Oh So Colson

Ah - I can’t believe that my blog got spammed! Ah…ridiculous. Whenever I think of the word spam..I always think of that nasty canned meat stuff being thrown randomly, literally, against or into an email inbox..and now a blog. I really don’t like that stuff. However, whenever I hear the word or read it I’m reminded of the Monty Python song “Spam”…and the nasty Canadian version of the product called ‘Klik”. Once when I was doing fieldwork in northern Ontario we took a can of this stuff as part of the ‘desperation food stuff’. This was the collection of food that we had if we ran low on stocks while we doing fieldwork …either because we’d eaten everything since our appetites had increased or we’d lost some through a canoeing accident. It was normal for us to only eat meat for during the first 24 hours since meat doesn’t survive for very long outside of a fridge (turns nasty and stinks). Anyhow once we’d eaten the meat we’d eat the food we brought in terms of what food stuff went bad first (we were in the bush for up to three weeks)…so fresh veg, eggs, cheese..were eaten in the first week or so. Then we went on dry goods which were re-hydrated with water (plenty of that around since we were always camping beside water on a beach or the shores of a river bank). So meat by the end of week two was an item that we thought wistfully about with those colleagues were also carnivorous types rather than vegetarians. We’d talk endlessly about what we’d intend to eat first when we arrived back ‘amongst civilization’…i.e. a town or village which had places which sold food. Several of us would go for a steak and a place where there was an ‘all you can eat salad bar”. We’d joke about being able to dive into the salad bar at one of these restaurants….and how delicious that first bite of a medium rare steak would be. Anyhow one time we couldn’t cope with the idea of not having meat for supper…since the last time we’d eaten meat was two weeks before. We remembered that we had ONE can of ‘pseudo spam’ as we called Klik and figured that it must be okay. So, as we canoed back to the beach where we were living on that trip we all..thought about the idea of eating that meat..and joked that we’d have to ‘file and sharpen our incisor teeth’ come closer to leaving the file just to appreciate meat more. Well, we’d barely landed on the beach, pulled in the canoes, and thrown our backpacks in our tents when we’d rushed to the part of the beach where the ‘kitchen’ was and dug through one of the large canvas food bags for the tin of Klik. We found it…and all of us looked gleefully at the tin while one of us opened it up. All of us were salivating at the thought of eating some protein rich substance….and Klik just couldn’t be that bad. It looked okay in the picture on the label that wrapped the can! But as the metal peeled away, using that free open attached to the base of the can, the horror of that substance inside the can showed itself to what it was..ugh. It smelt dubious and looked revolting. We recoiled in horror back from the person with the can and all stated that we couldn’t eat it. We figured that we couldn’t waste it since we’d spent a buck or so on it…and had carried it into the bush. Hence it had to be eaten by someone. So, the dog who was with us was deemed the worthy recipient of the can’s contents. We figured that he might like it since he’d had nothing but dry dog food for the entire trip and he might like it. So, we placed the Klik can’s contents on the ground for the dog. ….but he sniffed it tentatively…backed away and looked at us in disgust. Clearly, the dog wasn’t under any circumstances going eat the Klik. If we weren’t eating it neither was he.

Why do people think that books should be or can be banned? Who knows..a variety of reasons exist.

But books are important whether they are non-fiction or fiction..why? They demonstrate that people can articulate ideas, express concepts, generally discuss and possibly challenge the way that we think about the world. Books are also a means of entertaining oneself, to learn about another point of view, to get away and escape from everyday life, to stretch the mind, etc…the list is endless.

But the question considered here is why should books, specific ones at that, be banned? Many of us are lucky enough to live in a world where we can more or less say what we want. Those who live in the developed, first world, have the privilege of having the freedom to say, write, and think what we want. What’s more is that we’ve been taught to read and that’s a privilege which ought not to be squandered. Therefore it bothers me that people who have an education and have the skills to expand their minds and the ability to read, want to deny that right to other people of being able to read what they might like to read. Why ban a book? It doesn’t make sense…the only reason that I can see it could be banned is that it contains a message that those wanting it banned don’t want others to know or read about.

I think that people, such as the members of the Catholic League in the US, don’t want opportunities to exist whereby people can learn that other points of view exist and perhaps even co-exist. This group called the Catholic League of America has stated that it is warning parents about taking their children to see the new movie of the book called “The Golden Compass”. Indeed, this organisation also banned the book “The Da Vinci Code”. Well, I read that book and I wasn’t that impressed. I can’t see what was so wonderful about it and I can only conclude that the members of this group do not want people to challenge theological ideas, knowledge, and structures. The book was actually frustrating to read it since the author kept on leaving huge gaps in the logic and structure of his story. I didn’t see the film since I didn’t enjoy reading the book. I can only conclude that the Catholic League of America just doesn’t want people to make their own decisions about what other people read. Indeed, sometimes banning something such a book only makes others want to know more about it.

