Hockey of the Future: Canada's Game in Quebec's Science Fiction (Essay‪)‬

Two gold medals at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic games in both men's and women's hockey confirmed the national status of Canada's Game, as Andrew C. Holman titled a recent collection of essays by academics on hockey and identity. Francophone scholars appropriated the centennial anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens to voice their opinions about the meaning of hockey for the Quebecois. Popular culture texts from Quebec represent hockey paradoxically, as both a potential rallying point to unite the francophone province's increasingly pluralistic society, invoking at the same time linguistic and sports rivalries with the Anglophone Rest of Canada (Ransom, "Lieux"). Examining in detail a series of novels by Denis Cote, a prolific author of popular genre fiction for young adults, this essay reveals how science fiction from Quebec (SFQ) envisions the hockey of the future and how an often internationalist vision still reflects nationalist concerns about identity. Jean-Pierre April, a pioneer critic and writer of SFQ, remarked in 1996 the unique conjunction of hockey and science fiction in Quebec in the post-referendum (1) era. He notes that "c'est entre 1981 et 1983 que des auteurs manifestent leur interet pour le sujet et il y a bon nombre de similitudes dans leurs speculations sportives [between 1981 and 1983 authors express their interest in this subject and there are a number of similarities between their speculations on sport]" (233), citing his own "Le Fantome du Forum" (1981), Francois Barcelo's Ville-Dieu (1982), Gilles Tremblay's Les Nordiques sont disparus (1983), and Denis Cote's young adult series that begins with Hockeyeurs cybernetiques (1983). While at least one Anglo-Canadian writer has been working to fill the gap (Edo van Belkom (2)), April's assertion that "le hockey et la science-fiction [est] une rencontre plutot inusitee, qu'on ne voit guere qu'au Quebec [hockey and science fiction (are) a rather unusual pair, rarely seen except in Quebec]" (231) continues to hold true. While a vast mainstream hockey literature, both for a youth and an adult audience, exists in English (Skinazi 121-22), a good bit of the rapidly proliferating body of hockey-related French-language fiction in Quebec reveals ties to the science-fiction or fantasy genres. Since the publication of the works cited by April, a significant corpus of children's and young adult literature featuring both hockey and science-fictional or fantasy elements has appeared in Quebec. In Francois Gravel's Zamboni (1990; Trans. Mr. Zamboni's Dream Machine, 1992), the ice-grooming equipment hides a technological marvel inside: a machine that allows viewers to watch his or her dreams materialize like a film. Michel Foisy's La Carte de hockey magique (2000; The Magic Hockey Card) permits its paralyzed owner to see the greats of the past play firsthand. Even Roch Carrier's well-known "The Hockey Sweater" (1979) involves some elements of fantasy, seen more clearly in its film adaptation's (1980; dir. Sheldon Cohen) ability to literalize the fantasy that the young boys on the small town team each "become" Maurice Richard.