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Northwest Passages: Sherman Alexie
- LATEST COMMENTS
- I greatly enjoyed "The Absolutely True story of a Part ... - ricabinkley
- Hi Riposte again, now you've updated your post I ... - Emily Harris
- Too bad Sherman's views of culture and society are ... - scottmil
Sherman Alexie was born hydrocephalic — with water on his brain — but underwent an operation at the age of six months. By the time he was five, he was reading thick novels like The Grapes of Wrath.
Growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation led him to seek a better education elsewhere. A college poetry teacher turned him from pre-med to writing. Alexie has published almost two dozen books and screenplays, directed one of his three movies, and won the National Book Award and scads of others.
He has been called the most popular and influential Native American writer in the country.
And Alexie is funny: in just five minutes last year he managed to crack Stephen Colbert's facade and leave the comedian temporarily speechless.
Alexie has long been blunt about culture and identity. He has set some people on edge for other reasons as well. Parents in Oregon and Illinois have asked school districts to remove his young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian, from classrooms. He also caused a stir this spring when he railed against "elitist" electronic book gadets, saying he wanted to hit a woman sitting on a plane with a Kindle. (He expanded on his "visceral, negative reaction to eBooks" in a later blog interview.)
Alexie published two new books this year: Faces, a collection of poetry, and War Dances, a mix of poems and prose labelled fiction but clearly drawing on his own life to explore fatherhood, love, drunkness and politics. He joins us for the hour, a few days before you have to buy a ticket to hear him at the Wordstock Festival. Post your reactions to his work and any questions for him here.
Tagged as: northwest passages · sherman alexie
Photo credit: Chase Jarvis
COMMENTS: (31 total)
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Wow! A wedding proposal
David Miller — Thu Oct. 8th 9:15a.m.
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"Wow! A wedding proposal"
David Miller — Thu Oct. 8th 9:15a.m.
A marriage of the minds of people who love words, the sounds of words, and widely exploring and talking and writing about available knowledge and people. Henh, I suspect that a lot of people will marry Sherman that way today. I hope so, and I hope that a lot of word loving children are born into that love.
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I agree with Tom! He is definitely "mouth music"!
He is one of my favorite authors. I am very much looking forward to the show.
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One of my favorite movies is "Smoke Signals", which the credits link to Mr Alexie's book "The Lone & Tonto Fistfight in Heaven". Now, I've read the book, and it's amazing, but the link between the two seems VERY loose.
Loving both stories & always curious about the "story behind stories", these questions occurred to to me: How much involvement did Mr Alexie have in the development of the screenplay for "Smoke Signals"? And, if the answer to the first question is anything less that "he wrote the whole thing", how does he feel about what they did with his story/characters in that movie?
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Here's a little gem that Alexie wrote in The Stranger last summer about the Sonics:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=631015
David Miller — Thu Oct. 8th 7:51a.m.
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It's great to have Sherman Alexie back in Portland. He is a hot topic of conversation at Portland Community College's Sylvania campus this fall, since we have made his Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian the selection for Sylvania Reads. We'll have hundreds of students and faculty reading and discussing the book. We'd love to have Sherman Alexie participate in the discussion, either online or, better yet, in person.
BTW, our library has already stocked multiple copies of the book, which are now in active circulation. No banning of great books on our campus! Thanks for your powerful voice, and know that you're being heard loud and clear in Portland the old fashioned way--in books people can hold and embrace and write in!
Dave Stout
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Thrilled that you have Sherman on the show! His sardonic wit is always entertaining. You never know what he'll say, what you'll think or how you will feel, but you always know it will be fun.
Hang on it's going to be a bumpy ride!
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Mr. Alexie, I am a high school English Teacher in Hood River, OR and one of my classes is reading The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian in our class right now, we had a few questions about the book we would love to hear from you.
We feel that you do a really wonderful job of portraying life on the reservation and wanted to thank you for bringing a very honest, yet still humorous approach to it.
How similar was your upbringing to that of Junior?
Was he very closely based on your own experiences or is he, and Rowdy for that matter, more of a composite of different people you knew growing up?
What made you want to make a Junior a cartoonist?
What inspired you to write The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian?
We are listening to you live in class right now!
Thanks, Klahre House 1st period Language Arts Class
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From the same language arts class. What does it feel like to have your book banned from schools? Do you feel like it gave the book more power through it notoriety? Were you surprised that it was banned?
