/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.9302972]

Why is Canadian literature so shit?
A bestiality smut novel routinely appears in Canadian top 25 lists.
Margret Atwood's books are considered the best of what Canada has to offer.

I have only ever enjoyed one book written by a Canadian author, and it was a book on hockey.

[Anonymous No.9303008]

It's only by a lack of ghosts that Canada is haunted.

[Anonymous No.9303015]

>>9303008
spooky

[Anonymous No.9303019]

i liked life of pi

[Anonymous No.9303041]

>>9302972

because it is mostly a harmless, utterly middle class country

[Anonymous No.9303081]

>>9302972
It's not even a real country, it's like asking why the offerings of French Guiana are so poor.

[Anonymous No.9303090]

Stop complaining when you don't know shit.

Now, if you want to take a serious approach towards Can lit you might give this book a try, or pick up some stories by Alice Munro.

[Anonymous No.9303098]

Yeah. This is a good thing though for us hosers though, right? I could be the next great national writer or poet. Or first great national writer or poet.

[Anonymous No.9303099]

>>9303081
Canada is 100% autonomous.

[Anonymous No.9303102]

>>9303099
>100%
No need for hyperbole.

[Anonymous No.9303103]

>>9303099
It's a puppet regime, like all members of the Greater NATO Co Prosperity Sphere

[Anonymous No.9303111]

>>9303098
only if you're non-white or a womxn

[Anonymous No.9303113]

>>9303099
>puppet regine

[Anonymous No.9303117]

>>9303103
>puppet regime

[Anonymous No.9303121]

>>9303111
check'd. Yea, what should my pen-name be? I'm thinking "Usman Ali". I am a Pakistani immigrant and am also trans.

[Anonymous No.9303299]

>>9302972
because Canada is shit
canada is fucking gay

[Anonymous No.9303404]

>>9303081

Tue votre self

[Anonymous No.9303407]

>>9302972
I had to read "The Wars" by Timothy Findley and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Rapewood in highschool. They were shitty even when compared to something as basic as To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Anonymous No.9303410]

Whatever, still the best country in the world.

[Anonymous No.9303411]

>>9302972
>A bestiality smut novel routinely appears in Canadian top 25 lists.

That is actually really upsetting, as a Canadian. Bestiality is fucking disgusting, and women don't seem to ever be called out on it.

[Anonymous No.9303483]

>le hate Canada meme
lets not forget that despite being the global superpower there are only like 5 actually good American novelists

[Anonymous No.9303489]

>>9303483
6 actually
the ONLY good American authors are Melville, Faulkner, Pynchon, Vonnegut, Hawthorne, and Mark Rippetoe

[Anonymous No.9303495]

why is literally all of 4chan jealous of Canada?

[Anonymous No.9303497]

>>9303411
>The Canadians even gave the author an award
>>9303483

5 is still more than 0

[Anonymous No.9303500]

>>9303497
I'm sorry that Canadian literature is too cerebral for you

[Anonymous No.9303508]

>>9303497
Bear is unironically fantastic
also pic related

the only thing wrong with Canadian literature is that its largely locally known and most Canadians are consumer twats who only guzzle down whatever the yanks push out.

[Anonymous No.9303518]

>>9303299
t. quebec

[Anonymous No.9303519]

another good one
Americans and their cronies just don;t understand the Canadian survival spirit

[Anonymous No.9303529]

>>9302972
I see your Canadian lit and raise you New Zealand lit. We do have one writer who's internationally noted, but the rest of the world sees her as a British writer (Katherine Mansfield).

[Anonymous No.9303589]

>>9302972
Would you happen to be the autismo Yank from /brit/ the other night that's still pissed off at that leaf

[Anonymous No.9303592]

>>9302972
God I love when the internet gives me new reasons to hate Canada.

[Anonymous No.9303611]

Honestly you have to be Native or fellating Native culture to get any kind of prizes or awards or recognition for writing in Canada. Ah well, at least we have land and running water.

[Anonymous No.9303677]

>>9303529
John Mulgan.

>>9302972
The Blind Assassin by Atwood is actually quite good.

