Margaret Atwood on Canada, Writing, and Invention (Live at Mason)

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2019

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Margaret Atwood defines the Canadian sense of humor as “a bit Scottish,” and in this live conversation with Tyler, she loves to let her own comedic sensibilities shine. In addition to many other thoughts about Canada — it’s big after all — she and Tyler discuss Twitter, biotechnology, Biblical history, her families of patents, poetry, literature, movies, and feminism.

Is it coincidence that Atwood started The Handmaid’s Tale in West Berlin during 1984? Does she believe in ghosts? Is the Western commitment to free speech waning? How does she stay so productive? Why is she against picking favorites? Atwood provides insight to these questions and much more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded April 9th, 2019

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:08.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
0:12.5	Learn more at mercatis.org.
0:15.2	And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit
0:20.4	ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.
0:30.8	We're very honored to have Margaret Atwood with us here tonight.
0:34.3	And just to be clear, this is the conversation with Margaret Atwood.
0:37.7	I want to have not the one you want to have.
0:42.1	Just to start with some basic questions about Canada, which you've written on for decades,
0:47.2	what defines the Canadian sense of humor?
0:52.4	What defines the Canadian sense of humor? I think it's a bent Scottish.
0:56.6	How so?
0:57.8	Well, it's kind of ironic.
1:00.7	It depends what part of Canada you're in.
1:02.8	I think the further west you go, the less of a sense of humor they have, but that's just
1:10.9	my own personal opinion. My family's from Nova Scotia, so that's as far east as you can get.
1:18.0	And they go in for a deadpan lying.
1:21.0	In 1974, you wrote the Canadian sense of humor was often obsessed with the issue of being
1:28.7	provincial versus being cosmopolitan. Do you think that's still true?
1:32.4	It depends again. Canada's really big. In fact, there's a song called Canada's really big.
1:38.8	You can find it on the internet. It's by a group called the arrogant worms.
1:43.9	And that kind of sums up Canada right there for you.
	...

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