Canadian Literature/ Littératurecanadienne A Quarterly of Criticism and Review Number 185, Summer 2005 Published by The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Editor: Laurie Ricou Associate Editors: Laura Moss (Reviews), Glenn Deer (Reviews), Kevin McNeilly (Poetry), Réjean Beaudoin (Francophone Writing) Past Editors: George Woodcock (1959–1977), W.H. New, Editor emeritus (1977–1995), Eva-Marie Kröller (1995–2003) Editorial Board Heinz Antor University of Cologne, Germany Janice Fiamengo University of Ottawa Carole Gerson Simon Fraser University Smaro Kamboureli University of Guelph Jon Kertzer University of Calgary Ric Knowles University of Guelph Louise Ladouceur University of Alberta Patricia Merivale University of British Columbia Leslie Monkman Queen’s University Maureen Moynagh St. Francis Xavier University Élisabeth Nardout-Lafarge Université de Montréal Roxanne Rimstead Université de Sherbrooke David Staines University of Ottawa Neil ten Kortenaar University of Toronto Penny van Toorn University of Sydney, Australia Mark Williams University of Canterbury, New Zealand Editorial Laurie Ricou Pacifist Poetics 6 Articles Florence Stratton There is no Bentham Street in Calgary: Panoptic Discourses and Thomas King’s Medicine River 11 Anne Compton Writing Paintings and Thinking Physics: Anne Simpson’s Poetry 30 Linda Morra Canadian Art According to Emily Carr: The Search for Indigenous Expression 43 Herb Wyile Doing the Honourable Thing: Guy Vanderhaeghe’s The Last Crossing 59 Neta Gordon Sign and Symbol in Barbara Gowdy’s The White Bone 76 Articles continued Gayla McGlamery The Three Tropographies of Ronald Wright’s A Scientific Romance 92 Rebecca Waese “Mystory”in Allison Muri’s the hystery of the broken fether 111 Poems A. Mary Murphy 10 Rhona McAdam 75 Anne Simpson 28, 110 Roger Nash 91 Dave Margoshes 58 Books in Review Forthcoming book reviews are available at the Canadian Literature web site: http://www.cdn-lit.ubc.cahttp://www.canlit.ca Authors Reviewed Mike Gasher 150 Marjorie Anderson 180 Liam Gearon 152 Debbie Bailey 131 Adam Getty 139 Esther Beauchemin 164 Camilla Gibb 153 Neil K. Besner 132 Susan Haley 154 Dave Bidini 134 David Helwig 192 Jo Ellen Bogart 135 G.A. Henty 146 George Bowering 171 Leslie Heywood 154 Nicole Brossard 136 James A. Hirabayashi 156 Scott Burke 138 Lane Ryo Hirabayashi 156 Aaron Bushkowsky 139 Jack Hodgins 158 Howard C. Clark 141 Margaret Hollingsworth 159 Christy Ann Conlin 165 Alice Jones 146 Gregory M. Cook 139 Betty Joseph 160 Louise Côté 142 Akemi Kikumura-Yano 156 Terry Crowley 143 Pamela Klaffke 154 Nirmal Dass 144 Christopher J. Knight 161 Nicholas Debon 135 Gordon Korman 183 David R. Diaz 156 Laurie Kruk 163 Brian Doyle 145 Monique Le Maner 176 Paulette Dubé 145 Raymond Lévesque 164 Shari L. Dworkin 154 Helen Liggett 172 Evelyn Eaton 146 Douglas Lochhead 192 Jane Everett 148 Marta López-Garza 156 Vilem Flusser 177 Cynthia Macdonald 165 Tina Forrester 131 Tara Manuel 166 Linda Frank 139 Helen McLean 166 Patrick Friesen 186 Kembrew McLeod 154 Robert M. Galois 149 John Metcalf 167 Lisa Moore 169 Frank Davey 167 Kim Moritsugu 170 Paul Denham 163 Susan Musgrave 171 Greg Doran 181 Robert S. Nelson 172 L. M. Findlay 141 Donna Bailey Nurse 174 Gordon Fisher 194 Margaret Olin 172 Louise H. Forsyth 136 James S. Olson 175 Jennifer Fraser 170 André Paquette 176 Graham Good 161, 195 J. Pivato 177 Tony Griffiths 134 François Ricard 148 Faye Hammill 132 Stephen Harold Riggins 190 Beverley Haun 