1. In the Skin of a Lion: Toronto under Construction and its Immigrant Workers Franklin Carmichael 1890-1945 Winter Hillside, c. 1918 http://www.mcmichael.com/carmich.htm http://www.mcmichael.com/carmich.htm City Vision and History

2. Who were the city builders? Where are they now? -- Urbanism as a way of life -- History of Montreal

3. "The joyful will stoop with sorrow, and when you have gone to the earth I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through the wilderness in the skin of a lion.“ (The Gilgamesh Epic) 1) In the epic, Gilgamesh, grieving for his dead friend, goes in search of Utnapishtim, a Noah- figure, who has been given everlasting life. 2) In somebody else’s skin – to be imaginative

4. Outline General Introduction: Michael Ondaatje & The novel: general introduction and questions Michael Ondaatje general introduction Toronto in the novel In the Skin of a Lion (“Little Seeds” “Bridge””Searcher”): The City Planned and Built The Workers: Claiming their Space The Workers Immigrant and Marginalized Characters: Immigrant and Marginalized Characters Immigration process -- Nicholas and Alice Communication and mutual support -- Nicholas and Alice Next Time: Book II Toronto: The Meeting Place

5. Michael Ondaatje Born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), 1943, to a prominent family there. Went to study in UK Migrated to Canada; obtain his B.A. at the University of Toronto in 1965, and his M.A. at Queen's University Got Canadian Governor-General's Award twice. Features: combining different genres aesthetics of violence, obsession and gentleness narrative of fitful glimpses = cinematic images Fluidity of images (esp. of time, space and subjectivity)

6. Michael Ondaatje: Images Clara: her body -- the complex architecture of her past (66) Clara: And during these days he found he had become interested only in her, her childhood, her radio work, this landscape in which she had grown up (69) They [Alice & Clara] begin to draw hard and quickly, as if copying down a blueprint in a foreign country (75)

7. In the Skin of a Lion: Plot & Characters Chap 1 “Little Seeds” -- Patrick in his childhood (interested in the workers, working with his father as cow herders and logging dynamiter (begins and ends with the Finnish workers [  Cato]) Chap 2 “Bridge” – The bridge worker’s experience; Rowland Harris; the bridge’s completion and naming, Alice rescued by Nicholas; Nicholas’ experience of immigration (English, bakery) Outside T’s History & Map T under construction

8. In the Skin of a Lion: Plot & Characters Chap 3 “The Searcher” Patrick, "an immigrant to the city," falls in love with Clara, who is a mistress of Ambrose. Clara introduces him to Alice. Triangular relation among Patrick, Clara and Ambrose. Later: Alice joins anarchist group and gets killed in a bombing action; her daughter Hana is adopted by Clara and Patrick.

9. In the Skin of a Lion: Plot & Characters "This is the story a young girl [Hana] gathers in a car during the early hours of the morning [...] She listens to the man [Patrick] as he picks up and brings together various corners of the story..." (4). Characters: besides Patrick and Hazen Lewis The missing millionaire, Ambrose Small & his former mistress Clara Dickens, whom Patrick falls in love with. Alice Gull, the nun, later an actress friend of Clara, also associated with the Hungarian anarchists Nicholas Temelkoff, a daredevil and baker Caravaggio, a worker and then a thief Hana, daughter of Alice.

10. Characters: In the Skin of a Lion  The English Patient Hazen Lewis Patrick Ambrose Small & Clara Nicholas Temelkoff Cato Alice Gull Hana Caravaggio Eng Patient

11. In the Skin of a Lion: Main Themes History of Toronto Building Re-Visioned: immigrant workers vs. urban designers Poetic language used to describe the workers Absence vs. Presence (p. 49) Love and Obsession; Violence and Care- Taking

12. Toronto in the Novel (1913 to 1940) Toronto the Good and the Grey

13. Toronto in the Novel (1): history Major Natural resources in Ontario: forestry Major Constructions in Toronto: viaduct ( 陸橋 ), water filtration plant 1919 -- Ambrose Small, one of Canada's greatest missing-persons mysteries and the searchers. (ref)ref Issues of map and boundaries Workers and their strikes* in Toronto in early twentieth century History of early immigrants. (Love and obsession ) * Two major strikes--at Bell in 1907 and in the garment industry in 1912

14. Location Napanee River Napanee

15. Log Driver’s Waltz (ref.)ref.

16. Toronto places: Bloor Street Viaduct, where Temelkoff, a daredevil, flinging himself underneath, on ropes, with pullies and straps. the Harris filtration plant by Lake Ontario, provides Torontonians with clean water. Rosedale

17. Bloor Street Viaduct (just starting; source)source

18. Bloor Street Viaduct (almost complete source) source ost complete, 1917

19. References Construction Photos of Bloor Street Viaduct http://www.flickr.com/photos/43021516@N06/sets/72157623051973126/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/43021516@N06/sets/72157623051973126/ The R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant http://www.blogto.com/arts/2010/12/the_rc_harris_water_treatment_plant/ Arthur Goss’s photographs http://www.blogto.com/city/2012/01/the_toronto_photographs_of_art hur_goss/ http://www.blogto.com/city/2012/01/the_toronto_photographs_of_art hur_goss/

20. Construction Plans & City Map Concept City or Lived?

21. In the Skin of a Lion: Chap 1 Starting Questions What strikes you as impressive? Why does the novel starts with a place which is not yet mapped? Why is logging, cow-herding important—in terms of city building? Characters: How would you characterize Hazen Lewis and Patrick? What roles do the Finnish workers play?

