Working with Words

[bibliogramma]

Moving Targets: Writing with Intent 1982-2004, Margaret Atwood

This is, as the title suggests, a collection of critical essays and other pieces written over the past two decades. It’s Atwood’s second collection – I have not yet read her first, but there’s always tomorrow.

It’s a glorious read. Even when she’s writing about authors and works that I’m not familiar with, it’s still a pleasure to read for the quality of her analyses and her prose.

The critical pieces look at works as varied as Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Gabriel Garciá Márquez’ The General in his Labyrinth, Elmore Leonard’s Tishiomingo Blues and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, to name a few. Also included are introductions and afterwords to books ranging from The Canadian Green Consumer Guide to H Rider Haggard’s She. Other essays cover a range of topics, personal, professional, political. It’s a delicious smorgasbord that highlights both the diversity and intensity of one of Canada’s greatest wordsmiths.


The Language Imperative, Suzette Haden Elgin

Suzette Haden Elgin is both an artist and a linguist; her writing in both arenas is always worth reading. In The Language Imperative, she argues not just the importance and power of language and its affects on how we think, how we see the world, and how our cultures are shaped, but also the importance of understanding language and integrating that understanding into political decisions about educational and language policies.

Elgin writes from a US perspective, particularly in arguing the importance of multilingualism (something that is a fact of life in many other parts of the world), but much of the material she addresses here has implications for anyone with an interest in how language, culture and perceptions of reality interact.

Comments

[calico-reaction.livejournal.com]

Adding the Atwood to my "one of these days" list! Thanks so much! What's her other essay book?

The Elgin book sounds great as well. :)

[bibliogramma.livejournal.com]

It's always fun to share book recommendations, isn't it?

Atwood's first collection of critical essays is: Second Words: Selected Critical Prose 1960-1982.