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Jan. 19th, 2010 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsAs I have said here I think before, I sometimes have a hard time with literary short stories. Epiphany Stories often do not do it for me. Stories about marriages that are falling apart especially do not do it for me. This is a problem, since I often feel like 70% of the short stories out there are about marriages that are falling apart.
I was having a hard time connecting to Sherman Alexie's The Toughest Indian In the World for this reason up until about halfway, at which point I hit all the surreal and AMAZING stories that Alexie was apparently saving up for the end. (Okay, I also liked South by Southwest, which was apparently in the first half, but my brain keeps wanting to switch it out with one of the stories I didn't like as well in the second half.)
So, story-by-story:
Assimilation: A Spokane woman wants to cheat on her white husband. Marriage-falling-apart with witty dialogue, solved by an Epiphany.
The Toughest Indian in the World: Title story! An Indian journalist picks up a hitchhiking Indian boxer and they have an Encounter followed by (presumably) an Epiphany.
South by Southwest: A man decides to become a dashing robber and walks into a fast-food restaurant and asks for a dollar from everyone and a sidekick who will love him. An Indian man on the floor raises his hand and says that he's not a homosexual, but he does believe in love. They go on an extremely surreal journey; love may or may not happen. I liked this one.
Class: A upper-middle-class Spokane man marries a white woman. Their marriage falls apart. He goes to a bar to try to connect with his Roots and gets confronted with his privilege. Then he has an Epiphany.
The Sin Eaters: Creepy and haunting magical-realist apocalyptic vision of all Indians being rounded up and used for mysterious and apocalyptic purposes. Incredible story; not sure how I feel about the use of Holocaust imagery, but I guess, considering, it is pretty fair play.
Indian Country: This is the one I kept wanting to replace with "South By Southwest" in my head. An Indian writer arrives in Montana to meet his long-distance lover and finds out that she's run off with another man, so he hangs out with the lesbian friend from college he is still in love with and her Spokane fiancee and the fiancee's prejudiced parents and makes everything infinitely worse. I was okay with this story until the final scene, when everyone was HIDEOUSLY AWFUL and I hated them all.
Saint Junior: This was my favorite story, hands-down. It's about life on and off the reservation and basketball and writing and love and, for once, an actual happy marriage. I can count on the fingers of one hand the short stories I have read that are about happy marriages. This story is proof it can be done and done well and in a way that made me happy for hours after I read it, because sometimes I am a sap.
Dear John Wayne: A parodically awful cultural anthropologist who considers himself an expert on Native Americans interviews the oldest Indian woman alive, who a.) deflates him b.) reminisces about her affair with John Wayne and c.) deflates him some more. This one made me laugh.
One Good Man: An English teacher moves to the reservation to take care of his dying father; then they decide to go on a journey for no reason other than because they can. This may be an epiphany story, but you can see the love throughout it and that kind of makes all the difference. Also it is basically just amazing.
In unrelated news, this meme intrigues me! Although I do not expect many responses, since most of the time I am tragically predictable like a Dan Brown novel:
What's surprised you the most about me (if anything) since beginning to read my LJ (or when you met me IRL, for those who have)? Has anything about me been completely unexpected or have I always fit the picture of me you had in your head?
I was having a hard time connecting to Sherman Alexie's The Toughest Indian In the World for this reason up until about halfway, at which point I hit all the surreal and AMAZING stories that Alexie was apparently saving up for the end. (Okay, I also liked South by Southwest, which was apparently in the first half, but my brain keeps wanting to switch it out with one of the stories I didn't like as well in the second half.)
So, story-by-story:
Assimilation: A Spokane woman wants to cheat on her white husband. Marriage-falling-apart with witty dialogue, solved by an Epiphany.
The Toughest Indian in the World: Title story! An Indian journalist picks up a hitchhiking Indian boxer and they have an Encounter followed by (presumably) an Epiphany.
