I'm a long-time fan of George Stroumboulopoulos (I hope I spelled that correctly. Strombo, if you ever read this, I apologize if I misspelled your name). I've been watching his show for years, well, whenever I get the chance to catch it, and I always love how he starts off with, "I'm your boyfriend...". That's right. For the duration of his show, I'm not a single lady. Strombo as my boyfriend? Score!
Moving on...
Last night, I was flipping through the channel guide, and low and behold, his show was on. So I read the info on it, and his guest for the evening was none other than one of this country's literary giants, Margaret Atwood. You bet I was going to watch that episode! Strombo plus Atwood? Talk about a Canadian power duo! I must confess, I've never read any of Atwood's novels (I know, I know, shame on me), however, I have read some of her poetry and essays. Strombo has always been a fabulous interviewer, and Atwood proved that she's a fantastic interviewee.
Miss. Atwood is a most interesting person. The pictures of her that I've seen give off the impression of a somewhat scary-looking woman. Not Wicked Witch of the West kind of scary, a Do Not Get On My Bad Side Or I Will Become Your Worst Nightmare kind of scary. The woman who was being interviewed last night was softer-looking, and had a much quieter voice (in terms of volume) than I would have expected. But don't let that quiet voice fool you. She wouldn't be the powerhouse she is if she wasn't heard. For instance, she didn't mean to cause a ruckus when she tweeted her opinion about Doug Ford wanting to close libraries, she just happens to have a large Twitter following who share similar feelings, and decided to become rather vocal.
Of course, if anyone can tap into the brilliance of an interviewee, Strombo knows how to do it. According to Atwood, the sci-fi genre can be broken down into three sub-genres: The science fiction that we're most familiar with (think Isaac Asimov and H.G Wells), speculative fiction (think George Orwell's 1984), and sword & scorcery fiction/ science fantasy (I believe Tolkien falls into this category). Speaking of Tolkein, according to Atwood, if she could place Canada/ Canadians as any Lord of the Rings character(s), we would be the Hobbits in the Shire. We're fun-loving, kind, like to party, and we have the "One Ring to Rule Them All" in a manner of speaking. Translated, we have a good many resources that the world requires and would love to get their hands on. Leave it to a literary giant to compare this country to LOTR. She'd probably be Gandalf, particularly at the end of the first movie, when he takes his staff, slams it down, and starts bellowing, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
And that big mother of a monster would be Doug Ford backing down for fear of getting his ass kicked by Margaret Atwood, only she'd likely be hollering, "LIBRARIES SHALL NOT CLOSE" instead.
Last night, Strombo decided to do his one series of crazy, random questions thing. At Atwood's insistence, Strombo asked her which Wizard of Oz she best portrays. Not surprisingly, though she has her Glinda days, she has no problem being the Wicked Witch of the West. As well, Margaret Atwood seems to have a love of comic books, particularly Batman. Who knew?
Methinks I'm going to have to start reading some of Margaret Atwood's novels. I get the feeling that they would be most fascinating.
Below is the link to the video of George Stroumboulopoulos' interview with Margaret Atwood from his page on the CBC website:
http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/videos.html?id=2153620696
Enjoy!
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