There are also the more serious issues like how different cultures view the same situation and the misunderstandings that can arise from those different interpretations. Or how our chauvinism can blind us to the fact that maybe ours isn't the only way to do things. It's the perfect section in which to do a lot of comparative studies in an effort to build bridges between philosophies, instead of the usual building of walls that goes on in most of today's media. I don't know if anyone reads those articles when I write them, but at least it gives me a forum where I can make the attempt.
Of course I can also expound upon art to my heart's content whenever I feel like it as well. Unfortunately those usually end up being diatribes that probably get up people's noses a little too much, but that's what having an opinion is all about.
To be honest that's probably what I like about the Culture section the most; it's the place you can be the most opinionated of all on the site. Even in Politics there are more constraints just because you end up toeing a party line too often; in Culture you can just let loose with both barrels. That's fun.
You've done a long-running series on NaNoWriMo and have written extensively about your experiences as a writer. How has the Internet influenced the writing life, both generally speaking and yours in particular? What kind of impact has your affiliation with BC had on your work?
"It was the best of times and it was the worst of times"… That's really what I think of the Internet in terms of its general effect on writing. A while ago I wrote an article for BC and the title was along the lines of "Blogging and Writing Aren't the Same Thing." A lot of people got upset with that because they took it personally and didn't understand what I was talking about.
What I had been trying to say was that people had begun to assume that because they could put words on the Internet, that qualified them to be an author. That they had even less knowledge of sentence structure than me, and wrote using Internet short form (u r 2 kind) hasn't seemed to deter them from thinking that their life stories are of interest to publishers.
In early 2006 when I started to shop around for a publisher for my manuscript, I discovered that many of the houses - Orion, Penguin, Random House, and Harper Collins, to name only a few - had stopped accepting manuscripts from authors without agents as of November 2005. In an interview I read with an editor from Alfred Knopf, he said that it was directly as a result of the number of bad manuscripts they had started to receive in the previous two years from people who wanted to tell their life stories.
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
Congratulations Richard! Thank you for sharing with us via the interview. Nice write-up as usual, Lisa.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Uh oh. Back to back Canucks. We really need to plan this better.
3 - SonnyD
Yea, Richard! Great write-up, great interview.
4 - Vikk Simmons
Congratulations. I really enjoyed reading about you, your writing, and your process Keep up the good work.
5 - Richard Marcus
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
6 - Donnie Marler
Richard,
Congratulations! Well deserved!
7 - Pico
You write good stuff. Keep 'um coming, Richard.
-P
8 - Kathy Jones
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!
9 - Al Barger
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.
10 - STM
"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.
11 - Al Barger
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.
12 - STM
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.
13 - Elvira Black
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!
14 - Duck
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?
15 - STM
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.
16 - crushkill
I really like how he loves talking about himself!
17 - DukeDeMondo
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.
18 - alessandro nicolo
Yeah, like the Inuit were going to extract the oil with their kakivak's. No offense. Congrats, Mr. Marcus. Montreal Canadiens - good man.