Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Jokes (and the Marginalized) « TheMarginalized.com:

Think Spalding Gray meets Louis Black. Laugh out loud, large-scale and shameless, but also an intricate non-fiction piece on the ethical (or rather, unethical) activities of Apple and other tech companies.

It reminded me of why I went into writing, and why I wrote my first dramatic nonfiction piece (on protest, about 10 years ago). I wanted to “get my hands in it,” as Daisey puts it. It is a beautiful experience, and certainly can be a funny one, too.
I remember when I was writing on coal ash, I met a guy who was dying of cancer and kidney failure. He led me around his house showing me where ash was deposited, all the while joking about “doing it” in the bedroom and how long it had been since a pretty girl had been in there. His wife, who was about two feet away and who also had just survived cancer, laughed and made sure I knew if I tried anything he’d die of heart attack, and that I didn’t want to be responsible for that.