Radiolab podcast on laughter

Radiolab did a podcast episode last year on laughter (that builds on a lot of the ideas in the article you read). If you're looking for an interesting podcast, give it a listen.

Indian and Drug connection between Lone Ranger and Cuckoo

Okay, so I was just writing about Chief Bromdens perspective for the homework and I made this random connection between Indians and drugs between The Lone Ranger and Cuckoos Nest.

In Cuckoos Nest, Bromden, who is half Indian, is forcibly drugged in order to "heal" him and make him sane. However, these drugs make him feel more crazy because they make him hallucinate. For example, he hallucinates about the fog when he is being shaved.

Whereas in Lone Ranger, Indians such as Victor, Junior, and Thomas all do drugs as a way of avoiding reality. They think that drugs will help them cope with reality, but is actually just postponing the time when they will come to terms with their life as a reservation Indian. It does not actually heal them.

Escaping the reservation without actually leaving

In Sherman Alexie's story, "Somebody Kept Saying Powwow," Norma shows us that she does not need to leave the reservation to find happiness. In some of Alexie's other stories, his characters talk about trying to get off the reservation as a means of escaping their Indian life, but Norma is able to escape the "Reservation of her mind" without physically leaving it.

The ways in which Norma mentally frees herself from the reservation is by connecting with others and nurturing relationships through dancing, sleeping with people, and telling stories.

Norma dances all night long, with lots of people at the powwows on the Reservation. She has the heart of a dancer, and by dancing with people she is having fun while physically bonding with others.

Just like Alexie did, Norma wrote for the local newspaper, which is how he started his writing career and is also a form of connecting with others through words. Norma tells stories with Junior which is another form creating solid relationships that can help her happiness.

The last way that Norma nurtures relationships is by taking guys into her tepee some nights and sleeping with them, Norma is physically connecting with others and is, what junior calls, "Body Medicine," (Alexie 203). This is also a way that she mentally frees herself from the reservation, by having sex with different men because she is not confined to the reservation and can do what she pleases.

By challenging the conventions of the stereo typical Indian lifestyle of alcohol and hopelessness, Norma discovers how to stay a reservation Indian, but live the content and exciting life of a white person that lives outside the reservation. She has a different, more positive outlook on life on the reservation and believes that she can find happiness in what she already has.

She teaches the reader that in the end, it is not about whether you live on the reservation or not, as long as one find happiness wherever they live, they will be free.

Just Some Alexie Ideas

So, for my essay I'm not really focusing on religion in "Jesus Christ's...", but rather the idea of faith and imagination. However, I do find it very interesting in the way that religion (Christianity) is used many times to portrait James as sort of a savior to the narrator of the story.   There are many instances of James's actions mirroring those of biblical accounts and I would have to say the best one is when it says, "He'll make gold out of commodity cheese." (p.120) This line is the best because as some of you may know the story of Jesus making wine out of water to give to his followers and this is the same action almost.  James is characterized to be someone who will rise above the reservation and everyone on it as something much bigger or better than everyone else.  The narrator seems better off at the end of the story from believing in James and putting his faith in him, which leads me to my question if anyone actually happens to read this.  What is more important for living on the reservation, faith or imagination?

This is actually a comment, again.

I continue to have issues with this blog thing. This is actually a comment on Evan's blog post.

Many characters in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," including Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Samuel Builds-the-Fire, and Junior (The one in "A Good Story") are all storytellers. While some of these characters, such as Junior, create happy stories, other characters do worse when they tell stories. Samuel stops telling stories and eventually gets drunk and either commits suicide or is just to drunk to keep from dying. Thomas stops telling stories for a while, but when he resumes talking, he is sent to prison as a result. Do these characters partially reflect how Alexie views himself?

Imagination as a means of survival

Imagination is commonly considered a useless thing for little children. For example, small children with imaginary friends are cute. Older children and adults with imaginary friends are insane. However, in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in heaven," many characters use imagination as a way to survive with all of the suffering they endure on the reservation.