[Anonymous No.9303985]

>>9303497
The sex scene in this was much weaker and uninteresting than expected

[Anonymous No.9304038]

>>9302972
I'm Canadian, and I self-published a few books. One of them are for free today and tomorrow, check it out if you like. It's a book about zombie survival however with intense focus on realism and survivalism so if that's not your then I guess it's just another shitty Canadian novel.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M7S2Z0R

[Anonymous No.9304102]

>brother in law marrying canuck
>bring anti-leaf meme into rl
>discussion on canadian film and literature begins at christmas table
>everyone looks at you weird when you mention the day of the rake and the emptiness of canadian cultural life
>realize your long-term family relationships have been adversely affected

[Anonymous No.9304333]

>>9303611
False

There are grants for non Natives as well

[Anonymous No.9304364]

>>9304333
t. Francophone

kys

[Anonymous No.9304869]

Honestly, you never hear about Canadian anything, the only thing leafs have is basically some B-list actors that they borrowed to Americans.
What the fuck is Canada even? Is it there only to make me mad?

[Anonymous No.9304872]

>>9304102
Have you tried curing your autism?

[Anonymous No.9304882]

>>9302972
Have you faggots seriously not read mavis gallant?

[Anonymous No.9304889]

>>9303495
Yo seriously. I notice this on all boards. I think it's because 4chan is so American and America fucking sucks. Can't even go to a movie without getting shot. So they see there closest neighbor and just make fun of them to deflect from their own shitty country. They could choose Mexico but fuck everyone makes fun of Mexico haha

[Anonymous No.9304922]

not that any of you will have read/bother/deign to read these, but

Margaret Laurence - The Diviners
Alice Munro - Lives of Girls and Women
Leonard Cohen - Beautiful Losers
Timothy Findley - The Wars
Anne Carson - Autobiography of Red

[Anonymous No.9304931]

>>9304922
>Canadians need to scrape the barrel so furiously that they're scooping up random Facebook-tier pop-stars

[Anonymous No.9304995]

>>9304931
>hasn't read any of them
this board in a nutshell I guess

[Anonymous No.9305023]

>>9304995
My man, let me tell you something. This is what's currently on my "to read" list:
>Schopenhauer
>Heidegger
>Goytisolo
>Sartre
How much of a pseud would I have to be to put all those off for later and instead read the ramblings of some guy who literally became famous for punching metal strings?

[Anonymous No.9305044]

>>9305023
>to read
>hasn't read
>facebook-tier entry level philosophy

you can put literally anything on your "to read" list and that's what you go with? ok

[Anonymous No.9305049]

>>9305023
Reading those guys you posted makes you more of a pseud than reading those Canadians. I would respect someone more as a reader for having read those Canadians.

[Anonymous No.9305057]

>>9302972
Stephen Leacock, Mordecai Richler, Michael Ondaatje, Alistair MacLeod, Alice Munro, Yann Martel, Margaret Laurence, Lucy Maude Montgomery, Farley Mowat, Pierre Berton and MARGARET FUCKING ATWOOD! All have individually produced greater work than over half the countries on this planet. Taking into account the length of existence of a country, and the population of a country over time, you'll find that Canadian literary output is ahead of, or on par with the greatest literary nations of this planet. Perhaps the only country that outperforms Canada in this regard is Ireland.

[Anonymous No.9305059]

>>9305049
You would, wouldn't you? It would give you so much hipster cred, right? Go eat your own shit kek
>>9305044
And you read all works by those authors?

[Anonymous No.9305061]

>>9305057
True dat. Niggas we barely 100 years old hahaha and we are spread out thin as fuck on this giant land mass.

[Anonymous No.9305069]

>>9305059

yes, all of them

[Anonymous No.9305078]

>>9305069
Congratulations, I haven't so I don't have time to be reading irrelevant and creatively bankrupt fucking leafs

[Anonymous No.9305085]

>>9305059
I, for one, have read 3/4, and doing that I can tell you that there are many Canadian works more worth reading that anything by Goytisolo or Heidigger.

