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Random thoughts about CAN CON



Sometimes I’m reading an article about Cultural Appropriation or something (e.g., http://www.salon.com/2016/09/26/writers-imagination-vs-cultural-appropriation-in-search-of-common-ground/) and I think about Canada and Canadian culture.

I know people who won’t read Canadian books just on principle (I tried to force a Guy Gavriel Kay book on someone once, and after about a year he conceded, and told me afterward he wished I hadn’t told him GGK was Canadian because he would have read it sooner). We consider Canadian movies to be low-budget crap. Orphan Black is so good, we don’t even consider it Canadian. I once saw George Stromboulopolis say “Americans see someone famous and say someday I’m going to be that guy. Canadians see someone famous, and they say Someday I’m going to  bring him down.” Paraphrasing, but that’s the gist.

And now we have a serial killer going around Hollywood killing people in Canadian ex-pats’ houses. Well, in my imagination, anyway. Two is a trend, right?

It all means something just on the edge of my consciousness. If only I was a little bit smarter, I could articulate it.

Like, maybe it’s that this nervous tic people have here (I can’t say Cdns, because I do it too) where we’re talking about someone who is generally accepted abroad and we go “He’s Canadian.” It’s like we can’t believe they’re talented until they’ve achieved international acclaim. We have no faith in our own judgment.

Maybe what I’m trying to say is we’re ripe for appropriation up here, I don’t know.

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