First, the title: what revolution? is this about some historic era? some grand challenge? some major events? On the contrary, "Revolutionary Road" is a rather "high-falutin'" name for a housing development in Connecticut being settled in the mid-1950's. The two main characters are April and Frank Wheeler and we are drawn into a few months of their lives - their thoughts, their fights, their affairs, their plans, their friends and neighbours, their community and work, their dreams. It's like watching a reality show, and it's not a very pretty picture.

My quick reaction to the characters: I don't like these two people! April and Frank have it all: freedom, two beautiful children and another on the way; health; the capacity to make the world a better place, to establish a loving home; to help build up a community; energy; intelligence. I think, from the point of view of the serious hard-working young parents of today, these two would be considered selfish, self-centered, and self-absorbed; their children should be their first priority, but their attitude towards them borders on indifference and neglect.

Reaction to this book could be different depending on one's point of view. I have been amusing myself thinking about how April and Frank might be viewed by society today.
Sociologists could consider the demographics: the generation in the book is a bit older than the baby boomers, and even the post war generation; they are pre "hippies" and the sexual revolution, yet there are some of those elements 'blowin' in the wind." The move from the cities to suburbia would, of course, be a major theme for study: were (are?) the suburbs the intellectual wasteland depicted in the novel?

Historians could look at the changes that have happened since then in technology and business particularly. Here, we see the beginnings of electronic gadgetry, and also the beginnings of advertising, public relations, marketing and so on.

From the point of view of business people today, Frank's attitude would seem completely foreign and unacceptable: three martini lunches for a junior employee? lazing on the job for months on end? what about the sexism in the office? professionalism? accountability?

Feminists, of course, might take the perspective that April should have been able to have an abortion as she wished; it was her body and Frank had no right to have a say in the matter. April would still be alive had there been safe therapeutic abortions.

Psychologists and mental health people could have a ball with this book. Sympathetic therapists might explore the reasons for April's emotional vulnerability and Frank's insecurity about work in their relationships with their fathers. Mental health professionalls would find much to comment on about the way the mentally ill were treated in those days and would be horrified by the attitude of Mrs Givings (ironic name?) to her son John, as well as to the treatments he was being given institutionally, among them electric shock therapy.

Now, there is much that is excellent about the book: Yates is absolutely superb at accurately depicting his characters; they come alive, they are real. Also I had a sense of deja vu as far as the details of that era were portrayed: little things, like remember how much people smoked?? how it felt to drive in those big old cars? It will be an interesting discussion when our book group meets next week!

Cryptoquotes

My daily newspaper (which is more or less regular and on time every morning, unlike my poor blog which is so hit and miss)has a cryptoquote to work out each day. They are often little gems that cause me to nod in agreement, smile at a whimsical one, or wryly recognize a truth in an ironic observation. This cryptoquote by Eric Hoffer made me think: "When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other." Oh, yes, most of us are conformists, aren't we? The other day the cryptoquote was from the ancient Greek sage Seneca: "Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness." Really, there is nothing new under the sun about how we should live our lives, is there?

Machinal

Last night my theatre group went to an interesting play. Machinal was performed by the theatre studies students at Acadia University in the nearby town of Wolfville. We agreed that it was a very gutsy performance from a group of young people. The understanding and maturity they brought to the play was nothing short of amazing and speaks well of the director and the English department at Acadia.

In a nutshell, Machinal by Sophie Treadwell is a play about a young woman who murders her husband and is sentenced to death in the electric chair. It is set in the late 1920's or early 1930's. Apparently, although a work of fiction, it was inspired by the real life events surrounding Ruth Snyder who was tried for murder and executed in this manner in the United States in 1928. Snyder had a lover who helped her commit the crime in order to get insurance money. In Machinal, that's not the motivation. What then is it? Why does she kill her husband? Is she being abused and beaten like Farrrah Fawcett in the movie The Burning Bed? No, not in the slightest. Her husband, while not the most physically attractive man, is the owner of a successful company where she was once employed. Although he is not terribly "empathetic" ( a term bandied about loosely these days), he is not mean or vindictive or a bully. The young woman in the play finds a lover, and in a rather ironic twist, kills her sleeping husband with the vase holding pebbles that was a memento from her lover. Well, we might wonder, why didn't she just get a divorce? why such a drastic 'solution'? Is she emotionally unbalanced? is she a product of her age/the times? did she have a cold domineering mother? or is she selfish neurotic and cold-hearted? These are some of the avenues explored in the play and my group seemed to be quite sympathetic to the young woman. I don't think anyone felt she deserved "the chair"; however, the play left us with a feeling of ambivalence and a strange sense of disquiet.

