“With Canada Reads, the CBC is bottom-feeding on culture.” That’s the title of author Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s opinion piece in The Globe and Mail. She smacks down the shallow gamesmanship of the book battle, noting how it has grown away from its more cultured roots of debating ideas.
I’ve become less interested in Canada Reads over the past few years, though that may be coincidental with the series’ move away from “serious” debate and into a “who likes their book more” contest between semi-recognizable Canadian celebs. I don’t want to knock the people involved in this recent instalment – mostly because I like Shad. And Alan Thicke is just, well… he still seems like a TV dad to me in a weird way because of Growing Pains. If I ever met him, I’m sure the experience wouldn’t be right unless he patted me on the head reassuringly. Is that weird?
As with my increasing disinterest with Giller-vetted, “flaky-protagonist-searching-their-past-for-meaning” books that consistently disappoint, I can’t bring myself to dedicate any of my time to CBC’s attempts to broaden their audience. And yet, while I appreciate many of Kuitenbrouwer’s points, I still sympathize with what Jian & co. are trying to do. I don’t know if this strategy of knocking out the lofty pedestal of Literature is drawing more people to Canadian books, but I’ll suck it up as long as the CBC is doing something.
