3817. Writing with Intent: Essays, Reviews, Personal Prose, 1983-2005. [Sound recording]. Princeton, NJ: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 2005. 1 sound disc. Distribution is restricted to RFB&D members who have a documented print disability such as a visual impairment, learning disability, or other physical disability.
3818. “You Fit into Me.” In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry. Ed. Kate Braid and Sandy Shreve. Vancouver, BC: Polestar, an Imprint of Raincoast Books, 2005. 66. Also in Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 9th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 828. Reprinted from Power Politics, ©1973.
3819. “You Fit into Me.” The Seagull Reader: Poems. [Sound recording]. Ed. Joseph Kelly. Princeton, NJ: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 2005. 1 compact disc. Originally published: New York: W.W. Norton, ©2001. “Distribution is restricted to RFB&D members who have a documented print disability such as a visual impairment, learning disability or other physical disability.”
Quotations
3821. “[Quote].” Books in Canada 34.7 (1 October 2005): 19. In a review of Orhan Pa-muk’s two recent books, Michael Harris, the reviewer, quotes Atwood, who, in an essay on duplicity, posited that every writer has two selves: “I mean,” she explains, “the person who exists when no writing is going forward—the one who walks the dog, eats bran for regularity, takes the car to be washed, and so forth— and that other, more shadowy and altogether more equivocal personage who shares the same body, and who, when no one is looking, takes it over and uses it to commit the actual writing.”
3822. “[Quote].” Briar Patch 34.7 (1 November 2005): 30. Theresa Green, in discussing new book about Ken Sprague, The People’s Artist, quotes Atwood: “Creativity is an act of defying death.”
3823. “[Quote].” Daily Telegraph (London) 3 December 2005: Section: Books: 1. In an article entitled “The Stuff of Life: We’ve Had a Taste for Cookbooks Since Before Printing Was Invented, Yet Most Recipes Get No Further Than the Page,” Kate Colquhoun writes: “As Margaret Atwood said in 1987, ‘One man’s cookbook is another woman’s soft porn: there is a certain sybaritic voyeurism involved, an in-dulgency by proxy.’”
3824. “[Quote].” The Gazette (Montreal) 5 March 2005: Section: News: A1. “Canada must be the only country in the world where a policeman is used as a national symbol.”
3825. “[Quote].” Maclean’s 10 October 2005: Section: Reflection: 7. Peter Newman, reviewing the history of Maclean’s, noted that “when we published an article by Margaret Atwood and allowed a few errors to creep in, she sent me a pointed note: ‘There’s a wonderful invention kicking around. It’s called the telephone. Some magazines use it for a process called checking. That’s because they like the material they publish to be as accurate as possible. Sincerely, Margaret Atwood.’”
3826. “[Quote].” Ottawa Citizen 16 January 2005: Section: Citizen’s Weekly: C13. Margaret Atwood on her last book tour and the inspiration behind her plans to create a remote autographing device: “I thought, there has to be a better way of doing this. I am now an old-age pensioner, I cannot keep doing this. I can’t keep eating Prin-gles (from the hotel minibar) and keep getting on the plane at four in the morning.”
3827. “[Quote].” The Scotsman 29 August 2005: 30. Report of an Atwood appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival by Susan Mansfield notes that at one point she told her audience: “I write more than I publish. With some people it’s the other way around.”
3828. “[Quote].” Sunday Herald 22 May 2005: Section: 7 Days: 18. An article by Alan Taylor, in which author Ali Smith is interviewed about her new novel, quotes At-wood: “You are only as good as your last book sells.”
3829. “[Quote].” Toronto Star 27 October 2005: Section: Editorial: A24. In writing about the importance of funding to the arts, James Fleck quotes Atwood: “If the teeny Canada Council arts grant I got in 1969 were to be viewed as an investment, dollar for dollar, it is certainly one of the better investments anyone ever made.”
3830. “[Quote].” Toronto Star 8 November 2005: Section: Entertainment: C06. In Chicago to accept the 2005 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize, Atwood noted that Chicago “is a lot like Toronto...but with Studs Terkel, more Art Deco, and a better waterfront.”
Interviews
3831. BEHE, Regis. “Dark Topics Find, Inspire Writer.” Pittsburgh Tribune Review 22 January 2005: s.p. Available from Lexis-Nexis. Atwood interviewed by phone prior to her visit to Pittsburgh.
