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Serious Play: Alden Nowlan, Leo Ferrari, Gwendolyn MacEwen, and their Flat Earth Society by David Eso B.A., University of British Columbia, 2004 M.A., University of Calgary, 2015 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English © David Eso, 2021 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This Dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Serious Play: Alden Nowlan, Leo Ferrari, Gwendolyn MacEwen, and their Flat Earth Society by David Eso B.A., University of British Columbia, 2004 M.A., University of Calgary, 2015 Supervisory Committee Iain Higgins, English Supervisor Eric Miller, English Departmental Member Heather Dean, UVic Libraries Outside Member Neil Besner, University of Winnipeg Additional Member iii Abstract This dissertation concerns the satirical Flat Earth Society (FES) founded at Fredericton, New Brunswick in November 1970. The essay’s successive chapters examine the lives and literary works of three understudied authors who held leadership positions in this critically unserious, fringe society: FES Symposiarch Alden Nowlan; the Society’s President Leo Ferrari; and its First Vice-President Gwendolyn MacEwen. Therefore, my project constitutes an act of recovery and reconstruction, bringing to light cultural work and literary connections that have largely faded from view. Chapters show how certain literary writings by Nowlan, Ferrari, or MacEwen directly or indirectly relate to their involvement with FES, making the Society an important part of their cultural work rather than a mere entertainment, distraction, or hoax. These authors represent the local/regional inception of FES (Nowlan), its international influences and reach (Ferrari), and its Canadian context (MacEwen). Organized according to three jointly literary and geo- political layers, and drawing on little-known archival documents, each chapter records statements from the Society’s wider membership as they relate to Atlantic Canada, the international perspective, and Canada. Despite its aberrant and oppositional spirit, FES appeared within an identifiable cultural context and participated in a countercultural tradition that continues to this day. The Society’s surface lampoon embeds potent social critique and creative meaning. In other words, FES was not merely playful, nor merely serious, but interweaved these modes in a compelling way; the Society looks by turns intelligent and unintelligible, stupid and sophisticated. Further, it invited contributions from members and applicants: seldom-seen interpretations of “Planoterrestrialism” by individuals from many walks of life and now housed in archives at the University of New Brunswick and University of Calgary. The participatory, humorous, and poetic nature of FES means that its unusual brand of Flat Earthism cannot be tied to any singular ideology, place, or literary tradition. It operates as an enigmatic, errant, itinerant, and underground non-ideology. Planoterrestrial thought is reflected in the playful poetic styles of Nowlan, Ferrari, and MacEwen: three Society members who were nonetheless serious authors and sincere in their role as cultural workers, their Flat Earth antics not excepted. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Common Abbreviations……………………………………………………………..……vi Introduction: Serious Play in Context…………..........……………………………………1 Sources (3); Structure of Serious Play (12); Planoterrestrialism as Counter- methodology (14); Present Limits and Future Directions (20); Culture from Below and Beyond (26); Analogues and Counterexamples for FES: Local, International (40); Analogues and Counterexamples for FES: Canadian (57) Alden Nowlan’s Critics: A Literature Review……….…………………………………..80 On Maritime Regionalism (81); Matters of Voice (88); Biographical Interpretations (99); New Directions in Nowlan Studies (103); Conclusion (117) “when the cameras zoom in on the losers”: Nowlan and the Flat Earth Society of Fredericton ...................................................................................................................... 121 Lessons in Empathy (123); November 1970 and Before (128); One Night in November 1970 (137); November 1970 and Afterward (139); Regarding the Aims (144); Nowlan’s Verse Worlds (155); From Fredericton to Fogo (167); Inconclusion (184) Leo Ferrari in Cultural Memory: A Literature Review………………………………...190 A Philosophical Humanist (191); His Poetry and Persona (196); President Ferrari: On- and Out-of-Line (202) Leo Charles Ferrari versus the Gyroglobular-Industrial-Complex...…………….…….208 A President in Exile (208); On Applicants and Authors (211); Internal Documents, External Organs (226); Philosopher, Humanist, Poet, Patient (246) Gwendolyn MacEwen in the Twenty-First Century: A Literature Review…………….260 Academic Analyses (261); Writerly Testimonies and Creative Tributes (275); Contemporary Reissues (287) “I’ll write you from Atlantis”: MacEwen and Pan-Kanadian Flat Earthism………….293 Paving the Way (295); Flat Earth Mail (304); Some Literary Connections (313); Writerly Types (331); Government Speaks Up, Professor Squint Opens His Eyes, and the People Demand More (351) Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 372 Introduction (372); Alden Nowlan Literature Review and Chapter One (378); Leo Ferrari Literature Review and Chapter Two (383); Gwendolyn MacEwen Literature Review and Chapter Three (387); Further Reading in MacEwen Studies (393) v Acknowledgments The author wishes to express gratitude to the following individuals for making the present research and writing possible, meaningful, and enjoyable. Annie Murray and the archival team at the University of Calgary’s Taylor Family Digital Library facilitated extended research into the Alden Nowlan Papers; of all library reading rooms visited by me, none has boasted so fine a view as theirs, and the staff provides world-class access to Canadian literary history. Patsy Hale, James MacKenzie, and the team at the University of New Brunswick Archives and Special Collections supported research into the archives of Leo Ferrari and assisted with making possible ISER Book’s publication of the author’s original manuscript from the 1970s, The Earth is Flat! An Exposé of the Globularist Hoax, which I edited and introduced as part of the present research project. Remote access to FES documents housed in Gwendolyn MacEwen’s archive was generously provided by Natalya Rattan of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto. Thanks are due to many archivists and librarians for their expert assistance and committed service. The following mentors advanced my literary thinking over recent years and provided feedback on writing in-progress. The University of Victoria’s Janelle Jenstad and Nicole Shukin provided inspiring models for making sharp scholarly points while maintaining wholeheartedness and intellectual openness. At crucial junctures, Misao Dean pointed the way to Pauline Johnson, the Nihilist Spasm Band, and personal optimism—a vital and unlikely trio. The patient and creative guidance of Iain Higgins helped me produce the dissertation that wanted to exist, rather than the expected one. Heather Dean similarly provided open-handed advice for the present dissertation by quietly demanding more thinking on the topic of archives. Eric Miller has offered remarkably astute and idiosyncratic feedback throughout our years of trading pages. He has read my essays as poems and my poems as micro-essays, often exposing unfulfilled sonic or intellectual possibilities within them. Many thanks to my siblings and parents for their encouragement and love. Your phone calls and video chats mitigated the essential isolation of dissertation writing. The care and support of my wife, Mrs. Carling Battistuzzi, helped keep this project moving forward whenever it threatened to backslide. Thank you for making me laugh, my love, especially on days when Flat Earth jokes had lost their punch. From Victoria to Calgary, Fredericton, Fogo, Dublin, and Akureyri, during 2017-20 reading and re-reading, writing and re-writing, travel for conferencing and archival research, as well as the necessities and conveniences of life were unwittingly supplied by Canadian tax-payers through a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, administered by Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council. I am grateful for such generous and enabling financial support. vi Common Abbreviations ANP #.#.#.# = Alden Nowlan Papers accession, box, file, item (if any) CP = Alden Nowlan: Collected Poems (2017) CRET = The Committee to Re-establish the Trickster FES/the Society = The Flat Earth Society (est. 1970, Fredericton) GMP #.# = Gwendolyn MacEwen Papers box, file IFERS = The International Flat Earth Research Society (of England or America) LFF #.#.# = Leo C. Ferrari