Screefing: A Tree Planter's Reflection

by Rodger Wilkie

Overview

'Screefing' tells the story of a group of tree-planters living and working on the clear-cuts of the northern forest, tracing the psychological development of the main characters as they become increasingly removed from the urban society in which they have lived most of their lives. The book is a collection of short prose pieces and a few poems, with the prose consisting of short narratives, journal entries, and the occasional letter. Prominent in the book—not only in terms of description but also in terms of its relationships with the characters—is the land of the Precambrian Shield, which serves problematically as a source of employment on the one hand and spiritual contemplation and insight on the other. While most of the narrative is based on real events, several of the prose pieces and some of the poems tell of Stone Man, a trickster earth-spirit who personifies some of the wilder and seemingly whimsical elements of the northern landscape. The book is divided into three sections, each set in one of the bush camps in which the characters live. These sections—“Chapleau,” “Terrace Bay,” and “Elliot Lake”—follow the characters as they undergo a simultaneous breakdown and awakening, internalizing some of the amorality embodied by the land itself and by its avatar Stone Man, and learning to see beyond the limits of their own biases and expectations. The book, which is difficult to fit into a traditional generic category, might best be called creative non-fiction,

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045786171
Publisher:	Rodger Wilkie
Publication date:	03/21/2014
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	206 KB

About the Author

Originally from Windsor, Ontario, I grew up in the Toronto area, graduated from Dunbarton High School in Pickering, and later attended both the University of Toronto (St. Michael's College, BA) and the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, MA, PhD). I've worked as a night shift janitor, tree planter, drugstore assistant manager, ESL instructor, and teacher of literature, non-Western thought, and human rights, those last two of which I currently enjoy doing at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. I taught for four years in South Korea, and my travels have taken me to various locations in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Longstanding interests in fantasy literature, mythology, science, and the philosophy and poetry of East and South-East Asia, have all influenced my writing in one way or another, as has my love of hiking, camping, and paddling.