22. Patrick’s Learning on the edge of civilization Unmapped place 11 His father: skillful, 15; his change of direction 15-16 Withdrawn 13; taciturn 18 Patrick’s learning from his father: Cow-herding 10-14; dynamiter 16-17; 17-18; p. 17 (like his father) p, 19 His “companies”: the insects 9 the loggers and pp.16-17 Finnish workers: 7; 21-22

23. The novel’s narrative styles use of history archive (mixing fiction and history)—p. 26 flexible use of foretelling and flashback – pp. 9, 20 Already he knew it could not be lightning bugs. The last of summer's fireflies had died somewhere in the folds of one of his handkerchiefs. (Years later, Clara making love to him in a car, catching his semen in a handkerchief and flinging it out onto bushes on the side of the road. Hey, lightning bug! he had said, laughing, offering no explanation.)

24. The novel’s cinematic skills –the early dawn of a city 1. Related to the Finnish loggers Loggers walking to work (Audio-Visual images): p. 7 (…the boy sees…he hears…) Skating (Collages of visual images of movement): pp. 21 - 22 Section Transition (with visual images): p. 14 (winter  summer); pp. 24 – 25 (lantern  fire); Glimpses of the future p. 49 The bridge’s building 25-27 (next slide)next slide

25. Absent Presence: Bridge builders’ position & spaces The cyclist at the opening ceremony and the workers the night before. "In the photographs he is a blur of intent," but even he is not the first, for the "previous midnight the workers had arrived and brushed away officials who guarded the bridge in preparation for the ceremonies the next day, moved with their own flickering lights--their candles for the bridge dead--like a wave of civilization, a net of summer insects over the valley” 27. Alice --Moth 39

26. In the Skin of a Lion Chap 2: Starting Questions What is it about? What details or characters or passages impress you the most? What are the bridge builders related to the Finnish loggers? Is it related to us at all?

27. The City Imagined vs. the City Built The City imagined: Concept City or Invisible Cities p. 29 Rowland Harris’s ideal about the viaduct and the water plant: p. 29 Unexpected outcome of his ideal construction p. 31 Harris vs. Nicholas p. 42-43 Nicholas as a daredevil 34

28. Unknown Heroes: Bridge builders and tarrers Work starts in early dawn, night and day. Pp. 25-26 Tarrers: pp. 27 – 28: hardship in summertime and in winter.

29. Between the Marginalized: Nicolas vs. the traumatized Alice Saved Alice 31--34 communication between him and Alice after the rescue scene pp. 36-37 (“you must talk”) Alice collecting herself before the mirror, which stores the memory of their talk ( “The zinc was an edge of another country. She put her ear against the grey ocean of it. Its memory of a day’s glasses” 39) N. becoming aware of her (her weather, her perspectives) 48-49

30. Nicholas as an immigrant Ohrida Lake Restaurant as an old courtyard of the Balkans. P. 37 Nicholas: Quiet, self-sufficient at work p. 42-43 Nicholas’ immigration/acculturation process: Pull: Daniel Stoyanoff pp. 44-45 Push: War at home Journey and jobs language learning: p. 46 – (If they do not speak in English in public, they will be jailed. 133)

31. Chap 3: The Searcher Love, Obsession & Violence How are Patrick and Clara related to each other? How is Ambrose (the millionaire and capitalist) presented? How does Alice function?

32. Patrick, Separate, Opened up by Clara Patrick, an immigrant to the city--from sea to land 53; his memory of childhood 53; Likes to sleep, to be separate in his own world 65; Talks about his past less calmly 71 a wall in him 71; a tiny stone swallow years back 71 On the verge as usual

33. Clara Dickens & Patrick Clara Dickens 61 Clara and Patrick 62- ; in love 65; 67; love was like childhood to him 66; tree frog 67, light bug Clara, unwilling to commit herself 67; Intimacy: exchange of semen 68; Clara's non-committal and intimate gestures, removed place, country, everything 70 Patrick: does not know who she was 72

34. Possessiveness and Violence of love Clara and Ambrose the piano 70; the romance in the afternoon for Ambrose 71 Patrick: The blindfold episode--you moved 80-81 His letters to Clara 84 the searcher --now of Clara p. 91 Patrick and Ambrose, looking into a mirror 93

35. Patrick vs. Ambrose his dream of Ambrose with a grey peacock 68; wanted to exorcize Small from Clara's mind 69

36. Next Time: Bk II Palace of Purification– Patrick at work as a tunneller 1930 working under Lake Ontario, and with Alice Remorse

37. Next time: Toronto & Its Recent Immigrants Recent immigrants: '50s and '60s -- European immigrant groups, including German, Italian, Polish, Greek, and Portuguese. 1970s and early '80s -- from Asia and the West Indies. Across the Toronto CMA (Census Metropolitan Area), immigrants comprised 42% of the population, while in the amalgamated City of Toronto 47.6% were foreign-born. Vertical Mosaic (e.g. clips from Toronto: The Meeting Place)