Has the world gone mad?
Lately, I’m starting to wonder if, indeed, the world has gone mad. Roman Polanski was finally arrested, after being on the run for my entire lifespan. I wrote a blog about it, over at Black Heart, entitled What the hell is “rape-rape”?, after reading a bizarro comment from Whoopi Goldberg. And, truly, is it just me or are the only people on Polanski’s side the Hollywood types who have likely committed similar “casting couch” versions of rape?
Casting couch rape is still rape.
Similarly, I found the reports that French-Canadian writer Nelly Arcan committed suicide last week to be shocking. I will admit that I am not as familiar with Arcan and her writing as I should be, due to being only semi-literate in French, but I had definitely heard of her work and had recently purchased a translated copy of her first book, Putain, in order to get to know her better. A few people had mentioned her to me as a kind of “French equivalent” to my V for Vixen column. I don’t think that is entirely a fair comparison, not only because she was by far a much more accomplished writer—a novelist who happened to write articles for ICI, rather than a columnist struggling to write her first book—but it’s certainly flattering to me. I feel very saddened by her death, as I never had a chance to meet her personally, nor really get to know her work before she was gone.
It also brings up the important point that despite years of attempts to bridge the gap, there are still very much “two solitudes” here in Quebec, when it comes to French-language versus English-language culture. (I don’t like to say “French” or “English” culture, as I am certainly not “English” in the sense of being from the UK, nor are Quebeckers “French” from France, and I’m sure both sides feel equally annoyed with the comparisons.) Neither side is much interested or invested in what the other is doing, despite attempts to bring them together. Neither side is much interested or invested in what the other is doing, despite attempts to bring them together. It’s one of my biggest problem with Quebec, and it’s a problem that is obviously not easily solved. Especially when you have an idiot like PM Stephen Harper telling the G20 that “Canada has no history of colonialism.” Hello? What history books have you been reading, Mr. Harper?
In short: has the world gone mad? Or is this just the usual order of things, which I only tune into occasionally, to find myself shocked and appalled?
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Categories: Life of an Artist, Literature, Montreal
Tags: Canada has no history of colonialism, casting couch, French vs English, G20, Nelly Arcan, Nelly Arcan commits suicide, Putain, rape, Roman Polanski, Stephen Harper, two solitudes, What the hell is "rape-rape"?, Whoopi Goldberg
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