Mavis Gallant: The Writer as Rapscallion III, by Linda Leith
III. Delinquency and Writing
The final in a series of three excerpts from a talk presented to the Atwater Library in Montreal, March 6, 2014.
Mavis Gallant
Nelly Arcan, the talented and beautiful Quebec writer who
committed suicide in September 2009 (see my Globe Books post here) has published a controversial posthumous story called Shame (La Honte).
In the story she alludes -- without naming names -- to her appearance on the hugely popular Sunday-night Quebec television show Tout le monde en parle in September 2007, when star Guy A. Lepage and his associate Dany Turcotte teased her on her décolleté.
Now Lepage
complains on the show's blog that Arcan “demonizes him” in the story,
attributing to him nefarious intentions that had a disastrous effect on her. He claims to be deeply troubled by
Arcan’s story, since he had always enjoyed her books. Not wanting to create
a media storm around a writer who died two years ago, he just suggests we all read the story, take a look at the 2007 television interview in question, and decide for ourselves.
He adds that it is impossible to judge the extent to which Arcan’s performance on the show provoked audience reactions that may have caused her distress.
La Honte appears in Arcan’s most
recent book, Burqa de chair (Burka of Flesh) published
posthumously just yesterday by Éditions du Seuil.
The book is introduced by novelist
and essayist Nancy Huston, who told La Presse literary editor Chantal Guy that she
found Lepage's treatment of Arcan “unpardonable.”
You would never see a man sexually humiliated like that in front of millions of viewers. I'm sure he doesn’t feel guilty, but he is, whether or not he knows it, as are others incapable of recognizing this woman’s intelligence.
Viewing the video this evening, I would say Arcan looks increasingly uncomfortable as the interview proceeds.
A Nelly Arcan website has recently been unveiled.
Linda Leith
© Linda Leith 2011
.ll.
III. Delinquency and Writing
The final in a series of three excerpts from a talk presented to the Atwater Library in Montreal, March 6, 2014.
Mavis Gallant
Email, the Internet, Facebook and newspapers – whether in print or online – are the enemies of writing. Reading is the enemy of writing.
I once had a conversation with Doug Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse and, I would say, most concepts in interactive computing. He predicted that one day we would have all our experiences delivered to our senses electronically. It sounded unbelievable back then, but it is much more believable now.
Le Funambule  © Marie-Danielle Croteau, Josée Bisaillon et les éditions Les400 coups, 2010
Works by Stéphane Poulin, Marie-Louise Gay, Stéphane Jorisch, Janice Nadeau, Michael Martchenko, Barbara Reid, Philippe Béha, and others on the block at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.