Answering the question, if books are better than ebooks
Let me start off by stating this: I love books.
With eReaders like Kindles and Kobos, and subscriptions like Kindle Unlimited, there seems to be a reason for people to choose ebooks over physical books. Over the last few years, I have been told by many people that digital is the way to go now that reading print books is a thing of the past.
But for me, the physical book will always be better than the ebook. Here are my top three reasons why.
(I’ve excluded audiobooks from this conversation because that is an entirely different experience.)
1. When I hold a book in my hand, it is an entire experience. I can run my hands across the cover and feel the texture. I get to feel the pages against my skin and I feel like I am fully part of the experience of the book. Sometimes the covers have different textures and that makes the reading more of a sensory experience. I get to turn each page and get the genuine excitement of seeing the words on the next page.
2. The smell of the book. Books have their own smells, and that makes the reading even better. An ebook doesn’t have that. It’s just a piece of plastic with words on it. It feels like I am just scrolling on my phone. Why would I want reading a book to feel like reading a text message? I want to hold the book close to my face and experience the different scents and moments.
3. The impracticality of the sizes of books is such a part of the journey for me as a reader. It makes choosing what books I am reading more of a challenge. Can I carry it with me? Does it fit in my bag? It makes me think through what book I can make my main book. And the challenge of making the books fit into my purse makes reading even more exciting. I am someone who reads three books at a time, so getting the physical change that accompanies each book helps distinguish the stories. For me, it’s part of the process.
Even when it comes to textbooks for class, I will always opt for a physical copy of the book. Again, I just need that experience of having the physical book in front of me to really get immersed.
I can only hope that people are wrong about physical books being a thing of the past. I will say, there is a trend of a lot of indie/self-published books that are only available in digital formats, and that truly is a bummer. Maybe someday they will decide to publish physical copies of their books so I can read them too.
Habitat Sonore Exhibit at Phi Centre - Courtesy by Julien GRIMARD
Old Montreal’s avant-garde multipurpose arts and culture venue invites you to “tune out the everyday noise and lose yourself in Montréal’s new immersive listening room” until Jan. 29
Habitat Sonore, which “consists of a 16 speaker multichannel array powered by a high-end JBL pre-processor,” has a daily rotation of soundtracks played in its singular room. On the first day, I listened to 64 minutes of a neo-classical piano soundtrack by Canadian platinum pianist Alexandra Strélinski.
As I was led down a neat concrete basement staircase, through a purple printed door and finally past a black felt curtain at the end of a dim carpeted hallway, I was instructed to throw myself onto any cushy bean bag chair of my choosing. I waited in a dark soundproofed room solely lit by magenta LED strips, which pulsated a hypnotising glow scaling the chamber horizontally. An ambient melody surrounded and greeted me — one I would put on to meditate. Soon enough, I was sent to a different universe.
Habitat Sonore Exhibit at Phi Centre – Courtesy by Julien GRIMARD
Radiating from every corner of the chamber was music that would be a pleasure to have alongside while studying, meditating or falling asleep: pure tranquillity and serenity. It was music that you could find in a cute short student film that pays homage to Wes Anderson.
Inscape by Strélinski was the first album to be played. Each song brought a different mood. Sometimes cheeky, pensive, desolate, but never disruptive.
Pianoscope was the second album of hers played through, and it gave pondering 19th century steam-punk villain vibes. Restful nonetheless.
The next day I listened to the second program of three, which consisted of a few different works each by a plethora of artists, totaling nearly an hour.
Better in the Shade by Polaris Music Award winner Patrick Watson and his bandmate Mishka Stein. The alternative EP felt — in the best way I could put it — sort of low-fi psychedelic experimental. The duo of ASMR vocals and wispy percussion was the seed for melancholy throughout the playthrough.
Next was a meditative piece by Debbie Doe called Theatre of Dreams. It was a cacophony of sounds traveling from one end of the room to the other, all blending together forming a narrative that one can only interpret using their own imagination. From mystical chiming to macabre droning, and even a demonic cackle, the piece satisfied all my expectations when walking into a sound room such as this.
Finally, Grammy-winning mixer James Benjamin’s Rainforest enchanted me and cleansed me of all of my worries for the duration of its runtime. The room was transported deep into an unknown jungle, with creatures chirping and predators hunting. Sometimes I could hear a leaf crunching in front of me, or the passing over of a distant airplane, maybe a gunshot from behind, maybe the howling of a monkey to the left of me. For the most part, it was the most therapeutic lullabying experience I could imagine. Rain hitting the rooftop back at home would be of no match to it.
A great experience, and incredibly relaxing. If I could sit in that beanbag chair until Jan. 29, I would.