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Thank you so much for submitting our question to Mr. Alexie.
If you answer another one, Klahre is pronounced the same as Claire.
Kieran Connolly
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I spent 10 minutes trying to guess! Sorry I got it wrong!
David Miller — Thu Oct. 8th 9:58a.m.
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No worries, it is a confounding spelling, if I didn't work here I don't think I would ever get it.
Thanks so much again for taking our question, it was a pretty exciting experience for both the kids and myself.
Kieran
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Favorite Sherman Alexie book is Reservation Blues! Can't wait to read the new one!!
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I'm an Indian, but I'm also a teacher, a computer programmer, a scientist and a writer. I've struggled my whole life with trying to explain to people that "being an Indian" doesn't mean "Living in a Tipi" any more than "Being a White person" means "Living in a log cabin on a prairie."
The requirement to explain to people that I am allowed to be an Indian AND a modern American has always frustrated, often angered me. because I feel that the words "Indian" and "Native American" carry so much romanticized baggage.
Thank you for writing so much on this. Thank you for giving us complexity, thank you for giving us responsibility. Thank you for opening the doors and helping show the world that Native Americans, just as European Americans and Asian Americans, are a product of their culture, but no caged in a romantic history.
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I just found and did a quick skimming of this recent piece that features an interview with Sherman
http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2009/10/post.html
I was happy to see that Sherman is also a fan of Neil Young, but it also brings up a deeper question I have long wondered about two of my favorite contemporary creative artists. Sherman has been critical of white people co-opting Indian culture; how does this apply to Neil Young naming his best bands Buffalo Springfield and Crazy Horse? Does the magic squall he conjures from his old black guitar make up for it? Just curious...
Sherman is a literary rockstar. Way to go OPB for bringing him to us this morning!
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Just wanted to say "hi" to Sherman. We went to Gonzaga together. He was a lot of fun.
My comment: My father died about 6 years ago. I didn't know him well. When he died I found out that he was half American Indian - something his family had vigorously denied for years - to the point of putting notices in small town newspapers that our family was not related in any way to Indians who had been picked up by the cops for being drunk.
As someone who now realizes that they have Indian blood but was never raised among the "Tribe" sort of speak, does Sherman think there is anything to being Indian if you are not "culturally Indian?
Kathleen Gardipee
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The scene in Smoke Signals in which Thomas is taken to Denny's by Victor's dad really resonates with me. My dad committed suicide when I was about 2 years old. When I was about 12 and she was about 14, my older sister ran away from home. I went to visit her while she was couch surfing in the small town Eureka. She was staying with some Indian (Yurok or Karuk or Hoopa, sorry, I don't know which) people there. One of the aunts saw me cowering in the corner while everyone partied. She took me to Dennys and bought me a meal. When I saw that scene in Smoke Signals it brought me right back to that moment... I was so hungry and she just knew what I needed.
Tiffany in Hillsboro
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I'm an e-author and a print author and I actually make more money selling an e-book that a print book.
Hanna Rhys Barnes
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Bravo to Alexie on his attitude about technology and corporations. As a career bookseller, community arts activist and one who believes in everyone being compensated for their real work, I love that he is taking on Amazon and the Kindle.
It is hard work being honest about your beliefs.
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I am a new author. I make more money when I sell an e-book than when I sell a print book. Nearly 10 times as much. Though I love the feel of a book in the hand, I think I can make more of a living in the e-world. Aside from which, I see the publishing industry changing just to keep itself alive.
Hanna Rhys Barnes
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I was introduced to Sherman by my girlfriend at a talk he gave at the U of O a couple of years ago. I became a fan. When will you be back to the University to talk?
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I have heard the actor Claude Rains voice described as a mixture of honey and gravel. I have not yet come up with a description of Shermans voice.
A little nasal, very lively, fully emotional, a childlike delight, a real treat to the ears, ...?
Anyone care to try?
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Emily Harris... Please stop Googleing guests, and then confronting them with comments or discusions that you find online. It is transparent to listners. Read the books, read criticism. Don't read comments you find at Amazon or Powells Books website! Don't look for controversy, don't try to make them wrong, like you did in the last question when you say,"... you were a zero on the reservation, then why did you later list all your favorite things?"
The last hour felt like you spent you were looking for something wrong in Sherman's writing. Some hypocrisy that you uncovered last night on Google that will bring your guest's house of cards down.
