{"id":346,"date":"2017-04-07T11:26:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T15:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/?p=346"},"modified":"2022-11-23T10:22:45","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T15:22:45","slug":"so-she-pushed-me-sherman-alexie-enthralls-crowd-in-guest-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/2017\/04\/so-she-pushed-me-sherman-alexie-enthralls-crowd-in-guest-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"So She Pushed Me: Sherman Alexie Enthralls Crowd in Guest Lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, April 3, an assortment of students, professors, and Oxford citizens alike swelled into the high-ceilinged auditorium in Shideler Hall. As the lights dimmed, voices suddenly hushed in anticipatory silence; a few pairs of eyes searched the room, others whispering about potential extravagant grand entrances. As the author of the National Book Award-winning young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em>, Sherman Alexie is known worldwide for sparking laughter, tears, and contemplation among his readers. He is also a screenwriter and filmmaker, currently working on the film adaptation of the novel. His talk, \u201cThe Partially True Story of the True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,\u201d was an \u201c[externalization of his] creative process,\u201d interlaced with gallows humor.<\/p>\n

Alexie\u2019s visit was sponsored by the Margaret Peterson Haddix Fund for YA\/Children\u2019s Literature and the Clark Family Capstone Fund. Assistant Professor Daisy Hern\u00e1ndez of the Department of English suggested bringing the author to campus, and it worked out, despite initial concerns that Alexie \u201cwas out of [their] league.\u201d A book signing immediately followed the talk, as well as a standing ovation.<\/p>\n

In introducing Alexie, Professor and Director of the Creative Writing Department Dr. Cathy Wagner noted that he \u201chas published 25 books that have won many awards and accolades,\u201d including the recent New York Times<\/em> Best-Seller children\u2019s book, Thunder Boy Jr<\/em>. In August 1998, Alexie spoke at Miami University\u2019s Convocation, the summer after the university had changed the mascot from Redskins to Redhawks. Wagner left the stage with heartfelt remarks: \u201cI\u2019m really honored to have him here tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Acclaimed novelist Sherman Alexie.<\/p><\/div>\n

Alexie began with a casual statement, stirring laughter in the crowd: \u201cCathy has made me laugh all day, three almost-spit-takes.\u201d He seemed to glide through the front of the room, uttering after a short pause, \u201cI don\u2019t remember being here in 1998.\u201d The chuckles and chortles that followed lingered throughout the entire talk, creating a sense of ease and comfort like that a close friend can invoke.<\/p>\n

He briefly described the \u201calphabet soup of mental illness acronyms\u201d he lives with, claiming that \u201cthree brain surgeries equals poet.\u201d Alexie then led us into the story he has told hundreds of times, the very first story of his life; his mother immediately knew something was wrong when they took him home, but the doctors kept dismissing her, even when she brought in a graph of his abnormal head growth over time.<\/p>\n

As a believer in \u201cinterpreting coincidences exactly the way you want to,\u201d Alexie seamlessly transitioned back and forth between this central story and discussions of narrative concepts throughout the evening. \u201cIn the days before safety,\u201d his cousin set him in a U-shaped swing; already-horrified expressions scattered the auditorium. Alexie then diverged from the story to discuss how people always inquire about his books in relation to oral tradition; his response: \u201cNot a whole lot, because I type them\u2026 and I\u2019m really quiet when I type them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then discussed how others will still associate him with ancient traditions of his particular culture, remarking, \u201cI didn\u2019t know the names for the ways I communicate until I met white people. I can be Crazy Horse and Socrates, because I don\u2019t operate under the impression that it\u2019s difficult to walk in two worlds.\u201d However, in writing The Absolutely True Diary<\/em>, he found it extremely difficult to avoid the tangents that are present in adult literature, as well as in his talk; young adult novels have \u201cfar more of a focus on straight-up narrative [and] a real structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung adult literature is very primal,\u201d Alexie stated, after performing a noise similar to the one his cousin made when she realized that pushing him might have been a fatal mistake. The tension in the room increased as he described how she pushed him, how his tiny hands held onto the chains, how he pinwheeled through the air. The audience collectively winced, and Alexie teased: \u201cYou all got dramatic, and you liberal arts majors got even more dramatic, because you don\u2019t know shit about physics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring back to his thoughts on coincidences, Alexie described how his tribe had applied for a grant to make the playground safer just before the incident, meaning that thousands of saw chips lay underneath the playset; the impact left him with dozens of cuts, slivers, and scrapes. When people would ask what happened, he would say with seriousness, \u201cCeremony.\u201d The punch line would stop all inquiry, and as a young adult author, he has to be careful that questions are still being asked in his books.<\/p>\n