Concordia student proves his talent once again with fresh new album
Concordia music student Jacob River Milnes has recently dropped his second album, Footprints. With the songs falling under varying genres such as folk, rock and even country, this album is truly for anyone. Milnes sat down with The Concordian to talk about his work and his passion for music.
Given his proficient recording technique and obvious talent, it is clear that Milnes has been working at his music for a long time. Just last year, he released his debut album I’llBeWaitingHere which was inspired by a past relationship while the message behind Footprints is left up to the listener.
“There’s not really a message behind this one. My songs come from my own experiences with the world. The message is up to the listener. I’m sure if they listen to it, they’ll come up with something that is true to them and that’s what’s important to me.”
“Footprints,” Milnes’s favourite song on the album, differs from his other pieces as it is clearly more sentimental. The track stemmed from his experience of moving away from his hometown, Val -des-Monts, to come to Montreal to study music. The heartfelt lyrics of the track paired with his all-consuming relationship with the guitar provokes an undeniable feeling of nostalgia among listeners.
“I grew up in the country and for a long time I’ve been wanting to get out of there and move to the city. Finally, I’m in Montreal now and “Footprints” was written right before I left,” Milnes said.
But “Footprints” is not the only track with a story. “Theme From ‘Don’t Let The Bull Defeat You’” is the last song on the album, composed for a short film that Milnes and his friends created over the summer. The artist wrote and directed the entire soundtrack for the film. Considering it was Milnes’ first acoustic song, he definitely didn’t disappoint.
The rock and roll tone within the two tracks “I Won’t Do It” as well as “You Could Pretend” on Footprints were inspired by some of Milnes favourite artists.While his main inspirations are The Beatles and Bob Dylan, most recently he has started listening to Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish.
“I do listen to a lot of old music but I try to stay connected with modern music as well. So, I was inspired by those two artists [Rodrigo and Eilish] to write more modern sounding songs,” Milnes told The Concordian.
Milnes also has a number of family members that have been guiding him throughout his career.
“One of the biggest inspirations for me is the man who introduced me to Bob Dylan and introduced me to all music which was my grandfather. He was the one who got me interested in music.”
Although the most notable instrument in Milnes’ songs is the guitar, he first started out on the drums when he was ten years old. He didn’t originally intend to be a singer-songwriter but starting off on the drums for a band, he quickly realised after playing a few shows, he wanted to be actively engaging with the audience.
“I would see the people in front of me on the stage and I was behind the stage playing drums and I realised that I wanted to be upfront playing guitar and engaging with the audience more. This side came out of me through showmanship. When I picked up the guitar, I slowly realised that I could write.”
Jacob River Milnes is definitely capable of becoming a known name in the music industry and Footprints is a clear indication of that. While letting fans enjoy the new album for the time being, he has some new projects to treat his fans with in the upcoming year.
“There’s definitely going to be a next album. I’m always writing and I have a few songs that will probably be on the next one.”
Concordia University's Sir George Williams Campus. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
The standing committee responsible for combatting sexual violence on campus remains highly unpopular Amongst the student body
Debates raged at the Concordia Student Union’s (CSU) regular council meeting (RCM) on Jan. 11, over the ongoing boycott of the University’s Standing Committee on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence (SMSV) as student representatives discussed potential solutions to end sexual misconduct on campus.
The boycott dates back to October 5, 2022, when the CSU, alongside the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) and the Teaching and Research Assistants at Concordia (TRAC) formally withdrew from the SMSV.
The action came after years of criticism from members of the SMSV and from the student body at large over the committee’s lack of transparency and failure to support survivors of sexual assault.
The conversation was sparked after it came to light that multiple candidates had been appointed to the SMSV during an appointments committee meeting last December. This action, if passed, would have ended the CSU’s ongoing boycott of the SMSV.
Fawaz Halloum, general coordinator of the CSU, explained the reason behind the appointments committee’s decision at the RCM on Jan. 11. According to Halloum, the decision was made in response to Lisa White, executive director of the Equity Office at Concordia University and chair of the SMSV, who was threatening to appoint students to the committee without the CSU’s consent.
“I find it very troubling because it takes a lot from our power as a union,”
Said Halloum.
After consulting with a legal expert, Halloum said he was advised that the best course of action would be to appoint students to the SMSV — either to ensure the CSU maintains a voice on the committee, or to continue the protest by having committee members refuse to show up.
The proposed nomination was met with harsh criticism from many in attendance at last week’s RCM.
TRAC’s bargaining officer Mya Walmsley called the move “disgraceful.” Walmsley believes that the concessions the University’s offered in response to end the dispute was not made with the students body’s best interests, but rather to legitimise the SMSV’s poor track record.
“Obviously [the administration is] going to try to get you back with honey [rather than vinegar],” said Walmsley. “Promising these sorts of vague and nonspecific concessions is the way to do it.”
