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information. Why? Firstly cost. Basically it willing to pay for the privilege. Socio- for printed books, are already limited so with puts publishing within reach of anyone who economic conditions also play a role. the current cost of eBooks it has no immedi- can write. There is very little cost involved ate future in libraries. in the creation of an eBook, it is deliverable Future of eBooks anywhere in the world, it can be copy pro- There is no doubt that the printed book Conclusion tected so that no one can steal the contents, will - slowly - give way to electronic book As new technology makes eBooks easier to and the cost to the end user is much less publishing, which has the potential to make read, more portable and more affordable than a printed book. (Mousaion, 2001). books more affordable and more avail- there may be a growing trend towards this Electronic publishing can be an attractive able. Currently this development is slowed medium. But, in my opinion, for now the alternative for new writers who are by high eBook prices, bad eBook-reader good old paperback and its hardcover coun- frustrated by the difficulty of breaking into systems and a lack of eBook quality control. terpart are safe and although the eBook has the print market, or for established writers In short: if you buy a book at the bookstore, its place, people around the world will still who want to write in a genre or on a you can be sure that the provincial viability, curl up in front of the fire place with a good subject that does not interest their print the quality, its possibilities in the market book made of real paper (for the time being publishers or for writers with a blacklist of place, et cetera, has been properly re- at least). out-of-print works they would like to keep searched, as it is expensive to publish a book in circulation. and bad sellers cost a fortune. (Schement & References According to Bianca Thomas (1999), two Curtis, 1995.) Dorner, J. The Internet - a writer’s guide.- types of electronic publishing is currently Black, 2000. available. One involves selling and marketing eBooks and libraries Esposito, J. The processed book. First traditional print publications online, for Libraries need to be at the forefront of Monday, 2003. 8(3) (Online) Available www. example, you can buy Ophra’s latest book breaking free of old traditions. They are firstmonday.dk/issues/issue8_3/esposito. club selection or browse for a ‘how to’ on supposed to place new technologies within Mousaion. Vol. 9, No 2. Unisa, 2001. cross-stitch. historical context. eBooks are only another Schement, J & Curtis, T. Tendencies and Rare and out of print books have also evolutionary stage in the history of books tensions of the new Information Age.- found a place in this medium. The second and libraries. The idea is to put libraries at Transaction Publishers, 1995. type is bypassing the print cycle entirely the cutting edge of technological advance- Thomas, B. Electronic publishing: blessing and distributing books solely in the online ment. The realities are that we have a global or curse? 1999 (Online) Available www.icon. medium. economic rich and poor divide, information co.za/~bmt/epub.htm. rich and poor divide. However, library funds Traditional print versus e-publications To the question of whether or not elec- tronic publications will replace traditional print, Thomas (1999) says, ‘While the online medium presents a new and exiting and Margaret Atwood ultimately more cost-effective option I don’t Prize-winning novelist believe that books in their more familiar form are in any real danger’. I agree with her because computer screens are notoriously taxing on the eyes and reading long novels like Pride and prejudice on computer is just Compiled by GRIZÉLL took her masters degree not practical. Electronic books are also not AZAR-LUXTON at Radcliffe College, as portable as their paper counterparts - Massachusetts, in 1962. readers are dependent on battery life, a con- ‘It is hard to believe it now, Atwood also writes nection to phone line, Internet access and but there was a time, and short stories, critical the availability of a power source. Traditional it was not that long ago, studies, screenplays, radio books can be read anywhere. Power cuts when Canadian literature scripts and books for children and her works

cannot damage them, viruses cannot attack was something of a joke, par- Acland Laurence photo: uthor A them and it cannot accidentally be erased. ticularly in the United States, have been translated into over Another factor is whether or not readers where mocking the Northern neighbours is 30 languages. Her reviews and critical are willing to pay for a virtual copy of a a national pastime. Few books were pub- articles have appeared in various eminent book they can read in a library or buy at the lished, and fewer still were taken seriously magazines and she has also edited many bookstore. To some the old fashioned way by the English-speaking literary community. books, including The New Oxford book is still the only way. Then Margaret Atwood arrived.’ of Canadian verse in English (1983) and, The truth is that electronic publishing Atwood, Canada’s most eminent novelist with Robert Weaver, The Oxford book of must be making some money, otherwise and poet was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canadian short stories in English (1986). it would not still be going. Those who in 1939. She is the daughter of a forest She has been a full-time writer since 1972, have embraced the cyber culture and have entomologist, and spent part of her early first teaching English, then holding a variety ventured into the eBook realm are quite years in the bush of North Quebec. She of academic posts and writer residencies. studied at the University of Toronto, then She was president of the Writers’ Union of 

