A. I Hated Tonto (Still Do) by Sherman Alexie

WEEK 2: We’ll go over the two articles (one long; one short). I’ll ask you to discuss the theoretical points made in the Coulomb article in relationship to the stories you’ve read. That is, how can you “apply” the theory to “real life examples” from Alexie’s stories? What examples can you provide from Alexie?

A. “I HATED TONTO (STILL DO)” BY SHERMAN ALEXIE http://articles.latimes.com/1998/jun/28/entertainment/ca-64216 (This article is 3 pages long; you’ll have to leap over annoying advertisements in the LA Times web version) Sherman Alexie “recalls growing up with stereotypical movie Indians — and loving them, wanting to be them. (Well, most of them.)”

1. How does Alexie show us how Americans (including him) get our notions of what “Natives” are? What are some of the SPECIFIC things movies associate “Indians” with? (ominous music, etc.) 2. Pre-conceived notions (Stereotypes): how do we develop them?  We have a repertoire of images from having consumed/viewed cultural artifacts/literature/film that help build up and maintain those ideas – they didn’t just appear in our heads. (A repertoire: a stock or group of specific descriptions/skills, etc that pertain to a particular group) Lone Ranger and Tonto: Billy Jack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v325wdgoFH4&feature=related

3. SO these films are from “long ago” – what are our current views? What are the list of words you’d associate with “Indian”/ “Native American”? *

4. We see: “traditional” songs, ceremonial and powwow songs/ chants, to heal sickness, etc. sing honor/powwow songs for healing, etc.: spiritual, earth-worshipping, animal loving people from long ago… Definitely not: urban-dwelling, basketball playing, jeans-wearing, worrying about getting through college/how to manage family while working, etc. modern middle class worries. How does this affect our “reading” of Native Americans/Indians?

5. But instead of whining about history, Alexie makes fun: he uses these images/cultural objects and uses the “colonizer’s” terms to explain himself in the terms he chooses. That is, he uses our “image repertoire” to show how we falsely construct indigenous identity (and romanticize it as something that exists in the past). * “I’m not talking about four directions corn pollen mother earth father sky shit. I’m not talking about that stereotypical crap about being Indian. There’s always a huge distance between public persona and private person. In my art I try to keep that as narrow as possible. I try to write about the kind of Indian I am, the kind of person I am and not the kind of person or Indian I wish I was.” * “I think there are three stages of Indian-ness: The first stage is where you feel inferior because you’re Indian, and most people never leave it. The next stage is feeling superior because you’re Indian and a small percentage of people get into that and most never leave it. At the end, they get on realizing that Indians are just as f*cked up as everybody else. No better no worse. I try to be in that stage.”

6. So: though he is technically a “colonized subject” (and should be crying because he’s powerless), his education and skill with language allows him power to affect that power structure – he’s undertaken the task of representing himself. Examples: What’s he critiquing here/what’s he saying here about the impact of media on self-view/self- construction? a.“(The Indians in romance novels are always blue-eyed because half-breeds are somehow sexier than full-blooded Indians)…” b.He also states that people think of Indians in “animalistic” ways – inspiring “white” women to connect with their primitivity/ecstasy: - “(the Indians in romance novels are always performing acts that are described in animalistic terms) the impossibly pale neck of a white woman as she reared her head back in primitive ecstasy…”

7. Why hate Tonto/”root for” the Lone Ranger? (“I hated Tonto then and I hate him now. However, despite my hatred of Tonto, I loved movies about Indians, loved them beyond all reasoning and saw no fault with any of them.” And “I hated those savage Indians just as much as John Wayne did.”) WHY SO?

1* Impact of heroes/necessity of heroes – what do we do when our heros are crappy? 2* Harlan, for instance, “figured women wanted a warrior-poet” (43) and Alexie imagined himself to be the warrior on the cover of the romance novels 3* Harlan makes love to “Star Girl” and at first he can’t look at her but then he tells her to say his name. Star Girl says “Put your pain into me. I can take it. I need it. I deserve it.” (45) 4* Alexie explains that it’s not just Indians are affected, but “white” people, too: the Indians in romance novels/films always inspire white women to commit acts of primitive ecstasy…so: what do we expect in our real live interractions?

B. JOSEPH COULOMB: “THE APPROXIMATE SIZE OF HIS FAVORITE HUMOR” 1. What’s the definition of humour given by Coulomb (95), and how is the so-called “trickster” figure/element come in to stories that we think of as American folklore? These stories actually arrived from both Native American/African American traditions of storytelling (think Br’er Rabbit). 2. What do critics say about Alexie’s writing? What do they think it should be doing?

3. What is Coulomb’s main argument about Sherman Alexie’s use of humour? a) What are the specific things that C argues that Alexie’s brand of humour conveys (note them down – on the first page, 94) and provides (“construc[ting] a protective space…in a hostile world” 106) b) How does Alexie actually “teach” us – sneaking in history/facts/dates (102)? Give specific examples.

4. What is discussed as the “contrary powers of Indian humour” (94-5)? 5. “Storytelling, like humour, offers the potential for increased understanding” (98) – even in the face of death, one remembers that laughing is the ultimate memory of life/living. What specific examples from our book/stories you’ve read so far? 6. Humour also has the ability to “tear people apart” (98). What’s the example in “Approximate size of my Favourite Tumour” (the story that Coulomb refers to – but is not in our book)? What examples from our short stories? 7. Humour also allows people to protect themselves from “real pain” (99) – including some real, “specific, painful memory of racism for each individual Indian”. Give examples from the stories – of Alexie’s “use of humour in the face of adversity” (99). 8. When we joke about our own involvement in our own humiliations (as does “Jimmy” in Coulomb’s example), what does this do? What negatives to being funny/self-aggrandising/being the clown (100)? (Why do we lose intimacy/closeness when we joke about everything?) 9. Last class, we debated/discussed wherether Corliss was “loyal” to her family, disrespectful to them, or what…Coulomb also discusses how Alexie’s stories “Disrupt the status quo” (97). Is there a value to critique, rather than simply being “negative” because you’re unhappy/dissatisfied/insecure? How does being an “outsider” allow one to be critical, rather than “negative”, disloyal, or disrespectful?