After one of many comments that induced laughter among the audience, Alexie pointed to a man in the center section and said, \u201cThat\u2019s my goal in life \u2013 to make handsome men in beaded necklaces smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drawing attention to his \u201cgiant head,\u201d he brought a woman from the front row on stage to prove how large it actually is; he then commented on how if a coroner looked at his skull, he would declare it Mongolian. His mother\u2019s concern was valid \u2013 it was the \u201cfling out of the swing\u201d that diagnosed his otherwise fatal condition, idiopathic hydrocephalus, or the buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. The situation can be adequately summed up in a few words: \u201cReal life can feel completely implausible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexie was part of the first generation to receive the surgery commonly used to treat hydrocephalus, which involves drilling burr holes in the skull to relieve the pressure; upon describing this, he guessed that we were \u201cstarting to get that vomit-y taste,\u201d and he wasn\u2019t wrong. \u201cThe power of stories is that it can make people throw up,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n

Stories can invoke such powerful, controversial emotions that some are inclined to ban the novels that contain them, as The Absolutely True Diary<\/em> was by schools across the country. Alexie spoke with a young girl in the audience, exchanging fist bumps and saying, \u201cI have to worry more about your adult feelings than kids\u2019. Kids don\u2019t ban books.\u201d<\/p>\n

The topic of conversation turned to unrequited love, whereupon over half of the audience raised their hands when asked if they had ever experienced it. There was a collective gasp when one audience member was asked, \u201cHow many heartbreaks?\u201d and replied with, \u201cSix and a half.\u201d \u201cAdults aren\u2019t taking [kids\u2019] heartbreak seriously enough,\u201d Alexie declared.<\/p>\n

In writing a book, the trick is to \u201cadd the real detail,\u201d whether that\u2019s a woman\u2019s muscular arms or how \u201cshe farted a lot.\u201d According to Alexie, if \u201cyou want to tell a good story, you have to tell the truth.\u201d However, he also commented that he could say anything regarding his childhood, and we would have to believe him. \u201cWe\u2019re all amazing,\u201d he went on. \u201cEverybody has an amazing story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self-described as an \u201cimmigrant into the land but also into the culture,\u201d Alexie articulated how \u201c[our] racism is even more complicated than [we] can understand.\u201d In 1966, the doctor who saved his life was a Greek Muslim first-generation pediatric neurologist. \u201cThe anti-immigration fervor has blinded us to our own greatest narrative. The basic narrative of the United States is immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics is about competing narratives, about the mythology you choose to believe in,\u201d Alexie added. When the doctor spoke to his mother before entering the operation room, he said, \"\"<\/a>\u201cYour son\u2019s going to die during this surgery. If he doesn\u2019t die, he\u2019ll become a vegetable.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a tense, dramatic pause, Alexie discussed how the ending of the story was in question; after the past hour-and-a-half of stimulating discussion on a myriad of topics, anything could happen. He threw it to a vote, with the audience split in half between a happy and a sad ending. \u201cThis is what happens to you in the process [of writing],\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s an extreme pressure for the redemptive ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou feel that?\u201d The stillness of the room was a paperweight. \u201cThat\u2019s narrative tension.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, how do you make a story told through another\u2019s eyes still have power? How do you make it matter? Alexie\u2019s confident answer is to \u201cput yourself in the same emotional space.\u201d In remembering his first son and his medical issues, he told the audience how the doctor wasn\u2019t even supposed to be there; the surgeon was in a tuxedo and only in the hospital because he’d forgotten the opera tickets in his locker.<\/p>\n

Alexie’s mother replied, \u201cWhat kind of vegetable?\u201d<\/p>\n

Leah Gaus
\nEnglish Department Ambassador<\/em>
\nCreative Writing and Professional Writing \u201820<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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