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Canada from 1981-1982 and president of She is, however, perhaps best known for novel describing a woman’s struggle to PEN, Canada from 1984-1986. her novels, in which she creates strong, often break free from her role. Her later novels It was with her poetry that Atwood first enigmatic women characters and excels in are: Cat’s eye (1989), dealing with the came to attention. Her poetry is marked by telling open-ended stories, while dissecting subject of bullying among young girls; The a fascination with the natural world and a contemporary urban life and sexual robber bride (1993); Alias Grace (1996), disdain for the contemporary compulsion to politics. Atwood leaves the ends of her the tale of a woman who is convicted for accrue possessions. stories untied, so that the reader is left with her involvement in two murders about Her first publication was a book of poetry, something to do. Her first novel was The which she claims to have no memory; The The circle game (1964) which received edible woman (1969), about a woman who blind assassin (2000), a multi-layered family the Governor General’s Literary Award cannot eat and feels that she is being eaten. memoir; and most recently, Oryx and Crake for Poetry (Canada). Several more poetry This was followed by: Surfacing (1973), (2003), a vision of a scientific dystopia, which collections followed such as Interlunar which deals with a woman’s investigation was shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker (1988), Morning in the burned house into her father’s disappearance; Lady Oracle Prize for Fiction and for the 2004 Orange (1995) and Eating fire: selected poetry, (1977); Life before man (1980); Bodily harm Prize for Fiction. 1965-1995 (1998). Her books of short (1982), the story of Rennie Wilford, a young Although Alias Grace, The handmaid’s fiction include Dancing girls and other journalist recuperating on a Caribbean island; tale and Cat’s eye have all been short-listed stories (1982), Wilderness tips (1991) and and The handmaid’s tale (1986), a futuristic for the Booker Prize for Fiction, Atwood’s Good bones (1992). Atwood on poetry... ‘Plato said that poets should ‘The one good thing to be excluded from the ideal be said about announcing republic because they are such liars. I am a poet, and I yourself as a writer in the colonial Canadian fifties is that nobody affirm that this is true. About no subject are poets tempted told me I couldn’t do it because I was a girl. They simply found to lie so much as about their own lives; I know one of them the entire proposition ridiculous. Writers were dead and English, or else extremely elderly and American; they were not sixteen who has floated at least five versions of his autobiography, years old and Canadian.’ She did at least at this stage receive a none of them true. I, of course - being also a novelist - am word of encouragement from her wonderful Grade 12 English a much more truthful person than that. But since poets lie, teacher, Miss Bessie Billings: ‘I can’t understand a word of this, how can you believe me?’ dear, so it must be good.’ In her graduating year, with the aid of a friend, and another twood’s childhood was divided between the forest in friend’s flatbed press, they printed 250 copies of a collection of the warmer parts of the year, and various cities in the her poems, and sold them through bookstores, for 50 cents each. A colder parts. She was therefore able ‘to develop the They now go in the rare book trade for eighteen hundred dollars rudiments of the double personality so necessary for a poet’. a pop. ‘Wish I’d kept some,’ she once remarked. Atwood’s first In the bush there were no theatres, movies, parades, or very book of poems The circle game; (the cover designed by her) functional radios; there were also not many other people around won The Governor General’s Award, which in Canada was the with the result that she had lots of time for meditation. Accord- big one to win. She has never looked back. ing to her she became a reading addict, and have remained so She says: ‘Wordsworth was sort of right when he said, “Poets ever since. in their youth begin in gladness/ But thereof comes in the end ‘As the critic Norththrop Frye has said, we learn poetry despondency and madness.” Except that sometimes poets skip through the seat of our pants, by being bounced up and down to the gladness and go straight to the despondency. Why is that? nursery rhymes as children. Poetry is essentially oral, and is close Part of it is the conditions under which poets work - giving all, to song; rhythm precedes meaning. My first experiences with receiving little in return from an age that by and large ignores poetry were Mother Goose, which contains some of the most them - and part of it is cultural expectation - “The lunatic, the surrealistic poems in the English language, and whatever singing lover and the poet,” says Shakespeare, and notice which comes commercials could be picked up on the radio, such as: ‘‘You’ll first. wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with ‘My own theory is that poetry is composed with the Pepsodent!’’.’ melancholy side of the brain, and that if you do nothing but, you Her English teacher from 1955 said that in her class Atwood may find yourself going slowly down a long dark tunnel with no had showed no particular promise. ‘This was true’, she says. exit. I have avoided this by being ambidextrous: I write novels However, one lunch time she announced to a group of her high too. But when I find myself writing poetry again, it always has the school female friends that she was going to be a writer. ‘I said surprise of that first unexpected and anonymous gift.’ “writer” not “poet”; I did have some common sense.

