Big Think Interview With Sherman Alexie | Big Think
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2024
- Big Think Interview With Sherman Alexie
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A conversation with the award-winning author and chronicler of the Native American experience.
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SHERMAN ALEXIE:
Born in 1966 on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA, Sherman Alexie is a novelist, short story writer, poet, and winner of the 2007 National Book Award in Young People's Literature for "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." His other works include "The Business of Fancydancing," "I Would Steal Horses," and "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," a story from which was adapted into the motion picture "Smoke Signals." His novel "War Dances," the story of an author who must care for his dying alcoholic father, was released in October 2009 by Grove/Atlantic Press.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Sherman Alexie: My name is Sherman Alexie and I’m the bantamweight champion of the world. No, I’m a writer, poet, short story writer, novelist, screenwriter.
Question: How has it felt becoming a literary community “insider”?
Sherman Alexie: You young bastard, I’m doing okay. It is a strange dilemma because in some sense, you know, I was very native, very native identified, and I still am, but that’s almost become secondary. I’ve sort of joined the tribe of highly established literary writers. So, you know, I’m with the Jonathan Franzens of the world. You know, I know him a little bit, but that’s sort of my peer group now, rather than just sort of, you know, Indian world, literary world, I’m now in, you know, this sort of make-believe world of writers who supposedly hang out a lot, although none of us ever do. So I’m in a faux community of writers, highly successful, literary writers now.
Question: Has success changed your work?
Sherman Alexie: Oh, it’s all, I mean, I haven’t changed anything I’ve written based on all that stuff. So the perceptions of me may have changed, or my career, but I’m still writing the same stuff, it’s still pretty much about Spokane Indian males, you know, stumbling through life. So I think it’s because of the combination of skills I have, you know, I work in multi-genres, you know, I do stand-up comedy, I help make movies, I think all of that has contributed to it. I’m not just a novelist or not just a short story writer. So I think in this highly technological world with many diverse and diffuse influences, I think I’m able to hit a lot of aces.
Question: When you’re a writer, is doing anything besides writing selling out?
Sherman Alexie: Nobody who’s ever been poor would ever use the phrase “selling out.” You know, my influences in the multi-genre artists come from my Indian writing ancestors, the previous generation. When you’re talking James Welch, Simon Ortiz, Scott Momaday, Joy Harjo, Leslie Silko, Linda Hogan, Adrian C. Louis, all of these writers were multi-genre. They all wrote poetry and novels and short stories and non-fiction and dabbled in songwriting and filmmaking and documentary making. So my original influences were Native American, multi-genre artists.
Now, these days, the younger Native writers are not multi-genre, so it’s very interesting. I’m not sure what’s happening, why that has changed, but I grew up as a kid writer. Nobody ever told me I was supposed to be one thing, so just because I happened to become successful in a number of those genres, it wasn’t because I was pursuing them economically, it was because I saw the artistic possibilities in all of it. And I was taught those when I was a, you know, 19-year-old undergraduate.
Question: Why haven’t you joined academia?
Sherman Alexie: Yeah, I think I’m the least educated Indian writer out there. I’ve taught at the University of Washington, so, but I’m not a good teacher, so I think that probably disqualifies me. Yeah, I’m not in academia at all, in terms of a full-time career. I think it’s interesting, because I think, when you look at Native American literature, you’re going to find that it doesn’t really reflect the diversity of the ways in which the writers actually lived their lives. Nobody’s ever written, for instance, an academic farce, a Native American teacher at college farce, which is a time-honored and wonderful genre. You know, David Lodge made a whole career out of it, writing academic farces and, you know, every writer you can name has written it, but we haven’t done it. You know, where’s that novel about that Indian architect or that Indian lawyer...
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My class was assigned The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian to read for banned book week, and I fell in love with it! I loved Junior's relationship with Rowdy so much!
No one who has ever been poor would ever use the phrase "selling out"-absolutely love that $#it!
What he says at around 12:00 about losing community on the Internet is so true. I'm convinced that all our screen time has contributed to the suspicion of "the other" which has led to what a social dichotomy we're in right now.
Alexie's "I don't believe in heroes; I believe in heroic ideas." Yes!
I'm watching and reading about Sherman for my English 316 class and my first though was I was going to read about boring indian folk tails, but really he was a great author that made me want to research and read more of what he writes!
Alexandra T was?
"You can read the story!" Great interview.
Outstanding!!!
"I believe in heroic ideas"
I love what you said bout your kids.
Agreed.
I operate at a 2% greatness rate. Love it!
I'm reading his "TATD" book for a college English class. Pretty cool.
Ah, I love that response on "heroic ideas". Very funny and poetic writer :D
Interesting to see this. There was no UA-cam when I first read his book in high school. Super interesting to hear the author share thoughts in a video interview. It's a super time to be alive. We get to see and hear a lot more more more easily. Total Access 😁
Fast info is fast forgotten. UA-cam pushes cults of personality, plus has an insidious addictive drug effect. An artist's work is enough unto itself. That said, I'm here watching instead of reading too.
Insightful observation👍
Blasphemy becomes already my fav. book.
closed captions??
I loved how he compares CDs with tapes, as if to say burning CDs is a contemporary thing. Hhahaha Please keep writing Junior!
MY NOVEL THE ABSOLUTE TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN BY SHERMAN ALEXIE COST 3,785PHP. THIS CAME FROM MY HARD-EARNED SALARY FROM TOYOTA. I'M SINCERE ♥️ TIME: 3:27PM
First!
There's no real community on the internet.
This guy looks more European than Native American. In my grandmother's country they would just call him "blanco/blan".
+KimbayesStephenno95 And apparently your grandmother speaks Spanish, a European language... so what's your point exactly?
No, she speaks French and Creole. I'm just pointing out that he could easily pass for European.
I agree with that. I've heard him talk elsewhere about looking ethnically ambiguous and being able to quickly shift between groups in a single place. Personally I can relate a lot to that, and although it can definitely be alienating, in the end I think it's sort of a strength to be and look mixed.
Its actually no big deal. The US is a multicultural society and you really wouldn't stand out if English is your main language. Looking mixed is actually considered the most beautiful now a days and a lot of women want mixed children.
+KimbayesStephenno95 I think he looks Native American. He reminds me of some of my uncles in Alaska.