Terror of the Cocoons

Many vigorous and heated discussions will follow a reading of this item. Questions like, “How can the Government of Canada (Canada Council) and the Government of the Province of Ontario (Ontario Arts Council) waste our tax dollars so flagrantly? What modest talents must a writer display to get money out of public funds? Or, in a different vein, how can Borealis Press manage without a copy editor or even a literate typesetter? Judy Stubbs, “specializing in library education,” has given us “condusive,” “autrocities” (repeatedly), and “suttle” (no, she did not mean little bits of cloth).

There is no plot, nor characterization. Judy Stubbs seems to like computers, fear nuclear disaster, and believe that after civilization is destroyed, some forms of life will survive. To quote: “‘We’ll have to work out a system of obtaining the necessary flora and fauna to the food-processing plants.’ ‘A lot of cadets are not going to be able to cope with the truth,’ added Mordrid.” This gives a slight idea of the style and texture of this oeuvre, but it does not, alas, reveal the unique way Judy Stubbs has divided seventeen whole pages and 31 half pages of tripe into eighteen chapters.