It has just occurred to me, at this very moment, that there is a chance some of you out there have not read the Scott Pilgrim books.

Look, I told you that you were going to like the new Star Trek movie and you did, right? Same goes for this.

When the Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World movie gets released next year, Mr. Pilgrim is going to be huge. Everyone will love the movie, and you will look like a fool for not having been "in the know" earlier.

On Saturday, the Dusty Owl publishing house hosted a reading of four Aboriginal poets: Mosha Folger and Dorothee Komangapik, both Inuit; Lisa Abel, a young poet from the M'Chigeeng Reserve on Manitoulin Island, now studying journalism at Carleton; and Rob Friday, a First Nations artist and writer.

There was a wide range in the ages and backgrounds of the poets, and in their styles. Folger, young and trim, with a slightly nervous manner,  read mainly short poems that he mostly wrote as spoken word pieces. (His "Old Indifferences," about coming across destitute Inuit on Rideau Street in Ottawa, was particularly affecting.)

Komangapik, on the other hand - originally from Germany, but who married an Inuit and has been part of the Inuit community for decades - read longer narrative poems. She deftly and subtly teased out larger truths about community and tradition from examinations of very specific objects and events: an old comb found on the ground, a particularly harsh few weeks spent at her family's summer camp.

(Cult)ure is at the Ottawa International Writers Festival, at the St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities, in the Byward Market, from April 22nd to May 2nd.

On Friday night, Michael Ignatieff discussed his new book, "True Patriot Love," with Adrian Harewood of CBC Radio. It was a great opportunity to learn more about a man who may one day become Prime Minister of our country.

Ignatieff was at pains to point out, though, that he had not written a political manifesto, nor a response to criticisms from political opponents - he had simply written a book, and had in fact started to think about it and write it while on a cross-country trip with his wife in 2000, long before he became involved in politics. Nevertheless, it was difficult to separate the discussion of his literary product with his current "day job," as Harewood put it, as the Leader of Canada's Official Opposition.

(Cult)ure is at the Ottawa International Writers Festival, at the St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities, in the Byward Market, from April 22nd to May 2nd.

On Thursday, April 23, Thomas Homer-Dixon, the academic and bestselling author, and journalist William Marsden discussed climate change. The discussion was framed around the book Homer-Dixon recently edited, called "Carbon Shift," about the twin problems of climate change and peak oil. Marsden contributed an essay to the book, about the environmental catastrophe that is the Alberta tar sands industry, which was also the topic of his own book, "Stupid to the Last Drop."

The basic premise of the talk was a little depressing: that it's already to late to prevent climate change. There are already parts of the planet that are dealing with dangerously heightened water levels, melting ice, and increased or fluctuating temperatures. The discussions we have now can only be about mitigation and adaptation to these changes.

Having finished the book, I can now feel comfortable in strongly recommending David Foster Wallace's book to everyone. It's a challenge to read - it took me over two months to get through it, trying to read for at least half an hour a day; and it's not the sort of think you can half-focus on, while you're tired, or have had a couple of drinks. It demands full engagement.

 Some might also be daunted by the bleakness of many of its topics: depression, substance abuse, loneliness. But the characters are so vivid and alive, and the style of writing is so entertaining - every sentence shoots off in four or five different directions, and the dialogue is killer - that the reader is usually too busy enjoying the style and the plot developments to get emotionally dragged down by the subject matter (except for during particularly poignant scenes, which are more than made up for by numerous hilarious ones).

Only upon finishing the book does the emotional heft of the story fully hit: all those characters, clinically depressed, suffering from addictions to alcohol, pot (aka Bob Hope), cocaine (aka Bing), or a remarkably broad spectrum of other substances, or recovering but dealing with daily urges, or simply feeling alone and at loose ends. But it's not all negative; some of the characters manage to gather themselves together and muddle on, and are incredibly inspiring. Knowing that Wallace himself was ultimately unable to do so is a real kick in the teeth, though.

A recent issue of the New Yorker contains a profile of the French playwright, novelist, and memoirist Yasmina Reza. Unfortunately, the article isn't available online, but even the abstract makes her seem like a fascinating person: an award-winning playwright since her twenties, lives in a "writerly apartment in an old building on the Left Bank," and dedicated her latest book, a profile of Nicolas Sarkozy during the 2007 presidential election campaign, to a mysterious man she calls "G."

She also defies any sort of categorization of herself, her work, and others: "human beings can't be reduced," she says.

 Reza's biggest success to date was her 1995 play "Art," about three wealthy, middle-aged male friends who discuss a work of contemporary, abstract art, and end up in a brawl. The play has been translated into over 30 languages, and its British production won a Laurence Olivier Award for Comedy - Reza said, "I thought I had written a tragedy." It's Broadway production (starring Alan Alda, Victor Garber, and Alfred Molina) won a Tony Award for Best Play; and it won two Moliere Awards in France.

The latest issue of The New Yorker (don't read the movie review!) has a long article by D.T. Max about David Foster Wallace's life and work, focusing on his attempt to follow up on Infinite Jest (published in 1996) with a third novel. There's also an excerpt of a manuscript recovered from Wallace's garage after his death last September, which is apparently to be edited and published as that third novel, entitled "The Pale King," in the next year or two.

I haven't got around to reading the excerpt yet, but I've read most of Max's article. It repeats a lot of what was in the Rolling Stone piece published last year, about Wallace's bio, but also goes more into Wallace's theories about what made art, specifically novels, good and important. Max writes that Wallace's goal "had been to show readers how to live a fulfilled, meaningful life. 'Fiction's about what it is to be a fucking human being,' he once said. Good writing should help readers to 'become less alone inside.'"  

As I'm approaching the end of IJ (only 40 pages to go!), I can say that Wallace definitely achieved his goal of writing "morally passionate, passionately moral fiction" in writing that work.  He also achieved another goal he said novels should set out to do, which is to teach people things in a fun way - in this case, about junior tennis, proscriptive grammar, recreational drug use, what it's like to attend AA and NA meetings in and around Boston, and a lot more.

I just read this Rolling Stone piece, which appeared a month after David Foster Wallace committed suicide last year. It's very sad and disturbing to read, but also explains a lot about where the themes and the style of Infinite Jest come from - particularly the focus on depression and substance abuse. However, the sheer breadth of Wallace's interest in absolutely everything - especially people - is inspiring.

I've been reading David Foster Wallace's behemoth Infinite Jest for two months now. I'm on page 825 out of 981 (plus over 100 pages of footnotes, many of them containing key plot points). Amazingly, it never drags. It's got hilarious dialogue, vividly drawn characters, and a lot to say about the connections between addiction, entertainment, depression, and a whole lot else. It's also a rich source for potential new catch-phrases: "the howling fantods," "eat cheese," "obliterate his/her map..."