180 Tanya Roberts-Davis 131 Colin Hill 153 Kerri Sakamoto 179 Teresa Hubel 160 Candace Savage 131 Latham Hunter 154 Virginia Frances Schwartz 180 Susan Kevra 142 Daniel Sendecki 139 Christine Kim 166 Stephen Shapiro 131 R. Alexander Kizuk 186 Carol Shields 180 Ross Labrie 152 Russell Smith 181 Tanis MacDonald 175 Glen Sorestad 192 Sylvain Marois 164 Heather Spears 182 Peggy Martin 194 Kathy Stinson 183 Travis V. Mason 171 Karen X. Tulchinsky 183 Philipp Maurer 190 Isabel Vaillancourt 185 Alan D. McMillan 149 Fred Wah 186 Paul Milton 192 Tom Walmsley 188 Anupama Mohan 144 Eric Walters 145 Linda Morra 159 Marylu Walters 189 Ann Morrison 135 Tom Warner 190 Rick Mulholland 145 Tom Wayman 186 Blair Munro 188 Christopher Wiseman 192 W.H. New 158 Jeanne Perreault 145 Of Note Judith Plessis 180 Cathy Converse 194 Norman Ravvin 183 Beth Hill 194 Elise Salaun 185 Helen Mourre 194 Leslie Sanders 174 Val Ross 194 Anne Scott 176 Richard Stevenson 195 Robert M. Seiler 189 Maria Tippett 196 Paul Socken 148 Roy Starrs 179 Reviewers Carole A. Turner 139 Charles Barbour 172 Hilary Turner 183 Albert Braz 154 Samara Walbohm 143 Andrea Cabajsky 146 Jerry Wasserman 150 Alison Calder 165 Tracy Wyman-Marchand 182 Lily Cho 156 Lynn (J.R.) Wytenbroek 131 Virginia Cooke 138 Jim Zucchero 177 David Creelman 169 Misao Dean 194 Last Pages Kevin McNeilly What Remains: Anne Simpson’s Loop 197 Copyright © 2005 The University of British For subscriptions, back issues (as avail- Columbia able), and annual and cumulative indexes, write: Managing Editor, Subject to the exception noted below, Canadian Literature, at the address below. reproduction of the journal, or any part thereof, in any form or transmission in any Publications Mail Agreement no. manner is strictly prohibited. Reproduc- 40592543 Registration no. 08647 tion is only permitted for the purposes of return undeliverable canadian research or private study in a manner that addresses to is consistent with the principle of fair deal- ing as stated in the Copyright Act (Canada). 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Visit the Canadian Literature website for news, forth- coming reviews, submission guidelines, subscription information, archives, and other features: http://www.canlit.ca Editorial Pacifist Poetics Laurie Ricou Notice what this poem is not doing. —William Stafford I have long paid attention to writers who would teach us to inhabit natural landscapes more completely, more sensitively. That interest, turned toward region and then to bioregion, has in recent years bracketed the Canadian aspect of my reading of Canadian literature. In a bioregion, Canadian is at once meaningless and still crucial. What he terms the “brim gravity” of place has often pulled me toward Oregon poet William Stafford. But when asked recently if I had anything to say about Stafford as pacifist I was uncertain. Would there be anything in the concept of a pacifist poetics? Reading Stafford again not as regionalist but as pacifist, I was confused. For all that he had been celebrated, or side- lined, as regionalist, surprisingly few poems now seemed to be located. Where place names did appear, in title or stanza, they often seemed inci- dental or accidental. I thought then of a Canadian novel intriguingly adept at listening to place—Howard O’Hagan’s Tay John (1939). O’Hagan’s mythic regionalism leads us on, one strong pulse in it insisting on an obligation for naming: It is physically exhausting to look on unnamed country.