TRS Take on Canada Reads

So we've had a week or so to digest Canada Reads. First we admit at TRS that we did not catch every syllable of the discussions. Ghomeshi was very good, asking good questions that we hope every book club member in the nation was taking note of to enliven their club discussions! One of our fav questions was "What did you learn from this work...about yourself, Canada....humanity." At TRS we like the Canadian slant as we are staunch flag wavers.

Sarah Slean: Sarah Sarah....were you serious in the heat of your defense, did you really mean that 'literature isn't always pleasure" ?????Sarah Sarah....get you to our readings! What is not pleasureable about fine literature: the subtle, seductive use of language, the pleasure of following an unpredictably well crafted plot, the careful rendering of a credible character, the masterful management of original metaphor describing that character, the range of emotions evoked by the printed word on the page....if you don't find that in what you are reading, you are not reading literature....no wonder you don't find pleasure!

Let's talk about solemnity. There is indeed a solemnity to literature as there is to all great art and it is the solemnity that comes with the admiration spawned by a reaching work of art: an expression of humanity in a full and beautiful form - say, a novel. A work of art that reaches into our cores, our souls and our hearts and challenges us as humans to be better. At TRS we call it the "oh man" factor as we shake our heads in wonder over the achievemt wrought by an author when you arrive at the end of a novel. Even the saddest story, the darkest tale, the epic tear-jerker can bring intense pleasure in the reading of it because of the art of its expression. The ending may disappoint, the characters enrage, the ideas disgust, but the language and the metaphor, the plot and its higher purpose of revealing a little of the human condition always brings pleasure...the pleasure of reflection and what it can forge in the human heart. The pleasure of reading - the pleasure of hearing, albeit in our heads, a human story. The pleasure of reading a story fully expressed.