[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-150592-en":3,"doc-seo-150592-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},150592,1099513958607,"Jiven","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/100002390cf8733938c?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778829742770036399",8,"Research & Report","Perfect Mismatch - Gwendolyn MacEwen and the Flat Earth Society","A scholarly investigation reconstructs Gwendolyn MacEwen’s overlooked connection to Canada’s Flat Earth Society, founded in Fredericton in 1970 by Alden Nowlan, Leo Ferrari, and Raymond Fraser. Using preserved correspondence, biographies, receptions of MacEwen’s work, and her poetry and prose, the study analyzes how “planoterrestrialism” shaped an oppositional, darkly humorous stance while gender and metropolitan identity placed her at odds with the male Maritime founders. It also details her role as First Vice-President and key satirical contributions and proposals.","Perfect Mismatch: Gwendolyn MacEwen and the Flat Earth Society  \nDavid Eso  \nWhen they are the work of poets, entertainments, pranks, and hoaxes still fall within the domain of poetry.  \n—François Le Lionnais, Regent, Collège de ’Pataphysique  \nA mong the intellectual affiliations on the fringes of  \nGwendolyn MacEwen’s literary career, her connection to  \nCanada’s Flat Earth Society remains overlooked in scholarship. Founded 8 November 1970 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, by Alden Nowlan (Symposiarch), Leo Ferrari (President), and Raymond Fraser (Chairman of the Board), the satirical Society drew together across-section of oddball Canadian writers at its executive level, including First Vice-President MacEwen, David McFadden, John Newlove, Al Pittman, and Farley Mowat. General membership status was granted to applicants from many walks of life, whose various motivations for joining are documented in the archives of the founders. The present investigation of MacEwen’s involvement with the Society draws on her preserved correspondences with Nowlan and Ferrari1; on Rosemary Sullivan’s Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen; on select receptions of MacEwen’s work; and on MacEwen’s poetry and prose, resituated in the context of her Flat Earth Society engagements.  \nThe necessarily diverse range of these sources reflects the complex relationship of MacEwen to the Society. In some ways, her life and work demonstrate a natural affinity with the Flat Earth project, given its darkly humorous countercultural messaging and occult revivalism. Yet her status as a female and metropolitan writer puts MacEwen out of step with the group’s male and Maritime founders. Gender difference constitutes a recurring point of reference in the preserved correspondence, as it does within her published works. Looking at MacEwen through the lens of her 1970s “Planoterrestrialism” highlights her oppositional perspective and mirthful humour, qualities inseparable from the dark side of her troubled life and writerly style.  \n212 Scl/Élc  \nIn 1971, MacEwen agreed to serve as First Vice-President of the Flat Earth Society (hereafter, FES) after giving the invitation “a full twenty-five minutes” of “serious thought”(Letter to Nowlan [undated; Nowlan fonds 12.6.18]). Subsequent letters to Nowlan and Ferrari relate a “deeply committed” enthusiasm for their project’s blend of seriousness in satire and disruptive philosophy with absurdist play (12.6.18). The period of the MacEwen−Nowlan/Ferrari exchanges was brief. Accordingly, her planoterrestrial allegiance receives only passing comment in Sullivan’s lengthy biography (259) and a single-sentence mention in Christine Garwood’s Flat Earth: History of an Infamous Idea (284). MacEwen’s affiliation with the Maritime agitators behind the FES demands consideration, however, because her eccentric imagination made the author an ideal selection for an executive position, and because she made compelling contributions to the group’s discourse. Designed as a participatory experiment, the project’s specific aims are outlined in Nowlan’s article “Dr. Ferrari and the Flat Earth Society.” In brief, the Society sought to promote sensory knowledge, intellectual liberty, and metaphorical truth (an alternative path to transcendence in an overly secular era). Although MacEwen appears not to have co-authored any FES texts for general circulation, these aims correspond with her writing: embodied, eccentric, and overlaid with coy religiosity.  \nThose same qualities underwrite her contributions to the FES project. When MacEwen became the first member who would expand the FES circle beyond its Atlantic Canadian context, she entered through the window rather than the opened door and transformed a party already in progress. Stuart Hall gives a similar description of feminists disruptively entering Cultural Studies, an intellectual movement previously dominated by men (268). MacEwen responded to absurd FES proposals, offering equally imagin","cbCaijhkAPUd18vN","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijhkAPUd18vN","pdf",218658,1,21,"English","en",105,"# MacEwen and the Flat Earth Society\n## Founding, leadership, and membership\n## Sources and research approach\n## Gender, cultural context, and “planoterrestrialism”\n## MacEwen’s vice-presidential role\n## Contributions and satirical proposals","[{\"question\":\"When was the Flat Earth Society founded and who led it?\",\"answer\":\"It was founded on 8 November 1970 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, by Alden Nowlan (Symposiarch), Leo Ferrari (President), and Raymond Fraser (Chairman of the Board).\"},{\"question\":\"What sources does the investigation use to assess MacEwen’s involvement?\",\"answer\":\"It draws on MacEwen’s preserved correspondences with Nowlan and Ferrari, Rosemary Sullivan’s biography, select receptions of her work, and MacEwen’s poetry and prose viewed in the context of her society engagements.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the study emphasize gender and regional context in interpreting MacEwen’s role?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that MacEwen’s status as a female and metropolitan writer made her out of step with the group’s male Maritime founders, and that both Fraser and MacEwen often represent their environments through desolate fringes rather than central fertility.\"}]","Perfect Mismatch - Gwendolyn MacEwen and the Flat Earth Society | PDF",1787823042,53,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"perfect-mismatch-gwendolyn-macewen-and-the-flat-earth-society","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,54,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/perfect-mismatch-gwendolyn-macewen-and-the-flat-earth-society/150592/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-27",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"When was the Flat Earth Society founded and who led it?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It was founded on 8 November 1970 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, by Alden Nowlan (Symposiarch), Leo Ferrari (President), and Raymond Fraser (Chairman of the Board).","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What sources does the investigation use to assess MacEwen’s involvement?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"It draws on MacEwen’s preserved correspondences with Nowlan and Ferrari, Rosemary Sullivan’s biography, select receptions of her work, and MacEwen’s poetry and prose viewed in the context of her society engagements.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"Why does the study emphasize gender and regional context in interpreting MacEwen’s role?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"It argues that MacEwen’s status as a female and metropolitan writer made her out of step with the group’s male Maritime founders, and that both Fraser and MacEwen often represent their environments through desolate fringes rather than central fertility.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]