Glen Argan: Novel reveals dangers of an insular world Glen Argan: Novel reveals dangers of an insular world By Glen Argan July 16, 2021
Some may take Michael Crummey’s brilliant 2019 novel
The Innocents as a piece of nostalgia for a lost way of life in Newfoundland’s outports. But
The Innocents offers insights much greater than the nostalgic pacifier Make Newfoundland Great Again. It depicts an unrelenting struggle for survival by two children left orphaned when their parents and baby sister die within a matter of months.
Instead of moving to the closest village, Evered and Ada Best decide to stick it out in the lonely cove which is the only place they have ever known. The orphans have never seen a man other than their father and the only woman other than their mother they have encountered is the midwife who delivered their sister. They are as isolated as isolated can be.
This week.
I registered for jury duty. I mentioned a bad mail day a while back and, well, finally dealt with some of that bad mail (because I had to.within ten days.or else). Filling out the form was rather comical for me; it felt like filling out my medical history. Like, when I
first started filling out my medical history forms it was short and sweet literally nothing to report. But nowadays I have a few more boxes to check. Very similarly, the
first few times I was called for jury duty, the paperwork was very straightforward for me literally nothing to report.
My voyage through a world of language in just one word: snow
Wintry scene in Finland. ‘I was as intoxicated by the landscape as JRR Tolkien had been by the Finnish language.’ Photograph: Folio Images/Alamy
Wintry scene in Finland. ‘I was as intoxicated by the landscape as JRR Tolkien had been by the Finnish language.’ Photograph: Folio Images/Alamy
Missing the wild regions where I have worked, I took a linguistic trip from Asia to the Andes, via Russia and Finland, instead
NancyCampbell
Fri 22 Jan 2021 01.30 EST
Last modified on Fri 22 Jan 2021 08.14 EST
A few years ago I spent a winter on Upernavik, a rocky island of 1,000 inhabitants off the north-west coast of Greenland. I’d been invited to Baffin Bay as part of a programme for international writers and artists to create new work about climate at one of the most northerly museums in the world.
Squish is the way this band of storytellers sees the world
The Dictionary of Newfoundland English defines the word squish as meaning “askew, out of alignment, or diagonally awry,” but Dave Paddon says squish simply refers to the way that the members of From Stage to Stage see the world.
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