The Republic of Nothing
Page 38
READER’S
Guide
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. The Republic of Nothing can be read on many different levels. It is part fairy tale, part adventure, part coming-of-age, part socio-political commentary, part commentary on the sixties and seventies. Which level affected you the most and why?
2. Despite the Utopian nature of Whalebone Island, inevitably the real world intrudes. In the end, Utopia seems to triumph over reality. If you had the choice, which world would you live in and why?
3. Politics, or the lack of politics, plays a strong role in the narrative of this story. In Everett McQuade’s life, anarchy gives way to party politics which gives way to anarchy again. Do you agree with Everett that people don’t need government in their lives and why?
4. The sea is a major theme in the book. It gives a lot to the Island but is also responsible for taking away many things as well. Make a list of what the sea gives and takes. Is it balanced or does it give more than it takes or vice versa?
5. The female characters are especially strong in this book. What are some of the contemporary feminist issues that are tackled?
6. There is a strong sense of mysticism in The Republic of Nothing. lan’s mother sees the future, reads tarot cards (and seemingly reads minds), and is a magical figure. What role does magic play?
7. Compare and contrast the natives of Whalebone Island with the “refugees” who join them. Which group affects the other more?
8. lan’s family goes through many changes and is strained to the breaking point. What do you take away from the book about the survival of families?
9. By the end of the book, Ian learns that he doesn’t have to move away from home in order to grow up. Do you agree or disagree?
10. The United States is portrayed as a place to get away from and a place of violence and intolerance. Is this portrait realistic? Would it be applicable to 21st-century America?
11. The Viking Ian finds in the bog ultimately plays an important role in the Island’s history. What does this symbolize?
12. As in all small towns and villages, eccentrics are embraced with open arms. Who are the most eccentric individuals on the Island and what role do they play?
13. Free-spiritedness prevails throughout the story. How does this philosophy affect the characters?
14. Death hits the characters time and again throughout the story but so does life. Which is strongest in your opinion?
15. How did Dorothy’s story affect the characters? How did it affect you?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in New Jersey, Lesley Choyce lives at Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, an all-season surfing paradise that he discovered thirty years ago. Canada’s most versatile man of letters, he is the author of more than 60 books in genres ranging from essays and history to fiction and poetry for adults, young adults, and children. He has been a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, has won the Ann Connor Brimer Award, has twice won the Dartmouth Book Award, and was named the Best Writer in Halifax five years in a row.
Lesley Choyce is also the founder of The Pottersfteld Portfolio and the founder and publisher of Pottersfield Press. In his “spare” time, he hosted Choyce Words and hosts and co-produces Off the Page with Lesley Choyce, a book show broadcast on BookTelevision and Vision TV; performs with the band, The Surf Poets; and teaches creative writing at Dalhousie University. His animal epic, The Skunk Whisperer (based on a true story), was broadcast across Canada. Choyce is a former Canadian national surfing champion and was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal for his writing and his surfing. Lesley still surfs year round in the North Atlantic and is considered the father of transcendental wood-splitting.
Choyce’s books express his deep passion for the sea, from his best-selling history, Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea to The Coasts of Canada to his celebrated novel, The Republic of Nothing.
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
1. This book has many layers. It’s a political satire, a coming-of age story, a fantasy. Which do you consider the most important element of the story?
The novel began as a coming-of-age story. It was pure fiction, but I soon fell in love with the island and the people and had a hard time returning to more mundane reality. So I guess that makes it a fantasy tale as well. Nonetheless, it all seemed so real to me that, for a while, I half believed I was Ian and I was living his life. Or maybe this is what I envisioned my life to be like had I been born on such an island on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.
I’ll let you in on the fact that, like Ian, I was born March 21, 1951. His life is radically different from mine, but I wanted him to have lived through the same time period during which I grew up. This helped me keep track of his age, his development, and the reallife events going on in the background.
The novel was intended to explore politics — the politics of daily life, local and provincial politics, and global political issues. I fought to keep them in the background so that it wasn’t a preachy political novel. Gwen kept trying to bring politics into the fore-ground, and Everett was there to show the great paradoxes that exist for people in power who have good intentions.
2. In this novel and several other of your books, you write about the sea. What is it about the sea that inspired you to turn it into a character?
The sea is my own ally and enemy almost on a daily basis. I live at Lawrencetown Beach on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. I surf on some of the finest waves on the planet — when the conditions are good. During those times, the sea is my best friend and conspires with me to create some extraordinary experiences. On the other hand, I’ve surfed some dangerous big waves in icy water during the winter here and nearly drowned a couple of times. The power of the surging water has held me under, and at such times, the sea is a deadly adversary.
Living close to the ocean, my home also gets slammed by massive storms generated off the coast here, and I endure some heavy weather — rain, snow, wind that can knock you down and rip the shingles from your roof. The sea is never a static character.
The sea, though, can be whimsical too. Things wash up on the shore here all the time. Part of my 200-year-old house is made from the wood of shipwrecks that was once scavenged from the beach. In more recent times, I’ve seen plenty of unusual things washed ashore. I once watched hundreds of lemons bobbing up and down in the waves. They fell off a ship, I guess, and looked quite comical. Yet on another occasion, I walked the shoreline picking up pieces of the cabin wall that had once been part of Swissair Flight 111, which had crashed at sea on the South Shore.