[Anonymous No.9305093]

>>9305078

then stop shitposting and go read some basic goddamn books before you come on a literature board to discuss literature lol

[Anonymous No.9305100]

>>9305093
It's my shitposting break, fuck off nerd

[Anonymous No.9305135]

>>9305023
You already are a pseud.

[Anonymous No.9305290]

>>9304102
>american
>complaining about the emptiness of other cultures

[Anonymous No.9305310]

>>9304102
Americans shills the >le leaf meme the most because they know they are utterly soulless themselves and attack Canadians for trying to rise above

[Anonymous No.9305311]

Quebec has a rich as fuck literature. Obviously Canadians will deny this. The truth is Canada has no culture, or bare remains of a lost culture. It's diet USA with more social policies.

Will rec Quebec /lit/ if anyone wants.

[Anonymous No.9305320]

>>9304869
Why are you mad?

[Anonymous No.9305324]

>>9304882
Most people here are Americans who don't read period.

[Anonymous No.9305341]

>>9305311
I'm francophone who has lived in Ontario for years and honestly Quebec is the exact same as the rest of the country just with more qt villages and Catholics

[Anonymous No.9305352]

>>9305311
Fuck off you stupid frog. I visited montreal and it was fucking ghetto run down garbage. Wtf is up with the infrastructure there. It's like time stopped in the late 70s or something. I thought the highway was going to crumble down on me. Habit 67 cool as fuck though.

[Anonymous No.9305397]

>>9305057

I would add Robertson Davies to that list.

[Anonymous No.9305399]

>>9305341
>Language is literally different
>Same as the rest of the country
Ok

>>9305352
Montreal is a dying city and nowhere near a good representation of Quebec as a whole.
>Fucking frog
Ok grandpa

[Anonymous No.9305417]

The article in the walrus posted last week covered this. It's because not enough people in general read and there's not enough people in Canada willing to read enough Canadian lit to establish a canon. There are simply too many books to read and as a Canadian myself I'm not interested in wasting that time on Canadian books.

[Anonymous No.9305438]

>>9305417
Thats not true at all, there are plenty of people here and Canadian books are generally no less valuable than other books, the fact that you do ascribe some sort of point system to literature is incredibly silly.
I've found plenty of time to read the classics alongside Canadian books

It's this attitude more than anything, not immigrants or "communists" that hurts Canada and turns people into these shiftless soulless consumer blobs

[Anonymous No.9305446]

>>9305399
The language honestly doesn't make a massive difference, I get along with people here fine and we all care about the same things, Quebec is equally as Americanized with the same sort of survival complex

[Anonymous No.9305481]

>>9305446
You could say this about pretty much anyone anywhere, but that says nothing about culture.

I get along well with the Spanish and care about the same things. To deny our differences would be silly though.

[Anonymous No.9305498]

>>9305438

Hear! Hear!

[Anonymous No.9306782]

>>9304922
>>9305057
seconding. mordecai richler's apprenticeship of duddy kravitz is one of my favourite books of all time.

[Anonymous No.9306796]

Don't forget that Norm MacDonald, the greatest comedian of all time, is a Canadian. He just wrote a book. He's a huge fan of Tolstoy and Munro--two of the GOATS. Also famous for roasting Brett Easton Ellis on twitter. I think he recently has been feuding with Joyce Carole Oates and Atwood? Genius, nonetheless.

[Anonymous No.9306846]

>>9305438

It's not just the classics that are better though, Canadian literature in general is deficient.

As others have pointed out, Canadian culture is too stolidly bourgeois to produce much worthwhile writing. There's also the poisonous effect of government subsidies for writers, which leads to too many preachy books about immigrants and natives.

Seriously, fuck Canada. When I get the chance I'm moving to the States.

[Anonymous No.9306881]

>>9304102
I feel really bad for you. You actually fell for ironic internet memes and dragged them into your daily "life". Remember, you're on par with people who use rage comic memes and anime references in real life.

[Anonymous No.9306893]

>>9302972
Kerouac was Canadian. Or do they look at Quebecans as different species?

