'Resilience comes in a lot of different ways.': Paul Sun-Hyung Lee champions Hench
On the third day of Canada Reads 2021, the debates got more intense, as actor and comedian Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and actor and filmmaker Devery Jacobs went head-to-head over the resilience of the fictional characters in their books.
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is championing Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots. Hench is a novel about a woman who pays the bills by doing administrative work for bad guys. But when an incident leaves her injured and gets her fired, she ends up realizing what happened to her isn't unique — and she might have the means to take down the so-called hero who hurt her.
The panellists disagreed about whether the vendetta at the core of the novel was justified. Jacobs pointed about that in Hench, the theme of resilience is empowering, but the novel is also motivated by revenge. This week, Jacobs is championing Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead.
Lee offered that Hench is a complex look at how resilience is actually the human ability to "bounce back" after facing adversity.
Below is a condensed version of their discussion. Watch the video above for their full debate.
Devery Jacobs: "I actually thought that Hench was the story of how these supervillains and these henches are so resilient that it kind of turns into revenge.
"And that's what SuperCollider was saying to Anna, where he's like, 'I should've offed you… basically offed you when I had the chance because it's like, these people who I have hurt or what not end up becoming so resilient that they become superheroes.'
I actually thought that Hench was the story of how these supervillains and these henches are so resilient that it kind of turns into revenge.- Devery Jacobs
"He was the one who wronged Leviathan so much that he was so resilient that he became a supervillain and SuperCollider's greatest nemesis. So I thought that was interesting where, I don't know if it was precisely resilience, but it was resilience that had been harboured and cared for so much that it turned into revenge."
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee: "Resilience comes in a lot of different ways. There's a physical resilience, there's mental resilience. What I really admired about Anna is that, even though her body was broken, instead of just folding in on herself and feeling sorry for herself and feeling like the victim that she was, she focuses and is absolutely motivated by revenge, this anger.
"But instead of letting it explode around her, she focuses it on the one individual that is not being held accountable for the situation she is in. This passion, this anger is focused in a way for positive — in a sense — a positive outcome because she pulls the curtain away from the actual harm that's been done. And that's her interpretation of it, but the cool thing is, the more she speaks about it, the more the math adds up, the more people who have the same story start to step up.
Resilience comes in a lot of different ways. There's a physical resilience, there's mental resilience.- Paul Sun-Hyung Lee
"You have an entire community of people who have never been listened to, who have been discounted because, "Hey, you know what? You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They're superheroes. Deal with it." Lives have been broken and forgotten about and shuffled under the rug, suddenly finding agency and they're doing the unpopular thing, which is standing up against these supposedly good organizations."
The Canada Reads 2021 champions and their chosen books are:
- Rosey Edeh champions The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
- Scott Helman champions Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J. Lee
- Devery Jacobs champions Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
- Paul Sun-Hyung Lee champions Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
- Roger Mooking champions Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
Here's how you can tune into Canada Reads 2021:
ON RADIO: Canada Reads will air on CBC Listen at 11:05 a.m. ET, CST, MT, PT at 1:05 p.m. in AT, and at 1:35 p.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.
ON TV: CBC TV will broadcast Canada Reads at 1 p.m. ET, CST, MT, PT; at 2 p.m. in AT; and at 2:30pm in Newfoundland and Labrador.
PODCAST: New episodes of Canada Reads will be posted daily on CBC Listen. You can also download them wherever you get your podcasts.
ONLINE: CBC Books will livestream the debates at 11 a.m. ET on CBCBooks.ca, YouTube, Facebook and Gem. The debates will be available to replay online each day. The livestreams on YouTube and Facebook will be available to watch outside Canada.