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I'm not sure exactly what you mean. We do a fair amount of research for these shows — including reading books, criticism, previous interviews, blog posts, etc. And we try to foster a conversation on this site, as well, obviously.
We don't "look for controversy," exactly, but we don't shy away from it, either. And in fact we hope that all of this is transparent.
More broadly, I don't make a huge distinction between comments left here and comments we find in other places. I mean, I greatly value the community that we're building on this site, but I think it would be a mistake to pretend that other interesting conversations aren't happening in forums all over the world.
As for your last point, I share a belief in that goal: we're definitely looking for insight!
Take it away Emily!
David Miller — Thu Oct. 8th 10:10a.m.
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Hi Riposte - I definately read the books and criticism. And profiles of the authors, and reviews, and news articles about them, and comments in various online forums. Insight sure is the goal. Controversy can clarify experience, emotions, beliefs . . . insight. Some of the most revealing answers I've heard from people come when they respond to something someone else has said about them. As far as noting where I've read things - to me, that's crediting someone if I'm asking something they brought up or opined about. Transparency is also one of my goals . . . I don't come up with all this stuff all by myself.
Emily Harris — Thu Oct. 8th 10:17a.m.
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Hi Riposte again, now you've updated your post I get your concerns better. Thanks. In that last question I actually was quoting his writing - the "”I am zero on the rez. And if you subtract zero from zero, you still have zero.” That's from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The lists of favorite things are also in the book - lists the character made. On that point, it sounds like I could have been a heck of a lot clearer that I was quoting his novel, which is based on his life.
About the question - I know a live radio conversation goes by fast, and what you hear is important, even when it's not exactly what was said. But in this case, my question was not why he made the lists, but how he was able to look for and find joy in a situation he described as so grim. I was looking for insight on the human condition.
I'm sad you heard the hour as me looking for something wrong in his writing. I really like his stories, learned a lot from the conversation, and really enjoyed the chance to talk with him.
Emily Harris — Thu Oct. 8th 12:56p.m.
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Sherman, thanks for your writing. I, too, still have grief over a sibling untimely gone. Maybe there's a healer who's there to help you with that. All this has me thinking of the crying ceremony and doing a memorial. For my own brother. Maybe for your sister, too. Don't know.
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Too bad Sherman's views of culture and society are always trite and typical. As if, reading (in America) wasn't for the elite. As if, the New Yorker wasn't for the elite. He should stick to fiction. He isn't much of a philosopher. His self-indulgent whining is perfect for the Bukowski fans among us.
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I feel a sense of commonality, comraderie, brotherhood ...even though being basically a white guy yet who has respectfully learned and helped and supported and participated within traditional ways throughout my life... I thank "Junior" deeply as a fellow Earth man, and celebrate his excellent writings- along with their essential messages!
(& half-silly of me perhaps..): My heart leapt hearing & sharing the overwhelming optimism with experiences of fellow Americans of every stripe everywhere; yet also even (whitish, whitey) as I am, I share the distrust and disappointment in the (basically white) cultural/societal/industrial thrust of this only freshly now colonized continent.
Rather than only to declare the deficit to young Native Americans to feel motivated by the idea anti-success... I wonder if a closer examination of the well-qualified reasons for such feelings which are shared alike by many other Americans (of every stripe), also aware of current issues and events affecting living people and tribes and on existing reservations... As we know here in the Pacific NW we have dams on the Klamath, the Snake, and the Columbia Rivers all negatively affecting SALMON; & underground tanks of nuclear waste leaking into the Columbia River at Hanford! (even this local list really gets quite huge for a TOL comment)
Helpful too, and perhaps balanced with the masterful messages in every media delivered by Alexie; could we think of the regular use as reference material and educational curricula titles such as:
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,"
"The Cointelpro Papers,"
& "My Life Is My Sundance" by Leonard Peltier, written from prison..
and so then one might reasonably find it essential to think of the 7 generations of connections to the tragedies and consequences of Wounded Knee then and now... having been just so recently regenerated, with modern horrors.
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I greatly enjoyed "The Absolutely True story of a Part Time Indian."
Each paragraph is so powerful and full of meaning. I was touched by his sharing of his feelings and emotions, and I am very excited for the sequal.
Thabk you Sherman Alexie
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Sherman Alexie is always delightful.
Turn him loose on words any way you like, books or talking, and he's got my ears.
Wordist, wordsmith, wordsinger, wordislator, wordbuilder, wordician, wordizard, wordgineer, wordscientist, just let him run.
Mouth music.