of ourselves , i . e . our sexuality , continuously sublimated . I would argue tha t that has significant impacts on , for instance , levels of violence against women . So that ’ s very much part of the drive of my writing Geographies of a Lover .
EM : In its ca talogue , NeWest Press mentions other writers — Pauline Réage and Mar ion Engel — who have inspired you . Tell us more about their work .
SdL : The Story of O is in m y mind one of the most foundational texts of a w oman contemplating women ’ s sexuality . It w as rendered as an anon ymous text for decades . It ’ s a mid 20th century book tha t looks at a woman who moves into a relationship — a rather sexually
Marion Engel is pr obably one of Canada ’ s most famous authors in ter ms of looking at a woman ’ s solo relationship to physical geography in a r emarkably innovative way . Bear is a text that culminates with a woman having sexual r elationships with a bear . That was unheard of . It still is rather unheard of in wr iting by Canadian authors and I think as r esponsible Canadian feminist authors we have to lift our hats to the space that ’ s been carved in the literar y landscape by books like Bear and The Story of O .
Another book that I really am in debt to as both a political force and as a text of sexual longing and sexual innovation is Elizabeth Smart ’ s By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept — another book considered scandalous for the politics and language that it used in the day . It ’ s a memoir , a narrative to a lover whose relationship to the author was never formalized . She bore two children by this man who she never married and who never lived permanently with her . Her personal politics r esounded in her text and allo wed new spaces for women ’ s voices to be presented .
EM : Your day job as an academic is a demanding one . Do y ou find it a struggle to balance y our creative and academic work ? violent and bondage-based relationship — with a man . To put it bluntly , there ’ s just no way that books like Fifty Shades of Grey could have possibly been written without The Story of O predating them . But it w as probably the most scandalous and one of the most hea vily censored books of all time . It ’ s interesting to me tha t the female author who wrote it wouldn ’ t or couldn ’ t have her name attached to it for a very long time . So it ’ s an homage if you will to the right of women to have our names associated with raw , sexual literature that NeWest press and I cite works like Pauline Réage ’ s The Story of O .
SdL : No , I don ’ t . There are the regular constraints of ha ving only 24 hours in a day and only seven days in a week , but I ’ m very broadly concerned with ameliorating social injustices . My work in all of its expressions is trying to push back against social inequalities . Broadly speaking , I write . I write in various disciplines and in various media but I write , and I try hard to write back against social injustices . We need to in this time of incr eased corporatization , increased neo-liberal agendas . We need to assemble all the possible voices and tools to produce a highly creative arsenal to push bac k against these powerful forces . [ Geographies of a Lover is available from NeWest Press for $ 14.95 ]
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