Singularities-Fragments, Parafictions, Prose Poems: New Directions in Fiction and Physics

Alan Thomas is an associate professor of English at the University of
Toronto.

The principles behind this assemblage of 46 items, many drawn from the
experimental wing of Canadian writing, are given by Hancock (editor of
Canadian Fiction Magazine) in a portentous and lengthy afterword. There
he asserts a connection between literature and physics, but the
nonphysicist reader need not be concerned about competence in
non-Euclidean geometry. The association seems to be metaphoric and
little more. Hancock establishes greater credence in acknowledging a
state for surrealism and its anarchic disruptions of conventional art.
Yet, evidently, appeal to the irrational nature of the dream-world is
old hat. He updates the tradition by adding as models or sources the
apparently chaotic energy of particle physics and throws in a New Age
respect for the mysteries of the occult. So much for Hancock’s
apology. The contents of the book comprise lively pieces, mainly in
prose, either deliberately composed in short compass or excerpted from
longer works. The authors are some of the best and brightest in Canada,
and most of these pieces are interesting. Since the editor would
disclaim any attempt at order, the best to be said of the anthology as a
whole is that it provides a sampling of the rich talents on the
alternative side of writing in this country, along with biographical
notes—some substantial, some sketchy—on the writers. These include
Erin Mouré, Patrick Lane, David Halliday, Mary di Michele, Paul Dutton,
Fred Wah, John Riddell, Judith Fitzgerald, and Susan Musgrave.