O Canada

O Canada.
Andrea Paradis, ed. Out of this World: Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. Quarry Press and National Library of Canada, 1995. Cloth Can$ 17.99. [French Edition: Visions d'autres mondes. Andrea Paradis ed. Quarry Press/Editions RD and Bibliothéque nationale du Canada]
This is Canada and therefore this book is published simultaneously in a French and an English edition. It is the companion volume to an excellently produced and multimedia exhibition of the same name in the National Canadian Library and the intention of which is to make Canadians aware of the existence of Canadian Science Fiction. However, the perennial Canadian two solitudes (French and English) are very much present here, the great majority of articles concentrate on their own branch of science fiction, French or English, and ignore science fiction published in the other language except, in passing, on a couple of occasions. It would be then inappropriate and inaccurate to describe this book as a treatise on Canadian science fiction; it is an exposé gathering articles on English-Canadian science fiction and Québec science fiction, the latter term systematically and strangely meant to include also science fiction from outside Québec, a tendency condemned by Jean-Louis Trudel.
One feature, not peculiar to this book, is that most of the critics of Canadian science fiction are also writers of the genre; the notable exceptions being John Robert Colombo and Stéphane Nicot. This then has several potential drawbacks, the first one being that several big guns of Canadian science fiction have been asked to write about the field in which they themselves are participants and find themselves getting close to apologizing for having to quote their own work.
The other drawback is we are getting the impression that several critics have to use generalizations and sweeping statements when criticizing weak works of science fiction for fear of hurting writers too close to their immediate environments. Consequently, the non-specialist reader might be forgiven for thinking that, since writers often have to double as critics, Canadian science fiction suffers from a shortage of writers and independent critics. It is not that being a writer should prevent one from being a critic; on the contrary, writers can have knowledge essential to the comprehension of the process of writing. But the reduced number of critics and the incestuous nature of the milieu is not conducive to the emergence of criticism sufficiently removed from the scene and able to cast a strongly critical eye without having to be apologetic or bound by loyalties.
In spite of these shortcomings, Out of this World is a milestone in Canadian science fiction and could well be titled "The Dummy's Guide to Canadian science fiction." Like all the Dummy guides, it is lively, witty, refreshing and even penetrating while creating the urge, after having read it, to go out and buy a meatier, thicker, and more comprehensive volume.
Writing essays for this book must have been a very frustrating experience, for all the writers were commissioned, it seems, to write essays of a very limited length. So, some of them must have decided to use the platform to write about a subject they feel strongly about and only give lip service to the main issue at hand, Canadian science fiction, or treat it in a token fashion that should have barely justified the inclusion of their essay in this anthology on the basis of Canadian content (another preoccupation of mainstream Canadian culture). It is not that what they write about is not interesting or thought provoking, as when, for instance, Phyllis Gottlieb produces a historic listing of the genesis of American science fiction describing its origins and listing its most prominent historical figures; it is just that the subtitle of the book-- Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature--might lure a buyer into thinking that this book contains a series of essays on Canadian science fiction and not on the history of American science fiction. Of course, Canadian writers expressing their views about science fiction in general is of paramount importance but maybe the book should have a different subtitle.
This brings us back to an eternal question: is it possible to write about Canadian science fiction in isolation from American science fiction? The answer is a tentative No.
Within the Canadian sphere, Phyllis Gottlieb in her essay "The Alien at the Feast" writes incorrectly that French-speaking Canadian authors developed their science-fiction ideas from French themes (from France). Reading other essays by French-speaking writers makes it abundantly clear that this is not the case and that, contrary to her statement, the dependence on the French market is negligible, except for a couple of authors such as Elisabeth Vornarburg and Jean-Louis Trudel who have published in the French paperback market. Their presence on French shelves, however, is ephemeral, as I was able to judge from a recent visit.
It is true, as Stéphane Nicot explains, that French science fiction magazines do reserve some space for articles on French Canadian science fiction but this only reaches a minute proportion of the French reading public. It is obvious that English-speaking writers and critics have a limited or insufficient awareness of French-Canadian science fiction, although they are interested in their French-Canadian brethren while Québec and French-Canadian writers express very limited interest in them since none of them actually mention any English-Canadian writers in their essays. In fact, Quebec magazines like imagine... and Solaris do write about individual English-Canadian science-fiction writers but do not attempt to analyze their work within the context of English-Canadian science fiction.
David Ketterer is the one exception with his pioneering work on both streams of Canadian science fiction, Canadian Science-Fiction and Fantasy. Curiously enough, he is virtually absent from all essays and references (his book was on show at the exhibition but omitted from the list of works displayed at the exhibition attached at the end of the book).
This does not mean that this is not an important work; it is in reality a good concept but slightly ill-conceived, in view of the limited space given to all the contributors. This being said, when one considers all the hurdles that still exist in the realm of Canadian science fiction, Out of this World does tackle all the important issues: publishing Canadian science fiction in Canada, the dependence on the US market, the magazine market (especially in Québec with "equal time" given to the two rival magazines), science fiction for the young, among other subjects, and including an essay on science fiction in Canadian pop music.
At times it even appears to be quite conventional in its emphasis on political correctness, an intellectual attitude which has become a facile approach to complex issues. Many women writers write essays about either science fiction written by other women or about being a female science-fiction writer, with the notable exception of Bouchard's essay on "the female utopia in Canada." It does stress the fact that women writers are intensely eager to write science fiction on different terms from their male counterparts, treating subjects and using structures that would otherwise be ignored. However, it leaves little room for these female writers' views on science fiction in general. In this respect, female Canadian science-fiction writers might not be very different from a big part of Canadian science-fiction writing: namely, that many reviewers seem to agree that Canadian science fiction tends to concentrate on soft science fiction themes as opposed to hardware and gimmicky science fiction which is the mainstay of traditional science fiction in America and elsewhere.
By giving space to so many different, and at times conflicting voices, Out of this World manages to convey an image of the vitality of Canadian science fiction in the process of expansion beyond the fringes of fanzines and fan-clubs.
Some authors do try to connect modern Canadian science fiction with 19th century works in a need to give credentials to a literature often perceived as being no more than an entertainment genre. Others, maybe wisely, only mention historical science fiction in passing and focus instead on contemporary Canadian science fiction, which makes Canadian science fiction no longer appear to be merely an esoteric challenge but an ongoing fixture of the Canadian literary scene.
And in common with so-called mainstream Canadian literature this book does reflect the glories and the miseries of Canadian science fiction or what it is to create, nurture, and be sustained by your own culture next to an economic and cultural giant. While the United States has managed to turn science fiction into a grassroots folk culture, Canada is still looking for an approach sufficiently uncertain, apprehensive, and lacking self-assertion to reflect Canada's view of itself.
For those with Internet access, the whole exhibition that has inspired the book is available at .
-- Henry Leperlier, Université de Sherbrooke.