Geist 117 News Today

Lumberjack Politicos . Republished by Coach House Books in 2019 (originally published in 1987). On the mountaintop a sinking sunray hits a tile floor. Shining through the public chalet’s glass doors. The coffee machine guard has gone home. But there is a troubled rumour in the room. Suddenly the place fills up with freaks. Hippies left over from the sixties. And some striking hospital workers. Everybody’s stoned. The sky is gathering like a stormy sea. On the radio, a voice sa...

Solace × Expand Photo: “Mud and barbed wire through which the Canadians advanced during the Battle of Passchendaele,” November 1917. William Rider-Rider / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-002165 I’m writing a non-fiction book set in a World War I military hospital in Toronto, so I spend a lot of time in the past. An influx of wounded led to the hasty creation of the hospital in a cash register factory on Christie Street, in the w...

My Week in Tunisia Enjoy the fresh kebab while your freshly dented fender gets fixed It’s a sunny spring morning in Tunis and I am seated at a sidewalk café enjoying a café au lait, waiting for my guide, Yusef, to begin our week of exploration in north and central Tunisia. This is my first visit to the African continent, to the fabled empire of ancient Carthage. Frenetic activity abounds. Cars on blocks being torn apart. Engines, transmissions lay scattered about the sidewalk. Islami...

Travelling refugees and clashes on cold nights.

Synchronicity The photos here are selected from Synchronicity, Fabrice Strippoli’s upcoming book of photographs—most of which were taken in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal—spanning his thirty-year career. Synchronicity is the idea that meaningful coincidences are clusters of events that have no causal relationship yet appear meaningful to the viewer. It is a way of seeing the world, “an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see,” as Carl Jung wrote. ...

An Apartment Block in Angola In Transparent City (Biblioasis) by Ondjaki (and translated by Stephen Henighan) an apartment block with a magical burst water pipe is a microcosm for post-war Angola coming under the grips of the transnational corporations and agendas to privatize public goods. This is a refreshing addition to the sub-genre of apartment block fiction (i.e., Tales from Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry and Uhuru Street by M.G. Vassanji). The way Ondjaki weaves together people stru...

With a closing line from Ted Hughes.

To Coronavirus, C: An Anthropological Abecedary The images are from Breathe, an exhibition of masks at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. The co-creators, Nathalie Bertin and Lisa Shepherd, both Métis artists, invited other artists to create masks to reflect emotions felt around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. See more at whyte.org/breathe. A, Archaeology Archaeology is the study of the past and its adherents are archaeologists, who would rather die than be compared to their...

Antoine eats his eggs and bacon with gusto and proudly declares "I am what I am!"

Shocked and Discredited Expand Something That May Shock and Discredit You (Atria Books) by Daniel M. Lavery is an essay collection in conversation with high and low culture, ranging from Sir Gawain to the Golden Girls, as the author works to understand and to validate his trans identity. Building on his long-held assertion that Captain Kirk is a lesbian, Lavery reframes other aspects of pop culture as a means to understanding his transition, such as: the stages of working on an impression...