My American Progeny

Yesterday I got a little package in the post from my Canadian publisher, so I carted it down to Edinburgh and opened it up with Cath. It contained two copies of The Closet's All Mine, and they look fantastic. My eye fell upon the word "honor" and shuddered at the foreign spelling, but the quality of the paper made my mouth water. Ahhhh....beautiful paper! The lay-out was great, too, but the paper....

Ah...!

Now, not to insult my Canadian progeny, but it has been printed on romance novel, mass paperback, paper. It is kind of rough and tan. The paper on which The Closet's All Mine is printed on fine white paper, the kind of paper I've seen in theology books. Bibliophile B.A. flipped through it lovingly.

"I like the shoes," Cath had said.

"Yes, I like the shoes, too" I replied.

Everyone likes the shoes. I think that is why the book is entitled The Closet's All Mine: it's to get that photo of shoes on the cover. However, that is just a theory because nobody asked me. That Death of the Author thing happens when you sign a contract, unless you're J.K. Rowling surrounded by a fleet of lawyers. Eventually the Author gets paid, though. I'm looking forward to that bit.

Meanwhile, the gorgeous paper is a nice surprise and takes the sting out of "honor." There is nothing wrong with American spelling, per se: it's just that there is such a thing as Canadian spelling, and it has always stuck in my craw that the editors of the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, craving consistancy in the work of a man who used British, American and Canadian spelling, depending on whose journal he was writing for, chose to render Canada's most important theologian in American.

"Bernie wouldn't have cared about all that," said his 90 year old editor/friend, waving aside my nationalist complaint.

Mmmmm! It smells like a theology book, too! God bless Liguori and their pots of American cash.