Fire Beneath the Cauldron

Elizabeth S. Masih is the editor of Write On: The Newsletter for Young
Canadian Writers and Readers.

Working on the premise that “the modern short story has structural
affinities with the depths of the imagination,” Hancock has collected
a group of stories as a “cross-section of the Canadian imagination.”
In doing this, he has assembled an eclectic collection that covers an
almost impossibly wide spectrum of settings, characters, plots, and
tones.

Yet, Hancock argues, in this anthology there are many common
threads—archetypes—that weave themselves together to make the fabric
of the Canadian soul. To help us see these shared images, he provides an
informative and intriguing introduction that suggests we look for
symbols of alchemy (the ancient philosophy/science concerned with
transforming humanity and the world) in the stories. Just as the fire
burned beneath the alchemist’s cauldron, causing different reactions,
the imagination sets fire to the short story, which acts as a container
allowing us to sort through images from our unconsciousness and ideally
find illumination and renewal.

No doubt many of these stories will not appeal to all readers. Some
(like Edna Alford’s “The Garden of Eloise Loon”) are dark, and
although they are compelling, they are not necessarily an
“enjoyable” read. Hancock has taken care to balance these pieces
with lighter ones, such as David Arnason’s humorous “Do Astronauts
Have Sex Fantasies?”

Although the lack of Canadian settings in many of the stories (and a
deficit of pieces by Eastern Canadian writers) sometimes negates the
feeling that these are truly representative Canadian pieces, Hancock has
put together an interesting and worthwhile collection of stories that
explores the human condition and “the world soul.”