jNow interviews MP Chuck Cook tioned subsidies to the book publishing industry W HEN NORTH Vancouver MP Chuck Cook ques- last month during a presentation to the Ottawa Communications and Culture committee, little did he know it would fuel a media feeding frenzy. Columnists Canada-wide were outraged and in some cases reckless in their accusations. One publisher sent him a “good’’ Ca- nadian book, urging him to read it. Much to Cook’s delight he had al- ready read it because he was one of the contributors. Looks at Books editor Barbara Black recently spoke to Mr. Cook in his North Vancouver office about what he , has dubbed ‘‘a tempest in a teapot.” How do you feel about al! this press on your comments? ;You have to accept whatever the press says and shake your head and cry... ‘This committee hearing, it was just a load of questions, and it’s hi- larious because... the whole ex- change is fess than one page. - Was this a media feeding frenzy? think the whole thing is fascinating, because one of the asons this file folder (of articles) is being put together is | realiy ink that Icould make a learned icle out of it for one of the -,journalisin schools... as an exam- ple‘of pack misror journalism... ir- pensibility and lack of research. $0 where did you get your figure *-of 10% of the people reading books? | don’t know. I think it’s actually ma publishing conference in this country. It could have been 10 years ago for all I know, where somebody was deploring the state of the Canadian publishing in- dustry, saying that as far as the - publishing industry goes only 10% @ ‘of Canadians read books. And then Statistics Canada came “out and said that 50% of Cana- ~'dians read a book tast year. Well,... that means that 50% of : Canadians didn’t read a book last »_year. The other part of that statistic «now what books did they read?,.. I'm willing to bet you that 30% of people that read a book ‘year, chances are it was a B pocket book, a romance, of it was ‘fiction or a detective story, in 5 other words what the mass sale of ” books are - But you } said that 10% of f people tead books, but when you take . out the romance, mysteries and ‘light fiction it goes down to 5%, § You're making a distinction be- - tween books and literature then? ’ fm making a distinction be- “tween the $18 million in govern- In Review LOOKS AT BOOKS ment support and what the $18 million buys... In other words we’ re back to, why should half the people pay for the other half to have a book to read? fs that money subsidizing Cana- dian “‘literature,’’ are you saying, and that not that many read litera- ture? ' | would have loved one of those columnists to tell me, but nobody has said anything.... My library researcher is digging into that. 1 used the line about subsidizing a coffee table book with beautiful pictures in it that will sit in up- per-middle-class homes | don’t think is the proper function of a publishing subsidy. ... | suspect the reason nobody's done it is they know damn well that the figures would be even more devastating than what's ap- peared, The other thing, that’s in- teresting is... when I didn’t fit the pattern of what ! should be as a real stupid ignorant redneck who - doesn’t rzad, it bugged them! Good God, | was chairman of the library board here for years and I’ve been educated to a cet- tain extent. But is the $17 miliion subsidy to the industry proportionate to sub- sidies to other industries? ...800 million bucks for the Prairie farmers.... they’re having problems eating. Nobody's having a problem if they don’t read a book. There's stil! public libraries. It’s an: oranges and apples argu- ment. They could read a book, yes, but could they read a Canadian book if it weren't subsidized? Weil, t believe they could. | think a good Canadian writer will find an audience regardless of whether the publisher's subsidiz- We always have to compare ourselves to the Americans. Do 9 Some page 33 pizzamania enecialize in gourmet pizzas of all varieties. SPECIALS FOR DECEMBER 1S91 2 Hawallan 712.95 Lge. Mexican $12.95 Vegetable Samosa 8 for 10.00 PASTAS 1. Spaghetti with meat sauce $5.95 extra for meatballs 20 2. Fettuccine Alfredo §.35 3. Tortellini Alfredo 6.75 4, Ravioli 6.75 5. Lasagna 6.35 6. 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