>>FEATURE
RIDING WITH RILKE
Ted Bishop
Penguin, 272 pp.
A wave of disappointment washes over me when Ted Bishop arrives for his interview at McNally Robinson’s Prairie Ink café clad in jeans and a brown corduroy button-down shirt, rather than the biker leathers he describes in Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books. The book, which was shortlisted for a 2005 Governor General’s Award, is a chronicle of the University of Alberta English professor’s near-crippling accident, subsequent recovery and, as the title indicates, reflections on motorcycles and books.
When asked what he would like to drink, Bishop looks briefly uncertain before ordering Zest for Life, a high-octane juice mixture. The significance of the drink’s name is not lost on him and a smile plays on his bearded face.
But when he describes his accident, his voice takes on an earnest tone. He was riding an older BMW motorcycle, dubbed Matilda, near Kamloops, B.C., when he attempted to pass a double semi-trailer. As he neared the front tire of the semi, a wobble set into the bike and he looked up to see a van bearing down on him. What happened next is hazy in his mind.
"Strange, I only remember the road slowly rising to meet me, and then a giant hand slapping me on the back," he writes in the prologue.
He spent four months in hospital, eating through tubes, with intravenous morphine to ease the pain of his broken spine.
Bishop’s skills as a rider have improved since the accident and he says he would never put himself in the same predicament. "I pushed beyond the instinct and got to a point where it wasn’t something I could have saved," he notes. Bishop views being tossed from his bike as a gift. It gave him the rare opportunity to really think through the partially written manuscript of his travels and observations.
"When I was on this medical leave, I had no responsibilities. For the first time since I had been a teenager, I was free to do what I wanted and to reflect. Most of us never get that time," he says. "Things can sort of seep in. The book began to take shape on its own at that time rather than me trying to impose a narrative."
As he regained his strength, he studied at The Banff Centre, polishing his writing and gaining editorial advice.
Prior to his accident, Bishop rode his Ducati across the United States on sabbatical, making stops at various towns and cities. Being on a motorcycle offered him a different glimpse into small-town life – he writes of being looked at as a bad boy, and the thrill that gave him. He also notes the breathtaking vistas he happened upon with a genuine sense of awe: "Sometimes when travelling you are braced for an arduous passage and instead you stumble effortlessly into beauty."
His journey included some harrowing weather, but he maintained his sense of humour, making comparisons to Peter Fonda et al. in one of his favourite films. "It never rains in Easy Rider," he quips.
He also made some amazing discoveries on the way, such as finding Virginia Woolf’s suicide note in Pullman, Washington, a small town east of Seattle. He describes feeling as though he had stumbled across something intensely private and, for the first time, imagined the grief Woolf’s husband Leonard might have felt. "I had walked in on something unbearably personal," he writes.
When asked which great literary mind he would most like to share a few drinks or a meal with, he thinks it over carefully, then decides on the imaginative Italian writer Italo Calvino. Then, after thinking for a few more moments, he also chooses Carol Shields, but more for her skills as an author. "I would love to sit down and talk to her about the craft of fiction."
So, why not Virginia Woolf? After all, he has studied her writings and life extensively.
"She’s portrayed as being constantly morose, but she was really witty. She had a really barbed wit," he says. "I would be a little bit afraid of what she would be saying about me afterwards." And, he admits, he might not be able to keep up. "I would be tongue-tied."
He adds having a few pints with James Joyce would be a thrill, but that his liver wouldn’t be able to keep pace. "He used to write all day and drink all night. And then get up and do it all again. I don’t know how he did it. I would be out for weeks after the kind of binges he went on," he says with a laugh.
And finally, why Riding with Rilke?
"Rilke is somebody that I was fascinated by. I was fascinated by his style and language and the way he incorporates death and life," he says of the great Austrian poet. And certainly, a man who has had a brush with death like Bishop can appreciate that. |
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