It was always around, always referred to. Yes, yes, yes -- a Canadian classic -- I'm reading Duras now; please leave me alone. Then one day, there it is: a rough looking New Canadian Library edition from the 1970s, with an abstract what? below the author's name and title. How does that cover image relate to what's inside? Maybe if I read a few bars ... and suddenly I'm humming its tune.
I always thought Susanna Moodie was a runaway washerwoman who came to Canada from the U.K. with her trapper husband. Far from it. As Anakana might say, She was a right snoot, and we get a bit of that in the first chapters as the boat out of Scotland comes down the St Lawrence Seaway -- after how many weeks at sea? stopping at Grosse Isle to wash bodies, clothes and linens.
Just listen to her:
"I was not a little amused by the extravagant expectations entertained by some of our steerage passengers. The sight of the Canadian shores had changed them into persons of great consequence. The poorest and the worst dressed, the least deserving and the most repulsive in mind and morals exhibited most disgusting traits of self-importance. Vanity and presumption seemed to possess them altogether. They talked loudly of the rank and wealth of their connections at home, and lamented the great sacrifices they had made in order to join their brothers and cousins who had foolishly settled in this beggarly wooden country." (31)
No comments:
Post a Comment