Walmsley asserted that, due to the current circumstances, the best course of action would be to further escalate the conflict to press their demands.
“We have the power now, we have the opportunity to talk to Lisa White whenever we want, we just don’t have to do it through the committee [SMSV],” said Walmsley.
“The argument that we gain more power by ending the boycott is absurd. It’s like giving up power will give us more power.”
Said Wamsley.
The CSU’s External Affairs Coordinator Julianna Smith presented a motion which was passed to reject the appointment committee’s nomination to continue the boycott.
However, CSU counsellor Mohamad Abdallah spoke out against continuing the boycott. He questioned the purpose of an indefinite boycott and argued that the decision was harming students.
“How is this boycott harming [the administration] more than it is harming us by preventing us from representation? They have already appointed new people on that committee,” said Abdallah.
Abdallah also challenged the idea that those in favour of ending the boycott were, in essence, supporting the current policies that are in place.
“Our goal is the same at the end of the day, but we are taking different roads to reach the same goal, which is to change these policies regarding sexual violence and sexual harrassment in the University,” said Abdallah.
Nevertheless, Abdallah’s position remained unpopular amongst CSU councillors. The boycott of the SMSV will continue into the foreseeable future.
As concern over students using A.I. chatbots rises, teachers must prepare to deal with the issue constructively.
OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence research laboratory, has recently launched ChatGPT, a text-generating tool open to all for free. This chatbot is capable of understanding and answering questions through prompts, and hence is becoming extremely popular among students.
Textbots like ChatGPT can rescue last-minute assignments that can range from writing Shakespearean poetry to doing calculus. As such A.I. gets exploited by students, teachers are looking for ways to detect such plagiarism.
“We clearly need to come up with new ways to evaluate learning if we want to avoid these bots to be used to fake student work,” said Bérengère Marin-Dubuard, an A.I. enthusiast and teacher in interactive media arts at Dawson College.
Marin-Dubuard also expressed her thoughts on the quality of the text written by the A.I.
“The text generated is interesting, but in the end I’d be surprised if many people just don’t do the work,” she said. “It’s probably even more work to set it up.”
Marin-Dubuard encourages her class to embrace the new technology as a tool, but she remains wary of the threat of plagiarism.
ChatGPT’s technology relies on natural language processing — a subfield of computer science based on the interaction between computers and human language.
“One part of how ChatGPT works is by learning complex patterns of language usage using a large amount of data,” said Jackie CK Cheung, an associate computer science professor at McGill University and the Associate Scientific Director at Mila A.I. Institute of Quebec.
“Think at the scale of all the text that is on the internet,” Cheung added. “The system learns to predict which words are likely to occur together in the same context.”
He explained that the developing A.I. would eventually improve as researchers and users feed it new knowledge, a process known as “deep learning.”
Cheung knew that the easily accessible ChatGPT and related models could increase students’ temptation to plagiarize. He noted that instructors will have to adapt their methods of evaluation, and try resorting more to in-person or oral communication. Cheung added;
“There could also be innovations in which ChatGPT-like models can be used as an aid to help with improving the learning process itself.”
A question of ethics has remained, as A.I. continues to develop in art and writing. Both art and text generators have been accused of plagiarism. Last month, artists online flooded art-hosting websites to prevent A.I. from generating proper images. Last week, a substack blog was outed as being written by A.I. by one of its plagiarized writers.
Julia Anderson, who finds new ways to interact with developing technology and has collaborated with the Montreal A.I. Ethics Institute, said that A.I. should not be simply used to do the work for you. She believes that ChatGPT and similar models could be used as tools to help conceptualize projects or aid in teaching and supporting students. A.I. tools like LEX offer support in conceptualizing ideas, something Anderson thought teachers could use to aid them in making a curriculum.
“You can make a similar argument with other technologies, like Google translate,” Anderson said. “But it’ll be at the discretion of the user to decide what to edit.”
With schools now beginning to look for methods of detecting A.I. plagiarism, Edward Tian, a 22-year-old computer science major from Princeton University, developed GPTZero. The program can detect work written by the OpenAI software.
Other methods of dissuading students’ temptations to plagiarize, according to Anderson, could include digital watermarks and the requirement to pay in order to be able to copy text.
Nonetheless, Anderson understands that such measures cannot strictly assure legitimacy.
“Going forward I’m sure there’s going to be more problems,” she said. “At the end of the day, it comes down to human discretion.”
When will ticket distribution companies learn that raising ticket prices will ultimately ruin their rapport with customers?
Picture yourself going online to buy a ticket for your favourite artist or group. You’re ready to spend your hard-earned cash to experience a live show. With dismay, upon checking the prices of just the nosebleed section tickets, you put your laptop away in disgust.
