For four years, Yann Martel has been sending books and letters to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But after 100 missives and zero responses, the award-winning author has decided to stop "using books as bullets."
Martel began sending a book to the prime minister every other Monday in April, 2007, shortly after Harper was elected, "to remind him of what a marvelous thing a book is," and to try to "bridge the gulf between the political class and the artistic class."
With each carefully chosen book -- from authors that have run the gamut from Sappho to Tolstoy to Canada's own Douglas Coupland -- Martel included a letter to explain his selection.
During that time, Harper has responded only with silence.
"I did receive five responses from the PMO, the PM's office," Martel explained to CTV's Canada AM Tuesday, a day after sending his last book.
"They were short, three-lined letters from members of his staff. But from the man himself, from the prime minister, nothing at all… He doesn't seem to want to dialogue with me at all at any level on the idea of reading books and the place of the book in our society."
Martel says he isn't sure exactly what he was trying to accomplish with sending the books. It certainly wasn't for political goals or to increase funding to the arts, he says."It was just to say, ‘Listen, a book is a wonderful way to think about life,'" Martel said from Saskatoon.
"It takes a long time to write a book so you can put a lot into a book. So to access a book is to access a tremendous resource for thinking about the human condition. And it strikes me that our leaders, whether they be political or economic must, at some point, access literature. Because that, for me, remains the best way to explore a reality."
He cites the recent example of the turmoil underway in Egypt. He says if Harper and other leaders really want to understand the "soul" of Egypt, they need to read an author such as Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz.
Martel says he's disappointed that so few political leaders admit to reading fiction.
"Do we want our elites never to use that tool? And if we don't, how to they understand ‘the other' -- the geographic ‘other,' the historic ‘other', the religious ‘other'?
"If we don't use that tool, we limit our vision. And I find that frightful because these are people who have power over us."
With a second child on the way, and work underway on a new novel, which will be called ‘The High Mountains of Portugal," Martel has decided it's time to end the barrage and move on.
"To be honest I'm getting a little tired of using books as bullets and grenades," the Man Booker Prize winner said.
"I'm tired of sending books of poetry as little political jabs. Books are too beautiful. And books are incredibly patient. They'll be here long after Prime Minister Harper is gone and long after I'm gone."
