A look at publications you may not know or may not have seen for a while…
Geist
Website: www.geist.com
Focus: “Something to do with Canada.”
About: Geist is a magazine of ideas and culture made in Canada with a strong literary focus and a sense of humor. The Geist tone is intelligent, plain-talking, inclusive and offbeat.
Praise and Awards: The Western Magazine Awards “Magazine of the Year”
A Geist Sampler:
Alberto Manguel on the complexities and clichés of Canada:
But slowly, to the image of the Mounties and the poster for dogsledding in Quebec, were added other, more unexpected and more profound aspects of our nation. Canada was becoming visible through its complexities, not merely through its clichés. Then it all stopped….
The recent financial crisis, so useful to justify every outrageous decision taken in the name of greed, is of course blamed…. But the truth is, the blame is ours. We have allowed our public transit systems to collapse and for rail lines to be ripped out. We have allowed the health system to become so degraded that, in Alberta, for instance, we find it normal to queue for hours outside public clinics in freezing weather to see whatever doctor happens to be present. We have allowed arts programs to be cut from our schools, and we accept that our children will be brought up in a system that considers painting and music superfluous activities. Maybe, immersed as I was in imaginary places, I believed in a country that never quite existed, at least not beneath the surface, and that now, when the arrogant cupidity of our economic system no longer bothers to hide its methods or intentions, even that surface has been blown away and Canada appears to be neither better nor worse than most other countries. Read the whole story>>
Stephen Henighan on the Phony War of Global Warming:
My grandfather continued to work at the clothing shop he owned in London until the day he went to work to find that German bombers had left a large hole in the ground where the shop had stood. The awareness of approaching disaster did not alter my grandparents’ behaviour. Only the next spring, when Germany invaded Norway, did the full import of their decision to enlarge their family become apparent.
Today we are once again in a Phony War. This time the antagonist is the damage we have done to our climate….
In a Phony War you can’t voice your deepest preoccupations, because they sound like hysteria. We all live with the (mostly unspoken) knowledge of the inevitability of our death as individuals. To live with the unspoken knowledge of the inevitable death of our civilization, perhaps within three decades, is far more paralyzing. Read the whole story>>
From “Death in the Family” by Ruth E. WalkerDog died Tuesday.
Buried him Saturday cuz Addie couldn’t come ’til then. Reef bitched that we always wait for Addie. But we couldn’t have Dog’s burying without music. We agreed on that.
It was the best funeral. Dog looked good, considering. Couldn’t hardly see where the bullet went in but Reef said pull up his head and look at the back and you’ll see. Read the whole story>>
From “How to Survive in the Woods” by Ursula Twiss
I can say a number of things. I can say, we just fell out of love. Whaddaya know? I can say: He talked about other women. I stopped cleaning the toilet. He stopped coming home. I put on weight. He quit smoking. I started smoking. He left counselling pamphlets on the kitchen table. I put his shoes outside every time it rained. He talked about what was wrong with me, started a “private creative journal.” I ate potato chips in bed, slept with all the lights on. Read the whole story>>
Source: Geist