South by Southwest: A man decides to become a dashing robber and walks into a fast-food restaurant and asks for a dollar from everyone and a sidekick who will love him. An Indian man on the floor raises his hand and says that he's not a homosexual, but he does believe in love. They go on an extremely surreal journey; love may or may not happen. I liked this one.
Class: A upper-middle-class Spokane man marries a white woman. Their marriage falls apart. He goes to a bar to try to connect with his Roots and gets confronted with his privilege. Then he has an Epiphany.
The Sin Eaters: Creepy and haunting magical-realist apocalyptic vision of all Indians being rounded up and used for mysterious and apocalyptic purposes. Incredible story; not sure how I feel about the use of Holocaust imagery, but I guess, considering, it is pretty fair play.
Indian Country: This is the one I kept wanting to replace with "South By Southwest" in my head. An Indian writer arrives in Montana to meet his long-distance lover and finds out that she's run off with another man, so he hangs out with the lesbian friend from college he is still in love with and her Spokane fiancee and the fiancee's prejudiced parents and makes everything infinitely worse. I was okay with this story until the final scene, when everyone was HIDEOUSLY AWFUL and I hated them all.
Saint Junior: This was my favorite story, hands-down. It's about life on and off the reservation and basketball and writing and love and, for once, an actual happy marriage. I can count on the fingers of one hand the short stories I have read that are about happy marriages. This story is proof it can be done and done well and in a way that made me happy for hours after I read it, because sometimes I am a sap.
Dear John Wayne: A parodically awful cultural anthropologist who considers himself an expert on Native Americans interviews the oldest Indian woman alive, who a.) deflates him b.) reminisces about her affair with John Wayne and c.) deflates him some more. This one made me laugh.
One Good Man: An English teacher moves to the reservation to take care of his dying father; then they decide to go on a journey for no reason other than because they can. This may be an epiphany story, but you can see the love throughout it and that kind of makes all the difference. Also it is basically just amazing.
In unrelated news, this meme intrigues me! Although I do not expect many responses, since most of the time I am tragically predictable like a Dan Brown novel:
What's surprised you the most about me (if anything) since beginning to read my LJ (or when you met me IRL, for those who have)? Has anything about me been completely unexpected or have I always fit the picture of me you had in your head?
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 07:40 pm (UTC)(Also, FLANNERY O'CONNOR. I don't know how much, if any, you've read by her, but you need "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" in your life. I'm not kidding. At all.)
Also, way back in the day, I totally expected you to be way shorter than you are.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 07:45 pm (UTC)- do you happen to know which collection that is? (I am assuming not the new one! Which I also desperately wish to read.)
(I HAVE READ "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" and it is in fact amazing. I have not read any others because I was only given "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" in short-story classes (because it is amazing) but someday I will!)
Hah! I am
tall and mightyat least reasonably medium-sized! \o/no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 07:53 pm (UTC)(FFFF. FFFFF. BECCA. ADD SHORT STORIES TO YOUR LIST. OR AT THE VERY LEAST HUNT DOWN "A Good Man Is Hard To Find".
One of Steve Guthrie's favorite stories about Southern literature comes from teaching at Agnes Scott in the mid-80s, teaching Flannery O'Connor in his classes, and having all his students from Atlanta and outside the South react with "WHY ARE WE READING FANTASY IN A SRS BSNS LITERATURE CLASS" while all the students from South Georgia were like, "uh, no, it's really like that."
SHE IS SO AMAZING.)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 08:24 pm (UTC)(WAIT WAIT I have read one or two others that I now remember! "Everything That Rises Must Converge" and "Good Country People." Actually "Good Country People" is what I have read most of all. However that is still not very many . . .
*cracks up* that is an awesome story.)
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Date: 2010-01-19 07:41 pm (UTC)However, I'm glad it is also clear that several of these stories are EYES FALLING OUT OF YOUR HEAD amazing.
