Smoke Signals & The Business of Fancydancing – Sherman Alexie Makes Movies

March 1, 2009March 16, 2009 / still a dreamer

Having recently read The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, and checked out a few YouTube videos of Sherman Alexie, I am interested in reading more. But already in a different book, I decided to put two of his movies in my queue. About a half week ago, I watched Smoke Signals.

alexie-smokesignals I liked Smoke Signals; I was left thinking about a number of things afterwards — the characters, their situations, how the story was told. The two main characters, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, grew up together on the Spokane Reservation, bonded by Victor’s alcoholic father having saved Thomas when his doomed parents tossed him out the window of their home, engulfed in flames. Victor and his mother are abused by the alcoholic father, who although he loves them, will not give up drinking and leaves the rez. Sometime later, he passes away, and Victor wants to make the trip to Phoenix to pick up his father’s ashes. As Victor is unable to afford the trip, Thomas offers to pay if he can go along. Victor is troubled and angry, Thomas, nerdy, always optimistic and forever telling intricate stories. Their trip becomes one of discovering friendship, and for Victor, learning who his father really was, forgiveness and understanding.

Something I liked about Smoke Signals, (based on The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Alexie’s short stories), was how I could relate to the characters. The movie touches upon universal themes, yet watching it, I distinctly felt that I was watching and learning about another culture. Which I was. Much like watching the Maori in Whale Rider, I was aware of the similarities in what we all, as humans, go through, yet the differences in cultural beliefs and how the Indians go about solving some of their problems. Alexie makes clear what the issues really are on the rez. It gave me a lot to think about.

The Business of Fancydancing, based on Alexie’s poetry, was quite different. One of the successes of Smoke Signals for me was that I could really relate to Victor and Thomas. In Fancydancing, the main characters Aristotle Joseph and Seymour Polatkin are defined, yet for me, Alexie failed to create them as fully rounded characters deserving of my empathy. I believe one of the problems is the film has far too many special “techniques” or whatever one would like to call it. I get the metaphor of Seymour fancydancing, and other characters dancing in simpler blankets or more traditional Indian dress intermittently throughout the movie, but overall, there were just too many different moviemaking techniques jostling my sensibilities around. From the periodic one-on-one interviews with Seymour, to the washed-out-lighting home camera effects from the past, to Mouse playing violin in the background, or Aristotle singing in Seymour’s ear – the constant jumble of treatments really took away from the continuity of the story. And I wanted to like this movie.

Alexie’s point is well-made about how hard it is to leave the rez, and how resented Seymour is for having left and made a success of himself. It is said the stories he tells in his poems are actually Aristotle’s experiences, and that he lies. In fact, Seymour admits to lying in the interview sections, and is seen doing so later in the movie. Called back to the rez from Seattle for Mouse’s funeral, Seymour confronts his past, and those still living there. The Business of Fancydancing is interesting, but not cohesive. The violent roadside scene with the young man needing assistance seemed dropped in to make a point about Indians’ anger at the white man, but out of place.

For me, the best development of the characters was sacrificed to the use of too many distractions. It was hard to feel truly empathic towards them as I did in Smoke Signals. Aristotle had problems, sure, but I wasn’t helped to like him. Was that Alexie’s intent? Seymour had many conflicts, but I think I could have liked him a lot more, too. If I had to rate both movies I’d probably go for 4-5 stars for Smoke Signals and maybe 2 for The Business of Fancydancing. Because Alexie has access to the mainstream media and the opportunity to bring the message of the American Indian to moviegoers, it was disappointing that the message got lost in the shuffle.

I do intend at some point to read both of Sherman Alexie’s books that these movies were based on. He’s still got my attention.

The Mermaid Chair – Part 1

February 26, 2009 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

seashell2 Here’s a fine case of not judging a book by its cover, or better said, an author by her previous book. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd was going to be a hard act to follow. There isn’t a soul I know who didn’t think Bees wasn’t one of the best books they’d read in a long, long time. When The Mermaid Chair arrived on the scene, there seemed to be a consensus that, before even reading it, Kidd’s new book would not be able to compare to The Secret Life of Bees.

I am almost through The Mermaid Chair, and I think it’s amazing. It’s not long into the book before you forget who wrote it, what she wrote previously or anything like that. And that’s my advice for anyone wanting to read The Mermaid’s Chair — go in letting go of any preconceptions and ideas of comparing. The book, to me, is so totally different from Bees, it deserves to be read solely for its own merits, (as does any book, really), and enjoyed for the rich story it is.

I’ve become immersed in place alone in The Mermaid Chair. More when I’m done ….

