Published in the Age of Unravelling

Can it be? Not four weeks into the New Year and already a new Canadian Notes & Queries? A theme issue – "Writing in the Age of Unravelling" – it makes for some uncomfortable reading. Catherine Bush contributes an essay on representations of the climate crisis in fiction. Jacky Sawatzky writes on her memorial to the endangered giraffe. Jennifer Ilse Black and Waubgeshig Rice are interviewed. Andrew Forbes presents a cli-fi primer.

Credit goes to Guest Editors Patricia Robertson and Sharon English.

The issue's Dusty Bookcase concerns Hotter Than Hell, the 1974 Kiss album produced by Kenny Kenner and Richie Wise.

I jest. It's about the 2005 dystopian novel of the same title.

Political animals will remember Hotter Than Hell as the small press book the newly-elected Harper Conservatives made famous by silencing its author, government scientist Mark Tushington.

What intrigued me is that for all the coverage – The Globe & Mail, The New York Times, The Scientist, et al – no one appeared to have taken the time to read the damn thing.

Well, I've read it. And now you don't have to.

Here's a typical passage:

The Eighteenth Guard (Pennsylvania) and Eighth Guard (New York) divisions, supported by the 1st Marine and 57th Urban brigades were attacking, The First Guard Division was being badly defeated in every sector. The 28th and 29th regiments were quickly pushed out of Abany and up the length of the Mohawk Valley. It was only then that we retreated into Utica that my forces could hold. Because of the inactivity of the IV Corps, I took a supreme gamble and withdrew elements of the 6th Armored Brigade from covering Montreal.

You're welcome.

Other contributors include:

Madhur Anand

Peter Anson

Nicholas Bradley

Yuan Changming

Stephen Fowler

Lise Gaston

Roger Greenwald

Mahak Jain

Joanna Lilley

JF Martel

David Mason

Catherine Owen

Seth

Roz Spafford

Erika Thorkelson

RM Vaughan

Mary Lou Zeitown

The issue also features the annual Book Review supplement.

Thirty-two pages of goodness, provided by:

Michel Basilières

Steven W. Beattie

Jeff Bursey

Andreae Callahan

Laura Cameron

Paige Cooper

Trevor Corkum

André Forget

Monique Giroux

James Granger

Brett Josef Grubisic

Katia Grubisic

Stephen Henighan

Dancy Mason

Rohan Maitzen

Rod Moody-Corbet

Rudrapriya Rathore

Patricia Robertson

Matthew D. Rodrigues

Mark Sampson

Jonathan Valelly

Derek Webster

Bruce Whiteman

Apparently, there's a sequel to Hotter Than Hell.

I'll leave it to others to explore.

Related post:

Number 43 in a Series