Grateful for the mailbag

...which is a joy, now that criticism is MIA

Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash

It’s been A Month.

It got weirdly hectic after my book came out April 30 for a couple of weeks; David Frum (!) recommended it to his followers on twitter, the National Post excerpted the introductory chapter, then Quillette reprinted chapter 2. I got invited to two live radio shows (Saskatchewan, Alberta), one live streaming show (Alberta), one recorded radio show (Toronto), one recorded podcast (Trish Wood is Critical; also Toronto-based). There’s a handful of other things in the works that may or may not happen.

But no reviews. There’s no in-depth book reviewing in Canada any more, except in a couple of specialist magazines with 2-3k readership, so it’s not only me. (I am of course now jinxing it and inviting the worst hatchet job ever upon myself, mais boh.)

Given that there have been no reviews, I’ll consider the mail I’ve been getting as reviewing (of its own kind). Mail’s been… varied, as you’ll see. All of these, I hasten to add, are based on an excerpt only—most often the one in the Post—but some as you’ll see on even less than that, a promotional tagline spotted, the info fast skimmed, other people’s comments.

Email one, that takes quite a turn at the end:

“Thank you for penning this essay. Many of us feel the same way. 

However, it's not the physical spaces between people [in Canada] that matters - we are quite used to that. Living is this vast country gives one an awareness of one's place on the land, a kind of navigation or sense of positioning that compensates for time and distance. It's like having an awareness of the magnetic fields that run through the earth. 

What you inferring about identity politics is true. I have come to consciously adopt this way of seeing, causing me to guard myself in each and every interaction… It has become a sad state of affairs, and I almost feel like there is no turning back. People are feeling terribly isolated and lonely, and are having an increasingly difficult time forming strong relationships, partly because they are exhausted from the demands of work and travel - as you have referred to. 

…
I attended several events organized by the Menopause Cafe to learn more about our core customers who come to our flower, herb and berry pick in [province anonymized]. I think that there is tremendous potential in harnessing the energy that is released during this life event. If women became unshackled from the ideological "shoulds" and feelings of entitlement, they could be a force in making society more cohesive in a way the is closer to our nature as a species.”

Same day later, a Prof of Serbian origin from Washington, DC. I’m not Serbian myself, but maybe this was in the spirit of pan-Slavicism.

“Dear Ms. Perovic:

I ran across your work and decided to try contacting you.

I am now age 99, immigrated from [a Serbian province that used to be a part of Austria-Hungary] to Toronto with mother and sister in 1927 to meet father who had immigrated the year before.

Have been a [discipline anonymized] professor for most of my life. [Further life info edited out.] Have keen interest in my Serbian heritage … note attached reviews of my recent book.

Am part of [a particular Orthodox Church in DC] … re-established childhood links... I speak, read and write Serbian … however, poorly!

I write to encourage you to keep plugging away at the “we” in Canada.”

OK that had a very nice ending.

Later that day:

“Lydia

I must say I found your book to be rather interesting.  Yet one thing stood out.

"Is it possible to feel at home anywhere anymore "

Well,  now you know how it feels to be a little bit of indigenous. 

You see, we indigenous people have never felt accepted....in our own country.  

We've been beaten down, cast aside, ridiculed,  forgotten,  starved, afterthoughts,  separated,  laughed at, made fun of, killed, and made a mockery on our own land. We didn't come from a another country as you were so lucky to have done. We didn't get to go find new loves, friendships or put stakes in the ground proclaiming a "new world". We've been here some 25,000 years.

What's interesting? Is you are just figuring out this "feeling" now?

Well, welcome to our world.

Enjoy the rest of your day.”

I actually write about that, I almost wrote back! And that immigrants and the indigenous people have a lot in common! But, I just filed the email. A conversation for another occasion.

This email was quickly followed by a classic in its genre. It was inevitable. It’s fine.

“Hi Lydia

This is [full name] in Alberta.  Lydia if you don't like Canada then please go back to your country.  Go home.  The exits of Canada are clearly marked.

Have a nice day and a safe journey back to your country.”

Things could only go up from there, and they did. An email from a former newspaper editor.

I’m including only the highlights from this one because it provides background on a highly specific story which happened in a Canadian cultural institution a few years back.

“Dear Lydia

I’m one of many people badly affected by the culture war flowing from the ideology you identify and it appears we feel similar heartbreak about how it is damaging Canada and other countries within the West.

…

The change in values (or rather the bizarre rejection of Canada’s traditional liberal values that work to protect everyone) flowing from the universities through younger people crept up on me. You may have read John McWhorter’s view that the new anti-racist, intersection blah blah is a modern religion that relies on pronouncements of faith and immune from logic or permission to allow ideas to be challenged.

