griddle talk

For 52 weeks, bill bissett and Carol Malyon met for brunch and conversation at the Golden Griddle in Toronto.

This sustained conversational encounter between Carol Malyon, who writes within the objective bounds of standard English usage, and bill bissett, one of contemporary writingâs most exotic practitioners, working with the visual forms of language in his own non-hierarchic, phonetic orthography, produces, as if by accident, invariably astonishing social, moral and ethical critical insights. Each of these writersâ particular uses of languageâ"the most radically different in contemporary literatureâ"consistently foregrounds and interrogates the cultural origins of âcommonâ perceptions that too often remain hidden and undiscovered in the dictionaries we search for âcommonâ meaning: proof positive that each personâs perception of lifeâs most fundamental questions and answers is almost never shared, and is always and only ever subject to translation, even among those who âshareâ the same language.

Here is what they talked about:

Trouble and the Self

What is Forever

Does Belonging Exist

Luck and Life

We Need Not Hold Our Experiences Against Life

Is There a Script

The Role of Mysteries in Peopleâs Lives

Time

Free Will and Wider Wiring

Families

God &/or the Loved One and Individual Freedom

Mortality and the Jigsaw Puzzle of Replicating a Parent in a Lover

Why âShouldsâ are No Good

Delusional Relationships

The Chemistry Metaphor

Censorship and Propaganda

True Love

Fact or Fictionâ"Whereâs the Line

Do We Invent Everything We Go Through

Is Rationality a Costume

Can We Influence Larger Book Sales

Maybe We All Want to Move to Sweden

Just for Today Iâm Confused About Religion

Tax Reform

Predictability

Stage Fright

Carol, What Is It

Them

Know Thyself and the Writerâs Delusions

Wondering What about the Stars and Our Friends

Childhood Versus Later On

Real Lifeâ"Does it Really Exist

All Those Prayersâ"Where are They Going, Exactly

Meaninglessness

Time and Relativity

Each Day We Wake Up and Realize Theyâve Given Us Another Day

Everything is Answered

The Questions in Our Livesâ"the Balance, and Whatâs Peripheral

Dogs Give Unconditional Love, Why Canât People

Life is Difficult and We are Up to the Challenge

Personal Happiness and Destiny

Federalismâ"Is It Too Late to Save It

The Payoff is Always Inside Ourselves

Cultural Translation

Can We Know Beforehand

Spirituality

Loss and Grief

Is This Real Life Weâre Experiencing

Jealousy

Why Arenât People in Love with Us When Weâre in Love with Them

Do We Have Freedom Outside Our Imprintingsâ"Can We Find Reciprocal Love if Our Imprintings Prevent That from Happening