Living By Water

February 22, 2009 / still a dreamer

How lucky am I? I live 3 houses away from a river. And walking 4 very short blocks, I can walk onto the bridge that takes me to neighboring PA.

delaware-winter

Yesterday I went out walking for my exercise and decided to take my camera. Something I don’t do often enough. I was immediately drawn to the river on this sunny day – blue sky, no clouds. I headed onto the bridge, not to go to PA, but just to see the river. Even in winter, with not a leaf in sight, it was magnificent.

delaware-winter2

I am happy when living by water. I am always happy to just be near water – the ocean, a lake, a river – there is something calming, inspiring and renewing about it. I wonder if this is universal or something belonging to just some of us. Is it because my family used to go the shore throughout my childhood and my Dad taught me to swim in the ocean? Is it because in my tween and teen years we used to vacation up at Highland Lakes every summer? Or perhaps that we used to go on a Sunday to Cooper’s Pond in the neighboring town and feed the ducks? I took some of my very first photos with my new Brownie camera there. Maybe it’s because I’m a water sign. Maybe I was once a mermaid. Maybe I am just forever enchanted by nature.

Our creativity, in whatever way we express ourselves, is influenced by all of who we are and who we have been. I believe when we reach inside ourselves and touch upon the good things, the meaningful things, in our pasts – or even find them for the first time – we are enriched in every way. Yet we make so little time for these things … to let ourselves be with our own enchantment … to just let ourselves be. Today, for this, I thank the river.

The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian

February 12, 2009March 13, 2009 / still a dreamer / 3 Comments

parttimeindian Here’s where I’ve hitched my star – writing and illustrating children’s books – picture books, chapter books. Yet belonging to a writer’s group and SCBWI, in the company of readers and writers of other children’s genres, I find myself being drawn to those I don’t write… MG and YA fiction. And what a draw it is. My local librarian and I were discussing some of our mutual interests, and she recommended the YA novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I was just blown away by this book and can’t wait to read more by its author.

Although I have a fair amount of factual information about what life is like on an Indian reservation, I, as a white person in a predominantly white culture, cannot possibly know the daily challenges and ongoing pain of rez life. Sherman Alexie, a Spokane Indian, brings this to light in a way that is both tragically sad and wryly funny. I actually found this to be, on the one hand, one of the saddest books I have read in a long, long time, as the main character, Arnold – known as Junior on the rez – loses family member after family member to the direct or indirect results of the alcoholism that is epidemic there. Yet the comic style in which Alexie writes can at times make one not quite realize fully the tragedies he’s describing. Quite a feat. I was quickly drawn in to Junior’s first person narrative beginning with his severe health problems up to age 7 and his continuous struggle to survive and ultimately make something of himself. Along with my feeling his pain, I could not help but cheer him on and/or comfort him, through everything he experiences.

When Junior receives his 7th grade math book to find his mother’s maiden name written inside, he knows he has no choice but to leave, to go off-rez to an all white school 22 miles away. Here he truly starts a new chapter of his own life. Although deeply resented by his entire tribe for it, Junior leaves the reservation to make a future for himself, and in this move, becomes a phenomenally brave main character.

Junior’s character is insightful, honest, humble, (if not self-effacing like any typical teenager), and in spite of a life infused with hardship, incredibly funny. While he describes the problems and pain that are simply life on the reservation, he never fails to also describe the love and devotion of his family, his best friend Rowdy, and his tribe. I found Alexie’s style of relating such profound hurt mitigated with clever wit to be amazing, and I truly could not put this book down.

Last night, I looked further into the author, Sherman Alexie, finding some very interesting videos, among them, one of his receiving the 2007 National Book Award. I watched another of his being interviewed on a PBS station, where he revealed how autobiographical The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian really is – almost entirely. To watch Alexie was to better understand his character and his book. He began as a poet and wrote short stories and a few screenplays as well. (He wrote the screenplay for Smoke Signals, a movie based on one of his short stories.) This is Alexie’s first YA novel. He discussed in the interview how thrilled he was that so many teens resonated with Arnold/Junior. Not just teens, I’m sure. He already added this fan to his base in just one book, and I look forward to reading more from this terrific author.

Winter Whites

January 29, 2009 / still a dreamer

winterwhites1 Was a time when I was young, I remember there was a fashion rule about not wearing white after Labor Day. Not exactly the consummate fashion person nowadays, I hardly know if that is still true or not. What I do know, is that in nature, the beauty of winter white is always in style.

Looking out my second story window, I noticed the breath of white that lay over everything, and snapped a couple photos. Snow was predicted within a few hours. The sky was losing its blue and had begun to spread the familiar white-grey hue that foreshadows fresh snowfall. The ground was still covered, and wisps clung to some of the bushes and branches. A fog had begun to lay in on the river and to shroud Pennsylvania on its far bank, just a pale shadow behind the trees. Soon it began to snow.

As we move in to February, we are, many of us, tired of the snow and icy weather and wishing for Spring. Much of that has to do with the fact that we all have places to go and the snow creates an interference with our plans. Excluding that, Mother Nature never disappoints in the beauty of freshly fallen snow, or even in its anticipation.