Carol Shields has died of cancer.
I never really thought about what Canadian culture is – it’s so much easier to define it as what it isn’t – until I went to University. Even then, it took my endeavor to take a couple classes on Canadian books, music, film, etc. to make me really think of it as valuable and important.
Now I try to pay closer attention to where my culture is coming from, and make an effort to absorb Canadian things. It’s very different, and in our very americanized culture, sometimes hard to absorb – but I think the act of making the effort to do it, is more important than what I may or may not get out of it.
What do you think about the Canadian Culture Industry?
you guys are so deep.. too DEEP For ante meridiem!@#! but yes imo the mere fact that we are encouraged to learn so much not only about our own culture (1) but the ways and working of other cultures makes me uniquely proud to be canadian and ‘that’ is what makes us special in our own little mixing melting pot kind of way.
(1) *cough cough* unlike our counter parts to the south *cough cough*
An important part of our Canadian identity is the immigrant experience. Ms. Shields is obviously an exception to this rule, but many of our best artists are first-generation Canadian. I’m thinking here of people like Michael Ondaatje, Atom Egoyan, and Rohinton Mistry. I suspect this is because they have a rich heritage to draw on, and a ‘new world’ to contrast it with.
As a young writer and a, what, fifth-generation Canadian, I was always envious of the colourful background these new Canadians had to draw on. I really came to admire Douglas Coupland because he found the same sort of meaning in what I thought were the mundanities of my suburban upbringing. DB.