[Anonymous No.9307004]

b-b-but muh Robertson Davies

The Deptford Trilogy is really good though.

[Anonymous No.9307848]

> implying

[Anonymous No.9307998]

>>9303090
Alice Munro is some of my favourite short stories. >>9304922
The Diviners is my all time favourite.

[Anonymous No.9308135]

>>9306893

He emigrated to the US when he was a toddler IIRC

I'm from the West Coast, so Quebec might as well be a different country to me.

[Anonymous No.9308142]

>>9308135
>Jack Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, to French Canadian parents, Léo-Alcide Kéroack and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque.

[Anonymous No.9308590]

>>9308135
>>9308142
Huh, so I guess that's who that guy named his dog after in the movie Down and Out in Beverley Hills. Very interesting flick from the 80s with a truly amazing theme song. Once in a Lifetime, by Talking Heads if memory serves. Oddly enough, the lead singer in Talking Heads has some Canadian connections as well if I recall correctly. In spite of our low population (typically half that of the UK and a tenth that of the US), a fair bit of talent comes from the Great White North.

By the by, my book Living amongst the Dead is still free all day today (March 29th) so go ahead and nab it if you like!

>>9304038

Pic-related is the sequel, but it's not for sale right now. In a month's time I'll be trying out that Kindle Countdown thing for the first time so though it's $2.99 right now it'll be going down to $0.50 or $0.99 depending on how low they'll let me go.

>>9307848
Farley Mowat is pretty badass. Also that book Death on the Ice which is about the disaster of the SS Newfoundland which happened in Spring 1913 or something like that. Recently another book has been published about it on the 100 year anniversary, Left to Die which I actually read last year. Great read. Death on the Ice was written in the 60s if I'm not mistaken, and though I haven't read it yet, it's basically a standard for Newfoundland literature. There's also "The First 500" which details Newfoundland's involvement in WWI and even has pictures of a HUGE amount of the Newfs who fought, as well as detailing when all the soldiers joined, along with when and where many of them got wounded and/or killed. Beaumont Hamel was brutal for Newfoundland on July 1st, 1916. Over 800 troops, but only about 70 or so made role-call the next day. That's why even though July 1st is Canada Day, it's been a Memorial Day in Newfoundland for far longer; we didn't join Canada until 1949. For a little island like Newfoundland that even today only has about 500,000 people (obviously FAR less 100 years ago), 700 deaths in a single day is a huge loss.

[Anonymous No.9308647]

>>9303611
Even a cursory examination of Canadian prizes awarded or even examples in this very thread would debunk your claim. Way to prove people right by being the lazy shit people say you are.

[Anonymous No.9308659]

>>9305057
>Michael Ondaatje
Fucking quality.

[Anonymous No.9308827]

>>9302972
>>I have only ever enjoyed one book written by a Canadian author, and it was a book on hockey.

[Anonymous No.9309147]

>>9306846
Wut. You are in a slim minority of people who are Canadian and want to move to the States. I'm assuming there are more issues then 'I don't like their lit'

>>9307004
>>9305397
Yeeaaaah, boi. I've only read Rebel Angels, but I fucking loved it. One of the characters is based on a professor I had in university. He met Davies when they were both younger lads in Oxford.

>>9306893
>>9308135
I don't count Kerouac as Canadian, because he came at such a young age. It was more that his family had touches of the Quebecois spirit, but he's an American through and through - not really of fan of him.

>>9308659
Not a fan.

>>9308827
Heck, Stephen Harper, the former Prime Minister wrote a book about hockey while he was in term.

---
I also want to recommend 'The Underpainter' as a great Canadian novel.

Also, Marie-Claire Blais' 'Mad Shadows' (La Belle Bete) as a great novella.

[Anonymous No.9309284]

>>9302972
Oh look, another kid who hasn't read any Canadian lit mouthing off. Gosh, how I've missed you. Come back when you've hit double-digits in Canadian books read before you presume to judge an entire country's literary output.

[Anonymous No.9309882]

>In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace - and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

[Anonymous No.9310093]

>>9305311
does Quebec have an equally as edgy separatist version of houellebecq

[Anonymous No.9310111]

>>9309284
>>9302972
You come at the leafs... you best not miss.