In "Imagining the Reservation," the narrator says, "Listen, when I was young, living on the reservation, eating potatoes every day of my life, I imagined the potatoes grew larger, filled my stomach, reversed the emptiness," (Alexie 151) "Imagine a loaf of bread could feed the entire tribe," (Alexie 149) and "Imagination is the only weapon on the reservation." (Alexie 150) In "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire," Thomas uses his imagination to tell stories at his trial. These stories lead to other Native Americans relating to Thomas and trying to support him. In "A Good Story," Junior and his mother take comfort in Junior's story.

In "Imagining the Reservation," "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire," "A Good Story," and other stories in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," Alexie creates characters who use their imaginations and/or the imaginations of others to help them get by in a world of poverty and suffering. Through these stories and characters, Alexie challenges the traditional notion that imagination is not valuable and is mostly something for children. 

Different Ways of Coping

Throughout The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, pain is a constant. Whether it is the painful history of the Native American people or the painful reality of being a modern day Native American on a reservation, the characters in Alexie’s stories seem to be struggling with pain at all times. As I read, I noticed that there seems to be two different methods for coping, and that for the most part every single character can be placed into one of the two categories. First, there are those that deal with their pain by avoiding it. This includes all the characters who turn to alcohol as a means of numbing themselves, and also those that run away from the reservation and/or their families, such as Victor’s father. The second method is to embrace the pain and make the most of things. This is the more constructive method, and it includes people like Samuel from “A Train” and Norma from “Powwow”, who find happiness in life despite their poorness, and Junior in “A Good Story”, who chooses to count his blessings instead of obsessing over what’s wrong with his life. Thomas-Builds-the-Fire also employs the second method, by using his storytelling as a sort of therapy for understanding and coming to terms with the past.

Alexie Sherman Post

The topic that I am going to be talking here is related to the topic of my Long Ranger and Tonto essay.

As we read the stories, I marked places where "quilts" are brought up and if we think about a quilt as a combination of different patterns that have been sewn together, this can be symbolic of the collection of stories that Native Americans have about their past. Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven is an example of one of these collections. Sherman Alexie used these short stories to help this  new generation of Native Americans survive on the reservation and the young characters are using the stories in this way. There is this sort of collection of stories within the Sherman Alexie's collection.

Basketball

I know we briefly talked about basketball, but I think there is more we can discuss about it as there are unanswered questions about its significance and its purpose.

It seems that basketball is a central motif that appears in many of the stories that we have read, including The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The most obvious story that basketball appears in is "The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore" in which Victor and Adrian talk about how Indians on the reservation spend a lot of time involved with basketball. Just about everyone plays it and watches it. It seems as if it is a form of escape for them, even a form of hope. Indians look at the basketball stars as almost saviors--people who will go very far in life. However, basketball is not strong enough to ward off the alcohol and hopelessness that is plentiful on the reservation. When these basketball heroes succumb to alcohol and their basketball futures go down the tube, fellow Indians go into a state of mourning. Basketball is an integral part of Native American life, but is it just a fun pastime activity?

Do you think Alexie uses basketball as a form of entertainment? Do you think basketball has a more symbolic meaning? Or do you think it just happened to be the most popular pastime when Alexie was growing up on the reservation?

If anyone has any ideas on this I would appreciate an answer, because this has been bugging me for a long time. Thanks.

Memory

Memory seems like such a big part of a lot of Alexie's stories in several different ways.  It seems that the longer it has been since something has happened, the more fondly it is remembered. This idea is mentioned in "Because my Father Always said he was the only Indian who saw Jimi Hendrix play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at Woodstock" when Victor's parents discuss how much they love each other after splitting up. Victor mentions that "[his] father's memories of [his] mother grew more beautiful as their relationship became more hostile". This also appears to apply to stories. In "The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation doesn't Flash Red Anymore", Victor says that reservation heroes' "status grows over the years as the stories are told and retold". I think it may be a problem that memories and stories improve over time because this could potentially be part of the reason why tradition is so strong and so many of the Indians on the reservation succumb to drink. Even though they remember how badly it has affected others, maybe they take it up as well because it doesn't seem as bad as more time goes by.

