By Teresa Branch-Smith
Listening to Margaret Atwood, one of
Canada’s literary titans, read an except from her upcoming works proves that
‘story time’ can indeed be epic. Not
possibly any taller than 5’2 and dressed in a long red sleeveless coat with
striking collar to frame her recognizable grey hair and clever smile, she has a
commanding presence that had nothing to do with her status as the guest of honour.
Margaret Atwood has had her birthday dinner
in collaboration with Laurentian University for the last seven years; however,
this is the first time the celebration has occurred at Science North where close
to a hundred people attended. Most were of an older generation or affiliated
with the English department from Laurentian University that hosts the event.
Featured prominently though, were members of the Native community whom Ms.
Atwood has taken a vested interest in including in the festivities as a means
to encourage awareness of their culture. In fact, a portion of the proceeds
from the event goes towards building the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre
on campus to be completed by 2017.
Once, the apple cider was finished and the
dessert coffees and teas were made available, the stuffed dinner guests were
invited to relax and watch a video by Debajehmujig- storytellers. The mockumentary
traced the making of The Society of the Margaret Atwood Society of the
Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve of Manitoulin Island and the Surrounding
Area otherwise known as: MASOTWUIRMIASTSA . Intentions were honourable even though
some of the camera work may have been a little shaky, but because it was created
with such an earnest appreciation for Ms. Atwood’s literary accomplishments and
admiration for her character, the audience smiled without reservation.
Never out of touch with popular issues, Ms.
Atwood is all for the fantastical. Her upcoming works are dealing with literal
femme fatales as werewolves, recounts of bigfoot and the ever popular zombie
apocalypse. From the two brief excerpts, these werewolves are not the sort that
needlessly take off their shirts to reveal flawless abs in order to better
chase sparkly things. These creatures are sinister, territorial man-eaters,
that wear stilettos by day and their date’s blood by night.
The only thing that could dare compare with
the vicious werewolf hunt she described was the truly awesome recount of a trip
to the bank in the middle of a zombie ridden town. To offer a taste of the disgust
to come, she described the protagonist driving over a brain-eater who had
previously jumped on her windshield as making a gurgling ‘amphibious’ sound
post hit and run.
With Ms. Atwood, because of her enviable skill
at vividly describing the world of her imagination, listening comes all too
naturally. For this reason, we can all look forward to this version of the
apocalypse and a compulsion to check out what else is on the old English
reading list besides A Handmaid’s tale.
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