3832. BETHUNE, Brian. “Pretty Maids Hanging in a Row.” Maclean’s 31 October 2005: Section: BackTalk: 74. Bethune notes that there’s never any shortage of things to talk about with Atwood. She may have sat down to discuss The Penelo-piad, but she’s just as happy to talk about the latest historical thinking on the Black Death—“apparently a Marburg-Ebola variant, not the bubonic plague at all,” she says. Or 13th-century Mongol raids, even getting up from her chair to demonstrate the different bowshots mastered by Genghis Khan’s cavalry. Atwood is a voracious reader as well as a dedicated researcher, but her interest in two key medieval events raises the suspicion her next novel will feature disease-ridden horsemen from hell. As to The Penelopiad, Atwood’s imaginative version offers a convincing explanation and a nasty punishment for Odysseus: “I’m willing, like everybody else, to let him off for killing the suitors, but not the girls.”
3833. DESMEULES, Christian. “Margaret Atwood: Visions du futur.” Le Devoir 16 April 2005: F3. Interviewed in the offices of her Quebec publisher about Le dernier homme. (689 w).
3834. DIXON, Guy. “A Desperate Housewife in Ancient Greece: The Man Is Gone. The Kid Is Lippy. And Who Killed the Maids? Margaret Atwood Reimagines Penelope.” Globe and Mail 22 October 2005: R12. Atwood interviewed about her new book. (1015 w).
3835. EAST, Louise. “Looking Beyond Version A.” Irish Times 29 October 2005: Section: Weekend: 10. Interview in advance of reading at Dublin’s Liberty Hall. Atwood began to write the book working with North American mythology, but after several failed attempts, she gave up. “You look beyond the story you’re presented with, ‘version A’ you could call it, because version A is never the whole story,” Atwood says simply. “I almost backed out of the contract,” she added. “Cue frosty silence from my agent. So I said I’d give it three weeks.” During those three weeks, the poor dead maids kicked the way into her consciousness. “It just comes to you in the bath, that eureka moment,” she says. “Everyone will tell you the same thing….You’re working on the wrong thing, you give it up and then the right thing presents itself. I don’t know how that works.” The silenced maids finally get to speak in The Penelopiad in the form of sea shanties, skipping rhymes and ballads (not for nothing has Atwood written 13 volumes of verse as well as novels, criticism, and children’s writing), each of which are interspersed with Penelope’s dispatches from the brilliantly dreary underworld.
3836. EBERHART, John Mark. “Margaret Atwood Cautions America, Like a Good Neighbor.” Herald News (Passaic County, NJ) 19 June 2005: Section: Life: C03. Also available in Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia) 4 June 2005: Section: Bam: M08; Kansas City Star 25 May 2005: Section: Entertainment News: s.p. Available from Lexis-Nexis. Atwood interviewed in Era Ora, a restaurant near her home whose kitchen was being renovated, on occasion of the publication of Writing with Intent (one of whose essays is reflected in this article’s headline). Eberhart comments that “it is, in fact, simple to sum up Atwood for neophytes: This writer imagines bad things happening but hopes for the best.” (1759 w).
3837. ENRIGHT, Michael. Great Conversations with Michael Enright. Vol. One, Talking to Writers. [Toronto]: CBC Audio, 2005. Disc 1: Atwood interviewed on Sunday Edition on the connection between writer, book, and reader. (29 April 2002).
3838. GODSEY, Kristin D. “Margaret Atwood: Unlocking the Door to Creativity by Multitasking.” Writer’s Market 2006. Ed. Kathryn S. Brogan. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest Books, 2005. 39-42.
3839. GOODLIFFE, Kim. “Mythmakin
g on a New Level: Margaret Atwood Launches Ambitious New Global Series.” Ottawa Citizen 31 October 2005: C1. Also in: Vancouver Sun 22 October 2005: Section: Books: D17. Atwood interviewed in the lounge of Vancouver’s Four Seasons Hotel about The Penelopiad. Excerpt: “When we say ‘myth,’ we don’t mean something that’s untrue. Nor do we mean any old story. Jokes are stories; they’re not myths. Fables—fox and grapes—they’re stories; they’re not myths. Certain folktales are stories but not myths. What do we mean by ‘myth’? We mean a story that is the foundation stone of a cultural system. So, Noah and the Ark, Adam and Eve, the Trojan War all count as myths.”