Still, on other occasions, a calm, serene sea at dawn or sunset has consoled me like a kind old friend during times of personal sadness and tragedy.
3. The Republic of Nothing is set during the philosophical and political upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. What interests you about this period of time and why did you chose it as the setting for this novel?
I graduated from high school in New Jersey in 1969 and went to university in North Carolina and later near New York City. These were heady turbulent times, and I was immersed in the protest movement against the Vietnam War. I marched in demonstrations in New York, Washington D.C., and even one right into the midst of 3,000 soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C. — a protest led by Jane Fonda. It was an amazing time full of idealism, adventure, recklessness, political activism, revolutionary notions (good and bad) of all sorts, and of experimentation with just about everything imaginable.
In some ways, I never lost the idealism of that time period. In the novel, I put Ian on the fringe of those events, but I realized that it would be impossible for him to fully isolate himself on his island from the impact of important international events and movements.
The Republic of Nothing is also a very ‘60s notion in that it is an alternative place — its own nation with its own quirky eccentric rules. Or, I should say, it has no rules, since it is intended to be a place of anarchy. Anarchy as a ruling principle can be good or bad, bu
t it can probably never be sustained. Whalebone Island is as close to Utopia as I can imagine. Sad to think that Utopias can’t be sustained.
4. How has the country of your birth, the United States, influenced your writing and your creation of the fictional world of The Republic of Nothing?
I have a true love/hate relationship with the U.S. I had to leave it behind in order to maintain my sanity. As an avowed pacifist who tries to live by his principles, how could I allow my taxes to be used for nuclear and biological weapons and to pay soldiers who were invading independent free nations? How could I allow my income to be used to wreak such harm and create so much pain? I had to leave, and Canada was very attractive to me — not perfect, but somewhat kinder, somewhat saner. I think I almost believed my home on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia was a kind of Republic of Nothing. This, for me, is an idealized place, but that’s because I invented my own version of Nova Scotia to keep me going.
Nonetheless, I grew up in New Jersey during the 1950s and 1960s and had so many positive influences from the U.S.: my parents, some teachers, some books, some powerful ideas. I truly believed I was capable of succeeding at anything and that I was free to live my life however I chose to live it. That’s partly why I moved to Nova Scotia and reinvented myself as a writer, surfer, teacher, publisher, musician, TV host, and father. My motto remains, “All things are possible,” despite the evidence to the contrary. I’m sure a big chunk of my optimism and creativity comes from having grown up in the States during the time I did. I’m thankful for that.
5. Individualism seems to win out over conformity to authority in this novel. Is this a product of the time in which the novel is set or the place where it is set? Does it still resonate today?
I think individualism must always win in the end. Almost all novels are about the power of the individual who must face adversity and who must be out of step with the times or with the view of the majority. Nova Scotia is a province inhabited by some of the most independent-thinking people I’ve ever met. Nova Scotians have taught me to be humble and self-sufficient.
All individuals are responsible for their actions. It is of utmost importance that individuals stand up against authority when it acts immorally, even if it is acting on the will of the masses.
Ian is struggling with his identity and, in some ways, is weak, but in the story, he knows he must act to save the island, and he uses what he has learned from his parents, from the island, from the sea, and from what is in his heart. Like me, perhaps, he knows that we all ultimately lose the things we are most: attached to in this life when we eventually die, but we must fight the good fight to preserve what we love.
BOOKS OF INTEREST SELECTED BY THE AUTHOR
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy.
This powerful American novel reminded me how much psycho-logical insight can be packed into a contemporary story about a family. It is richly emotional, eloquent, and taught me some good lessons about writing novels.
The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
This somewhat difficult and controversial novel reminds us all that fiction is about exploring lives in all their complexity and that a fictional story, even one about an historical figure, can provide new ways of contemplating the past and examining human nature.
The Politics of Experience by R. D. Laing
This mind-altering non-fiction book by the Scottish psychologist opens up an investigation into the infinite ways of viewing the world and suggests that there is no fixed dividing line between sanity and insanity and that, in an insane world, the sane person may be the outcast.
Any book by Farley Mowat
Here is an original, passionate writer who lives what he writes. His writing is evocative and eloquent, and his stories are captivating. He taught me that we change the world one story at a time.
Any book by Alden Nowlan
When I first came across Alden’s works after moving here, I was wildly excited. He is a truly unique and profound writer who is able to expose the crucial excitement and suffering that is the nature of being human.
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts
There are some rather Zen ideas in The Republic of Nothing and, in creating its alternative view of the world, I borrowed from everywhere, including books like this that enlightened me to non-Western ideas.
Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
Brautigan taught me when I was young that you could use language in unorthodox and exhilarating ways and that fiction need not be a fixed form.
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
This is a kind of ultimate coming-of-age story that awakens awe and a sense of possibility in a reader.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
This power-packed little “nature” book inspires the reader to ob-serve everything with more intensity, and it illustrates how truly interconnected everything is. Dillard is also a remarkable writer who shows what can be achieved in a single sentence.
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Whitman has a great spirit and takes you on a wild ride — celebrating everything and anything. This landmark volume of poetry is the great reminder that sometimes you can break all the rules and create a monumental work of literature.