This year Canada Reads is looking at literary non-fiction -- but they are being as controlling as ever. Only non-fiction that, in their view, doesn't really read like non-fiction is likely to be allowed:
We want stories. Books that are page-turners with captivating narratives, memorable characters and vivid prose. Books so riveting you forget they are non-fiction. Books that introduce readers to a brand new world and bring them wholly into it. While we love the work that Canadian essayists, academics, chefs, decorators and self-help gurus do, those books aren't quite right. We want the final five to have stories that captivate the country. [emphasis added]Elsewhere on the site they cite Margaret McMillan as a model, but last we looked she was a bona fide academic. An essayist too, maybe. Not quite the CBC's cup of tea, one might think.
Beneath the tone-deaf illiteracy -- don't they know anything about the non-fiction genre? -- is the complacent arrogance of functionaries down inside the national radio monopoly. Why cannot Canadians read what they want to read -- and say so out loud, even on the radio?
Go ahead.
