For 52 weeks, bill bissett and Carol Malyon met for brunch and conversation at the Golden Griddle in Toronto. This sustained conversational encounter between Carol Malyon, who writes within the objective bounds of standard English usage, and bill bissett, one of contemporary writing’s most exotic practitioners, working with the visual forms of language in his own non-hierarchic, phonetic orthography, produces, as if by accident, invariably astonishing social, moral and ethical critical insights. Each of these writers’ particular uses of language—the most radically different in contemporary literature—consistently foregrounds and interrogates the cultural origins of “common" perceptions that too often remain hidden and undiscovered in the dictionaries we search for “common" meaning: proof positive that each person’s perception of life’s most fundamental questions and answers is almost never shared, and is always and only ever subject to translation, even among those who “share" the same language. Here is what they talked about:Trouble and the SelfWhat is ForeverDoes Belonging ExistLuck and LifeWe Need Not Hold Our Experiences Against LifeIs There a ScriptThe Role of Mysteries in People’s LivesTimeFree Will and Wider WiringFamiliesGod &/or the Loved One and Individual FreedomMortality and the Jigsaw Puzzle of Replicating a Parent in a LoverWhy “Shoulds" are No GoodDelusional RelationshipsThe Chemistry MetaphorCensorship and PropagandaTrue LoveFact or Fiction—Where’s the LineDo We Invent Everything We Go ThroughIs Rationality a CostumeCan We Influence Larger Book SalesMaybe We All Want to Move to SwedenJust for Today I’m Confused About ReligionTax ReformPredictabilityStage FrightCarol, What Is ItThemKnow Thyself and the Writer’s DelusionsWondering What about the Stars and Our FriendsChildhood Versus Later OnReal Life—Does it Really ExistAll Those Prayers—Where are They Going, ExactlyMeaninglessnessTime and RelativityEach Day We Wake Up and Realize They’ve Given Us Another DayEverything is AnsweredThe Questions in Our Lives—the Balance, and What’s PeripheralDogs Give Unconditional Love, Why Can’t PeopleLife is Difficult and We are Up to the ChallengePersonal Happiness and DestinyFederalism—Is It Too Late to Save ItThe Payoff is Always Inside OurselvesCultural TranslationCan We Know BeforehandSpiritualityLoss and GriefIs This Real Life We’re ExperiencingJealousyWhy Aren’t People in Love with Us When We’re in Love with ThemDo We Have Freedom Outside Our Imprintings—Can We Find Reciprocal Love if Our Imprintings Prevent That from Happening | griddle talk by Carol Malyon, Paperback | Indigo Chapters