Friday, April 29 -- What a day! There is something very surreal about this year’s Festival. Everything is going so well and all the events have been extremely well attended (especially since Thursday!).
I picked up the hilarious and charming Susan Juby this morning for an interview at CBC and we chatted about book covers, the difference between Canadian and US markets and about all things poultry related! She did admit that her chicken purse is not for everyone and that it may lead to people calling you “chicken lady”!
I then did an interview with Marshall Button and Dave McDonald also at CBC. Marshall was pro and remembered all the things that should be mentioned, but that had fallen out of my head! He also mentioned in passing (but on the air!) that he is the only working writer in Moncton (his words!) that hasn’t been invited to the Festival. We will have to change that next year!
At 10:00 am I went to get Margaret Atwood for a media scrum…she certainly brings out the cameras! Three TV and I don’t know how many microphones in front of her! The questions were extremely wide-ranging, but when asked about her relationship with Northrop Frye, she deferred to her talk on Saturday night. She spoke about the history of literary festivals (they didn’t exist at the beginning of her career) and the need for good school libraries (school libraries raise academic standards by 20%). She is currently working on a new book on science fiction and human imagination.
When things got political, she referred to herself a “swing” voter and proceeded to put her very basic political message out there: governments need to be accountable to taxpayers. Governments must tell people how much things cost. She used the analogy of buying a refrigerator: you need to know the price and that it has a motor and that it will keep things cold! She spoke about dictatorships since she reminded the media she was old enough to remember the abuse of power. In society we never want: government and religion together (Handmaid’s Tale), neither do we want government and corporations together (Oryx and Crake/Year of the Flood). Taxpayers need to ensure that their government does not abuse power, accept bribes or become corrupt in any way.
On technology, she admitted that she has not “embraced it”, but that she is living in the midst of it. She is very interested in the application of technology to new energy sources. She believes that social media has completely surpassed anything that McLuhan would have dreamed. She recently attended a tech security conference and she related, “if you can see it, it can see you”. She chatted a bit about tools (check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6iMBf6Ddjk it’s 30 minutes, but well worth your time!) and how they all have a good side, bad side and stupid side! While we all love Facebook, she thinks it is the best free research tool the CIA could possibly have imagined and she recounted how certain organizations were “creeping” FB to find out certain people’s leanings. It is also prone to the “Astroturf” factor (I didn’t know either: it means it is made to look like a grassroots swell, but when you did down, it is fake). However, as someone who had tweeted the “royal flush” to her 170,000 followers on Twitter the night before, she does like many aspects of social media and in fact, got the cover image for her new book from a Twitter friend!
When questioned about the fact that arts and culture don’t seem to be on the political agenda this time around, she quickly said that she thinks that the overall issue of democracy is of much larger importance: unless there is democracy, we can forget the whole thing.
On the kind of writing that she most enjoys, she talked about the spectrum of her work (poetry, prose fiction, with electoral pamphleteering thrown in the middle!) and how it all takes very different parts of her to accomplish.
When questioned specifically on the election and the public’s seemingly apathetic attitude, she didn’t think there was a lack of interest even though a mere 17% of eligible voters who voted were the ones who elected our current government. She thinks that over history, people don’t get hyper-agitated unless things are on the brink, but she believes that we’re incrementally going in the wrong direction.
And finally, what would the scrum have been without a royal wedding question on the big day? She said to think about the constitutional monarchy like this: what is worse, having the queen on our money or opening an enormous can, filled with worms?
It was all quite fascinating!
I then grabbed the chatterer (yes, she loves to chat!) and we proceeded over to Moncton City Hall to meet the Mayor and to sign the official guest book. (Sorry, I didn’t get to see what she wrote since I had to leave, but I know she put a smiley face on it!)
I then raced to Dieppe to the restaurant L’Idylle where we had our first ever fundraiser for the Festival. What a beautiful place! Helen Legras the owner (along with her husband chef Emmanuel Charretier) had prepared a gorgeous meal that was primarily composed of local delicacies including a tiny carrot and lobster bisque, scallops and a choice of salmon or Sussex reared wild boar. I chatted with the 25 people who had paid $200 each for their tickets and wrote their tax receipts ($150). Moments later, the guest of honour arrived, Margaret was charming and engaging with everyone in attendance and we all sat down to enjoy the intimate lunch. MC Bill Watson did a terrific job of setting the scene, but when we realized that everyone was having such a great time chatting with one another, plans changed. We had intended to get everyone to tell a “Margaret” story, but it didn’t quite work out that way! Bob Rae did recount one story about being on the Giller Jury with “Peggy” and how she had tolerated his presence! (Bob also met Northrop Frye at Oxford and they remained good friends until Norrie’s passing). A few other brave souls recounted brief stories, but everyone who wanted the opportunity got to sit down and chat with her. She was extremely generous and giving of herself and she thoroughly enjoyed the meal saying “you can’t get better than that…anywhere!” The truly fabulous news about the fundraising component is that we will clear $3,500 on the lunch which will be matched by $7,000 (50% provincial / 50% federal government) when we put it into our foundation. Not bad: a $10,000 lunch!
I drove Margaret back to the hotel and tried to arrange some birding activities, but she was feeling a bit tired and realized that she would be birding soon in Ontario and would see basically the same birds there.
Next up was the tail end of Sylvia Tyson’s sold out book club – what an audience and what smiles! Everyone was raving about the event. It sounded wonderful (when is that clone coming?). It was time for a quick shower and then Beer and Books. For a full accounting of this event see Bob Mersereau’s blog (http://www.cbc.ca/nb/features/fryefestival/) because he perfectly captures the scene.
Then, I hit the wall. I dropped by to see the anticipation of Jean-Christophe Rufin (the place was packed!) in Conversation and said hello, but I just knew that if I didn’t get some sleep I would be no good tomorrow at KidsFest (you don’t want to have a headache with 1,500 kids around!). Night, night!
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