{"id":25348,"date":"2023-09-14T15:16:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T19:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=25348"},"modified":"2023-10-21T04:19:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T08:19:38","slug":"episode-878-we-all-fail-now-and-then-your-home-on-native-land-was-one-of-my-failures-book-for-adolescent-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=25348","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 878 WE ALL FAIL NOW AND THEN\u2026.\u201dYOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND\u201d WAS ONE OF MY FAILURES (book for adolescent readers)"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 878    WE ALL FAIL NOW AND THEN\u2026.\u201dYOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND\u201d WAS ONE OF MY FAILURES (book for adolescent readers)<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
september 14, 2023<\/div>\n

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WE ALL FAIL NOW ND THEN\u2026FAILURE HURTS\u2026BUT IT ALSO TEACHES.<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe road to hell is paved with good intentions\u2019 is s sentence worth remembering if you plan to be an author.<\/div>\n
When I wrote \u2018Your Home on Native Land\u201d I believed there was a need for a deeper understanding of <\/div>\n
our naive peoples.  That was my good intention.<\/div>\n

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So I created an imaginary native person of Mississauga New Credit ancestry.   A  young boy who did not know <\/div>\n
much about the history of his people but he had one valuable characteristic.  He was curious.<\/div>\n
Sort of like Candide.  Very much like Voltaire\u2019s Candide for that matter.   The young boy\u2019s Native name was \u2018Born<\/div>\n
With Eyes Wide Open\u2019.   He was fascinated by the history of his people that was gradually released to him<\/div>\n
by his elders, particularly his grand mother.  The history was not a happy history.  <\/div>\n

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In the end the boy concluded much the same that Candide concluded.  \u201cIf this is the best of all possible worlds, whet <\/div>\n
then of the others.\u201d<\/div>\n

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The book had a short and unhappy life.   My publisher, Jackfruit Press, did everything possible to make the book<\/div>\n
as success not least of which was hiring  a wonderful illustrator..  Four colour separations…  A powerful cover<\/div>\n
which compressed all my intentions into a single image of a giant snapping turtle who saved the world.<\/div>\n

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But we failed.   Jackfruit Press went bankrupt the moment the book hit the market.  All that remain today are<\/div>\n
10 or 15 copies on my bookshelf and a few on the internet.   Why did the book die?  Aside from the limited<\/div>\n
market for such A book there was another failure.   Enough to make me weep to this day.<\/div>\n

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A copy of the book was sent to a member of the aboriginal community who did not like the book at all.<\/div>\n
Why?  I am Not sure but I think here was resentment because I had appropriated native voice.   My hero<\/div>\n
was a figment of my imagination.  I was not aboriiginal.  Nor was I a recognized authority on First Nations  history.<\/div>\n

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Sadly the book died.  My failure.   We all fail now and then.<\/div>\n

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Today September 14, 2023 I came across this review of the book\u2026A newscippping yellow with age.<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 878    WE ALL FAIL NOW AND THEN\u2026.\u201dYOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND\u201d WAS ONE OF MY FAILURES (book for adolescent readers) alan skeoch september 14, 2023 WE ALL FAIL NOW ND THEN\u2026FAILURE HURTS\u2026BUT IT ALSO TEACHES. \u201cThe road to hell is paved with good intentions\u2019 is s sentence worth remembering if you plan to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}