Myth conception

Local science fiction author Claude
Lalumière on his debut collection,
Objects of Worship

by MALCOLM FRASER

Aficionados of literary science fiction have a treat coming up this weekend, when the 67th annual World Science Fiction Convention rolls into Montreal. The convention, a roving affair that takes place in a different city every year, will be presenting the prestigious Hugo Awards and their Canadian counterpart, the Aurora Awards.

But Montrealers can also boast of some local content—writer and editor Claude Lalumière is both nominated for an Aurora (as editor of the compilation Tesseracts Twelve: New Novellas of Canadian Fantastic Fiction) and launching his first collection of stories, Objects of Worship. (Disclosure decorum compels me to note that the book also features illustrations by a certain Rupert Bottenberg, who moonlights as the Mirror’s music editor).

The 43-year-old Lalumière, born and raised in Montreal, is a self-described “lapsed francophone” who writes in English. He had a previous career as a bookseller, but sold his two bookstores in 1998 to pursue the writer’s life, and has had stories published since 2002. Objects of Worship compiles stories on a theme of gods, icons and religion. “I like the idea of collections that are thematic, instead of just a potpourri of whatever I’ve written up to a point,” Lalumière explains. “I’ve got something like 30 or 40 stories that are out there, but I wanted to choose some stories that would form a book together. I looked at what I had, and it looked like the strongest first book would be those stories that dealt with those themes.

“I’ve always been fascinated with myths,” he says of the thematic thread. “I don’t know why. It’s funny, because I’m an atheist, and for me it’s all just fodder for fiction and for the imagination. But there’s something about it that somehow strikes me. I’m especially interested in primal mythology. Even in a lot of my stories that don’t explicitly deal with issues of faith or gods or religion or anything, I try to inject themes in which there’s something about the physicality of what’s happening that refers back to some of what I’ve read about primal myths.”

Asked to define primal myths, Lalumière elaborates: “I’m talking about stuff like how we’re affected really deeply by things like being underground, by the water, by fire, by music, and by certain specific interactions that we have with all of these things, that seem to come down to very early human experiences that might have led to some of the superstitions that grew into religion.”

Sounds heavy-duty, but the stories themselves are also highly enjoyable, ranging from humorous allegories to exciting yarns, with the odd detour into strange erotica. “Hochelaga” is a Montreal-centric superhero story, while “The Ethical Treatment of Meat” is a darkly funny tale about a gay zombie couple, their adopted human child and a preacher sowing the radical notion that humans have a purpose other than food.

“The dominating factor in my work is drives, yearning,” Lalumière says, citing author James Morrow, whose forward to the book he credits with giving him insight on his own work. “That’s at the heart of what I do. It’s more important than plot or character. I go to the motivations you can’t control.”

OBJECTS OF WORSHIP WILL BE
LAUNCHED SATURDAY, AUG. 8, AT THE
CZP LAUNCH PARTY AT WORLDCON,
MAISONETTE SUITE 2802, DELTA
HOTEL CENTRE-VILLE
(777 UNIVERSITY),
7:30 P.M., FREE ADMISSION.