BOOK TALK WITH GSPL: SCOTT FLORENCE

Scott Florence is the Managing Director for ReThink Green and these days, like many working professionals with young kids (pictured above with his son Raphaël), he does quite a bit of technical reading for work but doesn’t have as much time to read for fun as he used to. He still typically has at least one fiction and non-fiction on the go and the bulk of his reading keeps him up to speed on the nuances of current issues. I sat down with Scott to talk about a few books that he’s read that have stayed with him over the years.

Book Talk is a monthly discussion on books with local Sudburians brought to you by Greater Sudbury Public Library. This on-going series will highlight conversations about the books that changed the lives of readers right here in Our Crater. The Greater Sudbury Public Library offers programs and events each month at various locations across the community. For more information please visit SudburyLibraries.ca or call 705-673-1155.

What kind of books do you like to read?

I used to have a much more rigorous reading schedule before starting a family. I would read a non-fiction in the morning, something else when I could find time during the day, and then I would reserve time before bed for poetry or spiritual work. I have always had more than one book on the go and I still do love to read poetry. Nowadays I read lots on weekends and when on vacation. I find that when it comes to entertainment – I find myself drawn to either a fantasy/fantastical book or one based on a true story. When I am choosing books and movies, I don’t have as much interest in something that is based on real life, but isn’t actually a true story. There are so many real life stories to learn about that I would prefer to spend time with something real. I read a lot of non-fiction especially essays, blogs, or articles that provide different perspectives from various communities; showing the struggles of people who are marginalized or different. I try to keep informed of things that are not ‘me’ and that are not my perspective. I also go back and forth between wanting to read straight escapist-genre-work and wanting to read literature. There is much more acceptance now for modern work that explores science fiction and those kinds of themes whereas before it was seen as a second class writing compared to literature.

Is there a book you remember from your childhood?

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is a book I loved as a kid. I would love to read it again but I haven’t and I am a bit afraid to, knowing how much I loved it when I was young. When the movie came out there was lots of discussion of the book which is seen as controversial by some. I’m nervous to read it again – what if my adult mind no longer loves this book for which I have cherished memories? What I recall about the book is the science and magic blend, and I recall it having a female protagonist and when I think back to other books I read (for example all of Judy Blumes, Anne of Green Gables) I never think of female vs male leads and it wasn’t a girl/boy thing. I loved the idea of science, time travel and the paradox this created – being together in one book – a multidimensional world. This may have been the first book I read that connected science fiction and fantasy at the same time when it brought together witches and robots.

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat was another book I loved when I was young. I loved the outdoors; I have an affinity for animals and I would have gone to school for science if I wasn’t so lazy spending so much time reading! In the 70s and 80s as a kid, there were lots of stories about the woods where wolves were bad figures out of fairy tales. The conservation movement was just starting and so a book like this and Mowat’s People of The Deer provided that adventure for the civilized/city environment. It goes back to learning about nature and how it’s not this horrible, terrible thing we had been led to believe. This profoundly shaped my ideas of the harm humans do to the world, the costs of our expansion and growth and the costs of our misunderstanding of nature and how this affects animals and human populations. It was my first time considering the idea of Grey Owl as an Englishman and debunking the whole concept of the noble savage.

What is a book that you feel changed you?

I read the book A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving in the early 90s and it was the first Irving book I read. I fell in love with it and his writing. It was at the time when veterans issues were still resonant issues and I was studying comparative religion at the time, so it helped to deepen my understanding of what calls us to having ‘spiritual feelings’. I was then, and am now, an atheist with a humanist bent and while I think we all want to feel and need that sense that there is something more to the world – something spiritual, magical, some divine essence – this book playfully touches on all these themes. Irving is considered literature but it is also a very beautiful and moving story.

What is a book of literature that has stuck with you over the years?

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a book that explores ideas of religion and oppression. It’s a book that plays to some of my core beliefs – that rigid thinking coupled with a belief in an almighty power is never a good combo. Although I confess that part of me would love to be a true believer in religion and the simplicity of the idea of having clear rules to follow that people with faith have. I don’t mean to simplify this idea because I know it’s more complicated than that but the idea of having that unwavering belief is something I envy. Atwood’s work satisfies that part of me that wants an adventure story but also wants to read true literature.

What is a book that connects to something you have done in your life?

Dracula by Bram Stoker is one of the first books I read that was written in the style of letters, which give different perspectives of the characters in the story. I love vampires and zombies and I suppose one of the reasons I am so fascinated with the world of the undead is because, as an atheist, there is nothing after death. This idea of having some kind of living after death and what this tells us about being alive is an idea that resonates with me. I also connected to the idea of letter writing because I happen to be a big fan of old fashioned letters. (Scott is one of the creatives behind The Letter Project which is a passion project that explored if people would write letters to strangers and if the results could be presented in a way that would be theatrically interesting – both questions were yes in his case.)