From: thood@corvus.matrox.com (Thomas Hood)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Intellectuals of the current generation of the French-speaking majority
Date: 22 Jul 92 03:16:26 GMT
Organization: Matrox Ltd.

Benoit Aubin writes a column called "Prisms" for the Montreal Gazette
that appears on Saturdays.  He also writes for l'Actualite, and has
written for one of Montreal's French-language dailies. Mr. Aubin
describes himself as a pure-laine Quebecois, and it shows in all his
leanings.

I do not share his ethos, but I can admire him, because he takes his
role as a journalist seriously: he recognizes that the truth makes
demands of him, and he tries to meet them.  Those are grounds for trust.

In a recent article, he reviewed Night Fantastic, a show being
presented in Place d'Armes (Montreal) every night until the end
of the summer as part of the 350th anniversary celebrations.

His last paragraph is interesting.  He says that Quebec's intelligentsia
has moved beyond a self-pitying mythology to a more balanced view,
which while still demanding the primacy of French, accomodates
a diverse reality.  I hope he is making a factual, as opposed to a
wishful or suggestive, statement.

Comments?

   -----------------------------------------------------------------
                                                Gazette 18/July/1992
                         The Big Show
   by Benoit Aubin

   [...]
   It was probably one of the most daring and most difficult artistic
   endeavours undertaken this year.  I mean, how can you recount their
   long and sometimes violent history to a group of people who don't
   even agree on whether the crucial Battle of the Plains of Abraham
   should be branded the Victory or the Defeat?

   [...]
   There is something in this show to miff everyone.  Francophones
   are reminded that greed -- and not a god-given mission -- is what
   probably led the early settlers to clash with the Iroquois.
   Anglophones are reminded of Lord Durham's attempt to create policies
   to eradicate French from the province.  Immigrant, recent and old,
   are reminded of their status as cheap labour, back-drop characters.
   The election of Rene Levesque, a hero to most French-speakers, is
   left out of the show.

   Current myths are debunked: the Patriots revolt was a left-wing
   political uprising, not a race-riot as the nationalists like to
   depict it.  And, for once, English-speaking Montrealers are not
   described exclusively as fat-cat profiteers; their 19th-century
   contribution to making Montreal what it became, is celebrated.

   Night Fantastic is not free of bias.  But it is free of the
   nationalist propaganda that has marred such attempts in the
   recent past. [E.g. the narration of the 350th anniversary
   fireworks -TH].

   The underlying, unspoken message of the show is that Montreal
   has had several successive masters, and has attracted all kinds
   of people who have made it what it is today.

   but it is also made plain in this show that, worldly, cosmopolitan,
   multicultural and bilingual, Montreal is, above all, a French-
   speaking city in America; always was; still is.

   Night Fantastic is the story of Montreal as it is viewed by the
   intellectuals of the current generation of its French-speaking
   majority
   -----------------------------------------------------------------

--
Thomas Hood                                                    thood@matrox.com