[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.] Deborah Dundas (Toronto Star) interviews writer Canisia Lubrin, whose debut novel, Code Noir, was published this month. Here are excerpts from “‘I’ve always been attracted to things that are a little bit different’: The writer whose groundbreaking debut fiction was worth the wait.” [Also see previous post New Book: Code Noir.]
In almost every piece that’s written about Canisia Lubrin, every review, every feature, every introduction and short bio printed in a festival or conference brochure, she and her work are invariably described as “groundbreaking” and “innovative.”
“I’ve always been attracted to things that are a little bit different,” she said in a phone interview on a grey day in January ahead of the publication of her new book, “Code Noir.” “What I try to go to is the authentic expression of something and that seems to always take me toward innovation. I think there is a tendency for us as a species (to) get used to things, and the more ordinary and commonplace they are, the more invisible they tend to become.”
That approach to making the commonplace extraordinary has won her fans and acclaim. Her first collection of poetry, “Voodoo Hypothesis,” was shortlisted for many awards, and her second, “The Dyzgraphxst,” won her the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2021. Meantime, she also teaches creative writing at the University of Guelph and runs the poetry program at the legendary Canadian imprint McClelland & Stewart.
And so, unsurprisingly, “Code Noir” has made book sections’ “most anticipated” lists everywhere. It is billed as Lubrin’s first book of fiction, an exciting development in her creative career: What is she going to do with this medium, we wonder? Will it be as innovative as her poetry?
As we talked, I called it a novel, then simply fiction — “What do we even call this book?” she laughed.
Which gives you an idea that it might be as exciting as expected.
The book is written in 59 sections, a direct response to a document she discovered while researching “The Dyzgraphxst.” That document was the 1685 Code Noir, a decree by French King Louis XIV that imposed the conditions of slavery on the French colonial empire. It contained 59 articles.
[. . .] One of her mentors — fellow Guelph university professor and Canadian literary legend Dionne Brand — suggested that Lubrin use those 59 articles and write a story (or a response of sorts) for each. And when Dionne Brand suggests something, Lubrin pointed out, you listen. “And so I said, you know what? This is the only response.”It’s a much different way of writing for Lubrin, “a kind of call and answer thing that is different than the microscopic, closing in toward concentration that poetry is,” she said. It gives her that telegraphic scope she was looking for, the ability to zoom in and out, create a broad expanse where the pieces form a mutable whole.
Each of those 59 stories is prefaced by a work from visual artist Torkwase Dyson. The art looks like this: a black and white drawing, looking as if it’s done been done in heavy pencil or charcoal and then partially erased, uncovering negative spaces and also revealing one of the articles in the Code Noir. [. . .]
“What I wanted was the articles to be treated as artifacts. Like something you dug out of the ground and you slapped on the page. I wanted them to have a kind of muted presence and not be front and centre or beautified.”
When Torkwase came back with the drawings, Lubrin knew they would work. Blackness literally dominates the page, while the articles from the code are only revealed through the black. This gives them, Lubrin said, an emotional honesty that counteracts the dehumanization of the articles. Even though they were meant to be progress: “they were supposed to say to slave masters, ‘Hey, you should treat these slaves in quote-unquote more humane ways even though we will keep them in the category of property.’”
And so, with that structure, Lubrin takes the Code and, out of it or alongside it, creates something else. [. . .] For full article, see https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/i-ve-always-been-attracted-to-things-that-are-a-little-bit-different-the-writer/article_041dd16a-bc69-11ee-a72f-e3fee352eb75.html
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