Ten Reasons for Joining a Book Club

Recently, my book discussion group, a.k.a. "the Litwits," came up with the ten best reasons for joining our group. This is what we came up with:

Ten BEST reasons for joining LITWITS

10. You will make new friends

9. You will enjoy the exchange of ideas

8. You can keep up to date on new books

7. You will appreciate the scintillating conversation

6. You will be helping preserve a threatened art – reading

5. You will be helping to keep the Annapolis Valley library system in operation

4. You will be supporting “buy local”- Box of Delights and Coles book stores

3. You will have a reason to get off your duff and go out in winter

2. You will get to sample Helen’s sandwiches

And…… the NUMBER 1 Reason to join Litwits……………

1. You will generate future donations for our Book Sale!

If Winter Come, Then Enjoy

I'm reminded of the saying "if winter come, can spring be far behind?" This old adage may be understood metaphorically, but it rather implies that "winter" is a season to be endured, to be wished away as quickly as possible.

Thousands of people in Canada can't stand winter and leave for the warmer south. There is something to be said for those sentiments and solutions when plans for the day are disrupted by a storm, the wind is swirling the snow into drifts, the streets are too icy for walking, or everything has turned into a slushy mess.

But surely winter must have its good side and it does indeed. Sometimes I even like it better than summer. Right now I'm looking out at a tree glistening in the sunlight, the sky is blue with a few wispy clouds, and the air is still. There's beauty around, it's a good day for a walk or a ski or a drive. What else do I enjoy about winter? It's a fine time for trying new recipes;warming up by a woodstove or fireplace; sipping a cup of hot chocolate; knitting or sewing or painting. Why, it's even a good time for blog entries!

The Miramichi as Setting in Richards' Novels

David Adams Richards sets his books in an area of northeastern New Brunswick known as "the Miramichi." I grew up in this area, so many of the place names and locales are familiar. However, the Miramichi is a widespread area: it includes the Bay itself and the Miramichi River, the source of which is a couple of hundred miles in the interior. It includes dozens of communities, forests, mines, and agricultural land. It includes fishing villages and two large towns, Newcastle and Chatham, recently amalgamated to be the City of Miramichi.

As I read Richards' novels, I don't look for geographic exactness. I find a vagueness to the setting - there is familiarity and yet the details are not always correct. It is like a remembered landscape with some elements clearer than others, distances sometimes compacted or expanded, a running together of time and place.

In The Lost Highway there is mention of a "giant ferris wheel" seen in the distance across the river. This could only be the ferris wheel at "the Ex," the Miramichi Agricultural Exhibition held in Chatham every August. Yet, although one of the characters in the novel is readying his vegetables to take to "the Ex" (a possibility), I don't think that other details of the locale of the story (a stretch of highway between Bartibog and Burnt Church) support a visual sighting of Chatham which would be twenty to thirty kilometres upriver.

Similarly, Richards uses detail in a rather off-hand way: an arrested man is taken to the Richabucto jail (correctly spelled "Richibucto" although definitely pronounced "Rich-a-bucto" by the locals), but later in the story he is now at Renous (the federal penitentiary). In another instance, a priest has to go to "Millerton" to conduct a service, and, while indeed, there is a community called "Millerton" on the Miramich, it is highly unlikely that a priest from Bartibog would be travelling that far to conduct a service.

I love though how David Adams Richards throws in New Brunswick references that, for me, are highly connotative. In The Lost Highway, Amy, a high school girl, "would not get the Beaverbrook scholarship." There is no explanation to whom 'Beaverbrook' refers, but the "in the know" reader immediately recognizes Lord Beaverbrook, Max Aitken, who grew up in Newcastle and whose statue graces the town square and whose name is proudly displayed at the Lord Beaverbrook Arena. It is little touches like this that make Richards' novels come alive for me.

Richards' use of "the Miramichi" as setting has been called symbolic and mythical and I have to ask myself: what does that mean? what does it stand for? The natural setting itself looms large, often a bleak and hostile environment with winter storms, craggy rocks, dense forests, and perilous waters from which a living must be garnered by the hardy souls who live in the region. And yet "the Miramichi" is embracing and compassionate; it holds its humanity (both the noble and the base, the greedy and the generous) in its bleakness and in its beauty. In Richards' works you get such images as "the great desolate bay," but also the quiet beauty of "as night fell, and the cry of the gulls faded and the shore birds slept, their wings turned inward like miniature pterodactyles on the waves."