Talk of the Town

Beyond Measure

Fri. Jan. 14, 7:30 - 9:00 PM

With: Pauline Holdstock, Essayist and Author of Beyond Measure (shortlisted for the Giller Prize)

The most common advice given to writers is “write what you know”. In her fiction and non-fiction Pauline Holdstock turns that dictum on its head -- she writes to know. In her fiction she roams the world in time and space -- China at the turn of the century, Renaissance Italy and the Northwest coast of Canada -- and uses her imagination to inhabit the lives and minds of others. Her essays are personal meditations on creativity, art, social and political issues. But whether she is writing fiction or non-fiction, Holdstock is always asking questions, probing deeper mysteries, and looking for some essential truth. In an essay entitled Getting the Horse in the Barn, she writes:

“The grittiness of the world rubs away at the sublime in us, thins it out until we begin to doubt its existence. It’s the search for proof of it, this elusive condition, that is the impulse for much of our art and the depiction of the struggle for it that is the business of so many novels.”

As well as the search for the sublime, she confronts in her work two disparate human addictions, to beauty and to cruelty. In an interview with Contemporary Authors she says: “In my work I’m trying to reconcile the beauty and the cruelty of the world. Myth and fairy tale are among my primary influences; in a contemporary desert of transitory issues and illusory ideologies they present the real questions.”

A number of the essays in her collection Mortal Distractions are about writing, the why and the how of it. There is generosity and candor in the way she shares with us the torments and triumphs, the sacred rituals involved in the creation of a world out of words. She confesses that there comes a moment in the writing of a novel when the true shape of the book can only be comprehended when the writer extracts the story from the computer and physically lays it out on the floor, to discover the path to the end. She explains her fondness for historical fiction:

“For me, historical fiction is a means of entry to an idea to be explored. As well, it also happens to be a creditable route to self-forgetfulness, the one indispensable ingredient for art of any kind, the one trick the writer must learn in order to speak directly to the reader.”

Join us at Talk of the Town for a conversation with Pauline Holdstock about the artist’s quest to find a deeper understanding of the world, and the hope that art can help connect us to our better selves.

The discussion will take place at UBC Robson Square. Attendance is free of charge, but please pre-register at info.talkofthetown@ubc.ca or phone 604.822.5675.

Reviews of Beyond Measure

“Holdstock, with a few deft strokes, pulls the reader into the tumultuous life of an alluring rabble of characters: painters, sculptors, patrons, fools, and slaves . . . In Beyond Measure, she proves herself a master of pacing. Her lively, macabre plot trips lightly along in spite of its dark elements.”
-- The Globe and Mail

“This well-executed novel can sit comfortably on any bookshelf alongside work by writers like A.S. Byatt and Jane Urquhart.”
-- The Vancouver Sun

“In Beyond Measure, Holdstock has created a fascinating portrayal of a society obsessed with surfaces, which sees the creation of beauty as ample justification for torture, mutilation, and murder.”
-- Books in Canada

Biography

Pauline Holdstock, is the author of many novels, short stories, essays and anthologies. Her most recent novel, Beyond Measure, was shortlisted for the 2004 Giller Prize and made the lists of best books of 2004 in the Globe and Mail and on CBC television. She was selected as a finalist for the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 1988 for The Blackbird’s Song and in 2002 was awarded first place for fiction by the Federation of BC Writers. Originally from England, she came to Canada in 1974. Her books have been published in the U.K. and Germany, as well as in Canada, where her work has been featured on CBC radio. Pauline Holdstock also writes essays and book reviews for magazines and national newspapers.

Bibliography

Mortal Distractions, Thistledown Press, 2004.
Beyond Measure, Cormorant Books, 2004.
The Turning, New Star Books Ltd., 1996.
Swimming from the Flames, Turnstone Press, 1995.
House, Beach Holme Publishing Ltd., 1994.
The Burial Ground, New Star Books Ltd., 1990; also Idstein: Baum Publications, 1992.
The Blackbird's Song, Simon & Pierre Publishing Company Limited, 1987; also London: Peter Halban, 1990.

Links & Readings

Links

Truth to Tell

This is an essay from Mortal Distractions that first appeared online at Dooney’s Café.

Catch

Open Democracy, an online global magazine of politics and culture, published this essay in Dec. 2004.

Mortal Distractions

The Thistledown Press web site has background on Pauline Holdstock’s book of essays Mortal Distractions.

Giller Prize

The newsroom at the Giller Prize site has information on all the 2004 finalists, including Beyond Measure.

Beyond Measure

The publisher of Beyond Measure, Cormorant Books, has a page featuring the book.