The Chan Centre for Performing Arts

The 2008 CBC Massey Lectures

Payback
Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
Delivered by Margaret Atwood

The most prestigious lecture series in Canada teams up with legendary poet, novelist, and essayist Margaret Atwood to deliver a surprising look at the topic of debt.

In her wide-ranging, entertaining, and imaginative approach to the subject, Atwood proposes that debt is like air - something we take for granted until things go wrong. And then, while gasping for breath, we become very interested in it.

Payback is not about practical debt management or high finance. Rather, it is an investigation into the idea of debt as an ancient and central motif in religion, literature, and the structure of human societies.

Margaret Atwood writes "These are not lectures about how to get out of debt; rather, they're about the debtor/creditor twinship in the broadest sense - from human sacrifice to pawnshops to revenge. In this light, what we owe and how we pay is a feature of all human societies, and profoundly shapes our shared values and our cultures."

By investigating how the idea of debt has informed our thinking, through the stories we tell each other, through our concepts of "balance," "revenge," and "sin," and in the way we form our social relationships, Atwood shows that the idea of what we owe one another - in other words, "debt" - is built into the human imagination and is one of its most dynamic metaphors.

Margaret Atwood is one of the world's preeminent writers - winner of the Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Governor General's Literary Award, among many other honours.

She is the bestselling author of more than thirty-five books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and Oryx and Crake. She is an International Vice President of PEN, which assists writers around the world in the peaceful expression of their ideas. Most recently, she is the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Prix Asturias.

In 1908, the provincial government proclaimed the University Act to establish British Columbia's first higher education institution. From this act of foresight, UBC has grown into one of the world's best public Universities by richly serving its provincial, national and global communities through its core mission of teaching, research and service.

Throughout 2008 UBC will celebrate 100 years of achievement with a diverse line up of events. Visit the Centenary website www.100.ubc.ca for all the details.