By the Way double-sided legal size photocopy 400 copies weekly distributed only in Toronto at selected cafe and bookstore locations. 599B Yongue St. Suite 146 TO, ON M4Y 1Z4
As a curious little publication, By the Way is aptly titled. But when reviewing this weekly broad-sheet’s contents and talking to its creator and editor Glenn Ford, it becomes clear that this is not an easily dismissed fringe project. By the Way is more than just some quirky aside. Ford’s aspirations go beyond providing an outlet for a kind of writing that he suggests may well be “the literature of the future.” Ford wants to influence the way we think, the way we act and the way we are. This may not necessarily be a bad thing.
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The concept for By the Way was culled from a past that Ford would like us to take a few backward steps towards. He refers to a publication called the Tattler that had its inception in England in the 19th century. Like By the Way, which is distributed weekly at the four Futures Bakeries and Cafe locations in Toronto, the Tattler was also dispersed at coffee shops. Also similar to By the Way, the Tattler was a reaction to standard values. Only, unlike By the Way, it was not a return to gentle, quiet, well-wrought rhetoric; it was a move away from those once repressive criterion.
“The original Tattler,” Ford explains, “came out as a rebelliousness against the staid English way. It wanted to be more accessible…I think over the last 300 years we’ve taken that about as far as we can. We’ve moved to the opposite extreme. I wanted to use the same form to take us back, to draw in the reins on this kind of reverence for the common.”
The articles Ford publishes and sometimes writes under assumed names gently insist on the efficacy of self determination; opinions are valued as expressions of the conscious; gentle polemics supersede shallow political determinations and petty personal ambitions.
“I don’t like the usual style of journalistic writing,” Ford says, “the kind of writing that is cynical and negative. This is gentler, brighter and hopefully a lot better written…it’s creative writing on topical issues that gets away from all the mindless blathering.”
The essays Ford publishes are aimed at dissecting social policy and holding it up, severed, exposed, but curiously intact. Past topics have included articles on such subjects as a neighbor’s all too rapid construction of an imposing fence, the proprieties of flirting, the career of Woody Allen, and the way we are instilling despair and helplessness in youth by harping on the multifarious facts of their mortality.
By the Way also features a series of articles by Joe Clarke which I suspect Ford writes himself. In these carefully executed pieces, Joe meets his opinionated senior friend Arthur. Joe, ostensibly the author, addresses Arthur with outrage and a level of condescension that is fitting for someone who thinks he knows all the answers. Arthur — much like By the Way — is always soft-spoken and reserved, infinitely more appreciative of the complexities resulting from Joe’s never ending pig-headed assumptions. Joe vows to protest cuts to welfare and announces that the Federal government should make the rich “hand it over.” “But you believe in freedom, don’t you Joe?” Arthur asks. Eventually, Joe comes to realize, along with the reader, that nothing is as simple as it seems; often the very institutions and laws set forth to protect us end up restricting our options and infringing on our liberties.
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By the Way’s style of gentle poking and prodding is like a lover’s tickle: an effective, persuasive reminder of the possibilities humanity once took for granted.
“Samuel Johnson and Jospeh Addison wrote in a similar style with a similar subject matter and it was known then as wisdom literature,” Ford says. “The goal was to suggest ideas by which people might improve their lives — something that very few people seem interested in, but nevertheless, I’m interested in it.”
Of course, By the Way is to not some sort of community improvement guide. Just the opposite is the case. By the Way succeeds because the reality of the individual is always apparent, even in a discussion of issues as lofty as Quebec separation, the role of education, and sexism. The articles always cause the reader to realize the individual lives that are determined by amorphous, rancorous partisan clashes. By the Way’s ever increasing followers use the term ‘charming’ to describe the feeling of inauspicious human actuality that Ford seems to provide. But the source of this ‘charm’ is Ford himself. Like many esteemed alternative publishing projects, Ford’s motivations are largely personal.
“I need something to string the days together,” he says. “Dividing my days in isolated bits drives me crazy. By the Way divides life up into weeks and even further up to how much longer the paper is going to last. It helps me see farther into the future. I hate the daily grind. I need a more ambitious project to let me look beyond that day, that evening.”
No one can predict whether or not Ford will find solace in the continuity of his publication. It is certainly true that the reader is afforded the opportunity of constancy through the breadth of Ford’s imagination, and his ability to articulate the fluctuating stillness of urban life. Still, perceptions change and the mind wanders to new territory. In person, Ford expresses a certain frustration with the world, a hesitated bitterness that has not yet found its expression in the way of his printed words.
“I don’t pretend to know what it is that people want or need. I’m just hoping that By the Way perks up a few ears. Lately, I’ve been allowing a little bit more anger to seep into the pieces. I have every fear and every right to be afraid that all of this is just creating a longer illusion.”
It is the gentleness that modern writing has eschewed for confrontation that Ford most fears to be illusory and impossible in this age of product advancement. But perhaps his fears will be unfounded. After all, there is By the Way; a quiet reminder of the future in the past.