In my case, it was ’90s Québec star Daniel Bélanger. He’s most known for writing hits like “Les Deux Printemps” and “Rêver Mieux.” I figured tickets to see him live would cost around $60 a piece, max $75. Little did I know that when I checked the website Event Tickets Center, tickets ranged from $160 to $315. I’m sorry, but even if you are someone who is considered to be a national treasure of Québec’s music culture, that doesn’t excuse $315 tickets.
That being said, bands do have to make up for expenses. They have to pay the venue their cut, and they have to pay their roadies, their sound technicians and their travel costs. Buying gear and renting studio rooms are expensive, and those expenses will grow exponentially once you go on tour.
Who is at fault here? Is it the artists/groups, the venues, or distribution companies? Could we even blame “good old inflation?” I can assure you that it’s a lot more complicated than that.
In the case of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, it was the fault of LiveNation, who owns the ticket-distributing site known as Ticketmaster. LiveNation’s secondary ticket service, TicketsNow, and eBay’s subsidiary StubHub were reselling the tickets, charging fans upwards of $22,000. That’s the cost of like… four courtside Boston Celtics tickets.
Will we ever see ticket prices drop? Probably not in the near future; however, artists are trying to help ease the pain of buying tickets. Pop star Caity Baser stated recently that her 2023 tour would “keep tickets affordable for all.” We have yet to receive a number on those prices. Sam Smith and Mod Sun are also charging less than the average, costing around $55 for the “Unholy” singer and $49 for the latter, according to SeatGeek.
Hopefully, concert ticket prices will turn a new corner in the next couple of years because my wallet is skin and bone from last year’s and this year’s purchases.
Le Drugstore was Montreal's last lesbian bar and has been closed since 2013. Photo GENEVIÈVE SYLVESTRE, Graphics CARLEEN LOONEY, Photo Edits CATHERINE REYNOLDS/ THE CONCORDIAN
Montreal does not currently have a single lesbian bar, pushing the experiences of lesbian and sapphic people under the rug.
Despite being considered one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world, with many gay bars and a queer neighbourhood named the Village, Montreal does not have a lesbian bar. Indeed, the city’s last one, The Drugstore, closed in 2013 and no other lesbian or sapphic bar has opened since. This is a huge departure from 1988, when there were eight active lesbian bars in Montreal. Dr. Julie A. Podmore, an affiliate assistant professor at Concordia specializing in urban studies and human geography, refers to it as the “golden-age of lesbian-visibility” in a 2006 study called “Gone ‘underground’? Lesbian visibility and the consolidation of queer space in Montréal.”
Today, Montreal’s lesbian and sapphic community can meet through different events thrown by organizations like ElleLui, L nights or Sweet Like Honey, amongst others. These events allow for greater gender and racial diversity than most of the sex-segregated bars of the 1980s and ’90s. But their temporary nature doesn’t allow the community a permanent safe place to gather.
The Quebec Lesbian Network (RLQ) is an organization who represents queer women all over the province and speaks to different social and political entities to defend their rights and welfare. Cynthia Eysseric, the executive assistant of the RLQ shared her concerns. “It’s so important to create a community, and I think women of sexual diversity are really looking for that, to be in community with people who understand them and have the same reality.”
The Disappearance of Lesbian Bars
It’s not clear what led to the disappearance of lesbian bars in Montreal. In the same study mentioned previously, Dr. Podmore describes gentrification as a potential factor since most lesbian bars were found in the Plateau neighbourhood. The 1980s and ’90s brought many middle-class individuals to the Le-Plateau-Mont-Royal borough, regardless of gender and sexuality. It soon became one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Montreal. In contrast, the Village, where most of the bars for gay men were located, gentrified at a much slower rate according to Podmore’s study, and attracted mostly middle-class gay men that increased the popularity of gay establishments.
Another possible factor is the diversification of the Village and the creation of mixed clubs. The 1990s saw an emergence of queer activism and community building with the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, police repression and the start of the Pride movement. Many mixed queer clubs were created during this time and became popular with the new generation of lesbians, as opposed to the bars in the Plateau which had an older, francophone clientele.
The New Trend
“Usually, what we see in Montreal are events that will switch bars. These events are very precise, usually monthly and they’ll often be in recurring bars because the owners are either part of the community or their establishment is seen as very LGBTQ+ friendly,” said Eysseric.
Lucia Winter, co-founder and producer of ElleLui, shared their thoughts on the village in an interview with her two collaborators, Ray Resvick and Eloise Haliburton. “I’ve noticed that there has been an effort that has been made to diversify the types of parties and types of events that are being run in the village,” shared Winter.
According to their website, ElleLui is a production collective that organizes sapphic and lesbian parties in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal).
