| Maggie MacDonald is busy. The artist, writer and musician plays with The Hidden Cameras, is working on a musical-cum-graphic novel called The Rat King, is writer-in-residence at Hart House at the University of Toronto, and has just published her first book, Kill the Robot.
A tale of distant relationships and consumer revenge, Robot follows young Moore White, bunkered in her home watching Tee-Vee and waiting for the fascists to come. MacDonald had written the book back in 1998, but has sat on it until now.
"When the September 11 attacks happened, I thought it was too sensitive," she says. "So later, I entrenched the robot aspect."
MacDonald’s experiences working for the NDP (including campaigning for office herself) inform the fascist future of the novel, one that is only a touch removed from our current fixations of television and brands. The paranoiac extremes of Moore’s actions echo the sci-fi horror you’d find by the likes of Philip K. Dick, but MacDonald points out that it’s a cautionary tale.
"Anyone can do something to improve conditions," she says. "People in dictatorships can band together. Moore gives up her humanity, but it’s never too late to do something."
In Robot, sex is portrayed as a mingling of sadness and organic chemistry, with slight hints of aborted blood and the cold, wet ennui between Moore and her boyfriend. "I think culturally we have an attitude to the body as being ‘other’ than us," MacDonald says. "We think of the brain as part of the body, but the body is separate. We treat it that way culturally – sweatshops, physical pangs of hunger the homeless feel."
That disparity becomes a means of surrender. Robot finds sex as more than pleasure, a protective salve for the body. "The body as machine, controlled by remote – if you believe in mind over matter, it can get pulled over on you," says MacDonald. "Sex is one of those places where we’re aware of those separate parts."
MacDonald fleshes out the novel with illustrations, black-and-white images of binary code and muddy bodies entwined in sexual poses both confused and erotic. "I did them to help myself understand the story," she says. "I always use sketches to help with the writing process, and with these I wanted to bring a connection to the story. It jumps around, and there’s clues to what might come later."
Moving on to readings and events this week… there are three at McNally Robinson, the first on Thursday, February 16 at 7 p.m. with Susan Musgrave and her new collection of travel essays, You’re in Canada Now. On Saturday, February 18 at 1:30 p.m., Gail Nyoka reads from her children’s book, Mella and the N’anga: An African Tale. The next instalment in the Ruby Tuesday Urban Lecture Series takes place on Tuesday, February 21 at 7 p.m.
The Calgary Poetry Slam, hosted by Sheri-D Wilson and Mark Hopkins, kicks off next Thursday, February 23 at 8 p.m. at the Beat Niq Jazz and Social Club with 16 local poets competing for $400 and a chance to move on to the faceoff competition on March 9. Contestants are asked to read one poem, four minutes maximum, with the theme "irresistible." The entrance fee is $10.
The Calgary Youth Poetry Competition is looking for entries for this year’s award, open to students in Grades 7 to 12. The poem should be 10 to 12 lines about why Calgary is great (not the phallic tower, though, kiddies). The winner gets $100 and sees his or her poem appear in the program for the Calgary White Hat Awards on April 6. Send entries to editor@frontenachouse.ca, and include your name, grade, school and phone number.
NōD launches its second issue this Friday, February 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lazy Loaf and Kettle. The magazine, run by the English Literature Students Society at the University of Calgary, accepts submissions from anyone and is kind enough to offer feedback to those who don’t make it into an issue. The deadline for submissions for the third issue is March 15. They can be sent to elss@ucalgary.ca. |
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