On Stories....

One thing i was considering while reading TLRATFFIH, and especially in The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire, was if a story is only really a story if there is someone there to listen to it. This brought up another question i have been thinking about, and that is, what is the difference between hearing and listening? In the aforementioned story, a woman cries from the jury, "We are all listening, Thomas" and then later, "We all hear you". Is listening passive, and hearing active? Can you listen without hearing? Is a story only a story if someone truly hears and understands what you are talking about? Just some food for thought. Happy Thanksgiving.

In a New York Times article, written by Jess Row, he talks about Sherman Alexie and, " To understand Sherman Alexie as he often presents himself- as a clown, a cynic, a glib comedian, a blasphemer- is to miss the undercurrent of deep longing for the gravitas,, the wisdom, of the storyteller." (The full article is at the bottom). And this statement is very true, because underneath the sarcastic jokes about alchol and death, there is a sad truth to it. Not just the death of Native  Americans because of Alchol, but the death of their tradition. The article goes on to further say that Alexie was raised without certain Indian traditions and never taught his tribal language. This statement also is true, however it is Alexies stories that keep his heritage alive. Not speaking the langauge may not be keeping his culture, but he compensates by writing sotires about people who are dead set in keeping their tradition and Sherman Alexie spreads his culture, not by passing it down from generation to generation but instead sharing it with the literary world and it is in this way that he keeps his culture alive and keeps it alive past the land of the reservation but shares his story and the story of those around him and his ancestors with the world through his novels and stories. He makes light of the current situations through jokes such as, "“When a reservation-raised Native American dies of alcoholism it should be considered death by natural causes.”" (From the Article) But, it is clear that his works, although stories from his memory, are his way of sharing his perspective of native americans, those who are poor at adapting, and stuck in a medium, not quite in the modern world but not as their ancestors were. Due to the unatural change that was forced upon the native americans, they were pushed out of their traditions but never quite developed like the rest of America and so Alexie sees Native Americans as a people who are stuck in a sea of Alchol and drugs, drowning everytime they try to make a change. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/books/review/blasphemy-by-sherman-alexie.html?ref=shermanalexie

Superheroes are applicable to everything

Thomas is a bit like Iron Fist/ Danny Rand in my opinion.

For starters, Danny's daddy was kicked out of this fabled city and exiled, much like native americans were kicked out of their own lands and exiled on reservations. Much like Native Americans as well, Daniel is betrayed/ stabbed in the back by those who are supposed to help him. For example: Meachum, his fathers business partner, kills daddy rand in order to get his position in the company. Yu-ti, danny's uncle, plotted his own brothers death and his sister in law's death (Heather, his mother, is killed in front of him by a pack of wolves while trying to escape to safety). 

Both Thomas and Danny love telling stories!!!! Thomas tells stories to give wisdom, advice, and keep traditions alive. Danny tells stories to teach morals, teachings he learned, and historical stories A LOT like Thomas. 

Thomas's "powers" are his stories, which he seemingly draws on from his ancestors. Danny draws his power from this ancient evil fire breathing serpent that doesnt ever die, but danny killed him anyways. Danny can also MIND MELD (share emotions/ memories) just like Thomas does in his trial, and during the drug shroom story. Danny also has the ability to heighten his awareness of everything around him by tapping into the dead serpents power; thomas is pretty observant as well, for he manages to predict that Victor's dad would eventually leave them (its a bit far fetched but whatever). Danny can help heal others, and Thomas helps heal Victor by helping him let go of his dad. Danny adapts to his environment to survive; native americans were forced to adapt, and the motif of survival comes up quite a bit in TLRATFFIH. Speaking of which, numbness comes up a lot too; well guess what? DANNY can control what he feels!!! Now that I've already gone off on a motif tangent, its probably best to just continue so here are even MORE motifs/random thoughts (some not so great):

Danny is a warrior, Thomas considers him a warrior

Both are very attached to their cultures/traditions/history

Both are dual citizens  (thomas is Native American and american, danny is american and K'un-Lun

In case i didn't mention, both are obsessed with telling stories/ giving advice in monologues