Margaret Atwood sat down with Deborah Treisman for a short story reading in the first ever live edition of the New Yorker podcast.
By Grace Henkel
The New Yorker’s Deborah Treisman, left, and Margaret Atwood read and discuss the short story “Varieties of Exile” (Courtesy of Gabriel Li/Hot Docs)
“I don’t welcome the return of this kind of uproar and chaos, but it looks like we’re there again.”
Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood spoke powerfully as she sat down to record the New Yorker’s first-ever live podcast from the Hot Docs Cinema. The renowned author joined host Deborah Treisman to read and discuss Mavis Gallant’s short story Varieties of Exile, first published in 1976.
Atwood said the story “felt very timely,” a sentiment likely shared by readers and witnesses to current international crises.
“Every time a dominant power loses its grip, there seems to be turmoil and chaos,” said Atwood as she introduced the story. Though she specified no particular conflict, it is undeniable that humanitarian consequences introduced by the actions of “dominant powers” have been far-reaching and deeply felt across the world in the last years and recent weeks.
Atwood also noted that such stories and experiences from the past, whether memories or renderings in literature, become magnified in their significance as time progresses.
“At first, they seem to be very far away when you first live through them,” she said. However, she acknowledged, such events often return with profound relevance in future contexts.
Varieties of Exile is set during the second World War, told from the perspective of Linnet Muir, a nineteen-year-old Canadian woman. While being closely drawn to the refugees pouring into Montreal, she becomes disillusioned to the brutal cross-continental conflict, the divisive patterns of European-Canadian family units, and her own isolation.
As Muir develops a deep and idealistic fascination for the refugees with whom she feels “entirely at home,” she also observes the pattern of “remittance men.” They are the sons of English families, sent abroad in the wake of scandal.
Muir recalls how her childhood world and its truths were shaped significantly by narratives in literature. As Atwood reads, these narratives are stripped back to uncover stark realities. The refugees become “boring” to Muir the moment she witnesses one of them eating cornflakes, no longer a novelty–and the remittance men, as ties to their former identity weaken, are confronted with the reality of their very permanent exile.
Despite the heavy subject matter, Atwood’s sharp wit and quick humor cut through to the audience. During their discussion, as Treisman asked for Atwood’s insights on a particular moment in the story, the literary legend simply replied that she didn’t know, she didn’t write it.
You can read Varieties of Exile here.