City Vision and History

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 City Vision and History

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

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

4. Outline • General Introduction: • Michael Ondaatje & The novel: general introduction and questions • Toronto in the novel • In the Skin of a Lion (“Little Seeds” “Bridge”): • The City Planned and Built • The Workers: Claiming their Space • Immigrant and Marginalized Characters: • Immigration process -- Nicholas and Alice • Communication and mutual support -- Nicholas and Alice • Related Examples: • Toronto as a Vertical Mosaic • Taipei’s Roundabout

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

6. In the Skin of a Lion: Plot & Characters Outside T’s History & Map • 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) • Later: Patrick falls in love with Clara, who is a mistress of Ambrose; • Alice joins anarchist group and gets killed in a bombing action; her daughter Hana is adopted by Clara and Patrick. T under construction

7. 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.

8. Characters: In the Skin of a Lion  The English Patient Eng Patient

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

10. 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) Issues of map and boundaries Workers and their strikes* in Toronto in early twentieth century History of early immigrants. (Love and obsession) Toronto in the Novel (1): history * Two major strikes--at Bell in 1907 and in the garment industry in 1912

11. Location Napanee River Napanee

12. 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. Toronto places: Rosedale

13. Downtown Toronto

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

15. In the Skin of a Lion: Chap 1Starting 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?

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9 • the loggers and pp.16-17 • Finnish workers: 7; 21-22 • His father: • skillful, 15; his change of direction 15-16 • Withdrawn 13; taciturn 18 • Patrick’s learning: p. 17 (like his father) p, 19

17. The novel’s narrative styles • The use of history archive—p. 26 • The use of foretelling – 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.)

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

19. 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. Moth 39

20. 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?

21. 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

22. 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.

23. 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”); • N. becoming aware of her (her weather, her perspectives) 48-49

24. 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)

25. 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)

26. Examples 2 – Night Market – Local Features of its Space 楊 57

27. 建成 Roundabout Night Market Design –with good intention 「基地的配置十分簡單，為了延續圓環本身的歷史意義，設計者仍以一個圓形量體，作為承接四條主要道路的節點，玻璃構成的圓環，在夜晚的內部照明之下，成為當地的地標性象徵。建築物退縮讓出行人步道，對都市空間與當地環境，作了善意的回應。」

28. 建成圓環 建成圓環改建後鳥瞰照 概念圖

29. The Meanings of the Design 藉由清光玻璃牆外包在厚牆之外，使之形成對話，稱之為「生態膜」的建置，如此使得圓環重建，不只保留地區的美食廣場，活絡大稻埕經濟功能之外，也試圖以重建大稻埕地區空間符碼（磚牆）與現代都市意象（玻璃光牆）的交融，形成豐富對話。空間內涵由記憶牆、一畝田（空中庭園）、清淨器（內部室內林園）、與生態膜所填充的設計觀，成為大稻埕地區的都市焦點. （楊122﹚

30. Spatious Roof vs. Crowded Interior • （楊123﹚

31. References • 《夜市》文化地景之地域性研究 國立台北科技大學/建築與都市設計研究所/92/碩士/092TIT00224018 研究生：楊嵐鈞　指導教授：林靜娟 • Ex-Centricity: Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion and Hugh MacLennan's Barometer RisingCarol L. Beran