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  Lunatic Writer

Book Review: BIG LEDGE by Brian d'Eon

10/2/2018

1 Comment

 

Nascent Poet or Hotheaded Murderer?
by Sean Arthur Joyce

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​Big Ledge by Brian D’Eon is that rarity in historical fiction—a story that combines historical veracity with narrative fluency and a deep poetic sensibility. D’Eon starts the tale from its endpoint, with its protagonist Robert Sproule sitting in a jail cell telling his story to a priest on the eve of his execution in 1886. Sproule is well-known to readers of Kootenay history for having been convicted of the murder of Thomas Hamill, with whom he had a dispute over ownership of the Bluebell mining claim on the east shore of Kootenay Lake.

The author captures well the colloquialisms of late 19th century speech, adding to the tale’s believability. As any skilled writer knows, dialogue is a prime vehicle for storytelling, not just for revealing plot points but quirks of speech and character. D’Eon effortlessly masters the technique, easily drawing us into the tale. He also appreciates the value of including other sensory information in the narrative. Sproule’s confession to the priest is laced with his memories of the “pristine” Kootenay country—not just its visual grandeur but its smells: “…the firs and cedar, the black earth, the wild strawberries, even the smell of the lake—each has its own smell you know—that’s how salmon know where they’re going.”

The poetic dimension enters with a secondary set of characters, the Archangel Michael and Hindu goddess Parvati, heavenly eavesdroppers whose wry asides add a funny, philosophical dimension. Poetic quotes from Blake, Shakespeare, the Bible and others are woven seamlessly throughout Sproule’s narrative, though it’s uncertain what level of education he possessed, or whether he would have had quite the broad vocabulary D’Eon imagines. The dialogue between Archangel Michael and Parvati is often laced with humour, as when Michael wonders what it is that attracts mortals to tobacco. “Ah,” Parvati answered, happy to explain: “A native custom, and a most clever means of revenge against European invaders.” The celestial pair function as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting from the wings as they debate whether Sproule is an unjustly accused prospector with a poetic nature or simply a hotheaded murderer. In so doing, D’Eon skillfully engages one of Canadian history’s great mysteries, one that—given the contradictory historical accounts—may never be solved.
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Adding to this narrative of multiple perspectives is C.J. Woodbury, a reporter who wrote several accounts of the Sproule-Hamill trial. Speaking to his fiancée Kate Buchanan, Woodbury makes an observation that could serve as the book’s basic premise: “It was striking the way people could so quickly judge these things. As if there could be no doubt about the matter. Label someone and you no longer had to think about him as a person.” With explorations of Woodbury as well as William Baillie-Grohman, D’Eon sidesteps the trap of investing too heavily in his protagonist’s point of view.
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D’Eon successfully applies the techniques of the novelist to flesh out what would otherwise be—at best, given what we know of Sproule and Hamill—a very short story. One of the writer’s primary tools is a sense of empathy for a story’s characters, even those with an unsavoury nature. D’Eon clearly identifies strongly with the version of Sproule he has created, and his characterization is highly appealing. For many readers, it will raise serious questions about Sproule’s guilt and the “justice” meted out to him.
You can almost smell the smoke of a miner’s campfire, curling up into a night sky not yet crowded with satellites and air pollution, lake waters lapping meditatively as the tale unwinds. D’Eon has written a historical novel that ranks with the best of them.



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One of the story's principal narrators, the Hindu Goddess, Parvati

1 Comment

Guy Consolmagno & the Vatican Observatory

3/31/2013

2 Comments

 
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Brother Guy--A Jesuit and research astronomer--echoes my feelings about the relationship between science and religion very eloquently.  At one point he reminds listeners that Scripture says: "God so loved the world that he gave us his Son."  Brother Guy emphasizes the fact that it is the "world" that God loves, the physical, real, rational, open-for-investigation world.  We are part of this world and, like God himself, are expected to love it.  Hence science. Hence environmentalism. Hence all charity and love. Amen.




Br. Consolmagno and part of the Vatican meteorite collection, courtesy Kevin Nickerson

(Originally broadcast on CBC's Quirks and Quarks on April 15, 2006)

Science and religion are often seen in conflict, but that's something Brother Guy Consolmagno would like to put behind us. He's certainly put it behind him. Brother Guy is the Curator of Meteorites of the Vatican Observatory in Arizona, and an accomplished planetary scientist, and he sees no tension at all between his science and his religion. He also thinks many scientists with religious beliefs feel the same way. The conflict, he suspects, is a result of people who know too little about both science and religion.


