Do Quebec writers have to talk about fellatio, sodomy or masturbation to be eligible to be featured on Quebec public television?
Do they have to take off their pants, open their bedroom door, half-open their fantasy box to get public television to take an interest in them and their work?
I have long regretted that there is no longer a literary program on Télé-Québec (or on Radio-Canada).
But I’m even more sorry that it’s now a sex show that we have to turn to for culture.
BIZ AND THE FIREPIPE
This season, Télé-Québec is airing a sexuality-themed program called Au-près du sexe, co-hosted by Rose-Aimée Automne T. Morin and Jonathan Roberge. I welcome the initiative, it is a fascinating topic! I have a visit every Friday at QUB from Anne-Marie Ménard, an expert in sexology. It is important to talk about sexuality without complexes.
I just find it surprising to receive a press release from Télé-Québec for this week’s show, explaining to me that “the rapper, artist and writer Biz is in complete transparency about his sexuality, his fantasies and the age difference in his relationship speaks.” For him, sexuality is a game and he likes to play. Someone who had a less sexually active youth tells us that he now enjoys going dancing with his lover!
No problem if Biz has sex the way he wants. It was no problem for him to visit Chez Parée, Wanda’s, le Folichon or Lady Mary Ann. I am not puritanical, bigoted or snooty. With consenting adults, we can do whatever we want.
But I would still like to note that in the absence of a proper literary magazine, in the absence of a cultural magazine worthy of the name, the rare word was given to an artist of Biz’s caliber, who wrote fabulous novels and took part in Loco Locass … it’s about Sex.
Here is the excerpt that Télé-Québec sent to the media.
Biz says: “My latest novel, The Horizon of Events, is an autofiction that tells the genesis of my relationship with my girlfriend, in which I incorporated several sex scenes that really happened to me, except one: a divine fellatio all in one Finnish sauna, steam bath. And when we went to a spa a few months later, my friend said to me, “OK, my author, we’re going to bring reality and fiction together.” And I got a fire pipe. I felt like I was in my own book.”
I am happy to learn that Biz enjoys oral sex and congratulate his young girlfriend on her oral coitus skills. But I’d like to hear Biz talk in more detail about his relationship with books.
SO WHERE ARE YOU?
For five seasons I hosted 750 live shows, Sophie’s Choices on Télé-Québec. There were cultural programs before and after mine. There were also shows entirely dedicated to literature, such as Danielle Laurin’s.
But today the “life of books” is only discussed marginally in Télé-Québec, between a cooking show and a series about “decolonizing history”.
And that’s good.