[Anonymous No.9310238]

>>9310093
>Independentism
>Edgy

[Anonymous No.9311495]

>>9303008
top-notch reference & underrated post

[Anonymous No.9311506]

>>9303495
>he thinks it's jealousy

[Anonymous No.9311529]

>>9308142
>French Canadian parents

He's Quebecan then.

[Anonymous No.9311579]

the best Canadian literature reflects Canadian identity, and that's precisely why it has no international appeal. because nobody outside of Canada even knows what the fuck that is, especially nowadays. in fact, most anglo Canadians don't, and I feel sorry for them.

Americans, please stop acting like you are entitled to all the world's culture. much of it will be of no value to you. appreciate the fact that there's more to read within your own borders than you can possibly sift through within a single lifetime. experience the genius that's within your grasp.

[Anonymous No.9311585]

>>9311529
Like John Cantius Garand, though I think the proper terminology is 'Quebecer'. Pronounced, basically, "Keh-Bek-er". It's "Keh-bek", not "Koo-eh-bek"

[Anonymous No.9311651]

I wish 4chan would stop making sweeping generalizations about nations and peoples. It's become so tedious.

[Anonymous No.9311657]

>>9309284
>all those literally whos

[Anonymous No.9311670]

>>9311657
Richler and Cohen are quite well known across the country

>b-but I don't personally know who they are

too bad kid

[Anonymous No.9311673]

>>9303489
Waidup waidup waidup
You put Vonnegut in but not Gaddis?

[Anonymous No.9311678]

>>9302972
READ MY BOOK

[Anonymous No.9311784]

>>9311585
It's Quebecer or Quebecois, I've heard natives use both. Quebecois is also used as the plural to 'Quebecer'; I have never heard 'Quebecers' and would probably think you're a yank if I heard it.

It is ke-bek, because it's spelled 'Québec'

[Anonymous No.9311799]

>>9311784
Pretty sure I heard Albertans say 'Quebecers' before, but yeah, forgot about the 'Quebecois' one. Guess I've spent too much time in Alberta.

[Anonymous No.9311810]

>>9311799
I live in Alberta and have never heard 'Quebecers'.

[Anonymous No.9311850]

>>9311657

you do realise not recognising famous authors reflects poorly on you yourself, right? I'd hope the average reader could recognise at least 5 by name

[Anonymous No.9311881]

>>9311810
Fort Mac? That's where I was, and there's people from all walks of life all around the world there so to be fair they might have been from somewhere else.

[Anonymous No.9311905]

Any québécois in here who can recommend some good French-Canadian lit? I'm finishing up Jacques Poulin's Volkswagen Blues and it's pretty chill. I read French, so it can be in either French/English or both.

[Anonymous No.9312314]

>>9306796

[Anonymous No.9312332]

>>9312314
savage

[Anonymous No.9312430]

>>9302972
Hugh Hood
Alistair McLeod

[Anonymous No.9312436]

>>9311784
English people normally use Quebecer/Quebecers, french use Quebecois. its interchangeable

[Anonymous No.9312535]

>>9311784
Québecois, singular and plural, usually refers to someone with French ancestors from the region dating to the New France era.

Quebecer/Quebecker refers to someone who lives or originates from Quebec, regardless of ethnic origin. The plural form is Quebecers/Quebeckers.

[Anonymous No.9312548]

>>9311850
I agree with your point, but those aren't particularity famous authors. I'm only familiar with 6, and only 3 are well known (I love Roy, but nobody knows her outside Quebec). This (>>9305057) is a better list.

[Anonymous No.9312621]

>>9303090
>Kim Thùy ching zhung che chundoan dao xian
>canadian

[Anonymous No.9312643]

>>9312535
I only hear Quebecois as plural. "The Quebecois people" is common enough in lectures. It is always referring to people living in Quebec regardless of ethnicity. My wife's family is from Versailles and she was conceived in Versailles, but she is considered Quebecois in Quebec and here in Alberta.