What was even more shocking was that I heard on the radio (CBC), this morning, that the book “The Golden Compass” (”Northern Lights” as its titled in the UK) was being removed from the bookshelves of several Catholic School boards in Ontario because Pullman, the book’s author was questioning Christian beliefs. So what? Clearly the members of this board dislike having their beliefs criticised or even commented on. However, I read the book and there wasn’t any overt criticism of any religious belief system. The book was actually the most gripping book that I’ve read in over a year. I’ve been reading a wide variety of books since they were a means of escaping from the tedium of having to deal with the tail end of my thesis. The book “The Golden Compass” is the first book of Pullman’s trilogy called “Dark Materials”. Frankly these people, although Catholics, are religious Christian fundamentalists. I can’t see what the problem is with the book having read it myself, attended a secondary school run by nuns..and with a fairly reasonable understanding of theology. These people who have banned the book “The Golden Compass” just don’t understand that books are written by people to explore and debate ideas. What were Tolkien and C. S. Lewis’s books about? Ignorance must be bliss ….but on the other hand at least these “ungodly” books are a good read unlike “The Da Vinci Code”. Ah…at least the fervour with which these books are being banned and discussed could mean that people will buy the books of the “Dark Materials” trilogy and see the movie! In reality the Catholic Union and other Christian fundamentalists have  only provided some free publicity to the film and the books!

Winter is probably here. The arrival of snow signals, I think, its arrival. I always find it interesting because the way it falls means that it blankets everything and almost ‘renews’ everything it touches. Everything becomes unique and replenished. The landscape  regardless of whether one is in the city or the countryside becomes beautiful while stark. I love walking in the countryside where the snow has muffled the sounds so much so that the crunch that your feet make are possibly amplified. Yes, we have to wear some heavier clothes and boots but its worth it. Snow falling for the first time, especially if its cold enough to stay on the ground, makes one perceive and see the physical place that you exist in, as new and difficult. It highlights differences and changes the light.

I saw an exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporaine de Montréal by Vik Muniz. I’ve found both the exhibition and the accompanying documentary quite thought provoking. He stated, in his documentary, that he was more interested in the photographs of the object that he’d created after he’d taken its photograph. I was particularly struck by several portraits which he’d made using images of important celebrities from glossy magazines, that he’d cut up. Muniz stated that wanted to examine the idea of celebrity since celebrities are an important facet of life in Brazil. Essentially he’d cut up the glossy magazine pages and used them to recreate new portraits of himself since he’d discovered that he’d become a celebrity himself. He said that he found this an odd sensation. These portraits, made me remember some of the art works that I’d seen in some expensive art galleries in Belgrade, Serbia. These were also constructed from glossy expensive fashion magazines such as Vogue, Elle and the like. I found these particular images far more fascinating and memorable than the State run museums and galleries that we visited. However, I’d say that what we saw at the State run museums and galleries really reflected how archaeology, enthnography, and history were analysed. The exhibits that we saw reflected the culture - history paradigm which was predominant in the old ex-Soviet bloc. Everything we saw was clearly described in great detail. But for us, myself and a friend, every object we saw whilst labeled was static and devoid of a clear way that we could connect it to a more meaningful context. 

Well, this is really odd having a blog. I decided, after much thought, that it might be a good idea to have one. It was an odd concept since it seems to me that a blog is probably the twenty-first century equivalent of a paper diary. I like paper diaries. I like looking at them in stationary sections in bookstores or stores that specialize in paper. I’m always amazed at the amount of work that’s put into producing them - the covers and the paper can vary from diary to diary. Some of them are so pretty that it strikes me as a shame to write in them. Indeed, the idea of a diary is essentially having the possibility of using a specific notebook to write random stuff in it as different and a way of compartmentalizing a section of thoughts from a given day. I used to write a diary when I was doing archaeological fieldwork in remote parts of northwestern Ontario. I did it because it was part of a day where I knew that I could get away, mentally, from my colleagues since we not only worked together for up to 21 days at a time but we often had to put up tents and live in close proximity to each other. Writing a diary meant that I had time away from fieldwork and all the associated activities of living in the bush in a tent. However, I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy working in the bush or working with the people that I was working with. I thoroughly enjoyed working in the bush..there’s nothing like it. I also liked the people that I worked with. Anyhow I’ve got to rush and do something else now.