On Tonight: The Book is Dead: A Literary Festival
By Eric Hill • Jul 2nd, 2009 • Category: Happenings, In Brief, Uncategorized
The Book is Dead: A Literary Festival
“Only in extinction is the collector comprehended.”
– Walter Benjamin, Unpacking my Library: A Talk about Book Collecting (in Illuminations).
The book is dead and we’re inviting all of its friends to help us to bury it. This year the Scream, Canada’s strangest literary festival, will explore the imminent demise of books, book culture and all that readers hold dear. In the face of its decaying vestiges we celebrate its life, its death and the spectre of its future. Join us from July 2nd to 13th in offering our elegies, predictions, ululations and dreams of technological salvation.
Begin your post-mortem with a musical revue, led by horror-lit luminaries Tony Burgess (Pontypool) and Derek McCormack (The Haunted Hillbilly). Descend into our gallery and mausoleum, where decaying books stand resolute against the future. Wander with us through the streets of Toronto as we reveal the graves of beloved bookstores. Celebrate the poetry of Dennis Lee at our book-length dinner, when he revisits his masterwork Civil Elegies alongside his most recent and visionary books Un and yesno. Finally, reaffirm your love for poetry on July 13th with our 17th annual Scream in High Park Mainstage, featuring an ebullient line up of performers.
Eric Hill is the editor of branta.
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