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The blind assassin was awarded this coveted prize in 2000. Some of Margaret Atwood’s books have Prizes and awards been adapted for stage and screen. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has been presented with the Order of Ontario 1966 Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry (Canada) The circle game. and the Norwegian Order of Literary 1977 Canadian Booksellers’ Association Award Lady Oracle. Merit, and has been awarded sixteen 1977 Toronto Book Award Lady Oracle. honorary degrees. She has lived in many 1978 St Lawrence Award for Fiction (Canada) Lady Oracle. places including Canada, England, Scotland 1982 Arts Council of Wales International Writers’ Prize Bodily harm. and France, and currently lives in Toronto. 1986 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction (Canada) The handmaid’s tale. 1987 Arthur C Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction The handmaid’s tale. Genres (in alphabetical order) 1987 Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) The handmaid’s tale. Children, Fiction, Literary criticism, Non-fic- 1987 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Caribbean and Canada Region, Best Book) The tion, Poetry, Radio drama, Screenplay, Short handmaid’s tale. stories. 1987 Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Fiction) The handmaid’s tale. Bibliography 1987 Ritz Hemingway Prize (France) (shortlist) The handmaid’s tale. *Double Persephone.- Hawkshead Press 1989 Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Cat’s eye. (Canada), 1961. 1989 Canadian Booksellers’ Association Award Cat’s eye. *The circle game.- Cranbrook Academy of 1989 Toronto Book Award Cat’s eye. Art (USA), 1964. 1993 Canadian Authors’ Association Novel of the Year The robber bride. *Kaleidoscopes baroque: a poem.- 1994 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Caribbean and Canada Region, Best Book) The Cranbrook Academy of Art (USA), 1965. robber bride. *Talismans for children.- Cranbrook 1994 Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence The robber bride. Academy of Art (USA), 1965. 1996 Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Alias Grace. *Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein.- 1996 Giller Prize (Canada) Alias Grace. Cranbrook Academy of Art (USA), 1966. 1997 Canadian Booksellers’ Association Author of the Year *The animals in that country.- Oxford University Press (Canada), 1968. 1997 National Arts Club Medal of Honour for Literature (USA) The edible woman.- Virago, 1980. 1997 Premio Mondello (Italy) Alias Grace. *Blewointmentpress occupation 1998 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (shortlist) Alias Grace. Issew / by Margaret Atwood et alia.- 2000 Booker Prize for Fiction The blind assassin. Blewointmentpress (Canada), 1970. 2001 Crime Writers’ Association Dashiell Hammett Award The blind assassin. *Lobsticks: poems / Margaret Atwood et 2001 Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist) The blind assassin alia.- Alive Press (Canada), 1970. 2002 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (shortlist) The blind assassin. *Procedures for underground.- Oxford 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Oryx and Crake. University Press (Canada), 1970. 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Oryx and Crake. *Power politics.- House of Anansi Press 2005 Man Booker International Prize (shortlist). (Canada), 1971. *Survival: a thematic guide to Canadian literature.- House of Anansi Press (Canada), 1972. Surfacing.- Virago, 1973. *You are happy.- Oxford University Press Life before man.- Virago, 1982 (1989 *The new Oxford book of Canadian (Canada), 1974. printing). verse in English.- Oxford University Press (Canada), 1983. Poems 1965-1975.- Virago, 1991. *Notes towards a poem that can never be written.- Salamander Press, 1981. *Unearthing suite.- Grand Union Press *Days of the rebels: 1815-1840.- Natural (Canada), 1983. Science of Canada (Canada), 1977. Bodily harm.- Cape, 1982. The handmaid’s tale.- Virago, 1987 (1990 Lady oracle.- Virago, 1982 (1989 printing). Dancing girls and other stories.- Virago, 1984 (1989 printing). printing). *Marsh hawk.- Dreadnaught (Canada), *The Oxford book of Canadian short 1977. *Encounters with the Element Man.- William B Ewert (USA), 1982. stories in English / edited with Robert *The Canadian imagination: dimensions of Weaver.- Oxford University Press (Canada), *Second words: selected critical prose.- a literary culture / by Margaret Atwood et 1986. alia.- Harvard University Press, 1977. House of Anansi Press (Canada), 1982. Bluebeard’s egg, and other stories.- Cape, *True stories.- Cape, 1982. *Two-headed poems.- Oxford University 1987. Press (Canada), 1978. Murder in the dark.- Virago, 1994. *Hurricane Hazel and other stories.- *Up in the tree.- McClelland and Stewart *Snake poems.- Salamander Press (Canada), Eurographica (Iceland), 1987. (Canada), 1978. 1983. *The Canlit foodbook: from pen to palate - *Anna’s pet.- Lorimer (Canada), 1980. a collection of tasty literary fare / compiled

