By Nadine Wathen, Western Communications
Read. Watch. Listen. introduces you to the personal side of our faculty, staff and alumni. Participants are asked to answer three simple questions about their reading, viewing and listening habits – what one book or newspaper/magazine article is grabbing your attention; what one movie or television show has caught your eye; and what album/song, podcast or radio show are you lending an ear to.
Nadine Wathen is an Information and Media Studies professor.
Today, she takes a turn on Read. Watch. Listen.
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Read.
I’ve been reading a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction lately, and one that was compelling, excellent and horrifying (all at the same time) was The Marrow Thieves by Canadian writer Cherie Dimaline. It gripped me so much that I actually read it too fast – I need to go back and re-read it (though will probably be horrified all over again).
Watch.
On a recent flight from Melbourne back to Canada, I watched two movies based on Indigenous narratives and set in Ontario: Through Black Spruce, based on the novel by Joseph Boyden, and Falls Around Her, from writer-director Darlene Naponse.
Both focus on the strength and resilience of Indigenous women in Canada, which was a powerful antidote to some of the problematic media narratives arising from recent coverage of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry.
Listen.
I’ve had Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence on a playback loop in my head for the last several days. This is probably because I recently heard it on a car manufacturer’s advertisement. The automaker was trying to brand-wash itself after a major emissions scandal and used the song as a backdrop for the debut of an all-electric concept vehicle. As the song runs through my head, I find myself wondering what S&G would think about their classic song being used this way.
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If you have a suggestion for someone you would like to see in Read. Watch. Listen., or would like to participate yourself, drop a line to inside.western@uwo.ca.