“However, it’s not as if club owners suddenly decided to invite lesbians, it’s sapphic organisers that are going out and creating these events,” added Resvick, a co-producer.
ElleLui events are popular and draw large crowds, despite only being created last year. Winter partly credits their success to being one of the first people to start organizing events shortly after the COVID-19 surge at the end of summer 2021. ElleLui, alongside other sapphic event organizers such as Sweet Like Honey, pride themselves on being as inclusive as possible of queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and people of color (QTBIPOC). This emphasis on inclusivity is an element that was missing from the lesbian bars of the past and the Village as a whole.
Jade Sullivan, a data analyst, activist and sapphic ballroom and exotic dancer, attends and performs at many of these Montreal sapphic events. “The community has to spend so much money just to be a part of sapphic spaces because you have to buy tickets to events to cover overhead costs, but with a bar you can just walk in and buy one drink,” shared Sullivan. She mentioned how grateful she is to be able to afford these events, but she knows many others who can’t afford tickets to community events.
Why Are Sapphic Spaces Important?
“The reason that a gay space is amazing depends on who you are,” shared Haliburton. “To walk into a space oriented for cis-gay men is probably amazing for cis-gay men, but that’s not my experience, I don’t relate to that.” Her colleague, Resvick, also mentioned the privilege that cis-men face is not shared by the whole queer community and that there are layers of intersection on top of sexuality such as gender, class, and race.
Lesbians also have less mainstream representation than gay men and face many stereotypes that they don’t. “Sometimes we’ll think that lesbians have no sexuality because of the absence of a man or lesbian relationships are seen as being for male sexual pleasure. Either way, lesbian relationships are not seen as legitimate,” shared Eysseric.
“The amount of harassment I experience when I go to a straight bar with a bunch of my lesbian friends is so bad. Even when we have sapphic events in certain bars, some men will still try to barge in,” shared Sullivan.
She also shared how as an exclusively sapphic exotic dancer, the number of spaces where she can perform are too small for her to support herself solely through exotic dancing. However, that’s not due to lack of demand.
“The sapphic nights were the most money that those bars made because of the amount of people coming in and because there were no other sapphic spaces that had that kind of exotic dancing,” she recalled. “That space was a lot more intersectional and diverse than what you see in a normal strip-club. It very much broke the binary of what we think exotic dancing is like.” Sullivan also raised the point that many gay men can make a living exotic dancing in the Village.
The loss of lesbian bars is not an issue unique to Montreal. According to data from The Lesbian Bar Project, there used to be over 200 lesbian bars in the United States. Today, there are only 24. The Lesbian Bar project raised $117,000 to help the remaining bars survive.
The lack of permanent spaces is not the only issue that the Montreal sapphic community faces; lack of representation and recognition are also issues.
“We’ve been fighting for years for the term lesbophobia to be recognized,” said Eysseric. “It’s really important because lesbophobia is the intersection between sexism and homophobia, which is a reality unique to women of sexual diversity.”
After years of hard work, the RLQ managed to have the term added to the Montreal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities in 2021. “It’s a term that’s very hard to be recognized, it’s not even in every French dictionary, so there is a long way to go,” she added. The Montreal sapphic community is still gathering despite the challenges they face, but there is still a long way to go for lesbian and sapphic acceptance.
If you’re a heavy makeup wearer too, you’ve probably been told this before: “You look better without makeup,” or even “why all this foundation? You have beautiful skin!” No shit, Sherlock. That’s because I’m also interested in skincare.
Even though that’s what I wish I could answer on the daily, most of the time, I have to be polite and just take the “compliment.”
But is it really a compliment?
Let’s start from the very beginning: beauty standards. The expectation for women to look a certain way starts young. As soon as we get some sort of awareness of our assigned gender role, we immediately admire “pretty” princesses and our version of playing becomes giving a makeover to anyone that dares to say yes.
It’s not hard to see: women and girls are taught at a young age that beauty matters. From the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz to Ursula from The Little Mermaid, we are taught that ugly equals bad.
Then, in our pre-teen years, we already get influenced by the very clever marketing of the beauty industry that preys on our insecurities.
So, naturally, makeup piques our interest. Some stick with it until adulthood, some experiment and decide it’s not for them. That’s okay.
Even though I’ve come to terms with it, it’s still sometimes hard for me to admit it: I cannot deny that my interest in makeup does stem from patriarchal ideas.
This is why when a man, out of all people, wants to imply that “I’d look better without all that makeup,” it drives me insane.
And I say that not to generalize, but because I genuinely only ever get that from men, when other women will actually compliment my makeup skills.
For people who don’t understand, I’ll put it simply: it’s rude. I put effort into something to then be told that you wish I hadn’t. Why? Because it doesn’t serve you in the way you want it to, assuming it was supposed to when it certainly wasn’t?
