Thursday, March 12, 2009

what is stephen harper reading?

I just happened upon this website by Yann Martel (the guy who wrote Life of Pi, which by the way is an AMAZING novel).
It's Martel's project entitled:"What is Stephen Harper Reading?"
I'll let him explain in his own words the premise of his project:

“The Prime Minister did not speak during our brief tribute, certainly not. I don’t think he even looked up. The snarling business of Question Period having just ended, he was shuffling papers. I tried to bring him close to me with my eyes.Who is this man? What makes him tick? No doubt he is busy. No doubt he is deluded by that busyness. No doubt being Prime Minister fills his entire consideration and froths his sense of busied importance to the very brim. And no doubt he sounds and governs like one who cares little for the arts.But he must have moments of stillness. And so this is what I propose to do: not to educate—that would be arrogant, less than that—to make suggestions to his stillness.

For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written. I will faithfully report on every new book, every inscription, every letter, and any response I might get from the Prime Minister, on this website.”

Yann Martel

The idea of stillness that Martel is exploring really intrigues me and really, Mr. Harper, what are you reading? I wonder if he's read any of these books. I wonder if he'll one day response to Martel's letters. I wonder if he even gets any of these books. I wonder if he practices stillness.

I just thought that this was interesting. Martel makes really cool suggestions for novels and literature for Mr. Harper to read. Some of my favorites (or at some of my favorites from the ones I've read) are: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (the movie is equally as awesome), Le Petite Prince by Antoine de Saint-Expuery, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and Maus by Art Spiegelman.

I'm currently reading three books: The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, and Metamorphosis by Kafka.

What are you reading?

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