The Invisible Counterpoint

I know I'm taking liberties, but if you don't mind, Emma:

Atwood lives downtown Toronto -- I don't even think you can see "geography" from downtown Toronto. And I'm not sure where exactly her loyalties lie: in "Surfacing" -- her supposed most nationalist and anti-American work -- other than the main protagonist (a literate, isolated Atwood-type), the Cdns in it come out seeming worse (or at least more pathetic) than the boarish Americans do. And I remember in her earlier work, at least, rural-types seemed oppressive morons. And if you don't like primitive rural-types, shaped by whatever river or mountain or prairie that happens to be nearby, I didn't think you were allowed to be Cdn. (Emma Peel hardly seems blue-grass. You sure you weren't shaped more by British wit than by prairie gophers?)

Also, all you people readily favoring literate Cdns, check out book-writing Rick Mercer's show-biz history: had a show where all he was conce...

RE: “The claim that Japanese-Canadian fishermen posed a security threat provided a perfect cover for their elimination from the fishery, a long-time objective of their enemies in the industry and elected office. Yet as early as 1944, Canadian authorities acknowledged there had never been a single instance or even allegation of treachery by Japanese Canadians before or after Pearl Harbour” (Geoff Meggs, “The Resilient Japanese Canadian,” The Tyee, May 20, 2009) The assumption in this article is that revealing that the Japanese in Canada posed no threat does some kind of good. It may not, you know. For when people in psychological panic are in the mood to set some poor lot of people up for mistreatment, sacrifice, these people are probably doomed. Why? Because the discriminators are going crazy, experiencing an overwhelming need to project all their unwanted characteristics onto someone else, so that they themselves can feel absent of internal conflict, all nice and pure (think how u...