Sunday, October 11, 2009
Sherman Alexie at Wordstock PDX 10.11.09
I must have seen Sherman Alexie at various appearances, book lectures, and events almost a dozen times since he made it on the scene with The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. One thing about attending an Alexie reading, you always get a good sense of what is going in his life and likely will hear what is take is on what's currently going on in the world. We have seen Sherman celebratory of his marriage and being a new dad, waringly concerned about free speech after 9/11 and concerned about his place in the literary and cultural scene.
The October 2009 Sherman Alexie promoting War Dances, his new volume of stories and poems featured his colorful self-referential asides. He talked about the impact of his career after being introduced to thousands more as a National Book Award winning Young Adult author. ("I'm now back to my NC17 self") He also gave an account of a controversy he became embroiled in because of some negative comments he made online about the Amazon Kindle. And he commented on what must be his strange and weary world of booktour: "Any new mentally ill fans of mine..."--a punch line he didn't even need to fill in or elaborate.
Yet this time out more so than in many of his appearances I've seen in the last decade and a half, he seemed to spend more time interweaving big contemporary ideas. He intersected them almost seamlessly with some poems and story excerpts from War Dances. As he has in the past, Sherman uses a reading and author appearance as an opportunity to comment on the world at large, often talking and dealing with issues of race that a lot of folks could never get away with. If you little familiarity with Sherman, think Richard Pryor before megafame, immolation, and MS. Alexie also has the ability to make a punchline about race that wants to make you laugh and cry or wince a bit at the same time such as "Seattle is sooo white." (pause for laughter) "Portland is whiter."
One of his latest riffs is the observation that "White liberal American women are responsible for about 90% of what is good in the world, the greatest group of people ever." But, of course, Alexie can't leave that statement stand alone. He uses it as an opportunity for punchlines about vegans, yoga, and Tom's of Maine deodorant. He finds it curious why they resist taking credit for their greatness enumerating many accomplishments and the fact that they also great because "you pay my mortgage."
He also is one of the first folks outside of the likes of that frickin' Fox news, who I have heard call out liberals (me included, I suppose) on their blinding love for Obama and the presidency. I think he must of said bullshit four or five times when talking about the Nobel Peace prize. (Was it really decided last February as he indicated?) Bright and shiny promises by politicians leave him skeptical at best. "These guys will always turn you into battered spouses." And his experience of growing up on a reservation has him asking some very pointed questions about the reality and moving forward with government health plans as a kind of panacea.
The most poignant moments of the afternoon came during the Q&A when he addressed the problems that are facing American Indians and especially Indian youth. He pulls no punches here when making statements like "Reservations were designed as rural concentration camps." Or that "The hopes and dreams of Indians are crushed more by Indians than by white people." He talked about the anger he encountered from Indian students at the UW who sat through statements of five tribal elders warning them about the dangers of higher Ed at a longhouse dedication. He challenges young Indians to get away from their own DNA and fall in love with themselves. And in the most sober moment of the day's talks he commented how he believes there is a major cultural civil war brewing on this front
I think there are three things you can expect from reading Sherman Alexie's work or seeing him "in performance." You will laugh. You will want to cry sometimes. And you will most certainly be challenged, regardless of your ethnicity or point of view. One of this friends refers to him as 'Shaman Perplexi.' In some strange way, it fits -- besides the obvious wordplay. I think he is more a griot of our modern times than a shaman. And certainly he is one of our more important artist-provocateurs.
posted by well-executed buffet at 7:45 PM
Comments:
Post a Comment