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literary Drcams Of Millennium our past and presenl anxieties as Ihej relate to international datelines. Dreams is a rollicking good ride lhal picks up where the Old Testament left off. Kingwcll provides an enormity of cultural reasons for society's unbriReport Front A Culttire On The Brink By Mark Kingwell Viking/Penguin Books of Canada. 372 pp. S 19.95 paperback Review by Colin Smith knotted K n neck muscles, blurred dled angst and uncertainly about our oil maligned future on this lorrid. Utile planet. Far removed from an insufferable (realise on the state of our union. Kingwell draws on all manners of colourful cultural expression to make his generous reference poinls. including: Savonarola and the Weepers. Franz Kafka and Rodney K i n g . Bart Simpson and the Branch Davidians. the X-Files and Forrest Gump. Noam Chomsky and Oliver Stone, the Unabomber and Leona Helmsley. Margaret Atwood and Edward Munch. Ebola. A I D S . Umberto E c o and a slew of extralerrestrials. Hey. the beat goes on. Kingwell also interviews celebrated Arthur Kroker (Net guru/ author of Data Trash: The Theory of the Virtual Class) and crosses the Thomas Homer-Dixon line with the self-slyled "Prophet of Doom" (who poses as a mild-mannered U of T political science professor by day and the university's director of Peace and Conflict Studies). The book provides the reader with plenty of contextual analysis of current events buoyed by rational, compelling arguments that seem to support a positive future for humankind. Fancy that. Kingwell's work will not singlehandedly obliterate societal stress and anxiety associated with Ihe new dawn of discovery, but his observations are wry. witty, well researched and ultimately well reasoned. Dreams is a strong antidote to Ihe petty prophecies espoused by the gathering hordes of file clerks, futurists and fin de siecle financiers. In reading this texl. I have come to realize, dear people, lhal my pain is your pain. We might as well enjoy it while il lasts. Heck. I feel belter already.^ Colin Smith lives in Vancouver and his pain is that of a freelance writer. vision, temporal aches. These are the contemporary signs that mark our passage from one period of unrest to the next. O u r cities' sidewalks and streets may be clogged with world weary souls but there is ample evidence to suggest we may have finally, ahem, arrived. We have managed to transport our collective consciousness to a societal safe house wherein the vast sum of human knowledge is said to be comfortably ensconced. Annnnd relax. Well, perhaps not quite yet. Have we leapt into the supposed safety of the Net. only to find ourselves suspended on the brink o f global disaster? A s the 21st century draws rapidly to a close, humans are facing a new. largely untapped source of psychic pain to accompany their daily dreads: a headache of millennial proportions. University of Toronto professor Mark Kingwell's new book. Dreams Of Millennium, aptly demonstrates OF DREAMS M A R K K I N G W E L L MILLENNIUM R E P O R T F R O M A C U L T U R E O N THE DRINK our historical passion for perversity and overzealous behaviour in our reactions to the passing of time (and. it could be said, the passing of w ind). A thought-provoking examination of Review in brief, by Gloria Loree Chasing Halley's Comet. Laughing Willow Books. 162 pp. S14.95 paperback If you are looking for good local writing. Chasing Halley's Comet is what you want. This collection of new works by 31 emerging writers (all winners of ihe 1995 Festival of Ihe Arts Competition sponsored by the Federation of B . C . Writers) includes fiction, poetry, memoirs and a playlet. The writers come from all parts of the province and range in age from late teens to late '70s. This diversity is pan of the book's appeal. In short order I can read a poem by Roseanne Harvey of Kamloops. who studies creative writing al the University of Victoria and likes lo "write about lizards and olher replilia": a heartbreaking memoir by Diane E. Salmon, who lived in logging camps most of her married life: a macabre and frightening story about a serial killer and a father who brutally rapes his son. by T . A . Craig Jones, and a wonderful story of a recently graduated university student who is struggling to wrile some fiction, by Gillian McNamara-Savage. The author biographies furthered my interest and enjoyment of these writers' fine works. Chasing Halley's Comet is available al local bookstores: for more information about the compelilion. contact Ihe Federation of B . C . Wrilers at 6X3-2057.^