That’s without considering the fact that women throughout their entire lives have been told what to do, what to wear, what to say and how to act just to benefit men in society.
Even though the saying might come from good intentions, let’s not forget that nobody owes you a positive response when you make an unsolicited comment about their physique.
Le Roman de Monsieur Molière au Théâtre du Nouveau Monde - Photo/Yves RENAUD
Between modernism and traditionalism: the constant debate between Corneille and Molière
The theatre adaptation of Mikhaïl Boulgakov’s novel Le roman de monsieur de Molière by the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde comments on the playwright’s chaotic life, and paints a vivid picture of the anxieties of devoting one’s life to being an artist.
The audience did not need to be an aficionado of Molière to understand the intricacies of the play.
The newly-restored Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, following the fire that erupted in the building earlier this year, seated 800 people and was nearly full. Most of the audience seated in the orchestra seemed of retired age, while younger people sat in the balcony.
Though Molière’s life has been profusely copied and reimagined, this performance is contrasted by the unique proximity between the author and Molière.
The 20th-century Ukrainian author Mikhaïl Boulgakov, much like Molière, was an artist unrecognized for his genius. They were both censured and silenced for their prose, receiving recognition after their deaths.
Boulgakov plays on this theme in his novel, as is also present throughout the play, standing on the sidelines observing his written work unravel in front of him. Boulgakov’s and Molière’s characters intertwine and untwine themselves to unite and individualize their realities.
For instance, Boulgakov frequently uses the first-person singular when narrating the play, as if he was himself Molière. While the story unfolds, Boulgakov never leaves the stage: he stays still, as a spectator.
The audience barely notices him, as his movements are often immobilized by his role as narrator. He uses asideswhen he notes something specific that cannot be translated into action.
The two-hour play, without intermission, highlights the continual chaos that surrounded Molière’s life as he was exposed to the pitfalls of wanting to resemble the great Corneille in tragedy, while never receiving the appraisal he thought he merited.
The show played between themes of modernity and tradition, the former being reflected by Molière and the latter by Corneille. Their rivalry occupied most scenes, and made for a constant battle for mastering words that were both dramatic and entertaining. They played on words taken from their works while inlaying humorous formations as a form of satire.
Jean de La Fontaine, the 17th-century French poet, was represented as a medium between the two. His character spoke his lines comically, referring to his previous works quite humourisly.
Boulgakov narrated Molière’s life as he acted on stage. This gave the audience a deeper understanding of his inner thoughts. There were short representations taken from his other plays, namely L’écoles des femmes, L’Avare and Tartuffe.
Molière and his company L’Illustre Thêatre would often play out scenes that foreshadowed the well-known plays that would then be created. For example, when Molière was sick, and his wife Armande responded that no doctor would come to see him because of his work, the audience understood that Le médecin malgré lui had been written.
The audience could understand the chronology of the story and Molière’s rising fame through costume changes. The dresses of the comedians became fancier and more intricate, and the vest Molière wore went from simple black to polished silver — a symbol of his rising social standing as a comedian who was being acknowledged.
The first scene mirrors the last, as a bath is used for Molière’s birth and death. The show will go on tour across the province beginning Jan. 18.
Biographies and photographs were placed on top of gay and transgender pride flags in rememberance of the five victims. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
The local LGBTQIA+ community met in solidarity with queer Americans after a shooting in an LGBTQIA+ club
On Nov. 26, Montrealers gathered in the Gay Village for a solidarity vigil sharing their thoughts and grief surrounding the recent Club Q shooting. For many, this was a time to discuss the violence queer people experience on a daily basis.
On Nov. 19, the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, a gunman entered the LGBTQIA+ club in Colorado Springs and opened fire where 25 people were injured and five were killed. This event has left Colorado’s queer community devastated, serving as a reminder of a past shooting that had killed 49 people at the Pulse gay club in Orlando, Florida in 2016. LGBTQIA+ people throughout the world have spoken out in support of the victims and their loved ones.
“Five lives were stolen away by systemic homophobia and transphobia,” said Celeste Trianon, one of the organizers of the vigil.
Trianon said that, while the shooter was responsible for the tragedy, the system itself was at fault. According to them, queer people experience systemic violence due to the spread of a far-right political agenda in North America.
“What kills us in the end is isolation, poverty, officials who never respect our identities,” said Trianon. “It is all the forms of hatred that we live every day that kill us and that is what we must fight against.”
Gabriel Paquette, a speaker at the event, said they came to support their American counterparts.
“The thing about the queer community is that we’re not blood related so we’re all a little bit family, as idealized as that idea may be,” said Paquette. “When there’s an attack on a few of us, there’s an attack on all of us, especially when it’s in a space where we’re celebrating our joy of being ourselves, especially on trans day of remembrance. It shocked us to the core of our being, but we knew it was coming with the legislative violence in the US.”