Click BELOW for the CBC interview with Brother Guy and learn what the Roman Catholic Church really thinks about science.

qq-2013-03-30_04_guy_consolmagno.mp3
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VATT--the Vatican Observatory, near Tucson, Arizona.

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Ready for more? Here what the Vatican Observatory's chief astronomer, Jose Gabriel Funes has to say about the possible existence of
extra-terrestrial intelligence.

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90 000 Words

2/13/2013

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Just passed the ninety thousand word mark in BIG LEDGE. Just about time to start applying the brakes!

Below is a detail of a map showing the route of the Northern Pacific Railway. It starts in Minneapolis/ St. Paul and heads out to Tacoma and Portland.

Sproule and his fellow miners would normally have got off at Kootenai Station (near Sandpoint), then headed north to Bonner's Ferry. From there they could travel downriver to Kootenay Lake, cross the international border, and soon reach Big Ledge.

In 1884, Grohman tells a tale of his being accosted at gunpoint by Sproule on a train trip from Kootenai Station to Rathdrum.  Rathdrum was the nearest settlement where Grohman would have encountered the law and could have sworn out a complaint against Sproule. For some reason he never did.

Any local Kootenay residents will note that Nakusp and Sandon are shown in the wrong place. Cute...


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The Defense of Robert Sproule

1/10/2013

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Theodore Davie, younger brother to A.E.B. Davie, followed in his brother's footsteps, becoming both lawyer and politician. Generally, A.E.B. argued for the prosecution and Theodore for the Defense.

In the 1884 appeal heard before Chief Justice Begie in regards to the dispute of mining claims at Big Ledge, Theodore had originally agreed to represent Sproule and his party.  Unfortunately, Theodore was called away at the last minute on pressing government business, leaving Sproule with some lesser light to argue his case.  In Theodore's absence, Sproule might well have had his heart set on Baillie-Grohman's representation. After all, Grohman had successfully defended his interests before Gold Commissioner Kelly a year earlier.  But Grohman too was unavailable, away on one of his many trips to England early in 1884.

In the end, Theodore Davie was able to represent Sproule but, this time, defending him on a murder charge.  Starting on December 2, 1885, Theodore Davie faced off against his brother, then Attorney-General of the province, in what was regarded as one of the most high profile cases ever to be argued in a British Columbia court.

Even after Sproule's conviction, Theodore continued to represent Sproule, traveling as far as Ottawa, seeking a re-trial or, at worst, a commutation of the death sentence. 

Originally Sproule had been sentenced to be hanged on January 5, 1885.  Thanks to a long list of appeals, legal wranglings and last minute reprieves,  Sproule's sentence was not carried out until October 29, 1886.

In 1889, Theodore Davie became Attorney-General , and went on to become premier himself in 1892.  He resigned from that office three years later to become Chief Justice, succeeding the legendary Matthew Baillie Begbie. 





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Robert Sproule & the Appeals Court

1/9/2013

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Matthew Baillie Begbie was a colossus in the early history of British Columbia's judiciary. Later he was to be known as the "hanging judge" This epithet was likely undeserved, however,  since judges of British Columbia at this time had no leeway in passing sentence in murder cases.  Only if a jury recommended mercy could hanging be avoided.

Begbie was the Chief Justice (or its equivalent) for most of his professional life and remained in this role until his death in 1894. It was he who, early in 1884, heard the appeal launched by the Ainsworth Syndicate over the ownership of claims at Big Ledge. Begbie reversed all of Gold Commissioner Kelly's rulings, except one.  Hammill's re-staking of the Bluebell site was a simple case of claim-jumping, Begbie decided, and he ruled in favour of Sproule. 

Begbie also expressed his annoyance at the role played by Baillie-Grohman in the dispute. "...the whole of this wearisome, expensive and mischievous litigatiion has been caused and fostered by the unauthorized intrusion of a stranger, who seems to have succeeded, before the Gold Commissioner, in raising such a cloud of irrelevant statement and controversies, as to entirely obscure that officer's view of the few material facts in each case. This interference, it is scarcely necessary to state, is entirely illegal."

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However, lest we think Begbie was the kind of man to hold a grudge, it is instructive to notice that Mrs. Baillie-Grohman, in writing of her time in Victoria, states how Begbie was a good family friend and would often come over to house for dinner.  And, after all, the two men did share a common middle name.

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    Brian d'Eon, fiction writer: whose work modulates between speculative, historical and magical realism.

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