Fear is pretending that the couch is your entire world and the
carpet is swimming in sharks, barracudas, giant eels and lost
tennis shoes. If you falter, the cold will kill you as you sink
into a deep infinite abyss.
The Salt House addresses the division in my Canadian and Newfoundland
self. It explores isolation as being both metaphorical and literal,
geographic and personal. Raft is about drowning as metaphor and
historical fact. A study of the cemeteries of Newfoundland will
overwhelm you with deaths due to drowning from boats being lost,
people falling through the ice, or simply being swept out by the
tide. The ocean is also both the traditional lover and destroyer
of the Newfoundland people.
Raft also speaks of fear, loneliness and isolation. It is about
unrequited desire. It is about my own relationship between my
history and my seemingly inability to tell a story. The tension
set up by the hyperbolic Newfoundland character and the passive,
childish woman on the couch sets up a space that is much like
a raft: for neither are drowning or swimming, the two create a
sense of floating between two worlds.