Lögberg-Heimskringla - 24.09.1982, Síða 2

2-WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 24. SEPTEMBER 1982
'Guerrilla'
promotes and sells own books
Department stores and big
distributors showed no interest
W.D. Valgardson cheerfully des-
cribes himself as a "guerrilla
worker'' in the cause of his books
and, by extension, of Canadian
literature. His war came about
when his first collection of short
stories, Bloodflowers, was publish-
ed by Ottawa's Oberon Press in
1973 and sales were projected as not
exceeding a miserly 500 copies over
a period of a year, with royalties of
$150.
He was, of course, outraged. "It
wasn't Oberon's fault," he recalls.
"They published me when nobody
else was interested in my work, and
their distribution system isn't worse
than that of any other small literary
press. But I was denied the usual
commerical channels — the depart-
ment stores didn't want to stock my
books, and the big American-con-
trolled. distributors showed no in-
terest."
So he dove into the promotion and
sales business himself. He made up
posters, wrote advertising copy and
set up a display of Bloodflowers at
the side of his cousin's fish shed in
Gimli, Manitoba. He sold 100 copies
the first day, and within two mon-
ths, had rung up sales for 1,000. "In
fact, I've sold 5,000 copies by my
own efforts across the country,
while another 5,000 have been sold
in the normal way."
Since Bloodflowers, Valgardson
has written two more story collec-
tions, God Is Not A Fish Insepc-
tor (1975) and Red Dust (1978); a
novel, Gentle Sinners (1980), and a
poetry book, In The Cutting Shed
(1976). Skilfully crafted and emo-
tionally reverberant, they’ve receiv-
ed an almost unanimous chorus of
critical praise and have established
him as one of the best writers to
emerge during the last decade.
Tables in Malls
He still wages his guerrilla war-
fare, setting up display tables in
shopþing malls, on the fishing docks
in Manitoba and in agricultural fairs
in Saskatchewan. He's been known
W.D. Valgardson: Once set up
a display of his books near a
relative's fish shed in Gimli,
Manitoba.
to sell his books in cafes, bakeries,
corner stores — wherever his travels
take him — covering all possibilities,
he puts it, "like a spider web across
Canada."
The enemy? "It's the U.S. that
runs Canada, flooding the country
with its cultural artifacts. We're an
occupied country, every bit as much
as Poland is. Sure, American
soldiers don't stand on our street
corners, but they don't have to. Un-
til we attain economic and cultural
freedom, we'll never be free."
Such vehemence is tempered by
his sense of irony and abundánt wit.
In Toronto to read at Harbourfront's
annual summer short-story series
(which next week features Ann
Copeland and continues each Tues-
day in August with, in order, Greg
Hollingshead, Edna Alford, George
McWhirter, Gail Scott and H.R. Per-
cy), his earnest demeanor is not
unlike that of a minister he had once
thought of becoming.
Born in Winnipeg in 1939, Val-
gardson grew up as a member of a
fundamentalist, "ultra-conserva-
tive" church — a subject he savagely
satirizes in his stories. "When
you're 18, you really believe — in the
worst sense. Think of a world run
by 18-ýear-olds! It would be terri-
ble, very intolerant. Luckily, going
to university and reading philo-
sophers like Locke, Rousseau and
Plato quickly freed me from that
restrictive frame of mind.”
Writers' workshop
He graduated from Winnipeg's
United College in 1961, went on to
the famous writers' workshop at
Iowa University — which numbers
among its graduates such other well-
known Canadian writers a§ Clark
Blaise, Robert Kroetsch and W.P.
Kinsella — taught high school in
Winnipeg and then for four years at
Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri,
"a private women's college where I
was taught to wear a suit and tie and
make an effort at elegant manners."
Since 1974, he's been professor of
creative writing at the University of
Victoria, and this past month was
named chairman of the
department's seven teachers.
