MonSFFA Website

Post 1 of 7: Introduction, Agenda, “In Flanders Fields”

This is the first of seven posts making up this, MonSFFA’s November 2022 e-Meeting. Welcome!

1) INTRODUCTION

Yesterday was Remembrance Day and commemorative ceremonies took place across the land. We are pleased to humbly pay our respects, this afternoon, to those Canadians who have served, or are currently serving in the military, and in particular, to the families of those who have fallen. Canada remains a free and democratic country today because of their sacrifice, and in concert with our allies, this nation’s soldiers, sailors, and airmen have helped to bolster peace and freedom around the world, something of which all Canadians can all be proud.

Are you seated in your most comfortable chair, tasty snacks at hand? Good. Pour yourself a favourite drink, too, and join us for an afternoon of SF/F fun and conversation. Today, we’ll be looking at monarchies in science fiction and fantasy, reviewing stupid SF/F shark movies, and a lot more!

Note that this will be our final programmed e-meeting of the year; next month, we’ll be getting together for a Christmas Lunch/Party—more about that at 4:30PM. Programmed meetings resume in the New Year.

Today’s agenda is a busy one, so let’s get started!

2) JOIN THIS AFTERNOON’S VIDEO-CHAT ON ZOOM!

To join our ZOOM video-chat, which will run throughout the next few hours, simply click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA e-Meeting on ZOOM

If you’re not fully equipped to ZOOM, you can also take part by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. From out of town? No problem; find your ZOOM call-in number here: Call-In Numbers

Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:

Meeting ID: 894 0738 5483
Passcode: 193253

3) MEETING AGENDA

Here is the agenda for this afternoon’s get-together:

As always, all scheduled programming is subject to change.

4) JOHN McCRAE’S “IN FLANDERS FIELDS”

Portrait of John McCrae by Janet Wilson, painted as the cover of In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem by John McCrae, a children’s book written by Linda Granfield, with illustrations by Wilson.

In the spring of 1915, during the First World War, physician and amateur poet John McCrae, of Guelph, Ontario, was serving as a surgeon with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Assigned to an artillery brigade, he treated the wounded during the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium, which infamously saw the German army first deploy mass quantities of poisonous chlorine gas on the Western Front.

After presiding over the burial of a friend killed in action, McCrae, sitting in the back of a field ambulance amid leas of wild poppies, was inspired to write “In Flanders Fields,” which he is said to have quickly discarded, unsatisfied with his prose. But a fellow officer who retrieved the verse encouraged the young doctor to keep at it.

“In Flanders Fields” was first published in the British magazine Punch later that year, and soon became one of the most popular and quoted poems of the war, earning McCrae a measure of celebrity. Today, “In Flanders Fields,” and the iconic poppy, are staples of the annual commemorative ceremonies held across the commonwealth and beyond, paying tribute to military veterans, and memorializing those who did not return from the battlefield.

In 1918, while commanding No. 3 Canadian General Hospital at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, McCrae joined the ranks of the dead he had so movingly venerated, succumbing to pneumonia. He was buried with full military honours.

Before the war, McCrae had lived and worked in Montreal, engaged as a pathologist at both The Montreal General and Royal Victoria hospitals. He also taught at McGill University.

Next post: 1:30PM