Paquette also denounced the growing climate of hate and fear surrounding queer people in the US, a sentiment echoed by many in attendance.
“In Canada it’s coming as well. For example, in Ottawa there was an anti-trans demonstration yesterday [Nov. 25],” said Paquette, referring to an incident at an Ottawa high school surrounding transgender students using the restrooms corresponding with their respective genders.
They also mentioned how candidates in the most recent Ontario elections pushed for the abolition of support for queer children.
“In Quebec we have the particularity that there are language barriers so the American and British philosophies take longer to reach us but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have organizations that have the same issues […] and that are doing political lobbying to take away our rights in the long run,” explained Paquette.
They cited, among others, the organization Pour les droits des femmes du Québec, a women’s rights group receiving funding from the provincial government and known to be trans-exclusionary.
The last survey conducted by theBureau de lutte contre l’homophobie et la transphobie in 2017 found that “over 40% of the population surveyed has witnessed an act of homophobic or transphobic discrimination.”
Participants shared their worries but also their hopes, hugging those who were crying and trying to comfort each other.
“Today was about getting together as a group to try to send some love to those who are there [the US], our distant family,” said Paquette.
I won’t forget about you this crazy holiday season
My birthday is 10 days before Christmas, and like all of my fellow Sagittarians, I get to celebrate my birthday at the most inconvenient time of the year.
Even though I might’ve been a Christmas miracle to my parents, the birthdays that have followed since 1996 would never get as much hype as the Christian holiday.
It sucks that the festivities tend to overshadow our special day. As everyone around us also has a reason to celebrate, my turning of age seems like “just another party” for them.
Sagittarians might be prone to selfishness, but it’s because we’re misunderstood. We never get to be selfish on our birthday because sometimes we don’t even get to celebrate it.
At every point in my life, there will always be some inconvenience around my birthday. When I was a kid, all of my friends were out of school, either on vacation or just spending time with their families. When I got to higher education, it’s exam season. And when I finally reach my adult life, office christmas parties are in the way.
And don’t even get me started on the weather. As a Sagittarius baby, especially in Montreal, you have to pray that a snow storm won’t ruin your plans because it’s not like you can reschedule anyway.
The planning of my birthday is now a month-long process that needs to start around Halloween, in order to make sure I get the proper reservations. And with most businesses being at their busiest around this time of year, if I want to order a cake, decorations, or a special birthday outfit, this also needs to be done right after Halloween to make sure I get everything on time.
With that kind of preparation process, it’s easy to understand why I’m always the one in charge of organizing my own birthday parties and ordering my own cake.
With everyone’s busy schedule around this time, I know I’ll never get a surprise birthday party. But it’s okay, I’ve come to terms with it.
December babies just want you to understand that we want to be a bit selfish for that one day. We just want you to show up and not mention the C-word. After all, it’s not like we can forget about what time of year it is anyway; the music and decorations will always be there to remind us. Not to mention every other table in the restaurant is usually celebrating the holiday too.
After 25 birthdays, I’ve tried it all — from celebrating at home (but the damn decorated tree is constantly just there) to celebrating my half-birthday in June, but then it just doesn’t feel right.
I might not have the ultimate solution for the sagittarius to have their time to shine, but I know we need the other signs to understand the need to make it a little bit more about us on our birthday.
Protesters in Montreal show support for Iranian Women MARIEKE GLORIEUX-STRYCKMAN/The Concordian
Protests continue in Iran, and Iranians in Montreal struggle to be so far from their homeland
McGill University’s Islamic Studies Library is a quiet and inviting place. From the outside, it looks like any other McGill building, and a passerby may not realize the beauty it holds. It’s filled with rows of leather-bound books, large windows, spiral staircases, and students studying for their finals.
Above the library, the Islamic Studies lounge is not so quiet. People talk, laugh, and eat together. There, Sonia Nouri and Sheida Mousavi, second-year Iranian political science students at McGill University, are animatedly speaking Farsi with a friend. They bid him farewell before finding a quieter room to discuss their homeland and the turmoil it faces since the death of Mahsa Amini in September.
“Being Iranian is a lot more than the government, it’s a lot more than the hijab, it’s a lot more than being restricted every day,” said Mousavi.
“A lot of it is that. But, when I talk to my [family], we talk about poetry, and Iranian food, and that’s also what it means to me,” she added. But right now, both students are having a hard time cherishing their Iranian identity.
Nouri and Mousavi both immigrated to Canada from Iran when they were young. They are co-founders of the Coalition for Iranian Human Rights McGill (CIHRM), a group they created to bring McGill’s Iranian community together and to hold a vigil for Mahsa Amini in October.
