Introduction: Part One • by Shane Neilson 1

Hamilton Arts & Letters   PLAY AUDIO VERSION: voice of Shane Neilson   One of the things I like to do in introductions is speak my mind, a process that often involves me saying I dislike an aspect (or aspects) of Canadian literary culture. When I think about it, I recognize that this tendency is the natural outcome of having lived a life like mine. After decades of being forced to submit, comply, and behave - of being “too much,” of having an excess of affective difference, of impaired social reciprocity - I’ve finally recognized that my great talent (ask anyone) of refusal and criticism is the gift given to me by subsistence and survival. What a benefactor abuse can be! In other words, I’ve made it to this introduction to tell you that I can do nothing else except be me, and I no longer want to do anything else anyway.  [  >>>>>  FORWARD ]   + [Distillate © HA&L + Shane Neilson I Artwork: jes sachse {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]