William F. Pinar on George Grant • by J.S. Porter • 1

Hamilton Arts & Letters     (for Art Davis, editor of The Collected Works of George Grant)   Not dead yet. That’s a proclamation you might affix to the name of George Grant (1918-1988). Not dead yet, because his insights into technology continue to resonate. He sees through Heidegger’s eyes that technology doesn’t merely influence reality; it makes reality.1 Technology frames reality in such a way that it re-presents to us what is sayable, desirable and achievable. Not dead yet, because his life as teacher and student reaffirms the necessity of reading and study as spiritual vocations. Not dead yet, because Lament for a Nation still speaks to our fear of American absorption, and our need for Quebec to maintain our particularity; and Technology and Empire along with Technology and Justice still speak to where we are and who we are, and the need to resist the world’s technological monoculture and the consequent shrinking of cultural diversity.      The high point of the Grant revival is undoubtedly The Collected Works of George Grant in four volumes under Arthur Davis’ general editorship, joining with Henry Roper for Volumes III and IV, published by the University of Toronto in the early 2000s. Closer to home, Hamilton Arts and Letters devoted a full issue to Grant’s life and work in 2013 with contributions by Davis, Louis Greenspan, Eugene Combs, David Cohen, Bruce Elder and Dennis Lee. And now the University of Ottawa has issued a massive and invigorating study by Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, William F. Pinar. His Moving Images of Eternity: George Grant’s Critique of Time, Teaching, and Technology (2019) is simultaneously the first major study of Grant to engage fully with The Collected Works and the first major study of Grant as an educator.    [  >>>>>   FORWARD ] 1 Max Frisch’s definition of technology continues to have great resonance in our culture: “Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it.” Mark Zuckerberg’s “Metaverse” reconfirms the validity of the definition.   + [Distillate © HA&L + J.S. Porter {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]