Bingo Culture
by Roland Barphe, editor of Excressences and
head of media studies at the Polyvalente de Saint-Tite
(Dr. Barphe thanks Karen Horner and Rob FitzGerald for their
valuable contributions to the project described in this article)
As Wentworth Sutton has noted in another article, "Canadian" culture is popularly considered to consist of beer, bingo, and donut shops. In a recent article of my own I demonstrated however that donuts are a foundation not of some spurious Canadian national culture but of English Canadian "culture." As I noted, donuts are the perfect symbol for English Canada – bland, cold, too sweet for their own good, and empty at the core.
Since writing that article I have gone on to complete a major cross-cultural semiological study of the second of these foundations of English Canadian "culture." Trained semiological operatives have observed bingo sessions in two countries: at the Regent and Palace Bingo Clubs of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, Norfolk, and at a bingo hall in an English Canadian city in Southern Ontario. At the Canadian hall we worked as staff, roving the hall selling tickets to the customers and obtaining the widest possible acquaintance with the players.
The British bingo establishments we observed are indeed clubs. It is necessary to become a member before one can play. The Canadian establishment, on the other hand, is simply a place to go and play bingo. The British establishment is for members, the Canadian for customers.
The atmosphere of these establishments reflects these differences. The members of the British clubs socialize and appear to be enjoying the company of their fellow members. The Canadians barely notice their fellow customers. Even at breaks there is little conversation, even among people who came with each other!
This means in particular that the groups of whites at the Canadian bingos do not interact with the groups of aboriginals. So much for English Canada's proud pretence that it is diverse and multicultural! This strict separation of the races reminds us that English Canadian media, despite the presence of aboriginals throughout the country, routinely depict aboriginals as living only in the far north or on reserves. The CBC is happy to make programs about the problems of urban black youth, but the existence of urban aboriginal youth is not even acknowledged.
Another striking difference between the British and Canadian establishments is the way in which play proceeds. In Britain the numbers are called quickly, and the card has been simplified to speed up play. People play only four to six cards, and consequently do not require tables to play at. They mark their cards with a pen or pencil. The game is over quickly, and the happy winners claim their prizes from the gracious mistress of ceremonies.
In English Canada the numbers are called slowly. That is because the players are playing enormous numbers of cards, which they often tape to the tables at which they sit. They mark their cards with special dabbers designed solely for bingo play. When the game is at long last over, often after one or more false climaxes as subsidiary prizes are doled out, the caller impassively intones "Good bingo" to certify the win, the winner impassively awaits the delivery of his or her prize, and the non-winners impassively throw away their cards and get out the cards for the next game.
The model for the British clubs is clearly the British institution of the music hall. The British clubs feature, as did the music hall, a master of ceremonies, and people go there, as they did to the music hall, to have fun.
The model for the English Canadian establishment is clearly…the factory! People go there solely to make money. They use special equipment appropriate to their métier. The game itself is set up much like an assembly line, one whose purpose is to complete cards; the resemblance of the stolidly dabbing Canadians in their smoke-filled hall to the staff of a sweatshop is striking. Instead of a master of ceremonies the Canadian establishment has a caller whose function is that of a supervisor.
To an English Canadian fun is a waste of time. When he or she has some time off work, an English Canadian will find some other type of work to do. He or she will do as much work as possible, which explains the huge number of bingo cards English Canadians play. This is of course a sign of the robustness of the Protestant ethic in English Canada. English Canadians believe, as the Protestant ethic requires, that virtue is rewarded, and virtue they define as working hard. Even in their appreciation of the "national" sport they share with Québec, English Canadians focus on the work which players are performing rather than on their skill. A player who does not work hard is a floater (this term was even applied to the great Mario Lemieux!), and the accolade of grinder is applied to players of limited talent but unlimited assiduity. Indeed, English Canada has become the source par excellence of grinders.
As Wentworth Sutton has pointed out to me, English Canadian bingo also demonstrates the prevalence of the schizoid personality in English Canada. English Canadian bingo players are classic schizoid personalities: aloof, unemotional, and uncommunicative. Their emotions are essentially those of children, so they keep their emotions under tight control. Emotion occasionally boils over when Canadians are successful in or thwarted at some childish endeavour, usually a sporting one. Witness the furore over the Olympic pairs figure slating competition, in which English Canadians rose as one to cry "No fair!"
To schizoid personalities the necessity of preserving one's emotional balance makes fun dangerous, but makes repetitive and trivial activities like bingo highly appealing. The only threat is that one might win so much money that one might actually smile.
And that is of course why English Canada has produced no great art. Great art presupposes great emotion. The absence of great emotion in English Canada explains the absence of great literature, great music, and great painting of English Canadian origin. It also explains the absence of half decent bingo.
Bingo Culture © Coolth, 2002
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