art by Diane Landry; photo by Richard Asch

Here I am wandering amidst the wonder that is Diane Landry’s Knight of Infinite Resignation (which made me a lot happier than it did the artist if the title is anything to go by), on display at Mass MoCA as part of their “Oh, Canada” exhibition. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a more kid-appealing museum, although the don’t-touch dictums might be hard to enforce, and there was one thing on display which involved broken glass. The exhibition of Canadian art included lots of things a kid would love–a glowing car, photos of spooky planes (apparently those used for “extraordinary rendition”), a little tent made of felt you could walk into and watch a movie. A life-size diorama of a Tonto- and Lone Rangerish pair looks as much like C.S.I. as it does Brokeback Mountain. But do go, with or without the kids. The Diane Landry installation twinkles and shimmers and buzzes enough to satisfy even Blair Daniels.

One north-of-the-border bonus we had at the exhibition was running into one of our favorite Canadians, Groundwood publisher Patsy Aldana, down to Represent. Oh, I’m sure she wouldn’t put it that way, either.

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I have a lot of respect for Donna Freitas’s work on His Dark Materials, but on Salon she unconscionably sets up Catholic Leaguer Bill Donahue as the Grand Inquisitor and herself as Galileo: “Allow me to plead my case, for I think I am innocent. (Though I fear I might be on trial, or even be found guilty without a trial.)” Stop, Donna, we need the wood.

And I would really like to see some documentation for “Catholic principals, librarians and teachers all across the United States and Canada are being told by their diocese to remove “His Dark Materials” from their shelves and classroom curricula.” I can find three instances of The Golden Compass being removed from Catholic schools (two in Canada and in Oshkosh, Wisconsin), and in none of them was the diocese involved: trustees, principals and one benighted librarian pulled the book without orders from above. Of course there are probably other, quieter instances of the book being removed (as that’s how it’s usually done, in public and parochial libraries alike) but the point is that the Catholic Church is engaged in no war with Philip Pullman and no one is being threatened with excommunication. It’s just weenie Bill Donahue calling attention to himself via his self-administered interviews, and Freitas falling right into his trap by making him seem more important than he is.

But Freitas, at least, does have a point to make, and it’s an eloquent and important one, about the feast of religious inquiry in Pullman’s trilogy. Emily Bazelon writing for Slate, on the other hand, explains that she’s not going to encourage her sons to read Pullman’s trilogy because she really dug Flowers in the Attic even though her mother said it was dreck. (Thanks to Kelly Herold for the link.) Did I mention that I’m going to see The Golden Compass tonight and Nobody Listens to Andrew used to be my favorite book?

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Longtime Horn Book contributor (I swear, she must have started writing the “News from the North” column when she was twelve) Sarah Ellis has won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for Odd Man Out. And, in an oh-let’s-be-vulgar shout out to any civic-minded U.S. banking corporation, she gets 20,000 smackers. Canadian, which is like a million in our money, right?

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Do these factors – the small-pond effect, anxiety over blowback, our politeness and deference to authority – contribute to our culture of book reviewing? How could they not? They all help push our reviewing into being more positive. And they come piled on top of the aforementioned doping effect, our consumerist culture’s resistance to criticism, and institutional strictures against being snarky. It is not just the entertainment value that consequently drops off (is there a free-standing book review anywhere as consistently dull as Globe Books?), but the level of critical insight. Reviews become abstract, academic, and non-evaluative. Safe.

Have a look. I’m also interested in what he says about the increased pressure of the marketplace, in that reviewers today are often expected to predict and applaud the bestseller, that a popular book is a good book by virtue of the fact that lots of people like it.

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