by André Alexis
31 I’m one of the many who believes that Shakespeare, or Edward Bond, for that matter, should be done in our accents when he’s done here, not in the wandering “English” accents you sometimes hear even at Stratford — or especially at Stratford — where they should know better. This is, of course, a classic contradiction — one of the many this book perpetrates. I mean, if the integrity of the language the playwright chose is, to some extent, sacred, why should we not pay the same respect to Shakespeare as we should to Don Hannah? Why should we not do Shakespeare in his accents? The answer, sufficient for me though it may not be for you, is that we are not very good at English accents. The false note that comes through when Canadian actors imitate the RSC is grating. In betraying ourselves, we can’t help but betray the play. But even if all our actors were expert at reproducing English accents, we would, in creating a space where proper “English” is spoken, create a theatre that is closer to a museum than to a place for a living art form. The vitality of the theatre is what’s at issue, I think. By performing plays in our own accents, we are being more faithful to the living element in King Lear or Saved. In the same way, when the Scots did Tremblay’s Les Belles Soeurs as The Guid Sisters, they were being truer to Michel Tremblay’s play (as it applies to Scotland) than if they had done it in the original French. There’s no reason, of course, why we shouldn’t have English companies doing Shakespeare or Bond on our stages. Exchange and naturalization are moments in the same aesthetic mechanism.
32 I don’t often love Susan Sontag’s work, but I was moved when, after an interviewer said “I don’t know how people live without writing” (a sentiment many writers express), she retorted that one can easily live without writing, that there are other arts, other ways of being in the world, and that it’s fatuous to raise writing to such a level. In the last few years, I’ve been trying seriously to imagine my life without writing. And I can just about do it, too. I can imagine myself getting up without the itch to scribble. I can imagine myself spending a day staring at trees or listening to music. (This is more difficult because, in the end, writing is my way of communicating my enthusiasms. So, hearing music I love — whether it’s Howlin’ Wolf or Schönberg — naturally sends me to a writing desk.) I can even imagine myself happy with painting or music making. The thing that defeats me is reading. I can’t imagine myself without books, without reading. And as, to me, reading is writing’s mirror image, this represents a boundary. In the end, I am wired for reading, and, so, I am wired for writing.
About the Author
ANDRÉ ALEXIS was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. His debut novel, Childhood, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and won the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Trillium Book Award. He is also the author of several acclaimed works of fiction, including the short story collection Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa and Asylum. He lives in Toronto.
About the publisher
House of Anansi Press was founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi’s commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada’s pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007, 2009, and 2010, Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as “Publisher of the Year.”
