\s mYevtew KALEIDOSCOPE - University of British Columbia

BOOKS IN REVIEWassessment of contemporary Canadianwriting, is the absence of a satisfactorydiscussion of these developments and theevidence of the new directions theysuggest.The essays in A Climate Charged arearranged in three sections, and, althoughPowe acknowledges that he has notattempted a systematic commentary andhas consciously avoided theoretical structures,the essays achieve a unity of toneand reflect a consistent set of criticalideals. Powe argues for a criticism whichis polemical and cosmopolitan, a criticismsensitive to language, capable of teachinghow to read "with passion and urgency"and expressed in arguments which are"concrete, urgent and humane." Hismodel critic is a man of good sense andgood taste concerned with assessing thestate of literature and literary criticismin Canada and with identifying writerswho have used language to provide "thebest strategies for understanding theworld." Moral perspectives, value judgements,an interested response to works ofliterature, and a sense of the close connectionbetween art and life are, forPowe, crucial aspects of the critic's function.In the opening section of A ClimateCharged Powe compares aspects of thework of Northrop Frye and MarshallMcLuhan. A former student of Mc-Luhan, Powe offers both a warm personalmemoir and a defense of McLuhan'sapproach to literature and ideas.He views McLuhan as an energeticiconoclast, a protean figure always "mobileand ambiguous," "a man of paradoxand analogy" with a cosmopolitan sensibilityand a flair for epigrams and aphorisms.McLuhan's influence on Powe isapparent throughout A Climate Charged,and Powe argues that McLuhan's "spasmodic-paradoxical-polemical"approachfrees readers to select an appropriate"evaluative process." Frye, however, isseen as "a dialectical-conceptual thinkerwho approaches the literary experiencethrough theory." Powe is uncomfortablewith Frye's "dispassionate systems" and,in particular, takes issue with Frye's rejectionof value judgements and hiselimination "of the moral dimension ofart." If McLuhan represents "a thinkerwho used concrete evidence, the word ofthe world," Frye, according to Powe,"begins with theory, the text in the void."Part Two of A Climate Charged attemptsan overview of the intellectualand literary atmosphere of Canada, andthe title essay surveys contemporary Canadianliterary criticism. Powe's descriptionof the Canadian literary milieu is toogeneralized and too familiar to be effective,but his appraisals of the criticalwork of such prominent figures as D. G.Jones, Eli Mandel, Margaret Atwood,Dennis Lee, and George Woodock areinteresting, and, although his remarksreflect no coherent theoretical base, theyemphasize Powe's dissatisfaction with"efforts to define, categorize, and createstructures and themes" into which worksof art can be slotted. His judgements ofindividual critics are frequently astute,candid, and balanced. For example, hepraises Woodcock's literate tone and eclecticism,but he questions Woodcock'stendency toward "uncritical enthusiasms."He singles out Dennis Lee's SavageFields and John Moss' Sex and Violencein the Canadian Novel as examplesof murky, convoluted and dull writingwhich lacks "the pressure of debate, thedrive of dissatisfaction" and "a sense ofgrit and guidance."The final section of A Climate Chargedconsists of brief but nonetheless widerangingand provocative reconsiderationsof several major contemporary writers:Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen, MargaretLaurence, Margaret Atwood, RobertsonDavies, and Mordecai Richler. Theseessays, although inconsistent in the qua-160