before I go...

[electricland]

I got Chester Brown's Riel biography out of the library this week, and just finished reading it today. It's excellent. By a strange coincidence (considering what else I've been doing today), in the endnotes pertaining to Riel's stay in a mental institution Brown mentions that he doesn't believe mental illness is organically based or, indeed, an illness at all; apparently he's explored this theme in more detail elsewhere. I've heard some discussion of this from other sources -- must look into it more thoroughly. If "mental illness doesn't exist" is all there is to the theory, I don't buy it, but I assume there are subtleties I'm not aware of. (On the same theme, there was a good article in the latest Walrus on a researcher who's using PET to look at brain changes in depression.)

(Slaps to Time for calling Riel "Quebecois", by the way -- I suppose they thought "Metis" would be too obscure, but did they have to follow the path of complete inaccuracy?)

Comments

[wanderingaengus.livejournal.com]

I loved the Riel biography, too. I meant to post something about it after I read it. I was struck by how Canadian it seemed. I wonder if my south-of-the-border perception seems reasonable to you.

What I meant by that, I think, was the way that the book avoided creating simple heroes or villains. The book was, in some way, simply an explanation of Riel's life. The US story would have been about one man fighting the state.


I know only a little about the "anti-psychiatry" movement. I don't know if there's anything to it beyond a logical fallacy: Many sane people have been called crazy. Therefore all people called crazy are really sane.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Riel is a very ambiguous figure in Canadian history: traitor, or Father of Confederation? Or both? I thought this bio gave him a sympathetic treatment that you don't always see (mind you, my knowledge in the area is limited).

Your point about its Canadian-ness is interesting. I hadn't really thought of it that way but of course a number of specifically Canadian factors were at play too -- the Northwest at that time was owned by Britain, Canada was a brand new country, there were strong movements for and against joining the US and, of course, language and race and religion weren't necessarily handled in the open and inclusive way we like to think we manage today. Hm.

[wanderingaengus.livejournal.com]

I think an analogous US figure would be John Brown. (Reminds me that I very much want to read Russel Banks' novel about Brown.) It's hard to know how to choose between "martyr" and "terrorist" in thinking about him. The lack of moralizing in Chester Brown seems important.

Chester Brown's art here is heavily influenced by Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie. And Annie is a thickly moralizing story.

There's a 'flatness' of tone that I associate with Canadian literature. (What have I read, anyway? Lots of Atwood, some Robertson Davies, a little Ondatjee ... not much else.) A kind of fatalism, almost. What do you think?

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Get thee to some Mordecai Richler, is what I think!

[moonlightjoy.livejournal.com]

Today was a Robin-on-my-friends-page day.. (and yay for pretty icons!)

I am curious about that mental illness book.. i'll see if they have it at the McGill library. I pretty much believe that brain functioning and mental illness very strongly affect each other, but I'm always open to what other people have to say.

Who said Riel was Quebecois? hmmph. Ya think he would've been as famous if he had lived in Quebec where French is much more accepted? Double hmph.

=D

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you find the book -- I'm curious too.

Time's reviewer said it, and Drawn and Quarterly put it on their blurb -- triple hmph. If he had been in Quebec, of course, he'd never have had to lead a rebellion...

[bryghtboy.livejournal.com]

Umm, not to put too fine a point on it... but weren't there just a couple of rebellions in Quebec for at least faintly similar reasons as Riel's rebellion?

Also I'm kind of curious, does the book mention anything much about the other native groups who were poking around Canada at the turn of last century? I know that Sitting Bull made his way up there but he was so far as I can understand it fairly peaceful until they starved him out of the country. So I was wondering a little if there were others who were about? Any idea?

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Given that I took a whole year of Canadian history about 17 years ago, there may very well be a few rebellions in there that I've overlooked. ;) I stand open to correction.

If so, though, they don't seem to have had a comparable figure at their heads.