{"id":49828,"date":"2023-08-07T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/magazine\/uncategorized\/cinq-livres-pour-renouveler-lempathie\/"},"modified":"2023-08-07T09:36:38","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T13:36:38","slug":"five-books-to-renew-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/magazine\/culture\/five-books-to-renew-empathy\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Books to Renew Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What if creativity were the natural path to empathy? In the subjects to which they pay attention, through a sideways glance or by taking a step back, through original glasses or a new filter, artists become a transmission belt toward unknown or singular realities. This fully made-in-Quebec selection dwells on literary proposals that love to dance the tango of empathy, drawing from the experience of the Other material to shake up certainties and invigorate the muscle of the heart.<\/p>\n<h3><em><strong>Seuls<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">by Paul Tom and M\u00e9lanie Baillairg\u00e9 (La courte \u00e9chelle, 2022)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A documentary celebrated in 2021 for its meticulous marriage of real testimonials and memories materialized by animation, Seuls lifted the veil on the sociopolitical\u2014but above all human\u2014issue of underage refugees arriving in the country unaccompanied by an adult. Its director Paul Tom (Bagages), a former Cambodian refugee, and illustrator M\u00e9lanie Baillairg\u00e9 team up once again to transform that documentary into a crucial and illuminating children\u2019s book. Alternating between brief second-person introductions and three devastating journeys told in the first person, we find Afshin, Alain, and Patricia in their respective exiles from Iran, Burundi, and Uganda to Canada. Without forcing the matter, the creative duo succeeds in explaining several thorny concepts in laymen\u2019s terms, relying above all on the exceptional courage of the young protagonists. Their dreams become all the more palpable, while what they left behind, against all odds, allows them to glimpse the horizon.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-49815 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Couverture_Seuls_C1_Print-847x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"847\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Couverture_Seuls_C1_Print-847x1200.jpg 847w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Couverture_Seuls_C1_Print-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Couverture_Seuls_C1_Print-768x1088.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Couverture_Seuls_C1_Print-1084x1536.jpg 1084w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Couverture_Seuls_C1_Print-1446x2048.jpg 1446w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Couverture_Seuls_C1_Print.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 847px) 100vw, 847px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><em><strong>Sympt\u00f4mes<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">by Catherine Ocelot (Pow Pow, 2022)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A comic book artist known for her humour tinged by tenderness and self-deprecation (Talk-show, La vie d\u2019artiste), Catherine Ocelot offers us the gift of a new volume that encapsulates physical and emotional ailments with all-out acuity. In a support and solidarity circle baptized Solitudes Anonymes, she heads off in search of her \u201cinner mother\u201d while meeting women who, like her, want to reweave these \u201cinvisible threads\u201d that connect them to others. What hides behind these more or less unconscious orders that push us to \u201ceat our emotions\u201d or not listen to this body that nevertheless allows us to love and move forward? In a series of pictures that are sometimes talkative, sometimes quiet (but no less eloquent), Ocelot surpasses herself in the vastness of the details embraced, painting a lucid, comical, and intuitive fresco that reminds each of our cells of the infinite power of the community spirit.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-49817 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/couverture_symptomes_WEB-857x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"857\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/couverture_symptomes_WEB-857x1200.jpg 857w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/couverture_symptomes_WEB-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/couverture_symptomes_WEB-768x1075.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/couverture_symptomes_WEB-1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/couverture_symptomes_WEB-1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/couverture_symptomes_WEB-scaled.jpg 1829w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 857px) 100vw, 857px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><em><strong>Le poids des fourmis<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">by David Paquet (Lem\u00e9ac, 2022)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Recently named the winner of the Governor General\u2019s Literary Award in the theatre cate- gory, this text from playwright David Paquet (Porc-\u00e9pic, Le brasier, L\u2019\u00e9veil du printemps) flows easily even without the excellent production for teenagers from Th\u00e9\u00e2tre Bluff created in 2019. Taking a dig at multiple generations with the secret desire to bring them together, Le poids des fourmis uses the pretext of a student election to give the floor to Jeanne, whose anger is renewed from day to day, and Olivier, an optimist by nature who has recently taken an interest in The Encyclopedia of Useless Knowledge. At what age does one become a citizen? And what, from the individual to the collective, should mobilize us? Thanks to his always bountiful and corrosive writing style, Paquet shakes up the quiet despair in us. Did you know \u201cthat the total weight of the ants on Earth is greater than that of the humans?