…

I just wanted to say, please keep up the good work. I look forward to reading your book. More of us need to stand up.”

Yes. Yes we do.

But back to weirdness. Next email:

[Bio info edited out] “However, this is no longer Canada but a dysfunctional collection of provinces with little but inertia holding them together. The Trudeau (senior)—Liberal multiculturalism model has failed here as elsewhere and all Canadians are reaping the consequences.  Worse, we have a psychopathic Trudeau junior prime minister who seems intent on destroying any residual semblance of unity or national cohesion.  My sole consolation is my daughter has multiple citizenships and will not live in Canada.

Tongue –in-cheek, I often say the Canadian salvation depends on the re-election of Donald Trump.  I relate that I have asked The Donald to have the Texas National Guard do a takeover of Canada.  Given the Liberal’s effort to produce a woke, politically correct Canadian military, the Texans should complete their work in 2 weeks.

I cry for thee Canada.”

I… to each their own, I suppose? FWIW I don’t think Trudeau II is a psychopath; I think he’s out of his depth, and he likes to be liked. I can’t say I understand the Trudeau hate. The man’s not worth the energy. I do think that Trudeau the Elder had BDE, though. (My publisher is going to renounce me after reading this.)

Did not write this back, filed the email.

A brilliant email from a South African followed:

“Hello Lydia

I read your article published in Saturday’s National Post with great interest. I feel the same sentiments…

I am also an economic immigrant, arriving in Canada from South Africa in the year __, with my wife and young family. It took us a number of years to start all over again and adapt to our chosen new country, to re-establish ourselves in different professional fields, to build new networks, and to begin to thrive again as a family. We fell in love with the unifying True North principles that distinguishes Canadians from other nations of the world. Coming from an Apartheid régime we found the non-racism, recognition of multicultural, and multi-ethnic backgrounds, and acceptance as freedom-loving people on our own merits a new "Age of Enlightenment” .

How beautiful is this, c’mon. He continues:

“The modus operandi of the so-called Truth & Reconciliation Commission in Canada is one of my biggest gripes.  It has virtually nothing to do with finding the Truth nor on seeking Reconciliation.  It focuses on victimhood, not on successes, seeks retribution and never ending payments of compensation.  The original South African version of the TRC, led by Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Bishop Tutu, sought the truth, encouraged forgiveness between the disparate parties, was of limited time duration, and allowed the country and its peoples to move on to a new era.  There was no money compensation involved. (Land claims and granting freehold land title to all individuals, irrespective of race, were dealt with separately by the Land Claims Courts).

An excellent account of the TRC's work in South Africa is Country of My Skull, written by Antjie Krog (2000). The book was highly commended by Archbishop Bishop Tutu himself, Nadine Gardiner, and The Economist. I think you will enjoy reading it in the context of your NP article. 

…

Collecting racial-based data may be well-intentioned politically, but where will it lead?

Have we all forgotten the noble, non-racism ideals pursued by Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Bishop Tutu to treat all people as individual, freedom-loving  human beings, and not to systematically discriminate or differentiate on the basis of the colour of their skin or ethnicity?

Systematic racial classification was a pillar of Apartheid in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.”

And it continues in this manner. I did reply. He replied back. It’s now an ongoing conversation.

And the mail stayed at this level. Just the other day, from a voice in the growing African-American heterodoxy in the US:

“Dear Ms. Perovic,

Let me say I enjoyed your insightful essay, Canada's Racial Balkanization, in Quillette Magazine (May 12, 2022). As an American native to Virginia, I have decried the increasing fixation on race and bloodline in the U.S. I was born in Richmond, Virginia in __ and the 1970s were a decade of such future promise as public schools were desegregated. Now, we seem to be reviving old divisions with renewed fervor. I consider myself a dissident like Coleman Hughes, Thomas Chatterton Williams and John McWhorter, so I read your account of what is going on beyond north of the border with great interest. We often cocoon in our own ethnic groups but we should be doing the exact opposite, I sense… 

I read your essay as another warning of what lies ahead for us all, the Balkans, a place where ancestral resentments and grudges intrude upon the living. To "plunge to the bottom of naked reality" as Vaclav Havel suggested in The Power of the Powerless, my co-writer ___ and I have written [a book coming out in the fall, which I clearly must get hold of]. I am a great fan of writers from Eastern Europe who know the power of living within the truth and revealing reality.”

A man after my own heart. Of course I replied.

And now I promise I’m done talking about my book. Currently reading Michael Shellenberger’s San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, and boy does it have parallels with Toronto. I can’t wait to talk to you about it.

Until next time -

LP