What makes Valgardson's writing
unque is his depiction of the fishing
and mixed-tarming communities ot
rural Manitoba, revolving around
the town of Gimli where he grew up
and to which, for the past 21 sum-
mers, he always returns. His ances-
try is Icelandic, and thus his stories'
inevitably have a saga-like quality,
his characters wrestling with the
harsh environment and with their
inner conflicts. Though his stories of
ordinary folks are "open-ended”
and do not arrive at a thumping
resolution, they usually end in bleak
isolation, sometimes in suicide.
Bloodflowers, the parable-like title
story of his first collection, ends
with the hero marooned on an
island and locked within the
primitive fishing community whose
way of life he cannot understand.
Other stories deal with the emo-
tional tug-of-war between husbands
and wives, fathers and daughters.
Sense of isolation
Valgardson readily admits to a
tragic attitude to life, Chekovian in
its bitter ironý, Faulknerian in its
gallery of maimed and impoverish-
ed people, certainly very Canadian
Framh. á bls. 6
Letter to the Editor
Sir:
I am editing and writing an an-
thology of immigrant stories entitled
Two Worlds — The Immigrant
Experience and have received a
grant from the Directorate of Multi-
culturalism toward this project.
The collection will be a mixture of
short stories, essays, articles, per-
sonal testimonials etc. to help pro-
vide an insight to the Canadian
mosaic. These stories are to be writ-
ten by immigrants or their children
if they have writing skills. Those
who cannot write will be interview-
ed and taped.
The writers must be landed im-
migrants and/or Canadian citizens.
The stories shouid have something
of the old country as well as the
Canadian experience to fit the two-
world concept. First generation
stories are especially valuable for
the children are often caught bet-
ween the two worlds.
If your story is meaningful, it is
important that Canadians across the
country share your fellings and ex-
periences. Your name, address and
phone number must accompany
each submission. I will also require
a short blurb on your ethnic
background, family history and the
date of your arrival in Canada.
All ethnic groups are important. If
you have experiences from your
country of origin and Canada, your
land of adoption that will prove
valuable contributions to our socie-
ty, please write to: Milly Charon
7481 Ostell Crescent, Montreal,
Quebec, H4P 1Y7.
Leskaflar í íslensku handa byrjendum
In this lesson we shall, very briefly and simply, deal with some fun-
damental elements in Icelandic poetry.
Let it first be pointed out that literary interest, especially love of poetry,
has down through centuries characterized the Icelandic people to a
remarkable degree. In fact, Icelandic literature may be said tó be as old as
the Icelandic nation itself. Moreover, along with the deep love of poetry,
verse-making ability has been, and still is, unusually common among the
Icelandic people.
Further, Icelandic poetry has traditionally, and still is to a large extent,
characterized by alliteration, which has rightly been described as "recur-
rence of the same consonant sound or of vowel sounds initially in accented
syllables of verse." This usage is illustrated by the example below of.the
common Icelandic four-line stanza (ferhenda, ferskeytla), where the words
with the alliterative letters are printed in heavier type:
Far þú út í fagran lund um þig leika alla stund,
ferska láttu vinda, og öllum doða hrinda.
The alliterative letters must (as seen in the stanza cited), if consonants, be
the same, but can, if they are vowels, be different, as is the case here. The
student should no^ only translate this stanza into English, but memorize it
in Icelandic as well.
Vocabulary: láttu, let, imperative 2nd pers. sing.
of láta (for lát Þú)
leika, play, here: flow freely
lund, grove, masc. acc. singl of
lundur
stund, hour, while fem. acc. sing.
of stund (alla stund, all the while)
um, about
út í, out into
vinda, winds, breezes, masc. acc.
plur. of vindur
öllum, all, dat. sing. of allur
alla, all, the whole, fem. acc. sing.
of allur
doða, dullness, drowsiness, masc.
dat. sing. of doði
fagran, beautiful, masc. acc. sing of
fagur
far, go, imperative of fara
ferska, fresh, masc. nom. plur. of
ferskur
hrinda, cast off, push away