Blogcritic of the Month, December 2006: Richard Marcus
Published December 05, 2006
Sensitive New Age Guy - A piece of short fiction where our hero gets a little more than he bargained for at his meditation circle. But at least he gets the girl in the end.
Parts one and two of my interview with Willy DeVille - I don't know if it came across in the write-up, but these were two of the most fascinating hours I've ever spent on the phone. A truly remarkable man who has been through hell and back and still remains a remarkable performer and writer. I didn't receive permission to publish this interview in the book Voices of Creation, so it will always remain a Blogcritics exclusive.
Eggheads and Artsies: Scary Monsters and Super Creeps - This was another silly piece, but this time about growing up different and the difficulties of being a child and not fitting in for whatever reason. If you thought adults were hard on non-conformists, they're nothing compared to their children.
Right To Die - I've picked this one as my favourite heavy piece because it is something I believe in passionately. I firmly believe that we all deserve the right to die with dignity and not have to hang around when we don't want to and are merely suffering out our last days on earth for no reason. My biggest fear is that someday this will happen to me and those I love will be forced to see me become something that will cause them to suffer. I've already seen their faces when I've been hooked up to tubes and oxygen temporarily, and that was bad enough.
- Blogcritic of the Month, December 2006: Richard Marcus
- Published: December 05, 2006
- Type: Interview
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Books: The Writing Life, Culture: Administrative, Culture: Arts, Culture: Media, Sci/Tech: Blogging
- Part of a feature: Blogcritic of the Month
- Writer: Lisa McKay
- Lisa McKay's BC Writer page
- Lisa McKay's personal site
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Comments
Uh oh. Back to back Canucks. We really need to plan this better.
Yea, Richard! Great write-up, great interview.
Congratulations. I really enjoyed reading about you, your writing, and your process Keep up the good work.
Holleee
do I really sound like that pompus beady canuck...
Thank you very much Lisa and all you other editor types for the honour. Considering all the folk who write on this site and have quite amazing things to say all the time it's enough to make a fella's head swell.
That is until his next article is put on hold for being sensless gibberish. Oh well that gives me about a day or two to revel in this.
Thank you once again,
cheers
Richard Marcus
Richard,
Congratulations! Well deserved!
The interview was wonderful reading and the collection of articles is inspiring. I especially appreciated your comment, Richard, that what you found most difficult is this:"getting the words on the page to be as exciting as they sound in my head." Really resonated with my experience, and your persistence has paid off, as evidenced in the quality of your work. Congrats!
Why, some of my best friends are Canadians...
Look, all decent patriotic Americans naturally hate beady-eyed Canucks with their heads so full of lies. Brother Marcus, however, does not indulge in the head full of lies part. He will tend to make somewhat different value judgments than me in some political areas (ie he tends to be more "liberal"), but he's highly respectful of facts and strives to seek truth rather than simply win arguments.
So then, as Canadians go, Richard Marcus ain't half bad. He's one of the good ones.
"Look, all decent patriotic Americans naturally hate beady-eyed Canucks."
Never got over having your blurters kicked from here to kingdom and back in the War of 1812, eh?
Time to bloody well forget that, Al, old boy, and move on.
STM, keep monkeying with US Americans, and we'll execute Terence and Philip again.
Canadians are already skating on thin ice as it is. If you read the fine print, the Patriot Act actually outlaws Canada. That whole country is just one Celine Dion album away from being the new Iraq.
Mate, I have often heard Canada described as "America's hat".
However, I have a copy of Mercator's correctional map of the world, which since north and south are nothing more than human inventions and no-one really knows what is top and what is bottom, has Australia and New Zealand at the top of the world.
The US of course is then below the equator, with Canada below that. Using this map, it is no longer America's hat, but America's undies.
I'm sure they prefer being the hat.
Lisa and Richard:
What an incredible piece. Lisa, you somehow encompassed the essence of Richard in your brief intro, including the formidable depth and scope of his work. And Richard, I felt like you were inside my head (or vice versa) as I was reading the interview--and if I read you right, that's one of the essential elements of what every writer strives for. You've got it in spades. Congrats!
How nice of Canada to allow Indigenous peoples use of their own land. How of them.
Seems racist to me when oil companies can go on Indigenous (Crown? Who wers the crown?) Land. Receive hugh tax breaks and I am sure lax environmental controls. Why can these companies sell or do whatever they want?
Ah, it's good to see that land owned by the Government in Canada is still called Crown Land (just like in Australia).
Much of it wasn't used by indenigenous people in the sense that we understand land ownership anyway. Therein lies the problem. A conundrum now being left to others to sort out, just like in the US, with varying degrees of success. Although mostly not.
I really like how he loves talking about himself!
Richard, congratulations Good Sir, and that interview was glorious also. It does the site no end of good to have folks like yourself on here. And what a lovely man, also.
Yeah, like the Inuit were going to extract the oil with their kakivak's. No offense. Congrats, Mr. Marcus. Montreal Canadiens - good man.








Congratulations Richard! Thank you for sharing with us via the interview. Nice write-up as usual, Lisa.