3840. GORING, Rosemary. “The Hard Lady of Literature.” The Herald (Glasgow) 18 June 2005: Section: Magazine: 21. Report of an afternoon spent with Atwood and Graeme Gibson in which both were interviewed about their relationship and writing. (3958 w).
3841. HAMMOND, Margo. “The Joys of Small.” St. Petersburg Times (FL) 30 January 2005: Section: Perspective: 4P. Atwood caught by Hammond having just returned from an ice rink where she was taping a comedy show [as a goalie] that aired on CBC Television’s Rick Mercer Report. A wide-ranging interview before her upcoming visit to the Florida Seacoast Writers’ Conference. Some excerpts: “Canadians know everything about America, but Americans know very little about Canada. We have to know those things. We’re a small country, a trading country. We have to be aware of global situations. We have to be aware of things outside our own borders. Is it a liability or an asset to be a writer from a small country? The liability of being small? People can shove you around. The liability of being big? You don’t watch where you’re going and that can lead you to bad errors, such as falling into holes. The asset of being small? Being small makes you very aware of other people. You’re very aware of where their feet are at all times. I am small in stature as an individual, and I’m from a relatively small country. Being small, you’re just more aware. You don’t take it for granted that you are bigger than everybody, because you’re not. It makes you nimble.”
Do you think these differences in size affect what Canadian writers and American writers are concerned about? “Alistair McLeod, the Canadian writer, says that writers write about what worries them. There are a lot of things that worry writers in the United States. But if we were going to make a list of worries, our worries (in Canada) would be different.”
What would be at the top of your list? “You. We worry about you. We worry about America. We worry about it from several different angles. What’s it going to do to us next? What’s it going to do next? If it falls down a hole, a whole lot of other people are going to go with it. So actually you don’t want it to fall down a hole.”
Do you like the label Canadian writer? “I don’t actually care. But I don’t see why you can’t be more than one thing. I’m a short, 65-year-old female, white, straight, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, North America, the world writer who believes women are human beings. Plus I have curly hair. Plus I have blue eyes.”
Here’s another label. Politically, you call yourself a red Tory. What is that? “That’s a common term here. You don’t have those, so it’s very hard to describe to you. You’ve got Republicans or Democrats. You’ve got liberals or conservatives. We don’t slice that way. Partly because Canada is a far more socially conservative country than you. We have a way lower murder rate, a lower divorce rate, but we have more tolerant attitudes. Put those together.”
What is the role of a writer? “We’ve never found that out. We know that they make people in power very nervous. And the closer to totalitarianism a government becomes, the more nervous artists make them. They’re likely to blurt out things that people in power find unpalatable and disagreeable.”
So they are a kind of watchdog? A prophet? “Well, you can’t tell writers what to be. As soon as you tell them they’re supposed to be, they’ll do the opposite.”
3842. HILLER, Susanne. “A Weaver’s Tale.” National Post 22 October 2005: Section: Weekend Post: WP4. Atwood on The Penelopiad and life as a blond. Some excerpts:
What intrigued you about the project...? “Well, I grew up with this kind of thing. You remember Andrew Lang? I used to get those books out of the public library as a child. I had all of these folklore books. I read Grimm’s fairy tales very early on, and the Greek myths. Then in school we had The Iliad and The Odyssey, which we had to translate. Then I went to Victoria College, at U. of T., where I met Northrop Frye, who was interested in mythology. Myths are old and an oral tradition and really the building block of storytelling.”
A lot of people would say it is classic Atwood to do a feminist reclamation of the myth. “I wouldn’t even call it feminist. Every time you write something from the point of view of a woman, people say that it’s feminist, and when you write something from the point of view of a man, they say, ‘Why did you write it from the point of view of a man?’ You actually can’t win on those gender issues.”
How did you research? “I had the primary text. I enjoyed rereading it. It made me realize how cleverly it was put together. It cuts back and forth like a movie. And all the information about Penelope’s ancestry came from Robert Graves’s The Greek Myths.”
On a totally different note, we hear that you dyed your hair blond. “What is this word ‘dyed’? I’m helping nature. It’s called blending in the grey.”
So do blonds have more fun? “For comparative purposes, I would have had to be blond at an earlier age. Let me put it this way: It’s better to look at the back of your head in a mirror and see light with dark roots, than see dark with light roots.”
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