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Date: 2010-01-19 07:47 pm (UTC)On the other hand: Indian Country D: D:
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Date: 2010-01-19 07:44 pm (UTC)What about me? Anything surprising about me? If I dare ask... ;)
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Date: 2010-01-19 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 09:01 pm (UTC)I always expect and have expected you to be tall! And so you are, so. :D
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Date: 2010-01-19 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-20 04:06 pm (UTC)I've hung out with Becca enough to have an accurate idea of her height, but it took a while to develop; darn those heeled shoes, and my tendency to mentally misremember everybody as closer to my height than some of them are. (I do it with guys who are taller than me, too. I'm always surprised again when they're six inches taller than me instead of one or two.)
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Date: 2010-01-19 09:03 pm (UTC)But wooooooow do you live up to the name. The patience you must have to read all that you do is astounding.
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Date: 2010-01-19 09:08 pm (UTC)Hah - it is not patience really! It is more like a full-blown reading addiction. D: Books = my crack?
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Date: 2010-01-19 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-20 02:44 am (UTC)I tend to find sff short stories easier, mostly because they tend to at least have some kind of cool story or idea that they want to get across, rather than contenting themselves with delineating the unhappiness of unhappy people. And giving them an Epiphany.
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Date: 2010-01-20 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-20 03:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-20 12:06 am (UTC)THE FACT THAT YOU NOW USE YOUR LJ I mean what?I have no idea, actually. Possibly the fact that you enjoy DWJ as much as I do?
(Also, same question, because I am cuuurious.)
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Date: 2010-01-20 02:46 am (UTC)I KNOW, IT'S TOTALLY WEIRDAhaha actually that is a surprise to me too! Even though it shouldn't be because we were talking about Homeward Bounders waaaaaay back when, but I think in intervening years I forgot!
I also remember being surprised when I first found out you were a chemistry major, actually, but that is partially because I tend to assume all writerly-LJ-people are humanities majors by default even though that is a BLATANT LIE
because it is totally not fair that some people who can actually write are ALSO able to do math and science!no subject
Date: 2010-01-20 07:49 am (UTC)I REMEMBER YOU WERE ALL "OHHHH, I'M NEVER GOING TO UUUUUUSE THIS"Ahaha. I think in intervening years I may have forgotten too, wtf me.
Oh, dude, that's totally fair, I do that too. (And then am all OMGYAY when I find a fandom-y person in the sciences. And then I limpet.)
(PS I think you should also do that "hey, ask me questions you think you should know the answer to!" meme, because I just realized I have no idea what you do for a living and that makes me do this a lot: D: D: D:.)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-20 03:09 pm (UTC)I REMEMBER YOU GUYS MAKING ME A FAKE LJWell, to be fair, there have been a lot of years! Like FIVE of them WTF
*giggles* okay, I am glad it is not just me and my irrational prejudices!
(hahaha that is because my job is kind of boring to talk about! I will happily tell you on AIM, but not here because this is a public post and I am paranoid. OR PERHAPS I WILL TAKE YOU UP ON YOUR SUGGESTION SOMETIME THIS WEEK)
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Date: 2010-01-20 12:33 am (UTC)>.>
Also I really need to read more Sherman Alexie.
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Date: 2010-01-20 02:48 am (UTC)You should! Have you read Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? For you, I would recommend starting with that, if you have not.
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Date: 2010-01-20 02:51 am (UTC)And no, I haven't -- almost all the Alexie I've read is his poetry.
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Date: 2010-01-20 02:52 am (UTC)If I owned it I would lend it! It is sad how often I find myself saying this these days. :( Clearly the answer is BUY EVERY BOOK. . . . um.
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Date: 2010-01-20 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-20 02:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-20 02:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-20 02:57 am (UTC)(Mine used to get misparsed as 'bookshelf' all the time. Which . . . is not a terrible misparsing, I guess . . .)