A very insightful and thoughtful zine. I got to find out that Quebec City’s approach to their older areas is unfortunately no different from Montreal’s. Their notions of ‘improvement’ and ‘rehabilitation’ amount to removing what’s left of the old identities for the sake of high-tech or business-oriented interests. (In Quebec’s case, a National School of Administration, destined to churn out corporate bureaucrats, is being built over top of a community garden.) Despite passing on some interesting (if infuriating) information, overall this zine’s a little heavy on the commentary and criticism, and a little short on possible solutions or action. I knew before I read this that what those with money do is generally misguided and bad, and probably the other readers don¢t need to be converted either. I’d like to see more of the examples of decline (proven with plentiful quotes from the likes of John Ralston Saul) presented as situations we can jump into and get involved in. Wood’s relating of motives behind the La Muse Gueule zine and the Tam Tam Cafe show that some stuff is being done, but it can’t help but look rather ineffectual after five straight pages of social and economic problems, both city- and world-wide. Like Saul, Wood is somewhat guilty here of recreational social criticism. He quotes Saul criticizing “illiterate technocrats” for having “no sense of relative truths produced by exposure to a real society.” Well, the society Wood and Saul both criticize also seems too largely gleaned from statistics and the media, resulting, naturally, in a criticism no less abstract as what’s being criticized. In short, there is still very potent theory and criticism being dealt with here, but it’d have a larger effect on reality if it was a little more based on reality. It’s definitely worth checking out, though, for anyone similarly concerned about general social decline. (LR)
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