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 ]
16