{"id":12820,"date":"2019-06-28T03:30:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T07:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/?p=12820"},"modified":"2019-06-28T15:44:47","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T19:44:47","slug":"formative-canlit-books-that-shaped-our-views-on-being-canadian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/formative-canlit-books-that-shaped-our-views-on-being-canadian\/","title":{"rendered":"Formative CanLit: Books That Shaped Our Views on Being Canadian"},"content":{"rendered":"

What better way to spend Canada Day weekend than to catch up on your reading?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In honour of the occasion, three members of The Word on The Street\u2019s staff revealed what CanLit books shaped their perspectives on Turtle Island, and on what it means to be Canadian.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. <\/span>Days by Moonlight <\/span><\/i>– Andre Alexis<\/span><\/h1>\n

Days by Moonlight <\/span><\/i>was a recent read for me, but shaped my perspective with its tongue-in-cheek examination of the traditions and mannerisms that make Canada\u2019s places and people unique. <\/span>Days by Moonlight<\/span><\/i> is fiction; I\u2019m pretty sure that the town of Nobleton doesn\u2019t <\/span>actually <\/span><\/i>host an annual, ritualistic house-burning celebration, for example. Then again, who am I to say, as a prairie expat? That\u2019s exactly the point for me, though: the farce seems like it could be fact, and so the book forced me to think about what being Canadian actually means\u2014and what it <\/span>could<\/span><\/i> mean. (I also learned most of my Southern Ontarian geography from Alexis, for better or worse!) -Kirsten<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. <\/span>Pigeon <\/span><\/i>– Karen Solie\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

I\u2019ve been a city-dweller all my life, specifically a Torontonian, and so <\/span>Pigeon<\/span><\/i> really expanded my understanding of what the Canadian landscape looks like. Solie\u2019s poems evoke all kinds of subtle sensations that both remind me of what is familiar\u2014Toronto\u2019s sprawl and cacophony, the rats and racoons, the factories on the edges of the GTA\u2014and depict what feels so very far away from me, trout streams and house-sized tractors and motels in the great flat expanse. I am reminded by her work that Toronto is one very small bubble in one very vast land, and that my experience is only a tiny fraction of what \u2018the Canadian experience\u2019 is. It reminds me to broaden my horizons. -Sienna<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. <\/span>My Conversations with Canadians – <\/span><\/i>Lee Maracle<\/span><\/h1>\n

Lee Maracle’s <\/span>My Conversations with Canadians<\/span><\/i> invites you to sit down and listen, let go of Canadian cultural apathy, and engage curiously and respectfully with Turtle Islanders. It’s definitely critical, but generously kind, and gave me permission and space to question the Canadian identity and national myth that settler culture has fostered for hundreds of years, to get back to the truth of the matter. My identity is a European settler, of Dutch and German descent, and I have a responsibility to the people and lands of Turtle Island because I am a guest and we are all treaty people. -Maya<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s with celebration or contemplation, we all have our own ways of marking the occasion for Canada Day. Right now, there\u2019s a rich conversation going on about Canadian culture and identity; reading Canadian literature can help us to find our place in that conversation. We read to recognize the potential of Canada\u2019s individuals, and we read to understand the work that we still need to do in order to fulfill that potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

What other Canadian voices are vital to this conversation? Let us know in the comments or on social. Happy Canada Day!<\/span><\/p>\n

Want to keep up with the WOTS blog? Sign up for our newsletter here<\/a>!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What better way to spend Canada Day weekend than to catch up on your reading?\u00a0 In honour of the occasion, three members of The Word on The Street\u2019s staff revealed what CanLit books shaped their perspectives on Turtle Island, and on what it means to be Canadian.   1. Days by Moonlight – Andre Alexis […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":12822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,136],"tags":[384,161,385],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12820"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12820"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12824,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12820\/revisions\/12824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}