Blair, what have you done? Only joking, but you shouldn’t have introduced me to this site! I’m a sucker for books. I have bookcases in 4 rooms and in the attic, and more will certainly come now.
Brion Gysin, Identity and myself, oh, and Perec too
Gysin
I started reading the foreword (by Vincent J. Varga) to the “Brion Gysin : Tuning in to the Multimedia Age” book, which brings up Gysin’s need to face the well-known Canadian conundrum about identity. Varga quote’s Northrup Frye who said that it was not so much a question of “who am I?” as “where is here?” When I lived in Canada in the mid-seventies this was a real question for many people. Canada seemed overshadowed by the USA in the eyes of the world, and Canadians didn’t have a well-defined national identity; they were clean and polite but had no other distinct qualities. Varga says that this book is an attempt to give an image of Gysin’s life and multi-disciplinary work transcending the simple identifications and stating “I am that I am”.
Perec
Perec also had problems with his identity. He was born in Paris, but his parents were Polish Jews. His father was killed in the Second World War, his mother was taken to and probably died in Auschwitz. He was brought up by his middle class aunt and uncle, whereas his parents had been working class. He had no clear memories of his early years and longed to have had happy childhood memories to anchor him.
Myself
Until I was 18 I don’t think I had any real notions of my national identity. I unconsciously assumed was a British WASP in Northern Ireland. I had only started mixing with Catholics a few years earlier, we lived in different areas. After I took my A levels in 1967, I went to Blackpool looking for a summer job before going to university. I had some life lessons working in the kitchen of the Hotel Metropole. Two other guys from Northern Ireland grammar schools were doing the same as me. They mixed with the same age group in the same social class. Then we arrived in England, working in kitchens and hotel dining rooms with people of all ages, mostly poorly educated and working class. ( I was in-between, working class, but at a middle class school – a classic mixed-up boy* I’ll get back to this, it’s an important stage in my life.). We felt superior, but they looked down on us – calling us, ‘Paddies’!
*Perhaps this another way I feel I relate to Perec, the class divide. Until I was 11, I lived in a new working class housing estate and all the children there attended the state primary school.
FeĢrez Kuri, J. and Edmonton Art, G. (2003) Brion Gysin : tuning in to the multimedia age : with 246 illustrations, 195 in colour. London: Thames & Hudson in association with the Edmonton Art Gallery.