This sort of thing can vary regionally, you know.

[Anonymous No.9312660]

>>9312643
That might be the common parlance, but that would be incorrect. The terms, precisely used, are as I defined across Anglophone Canada.

[Anonymous No.9312704]

>>9312660
Words don't have meaning beyond their common relative usage, pre-defined relative usage, or contextual usage.

[Anonymous No.9312725]

>>9312704
You can call a tomato a vegetable, but it isn't a vegetable. You can call a Canadian an American, but he isn't an American.

[Anonymous No.9312735]

>>9302972
The problem with Canada is that once any sing;e person begins contributing to their culture (or entertainment) in any meaningful way they magically become Americans.

[Anonymous No.9312740]

>>9312725
>Canadians aren't American
>'vegetable' isn't just a convenient category

[Anonymous No.9312759]

>>9312740
> Canadians aren't American
>'vegetable' isn't just a convenient category
> Quebeckers aren't necessarily Quebecois

Good Job, you're starting to understand. Words have meaning, and ignorance doesn't change that meaning.

[Anonymous No.9312767]

>>9304889
Yeah, it's like that aggressive, completely fucked up dude with a personality disorder making fun of his well-adjusted brother for being "boring," whereas the only reason he thinks he's great is because everyone can't help but give attention to the gruesome train wreck.

[Anonymous No.9312771]

>>9312759
Canadians are American like Brazilians are American.
I did not say 'vegetable' does not have meaning

[Anonymous No.9312822]

>>9312771
I thought we just disagreed, but you can't seem to follow your own argument (Canadians aren't American/Canadians are American) let alone mine (I agreed with you that "vegetable" has meaning).

Let us consult the dictionary: (britannica.com/topic/Quebecers-or-Quebecois-1370721) In English, “Quebecers” refers to all residents of Quebec, regardless of their principal language or lineage, and “Québécois,” in general, refers to French-speaking inhabitants or natives of Quebec...For Québécois civic neonationalists and secessionists the term ‘‘Québécois’’ refers to all the citizens of the Quebec state, either in its present form as a substate within the Canadian federation or as citizens of an independent Quebec state sometime in the future. Moreover, a few bilingual Anglophone and Allophone residents of Quebec, especially those who support the independence of Quebec, speak of themselves as “Québécois.”

So, the only English usage is of the kid I speak of, or, for Quebecois, of the citizenry of a future sovereign nation. I'm not a prescriptivist, but it is clear to me that there is a difference between evolving meaning and improper meaning, and you usage fits firmly in the latter.

[Anonymous No.9312895]

>>9311529
>>9311585
>>9311784
>>9311799
>>9311810
>>9311881
Anglo way is Quebecer, Franco way is Quebecois. Franco way is more correct, both can be heard anywhere. Lived in every single province in Canada for at least 2 years.

[Anonymous No.9313016]

>>9304102
Wait if your brother-in-law is marrying a Canuck doesn't that make your sister a Canuck? So you are too?

[Anonymous No.9313050]

>>9304889
Shut up Canada. We could annex you in five hours.

[Anonymous No.9313089]

>>9313050
Sure, right after you build that wall and Mexico pays for it.

[Anonymous No.9313103]

>>9313050

If America annexed us I would collaborate without a second's thought. I would get a sick uniform with epaulets and have the opportunity to settle a lot of personal scores and grievances.

[Anonymous No.9313113]

>>9313016
the poster's wife/husband's brother is marrying a Canadian

[Anonymous No.9313297]

>>9302972
Canada is literally too irrelevant and culture-less to produce anything interesting.

[Anonymous No.9313345]

>>9312822
>the only english usage is of the kid I speak of

[Anonymous No.9314150]

>>9312822
I said a word can have different meaning in different contexts. Vegetable can mean more than one thing in a context, Quebecois/Quebecer can mean something else in a different cultural context.

In my context, Quebecois is used as plural and does not solely refer to ethnic Quebecois.

[Anonymous No.9314195]

>>9309284
Updated pic of the NCL collection. I have tons of CanLit in other editions, of course, but I like this series' design.