Recently The Gazette, the only English daily newspaper in Quebec, proudly declared that it was improving its book section! “Hmm,” I thought. More pages, more reviews of local writers and maybe better reviewers? So imagine my reaction when I saw the Saturday, May 9, 2009 Book Review section— One “freaking” page!
It used to be four pages and most of that was for bestsellers and/or coffee table books. Now it was “improved” to one page! “George Orwell,” I thought. I imagined “Coming soon to a newsstand near you, the ultimate perfect book section —no pages.” Talk about doublespeak!
What an insult to the literate English reading public of Montreal. A one-page book section. There are three pages devoted to the comics!
I am no fan of The Gazette book section, especially since it gave my book of poems a terrible review. I even wrote to them stating that it’s not fit to wrap week-old fish in. I still think that’s true, but it’s reaching a point where there isn’t even enough to wrap a dead minnow in it.
My being upset with The Gazette for giving me a bad review is a personal affair. My being upset with The Gazette for eliminating the book section (all but in name) is a public one. The Gazette feels that its one-page kitty-litter-liner-nod to the importance of literature is enough. Well it is not. The review of important books— poetry, as well as those secondary literary arts (fiction and non-fiction)— the discussion of literature and the ideas therein are essential for the well-being of a culture. If The Gazette, the shining knight/defender of the English language, does not believe this then it is being hypocritical, short-sighted, and stupid and it is contributing to its own demise.
Yes, economic hard times, technological changes and readers’ attitudes have contributed to the decline of readership interest and ad revenue. However, perhaps, if The Gazette were to do a better job generally, and particularly, at reviewing local authors and developing a forum for serious debate about literature and ideas, it might find an increase in readership. However, the absentee slumlords of this paper are not interested in improving the establishment. They know the tenants have nowhere else to go for their morning sports, comics and puzzles. And nothing else to wrap their dead fish in.
But maybe we are getting what we deserve.
In the 1980s, one of the bright lights at The Gazette decided to eliminate the book section. The literary community of the time, the writers (a lot fewer than now), bookstores (more independent than now), and readers (more engaged than now?) wrote letters, (not e–mails) you know, the kind you had to stuff in an envelope, buy a stamp for, lick and drop in a mailbox. And surprise, surprise, surprise. It worked. The Gazette suddenly found a few advertisers willing to buy ads (cheaper on those pages) and declared with great fanfare that it was improving the pages. And for a while, it did.
But here we are in 2009 with a diminished book section and hardly a peep from anyone. You would think that at least the writers and readers would complain. Perhaps The Gazette and its book editor feel that the desperate poets, should be thankful for the crumbs of reviews of 3 books of poems in 650 words every three four months. And if they aren’t, let them write fiction! And perhaps they are right. Our silence seems to confirm this belief.
Perhaps, the print newspaper is becoming an endangered creature. Perhaps its time has come. If it is so, all the more reason for a magazine like Poetry Quebec to exist.
In his doctoral thesis back in the 1940s, Louis Dudek argued that the decline of literature or literary discussion in the press began with mass production of newspapers. His conclusion (strange for one who has been accused of elitism) was that artists had to have control of the means of production. With the new technology, we have the opportunity, and so we must seize it before that, too, becomes the private domain of the rich and greedy.
