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The great grinning thing called MS
Novelist Nicola Griffith, who was born in the UK and resides in Portland, is one of the prominent members of a movement that’s drawing attention to art and creative work by people with disabilities. Her novel So Lucky, which came out early last year, tells the unflinching tale of a woman’s life changed after her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. It’s a sharp, slightly surreal thriller that explores the emotional roller coaster of having a chronic illness.
You can read a great interview with Griffith, (who has diagnosed with MS in 1993) published online earlier last year at Pacific Standard. “I wanted disabled readers to read it and say, “Oh yeah, a book about people like me.” I wanted non-disabled readers to read it and just begin to get a clue of their non-disabled privilege.”
And if you haven’t read it yet, please make time to read Spokane novelist Sharma Shields’ essay and review of So Lucky online at Cascadia Magazine. In this personal and honest piece, Shields reflects on her own experience dealing with the “great grinning thing” of MS in the context of Griffith’s remarkable novel. Read more here.
“I ticked off all of the boxes. I would be a dutiful patient, even with this disease. I was doing what I often did to protect myself in a world I find inherently dangerous: Be good, be perfect, and the bad things will leave you alone. Like Mara, I felt the shadowy, grinning presence of the monster all around me.”
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Standoff between First Nation and RCMP over BC pipeline intensifies
CBC reports that a tense standoff in northern British Columbia between members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and workers constructing a new gas pipeline has intensified, and the RCMP may forcibly take down barricades at the Gidimt’en camp. According to the Guardian, Indigenous activists are calling the Mounties’ show of force an “act of war.” National Observer reports that RCMP officers are actively preventing media from reporting from the protest camps, which are trying to prevent the $40 billion LNG project from crossing Wet’suwet’en land.
Is labeling Portland buildings at risk from earthquakes racist?
Portland Mercury reports on the efforts by the Portland NAACP to draw attention to criticism that a recently-passed Portland ordinance that would put visible notices on buildings at higher risk of collapse in an earthquake, saying the act disproportionately affects businesses owned by people of color.
Idaho denies merger between Avista & Canadian company
According to the Inlander, Idaho has followed Washington state’s lead and has recommended denying a proposed merger between the Spokane-based energy company Avista and Hydro One, an Ontario-based utility that is partially controlled by the provincial government. Shawn Vestal at the Spokesman-Review wrote more about the proposed merger last month, which regulators found would likely result in higher rates for customers.
Plan for Oregon wolves collapses
OPB reports that talks over a proposed plan to manage gray wolves in Oregon have collapsed after environmental groups withdrew their support, saying the threshold to beginning killing wolves is too low. Just two livestock attacks in a 12-month period would be required for wildlife officials to begin killing wolves in the packs responsible.
Preserving the waterfront artist shacks of North Vancouver
The Tyee has a great feature on efforts to preserve the quirky artist shacks of North Vancouver that were once cheap homes for a colorful cast of characters — including jazz pianist and performance artist Al Neil. Now threatened by gentrification, a group is working to preserve Neil’s Blue Cabin, which was located near the spot where Malcolm Lowry wrote the modernist novel Under the Volcano in a similar shack.
“The Picture Bride,” nonfiction by Lillian Blakey
Over at Ricepaper, read Lillian Blakey’s fascinating account “The Picture Bride,” the story of Maki Teramoto, who was born in Japan and sent to Vancouver by her family in 1913 in an arranged marriage to a Japanese-born fisherman there. It’s the first part of a memoir looking at this practice of “picture brides” by a third-generation Japanese-Canadian.
That’s today’s miscellany of news, environmental coverage, arts, and culture from across the Pacific Northwest. Have a lovely evening. –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: Gidimt’en checkpoint sign courtesy of Unist’ot’en Camp