The Man Booker International Prize list came out yesterday. This award is different from the standard Booker in some way, and you will have to read the press release yourself to find out just how, because I got bored halfway through the first sentence. Lately I am somewhat disillusioned with literary fiction. With a few exceptions, those high-profile public-intellectual books just aren't doing it for me anymore. I blame a decreasing attention span, a recent obsession with the Runaways series by Brian K. Vaughan (serious genius) warmish weather, and my weekend rafting trip up the Ottawa River. The latter has resulted in me half-assedly learning more about the great outdoors, adrenaline junkies, and simple living. So far this pursuit has manifested itself in checking out every Jon Krakauer book from the library and googling international standards for the difficulty of white water rapids, but don't worry--pretty soon I will be doing everything in an extreme manner.
Speaking of simple living and crazy wilderness, in a grand gesture of CBC Radio serendipity, the first thing I heard when I got home all sun-baked and waterlogged on Sunday night was a particularly uplifting episode of Dispatches. Usually Dispatches is my least favourite hour of the week. 6:30 on a Sunday evening is an undeniably depressing time of day, and listening to segments on bombing girls' schools in the middle east or the increasingly screwed-up wetlands of Tahiti or whatever this week's feel-good item may be always makes me want to stick my head in the oven. But this past weekend, the radio was on my side, and I was treated to an interview with Dervla Murphy, this incredibly honest, eco-minded woman who travels the world by bike and has written an awesome-sounding catalogue of travelogues on places from India to Siberia to Europe. I usually hate travel writing, but just listening to her rail on traditional hotels and the lazy way westerners travel and tick their meaningful experiences off a list as they go made me want to dive right into her books. And I will, if anyone ever returns them to the library.
I guess what I liked best about her is that she is this feisty, funny old lady who looks like your grandmother but continues to beat a path around the world on her own terms. I'll never be a traveler, but I'll always admire people who do things their own way.
You know, I have now heard that episode twice, and I would like to take this opportunity to rail against hearing things twice on the CBC. Seriously kids, cancel everything and replay all the stuff that someone on Mat leave has heard over and over again. Stupid... like I need to hear Suk Yin (Sook??) 2x a week.
ReplyDeleteyeah, listening to the cbc all day at home has got to be ROUGH! seriously though, i am so with you. i love how they cancelled all these terrible shows and now they just replay stuff that was annoying the first time (see above re. sook yin, shelagh "someone baked a cake in alberta and wrote a book about it and we're dedicating a full hour to it today on The Next Chapter" rogers, etc.).
ReplyDeleteI think I've heard the dumbest stories on CBC this summer. Normally it's just the summer time blues, but with all the cuts, blame is spread around the horn. I think I've even heard a few repeats during the day, which is rather strange, because I would consider this prime time.
ReplyDeleteI became a little obsessed with Into the Wild last fall after watching the movie in Budapest with Hungarian subtitles. Krakauer is a great writer.
ReplyDeletethe afternoon is ALL repeats these days. 1-3 PM is a total dead zone of DNTO and other crap that wasn't good the first time. although freya pointed out that they're playing stuff from the archives today--mmm,gzowski. it's like listening to your dad on the air.
ReplyDeletekrakauer IS a great writer! his book on the creepy mormon church, Under the Banner of heaven, is so well done (at least so far). i have to say i'm impressed.