For several weeks, I have placed my trash cans strategically at the edge of the sidewalk, handles facing the street, preferably not hidden by a car. On the other hand, my feminist fiber is perked up, and I notice that I am less and less a blissful consumer, and more and more a citizen on the lookout. Thanks to whom? Thanks to my frequentation of Quebec essayists!
Posted at 1:11 a.m.
Updated at 7:00 a.m.
When we talk about local books, we mainly think of novels.
Rightly so: they are amazing. The Quebec novel has experienced a true golden age in recent years. The list of new classics The Press shows it well, drawing up a list of eclectic titles into which one must dive cheerfully and immoderately1. If I read a lot of novels from here, I am also – above all – a big fan of our essayists.
That’s good because they too are in great shape. Because of the worrying spirit of the times which forces them to question a host of subjects, and thanks to the in-depth work of several publishing houses. The current essays, often quite short and very digestible, cover an absolute diversity of subjects.
They help us identify irritants and equip us to understand our world and its transformations. Often, they tickle our fiber of indignation. Sometimes they offer possible solutions. In all cases, they stimulate our intelligence, make us less stupid, give us the impression of being part of a community that asks questions.
I offer you three very different tests which have spinner my synapses and made my brain happy. Three essays reflecting current Quebec production. What they have in common is being mainstream, facing current issues and offering a certain resistance.
Let’s start with the essay story by Simon Paré-Poupart, Garbage !published by Lux in September. A vigorous and atypical little book from a real, real garbage collector who has been collecting our garbage for 20 years. As he says from the outset, he transported nearly 70,000 tonnes of waste, which necessarily shaped his vision of life and the world. It offers us a foray not devoid of humor into this fascinating universe of which we know nothing, which we especially do not want to see, on the dirtiest part of our consumer society.
IMAGE TAKEN FROM THE PUBLISHER’S SITE
The test Garbage !by Simon Paré-Poupart, was published by Lux.
He deeply loves his profession, so much so that he sought training in sociology to better understand all its dimensions and implications, which gives his work an unprecedented depth. He questions the notions of clean and dirty, about our era which generates an overabundance of garbage. He also paints tender and tasty portraits of his colleagues, the marginalized, the eccentrics, all incredibly in shape. He also mentions the quasi-garbage cartels. And we learn along the way that our garbage collectors speak to us through our trash, depending on whether they pitchent roughly at arm’s length on our land or they carefully place it back in our driveway! A UFO with fascinating reading.
Marilyse Hamelin is a valiant, forty-something feminist, from this generation which is in the shadow of the “ancestral feminists” of 1970, and pressed by the younger ones. For 10 years, on the blog Pink weekIn News, Chatelaine et The Women’s Gazettethis author and essayist bravely chronicled and testified to feminist issues. This gives: Solitudes, a decade of feminist reflectionspublished by Somme tout in August.
IMAGE TAKEN FROM THE PUBLISHER’S SITE
Solitudes, a decade of feminist reflectionsby Marilyse Hamelin, was published by Éditions Somme tout.
Marilyse is not the type to compile her texts to display narcissism. His columns are not rants, but sometimes worried glances, always honest. Over the years, we see his point of view refine and expand, and certain themes recur. She discusses the underrepresentation of women in power, the repercussions of waves of denunciations, the impact of motherhood on women. But above all, she speaks of militant exhaustion, of the weariness which overcomes her, a taboo subject, but oh so revealing and fascinating. She evokes an undertow, but also shows empathy and hope by watching her cadets go.
This is a generous and stimulating work which questions men and women, which whips us. Marilyse Hamelin may be tired, but neither discouraged nor discouraged!
The last essay I’m talking about is perhaps the most technical, but it’s easily devoured, and its subject stirs us up enough for us to come to find the few graphs which illustrate the remarks, my goodness, almost exciting…
IMAGE TAKEN FROM THE PUBLISHER’S SITE
Our consumer society is overby Jacques Nantel and Isabelle Thibeault, was published by Éditions Somme tout.
Our consumer society is overpublished three weeks ago, is the result of the meeting between marketing specialist Jacques Nantel and Isabelle Thibeault, anthropologist of consumption. A man on the right and a woman on the left. Improbable dialogue between the one who picks up the pieces broken by the consumption guru and the latter. And it works!
The two question each other and answer each other pertinently, because they arrive at the same observation: we are heading towards an impasse. For them, the path to lasting prosperity involves a drastic reduction in our debt and, above all, a change from passive consumer to enlightened citizen. Their advocacy is doubly effective.
I love essays, have I told you? I feel like I’m in a discotheque of ideas!
1. Read the file “Our 25 new classics”
What do you think? Participate in the dialogue
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