tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-607719101484462692.post8509507226637824783..comments2024-01-23T12:27:05.258+00:00Comments on The Stone and the Star: P K Page's 'Stories of Snow': "Where Silent, Unrefractive Whiteness Lies"Clarissa Aykroydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08571136118573329263noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-607719101484462692.post-44481192840978967852012-08-06T17:14:52.885+01:002012-08-06T17:14:52.885+01:00Labrador...hmm, to a non-Labradorian Canadian it s...Labrador...hmm, to a non-Labradorian Canadian it seems like the most unimaginably bleak place! Which for some weird reason I don't feel about Antarctica. (Mind you, I am sure that Labrador has a great deal of beauty of its own - and I don't know much about it. I think every place is beautiful, except those really spoiled by humans.)<br /><br />I enjoy being a city dweller, but I think that when I start dreaming about Antarctica (even waking dreams) it's a sign that I need to defrag my brain, get back to what's important, spend a bit more time around nature (even just in the park), etc. Part of my fascination with Antarctica has to do with the heroism of its explorers, too. If you have any interest in Antarctica I recommend Terra Incognita by Sara Wheeler, unreservedly. It is about her personal experiences there, incorporating its history and exploration, natural wonders, the eccentric characters she meets there... At one and the same time it's hilarious, moving, insightful and beautiful.<br /><br />It may be hard sometimes to tell the difference between "ancestral memory" and traits/habits/preferences which have been passed down through families. Some people are more a product of their family than others - I am certainly one myself. I think ancestral memory, and traits being passed down through family habit, custom and tradition, are similar things, but not exactly the same.Clarissa Aykroydhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08571136118573329263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-607719101484462692.post-53810235897490880222012-08-06T02:46:58.234+01:002012-08-06T02:46:58.234+01:00Have you considered Labrador? Not Antarctica, but ...Have you considered Labrador? Not Antarctica, but it might be rather free of distractions all the same. I am interested in vestiges of ancestral experience which may dwell at some deep level within us, drawing us to things we cannot understand our need or longing for in any really rational way. Or things which we experienced ourselves at some early stage and which have influenced us forever after. I think of my grandmother, for example, who identified so strongly with her childhood in a Norwegian emigrant family that I believe that experience hindered her in some ways from fully entering into American life. Or a 93 year-old Russian friend, born in Siberia in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, who came to America at age 5 but who still lives a very Russian life in her California home nearly a century after leaving her homeland. She finds pre-revolutionary Russian poetry much more pertinent to her daily concerns today than this morning's newspaper.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com