Last September, Amini died in custody after Iran’s “morality police,” the force tasked with enforcing Iran’s dress code, arrested her for wearing her hijab incorrectly. The Iranian government said that she died of a heart attack, but witnesses claimed that she was beaten by the officers.
Her death led to an uproar against the Islamic Republic of Iran, in which women filmed themselves removing and sometimes burning their hijabs in protest. According to Amnesty International, 15,000 protesters have been arrested, and 21 people are at risk of receiving the death penalty for the offenses of “enmity against God” or “corruption on earth.” The organization Iranian Human Rights states that security forces have killed at least 448 people since the beginning of the protests.
Protesters march in Montreal MARIEKE GLORIEUX-STRYCKAMN/ The Concordian
Nouri and Mousavi have watched these headlines from afar. “Being here has, in the most obvious way, been very difficult and upsetting,” explained Mousavi.
“The protests [in Iran] are only getting worse,” added Nouri, “and we don’t want the conversation to die down in McGill and in Montreal.”
Nouri was a year old when her family moved to Canada, and Mousavi was five. They grew up seeing their families in Iran facing oppression and developed an antagonistic view of the country’s regime. Despite all this, they also grew up with the Iranian culture, surrounded by its religions and traditions.
“Though I grew up here, I never felt really Canadian,” said Nouri. “I always identified more with being Iranian. I was raised grieving a country I never got to live in.”
Mousavi had a different experience. She tried to push away her Iranian heritage, and only in recent years has found a way to unite that heritage with her Canadian identity. “Being a migrant,” she said, “you do feel a constant loss about a lot of things, whether it’s a loss of culture or loss of language.”
In the last few weeks, they have struggled to stay proud of their Iranian identity. “The ways people are describing this country that we consider our homeland, the language that’s being used around this, it’s very conflicting,” said Nouri. “Though we agree that the regime is horrible, it’s hard to see so much of it be generalized.”
These feelings are echoed by the Iranian Student Association of Concordia University (ISACU), and by the organization Woman-Life-Freedom Montreal (WLFM). Fora Fereydouni is a volunteer for ISACU and the co-founder of WLFM. She emigrated from Iran six years ago and is now studying psychology at Concordia University.
Fereydouni explained that the unrest in Iran has made her anxious and depressed. “My family is in the street. My friends are in the street,” she said. “We can just be their voice. We can’t do anything else. It is really exhausting.”
“It has given us a very strong survivor’s guilt,” added Darya Almasi, a volunteer for ISACU and WLFM. Almasi immigrated five years ago to pursue her PhD in sociology at Concordia. “I came here in search of freedom and liberty,” she said. “But the idea that I moved here, so I’m free, I’m on my own and living my life, it never came true. We were always tied to our roots back home. Now that our country is going through a revolution, with mass murder and unbelievable violations of human rights, we’re again finding ourselves in the middle of a war zone.”
Shayan Asgharian, president of ISACU and native Montrealer, experienced many of the same feelings as his colleagues. Asgharian studies political science and Iranian studies, and he grew up intertwined with Iranian culture and still has loved ones in Iran.
“I’ve been worried sick,” he said. “Thursday of last week, I stayed up all night. I called one of my friends 21 times, and he didn’t answer at all, because they didn’t have any connection to the internet.”
According to Asgharian, students are at the center of the crisis in Iran. “When universities are getting blown up, it directly affects us. When someone who is our age gets murdered, it directly affects us. For example, Zhina [Mahsa] Amini, she could’ve been a student. She could’ve been here, talking with us about a completely different subject.”
He is not the only Iranian student losing sleep these days. Pooya is an international student pursuing a master’s in computer science at Concordia, who withheld his last name for security reasons. He moved to Montreal in the winter of 2021. His friends and family are still in Iran, and many of them are in the streets, protesting.
“A couple of my best friends are going out there,” he said. “The first few days, the government were killing brutally, and every night, I was sleeping, and I was just hoping ‘God, just save them tomorrow.’”
Pooya misses his family, but if he goes back to Iran, he will have to do military service. His plan is to get permanent resident status in Canada before returning to his home country.
“It’s hard,” he said. “You cannot forget your hometown easily. But once your home is at war, you need to save yourself first.”
Nevertheless, he shared his hopes that the protests would be successful, and that the government would be replaced. “Only then we can say, now we survived. We can say, now we can provide opportunities for people to work, and live together, and thrive together. Only then we can decide.”
In the classroom above the Islamic studies library, Nouri called on people outside the Iranian community to keep up to date on the news and to offer solidarity for the Iranian community.
“Seeing increased frustration with our generation, seeing these women risk their lives, it’s really empowering,” added Mousavi. “I think that the times will change.”