 Kaapse Bibl., Nov/Des 2005 25 BOOKWORLD

and illustrated by Margaret Atwood.- Totem *“The Labrador fiasco”.- Bloomsbury, 1996. *Curious pursuits.- Virago, 2005. Books (Canada), 1987. Alias Grace.- Bloomsbury, 1996. *The penelopiad; the myth of Penelope and *Interlunar.- Cape, 1988. *The selected poetry of Gwendolyn Odysseus.- Canongate, 2005. Cat’s eye.- Virago, 1990. MacEwen / selected and introduced by *The best American short stories, 1989: Margaret Atwood.- Virago, 1996. Note: selected from U.S. and Canadian magazines *A quiet game: and other early works.- *Titles not in Provincial Library Service stock. / with Shannon Ravenel.- Houghton Mifflin Juvenilia Press (Canada), 1997. Titles may still be on order. (USA), 1989. *The journals of Susanna Moodie.- *Barbed lyres: Canadian venomous verse.- Bloomsbury, 1997. Web site sources Key Porter (Canada), 1990. *Eating fire: selected poetry, 1965-1995.- http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/at- For the birds.- Douglas & McIntyre Virago, 1998. wood/write.htm (Canada), 1990. The blind assassin.- Bloomsbury, 2000. http://www.encyclopedia.com/html.a/atwood- *Selected poems: 1966-1984.- Oxford Negotiating with the dead: a writer on m1.asp University Press (Canada), 1990. writing.- Cambridge U.P., 2002. http://www.contemporarywriters.com/au- Wilderness tips.- Virago, 1992. Oryx and Crake.- Bloomsbury, 2003. thors/…… Good bones.- Virago, 1993. Rude Ramsay and the roaring radishes.- Selected poems: poems selected and new Bloomsbury, 2005. 1976-1986.- Houghton Mifflin, 1987. *The poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen: the early years. Volume one.- Exile Editions (Canada), 1993. Die ander The robber bride.- Bloomsbury, 1993. *Beyond the map: poems by Diane Ackerman, Margaret Atwood, et alia.- The Marta Elm Press (USA), 1994. *The poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen: the later years. Volume two.- Exile Editions 'n Boekbespreking (Canada), 1994. *Morning in the burned house.- Virago, 1995. ELSA DU PREEZ Princess Prunella and the purple peanut.- Barefoot Books, 1995. Carlitzdorp Leeskring *Strange things: the malevolent north in Op ’n dag, toe alles te veel raak, los Marta Canadian literature.- Clarendon Press, 1995. et die eerste vlugtige lees van die roman dink ’n mens hierdie is net vir Hendrik in die supermark, klim in haar The new Oxford book of Canadian short motor en ry weg. By die koue Weskussee stories in English / selected by Margaret Mnog ’n Afrikaanse boek wat wil-wil aangekom, probeer sy selfmoord pleeg, maar Atwood and Robert Weaver.- Oxford Univ. herinner aan dié van ’n ander skryfster nie eens die seewater wil haar hê nie. Pr., 1995. ’n paar dekades gelede. Die jong onder- wyseres kom op die plattelandse dorpie Hierdie gedeelte herinner ’n mens aan, bly in die losieshuis, ontmoet ’n jong, aan die onvergeetlike eerste paragrawe aantreklike boer by die tennis of die Kerk en van Marita van der Vyver se Griet skryf ’n verhouding ontwikkel. Goeie, ontspan- ’n sprokie, maar nie met heeltemal dié ningsleesstof wat ons almal destyds gelees impak nie. Vir meer as 50 bladsye word het. (Eleanor Baker het trouens onder die die verdrinkingspoging beskryf, soms skuilnaam van Christene Ie Roux ook etlike frustrerend vir die leser, maar miskien ’n liefdesverhale geskryf). weerspieëling van die wisseling van Marta By die tweede, meer noukeurige lees, soos se gemoedstoestand. Ons word aan een vir bespreking by ’n leeskring, byvoorbeeld, Marta bekendgestel terwyl ‘die ander Marta’ tref dit die leser dat die boek veel meer as iewers onder pyn, ontgogeling, onbegrip en net nog ’n verhaal bied. Die ander Marta vetrolletjies wag om los te kom. Om as’t vertel wat in die populêre leesstof verswyg ware afgeskil te word, om te lééf. word, naamlik die storie van die held en Vrouekarakters wat ontvlugting uit heldin meer as 30 jaar ná die troudag. emosioneel ontwrigtende situasies soek, is Hierdie boek het as tema die ‘dienende nie vreemd aan Eleanor Baker se oeuvre nie. Marta’ wat met al haar verborge verlangens Sy het reeds die tema benut in ’n Ou begin en vrese aanhou om haar rol gedienstig te en In die middel van die Karoo. vervul. Van die begin af oorheers Hendrik Die ander Marta troon egter kop en haar en sy laat hom begaan en betaal die skouers bo die ander tekste uit. prys. Marta was op die oog af ’n gewone plaasvrou wat konfyt gekook het, dorp

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