Re: GG: Search for Petula Clark

["Anne M. Marble" <amarble@sff.net>]

From: junichi miyazawa <jmjmj@ATTGLOBAL.NET>

> Hi f_minors,

Hello!!!
...

> The presentation will be a brief survery covering
> GG's writing activities, but
> I have been wondering if he could be called a novelist
> or a playwright for some of his aritcles, such as "Mode
> Harbor," for his self-interviews, and for radio documentaries,
> including "A Glenn Gould Fantasy."

I think some of those definitely dance around the essay/fiction line. Then
again, perhaps many essays do that, especially in the field of humor.In
many cases, it's accepted because it's not regular journalism. It's
considered acceptable to change the story a little if it makes it funnier.
I don't believe that Erma Bombeck's kid always said exactly what she said,
nor do I believe that Dave Barry's life exactly follows what he has written
down.

Still, "Maude Harbor" might go even beyond that thin borderline. Humorous
essayists might exaggerate their lives to make a point, but in that one, GG
wasn't even writing about himself.

> I stick to the point because there is an anthology
> of short stories including one of GG's works:
> _The Faber Book of Contemporary Canadian
> Stories_, edited by Michael Ondaatje (London:
> Fabor and Fabor, 1990).
> You will find there "Search for Petula Clark."
>
> Do you regard it a fiction?  Does it deserve to be included
> in such an anthology?

Of course, now I can't remember that one enough to say. :-> From what I
remember, that one is more an essay (perhaps an autobiographical statement
disguised as an essay) than fiction. But then again, how much of literary
fiction is autobiographical today? We count those stories as fiction, even
if they are somewhat autobiographical.OK, now you've confused me...

Anyway, how would be classify the Idea of North or the rest of the Solitude
trilogy? GG took the recordings he'd made from interviews and combined them
to make conversations and/or statements that had never existed. Some people
have complained that this made it somehow "wrong." But to me, that's like
complaining that a collagist took pictures that weren't meant to be
together and then combined to make a piece of art. The Solitude trilogy
wasn't meant to be a documentary.

OK, I haven't really answered your question. But maybe after I re-read the
PC essay...