\u201d So, be careful where you put your feet as you walk through the world.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-49819 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2918_v_le-poids-des-fourmis.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"387\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2918_v_le-poids-des-fourmis.jpg 387w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2918_v_le-poids-des-fourmis-194x300.jpg 194w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 387px) 100vw, 387px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><em><strong>Le bout de la route<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">by Monique Durand (Somme toute\/Le Devoir, 2022)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A lover of wide open spaces and an admirer of Canadian explorer Mina Benson Hubbard, author Monique Durand (Saint-Laurent mon amour) is particularly fond of the travelogue form, of which you can catch some snippets written by her in the pages of Le Devoir. From Route 389 to the \u00cele aux Perroquets, as well as a winter journey to Schefferville, she leads us here to northern Quebec and Labrador, on that \u201coutdoor road\u201d that splits \u201ca dazzling wild beauty,\u201d but also on the \u201croad itself [\u2026] where time stands still.\u201d Through a smooth-flowing writing style that questions our ability to see and feel, we discover the vibrant letters that Durand addresses to her painter friend Ourida Ichou, whom she knows is condemned by illness. The kilometres devoured and the proud souls who live in the North lead to the taming of mourning without ever sacrificing \u201cWords to Live In\u201d to jubilation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-49821 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LeBoutDeLaRoute-C1-825x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"825\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LeBoutDeLaRoute-C1-825x1200.jpg 825w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LeBoutDeLaRoute-C1-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LeBoutDeLaRoute-C1-768x1117.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LeBoutDeLaRoute-C1-1056x1536.jpg 1056w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LeBoutDeLaRoute-C1-1408x2048.jpg 1408w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LeBoutDeLaRoute-C1.jpg 1650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><strong><em>Est-ce qu\u2019un artiste peut \u00eatre heureux ?<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">by Arizona O\u2019Neill (Zinc, 2022)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The title of this comic book of interviews (yes!) sums up the direct and benevolent approach of Arizona O\u2019Neill, who sets out to meet her colleagues in literature (Chlo\u00e9 Savoie-Bernard, Daphn\u00e9 B., her mother Heather O\u2019Neill), music (Hubert Lenoir, Kl\u00f4 Pelgag, Patrick Watson), comic books (Julie Doucet, Pascal Girard, Mirion Malle, Walter Scott), and visual arts (Laurence Philom\u00e8ne, MissMe) to explore their vision of happiness. We wander both behind the scenes of their works and through snapshots of their state of mind. Through ingenious plays on scale, ellipses, and contrasts, O\u2019Neill highlights their doubts, their joys, and their thoughts in motion. Between the search for balance, the blind spots of creativity, and the call of simplicity, her muses open up without shame, and their universes harmoniously colour each page of this beautiful pop work that can be savoured like a well-deserved break on a sunny bench.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-49823 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/9782924483275_large-763x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"763\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/9782924483275_large-763x1200.jpg 763w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/9782924483275_large-191x300.jpg 191w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/9782924483275_large-768x1207.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/9782924483275_large.jpg 920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 763px) 100vw, 763px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if creativity were the natural path to empathy? In the subjects to which they pay attention, through a sideways glance or by taking a step back, through original glasses or a new filter, artists become a transmission belt toward unknown or singular realities. This fully made-in-Quebec selection dwells on literary proposals that love to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":45198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1972],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49828"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49831,"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49828\/revisions\/49831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stromspa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}