|
| |
A Discovery of Strangers
Review by SEAN PEAKE
by Rudy Wiebe.
Knopf Canada 1994. 317pp $27.00.
Canoelit Home Page
After reading Rudy's last book on the Arctic, Playing Dead [see Che-Mun Outfit 57], I looked forward to reading his latest endeavour on the far North. This, especially after his now-famous encounter with W.P. Kinsella, on CBC's Morningside with Peter Gzowski. These two authors had rather harsh words to say against the other regarding "misappropriation of voice," (placing words into the mouth of one who is neither of your gender nor race) the current PC buzzwords sweeping through the academic community - but this is another story.
Discovery of Strangers is set during the 1819-1821 Franklin expedition - one of the most harrowing misadventures ever played out on Canada's Barrengrounds. The main story revolves around Robert Hood, George Back, and Greenstockings, a young Yellowknife native woman, who caught the eye of these two young British officers. Intertwined in this love story is the murder of Robert Hood, by Michel Terrohaute, the Mohawk voyageur, near Obstruction Rapids in 1820. These elements could have combined to produce a compelling story. They could have, but don't.
Discovery of Strangers is the springboard from which Wiebe sets out to vent all his pet peeves: European imperialism, the Christian faith, misogeny, chauvinism, and the fur trade. In true 90s fashion, he whines about all that's wrong and how we've been screwed by others. His characters mouth the slogans of the politically correct - voyageurs are "paddle slaves", the English are always "killing, killing, killing" animals.
He also appears to lack knowledge of the fur trade - he should have spent time researching his subject rather than using a bibliography from Peter C. Newman's HBC history. To run a post in winter requires the efforts of every man to hunt and fish for provisions. The amount of meat consumed by the men, especially the voyageurs, is staggering.
According to David Thompson, voyageurs required between five and eight pounds of meat per day, not to mention the daily consumption of flour, sugar tea, chocolate, dogs, cats, and other foods. With an average contingent of between eight to 15men, with their families of three or four, at a winter's post, a 400 lb. adult caribou or deer reduces to 175 of useable meat per animal, which wouldn't last long. Any meat left over was put into a hoard and saved for travel in the spring.
Besides, if he really had done his homework, he would know that the main re-provisioning and recruitment centre on the Orkney Islands for ships departing for the HBC factories on Hudson Bay was Stromness(not Stormness).
Unfortunately, Wiebe has failed to see through the eyes of the writers from whom he borrowed his material. I, too, have been guilty of this practice but was set straight by the dean of Canadian historians, W. Kaye Lamb. I had mentioned to him my dislike of Elliot Coues, an early editor of Lewis and Clark, Alexander Henry the younger and David Thompson. Lamb said that I must always remember the attitudes of the writer or editor at the time of writing, and have always kept this in mind when consulting historical texts.
Social values change, and to judge the words or actions of someone 90 years ago is to be as blind as the author or editor himself.
His book may receive adulation from those at Canlit cocktail parties or the adoration of young co-eds, but for someone seeking truth and an understanding of life in the North at that time, it crashes and burns.
Back to Che-Mun
| |
|
