UCSD Guestbook: Sherman Alexie

[cryptess]

Why does he delight me so?

[therealconnjr]

lol@ rocky horror Indian movie

[Music0passsion]

omgggg when i was reading reservation blues i thought that spokane was a made up name lol

[METEK101]

Just sharing the same name with a great author make me feel special!

[locandro1]

"Rocky Horror Picture Indian Show"!

[Eeyorewatch08]

LMAO Rocky Horror Indian Picture Show! HA haha! I gives me a GREAT idea for movie night with all my native relations! :D

[juhfreak]

That guy interviewing him is adorable.

[clintredux]

I should add it is an Ojibwe rez and tribal college in mid-Michigan. Clint Burhans

[clintredux]

This is very good. I teach at a Tribal Community College, and will be using this as an intro to the student's essay on "Literary analysis." I hope it is OK with Mr. Alexie--he is held in very high regard on the rez and at the school, but it is amazing how little people know of him or his work. I am using this as an intro, then they will pick one Alexie short story or poem or??? to critique. Thank you for this. Clint Burhans

[1888junkteam]

excellent work!

[armydude4567]

I love him he is such a good writer

[freedom69fighter]

No offense but i just read "lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven" and i thought it was a TERRIBLE book. No plot just random stories with few connections. Half the stories made no sense without background.

[lmcinnis100]

My guess is you are not an extreme reader of valuable literature. "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" is an amazing book. The short story genre is not required to give any connections between the stories even though they are in the same book. That is the beauty of it. You do not need background info to understand what the story is saying. Just read and allow the story to speak to you. Alexie is a short story master and if you do not see that than you are missing out.

[kathaiti]

freedon69fighter,

That's because it was a collection of short stories about his life; hence, the stories didn't need to follow a sequence which enabled him to jump forward and backwards between important periods of his life.

This is what makes the book so great is that he travels back and forth...EACH story is its own.

(U are also entitled to you opinion)

[tomaszbethell]

@freedom69fighter u my friend, need your idiot card reinstated

[aka1darkknight]

Yo man no problem, short stories aren't meant to be connected unless the author makes them that way. Some authors of short stories are more respected than authors of novels.

[clintredux]

@freedom69fighter Hi FF69,

Not to be disrespectful, but do you know anything of postmodern literary theory, or what has been and is being done in and with literature in the last fifty or seventy-five years? I think you would benefit from an Intro to Lit class at your local Community college. That is such an excellent book, and expecting it to be temporally or in any other way linear shows a certain ignorance of the nature of modern literature.

Clint Burhans

[dirkpdavis]

Interface between indians and whites? which one is the computer?

[dirkpdavis]

2 Jews an Irishman and a mutt walk into a bar...

Please all forgive me for this joke but my family laughed... My wife is Jewish & Irish so she is a cheap drunk!! I have been trying to come up with a bad joke for our kids, an Irish Jew + Mi'kmaq Indian=???.

Peace and Prayers to all.

[chishidineh]

He's the best author ever!!

[dmusgrave]

why does there always to be the qualifier "indian" at the beginning of everything? indian writer, indian book, indian movie etc. can't he just write good books/movies/etc where the characters just happen to be native american?

[TheV0iceOfReas0n]

because its important not to ignore his heritage. racism isnt gone and those who think it is are just kidding themselves.

[dmusgrave]

no doubt, but if you read Alexie's work, it's about native americans being normal everyday american people. but you'll notice that it's the white guy who keeps bringing up the indianness of it in the interview. my point was that this is a type of racism in that he can't stop himself from othering them by explicitly saying that they're Indian, which is to say, separate/different.

[zeppelinfreak51]

In this case he's speaking about ethnicity and being asked those types of questions because it's the topic of the interview and he's being interviewed by a professor of ethnic studies. It's the protocol for the interview.

[TeacherClothes4Ever]

Hi dmusgrave. I think you have a point. It seems almost discriminatory to pinpoint Alexie into one genre. However, I think that Alexie is the biggest critic of his groundswell, and part of that is acknowledging his roots. Once we look beyond our surroundings, we lose what distinguishes us. Saying this, I believe that Alexie truly is one of the best American authors. Kudos to him for approaching his roots; it is his roots that give some of the best universalities known to man.

[dirkpdavis]

We are living in on a continent where the governments(the people) tried to erase our history and turn us into white people. We have it rough because after our genocide we got museums and archeologists and we aren't freaking dead or extinct! Our heroes are names after cars.

[savannahzmomma1]

Having gotten to drive through NE AZ last week, meet a number of Navajo, and be on THEIR land, I got a lesson in how very much Native Americans are right here, very much alive and distinct as a people, yet how much my "American" ways are inherited from Indians. Very witty and engaging people. Yes, it was weird to see museums AND current culture side by side. We have Irish history preserved and modern Irish are in a whole new place. We're all actually "going away" as distinct cultures.

[chrisearle05]

Because his writing is predominantly about the Indian experience. The characters don't "just happen to be native American," they are Indian characters in an Indian story. Play the it again and listen to the interview this time.

[SameFatCrow]

my favorite Alexie interview next to the Stephen Colbert one

[Whatsername755]

Sherman Alexie is my hero

[HammerInPeace]

aw, I had no idea he was at ucsd!

[timmytwobowls]

your book reservation blues, is my survival kit. i really love your work. timmy squamish nation

[justtogetby23]

who exactly is he stealing it from?

[schlesinger771]

when the fuk is Relocated gonna be released? alot of people are sick and tired of your weak ass shit and are waiting for the so called new native american writers.

[ubloom3]

hey victor!!!!!!!! lol

[Jfergus5]

what are you saying here and with what authority? Think begore you speak.

[vodun132]

he's ignorant? you know that most bigots are insecure, inbreed, or mostly in the case of homophobes, hiding that they are what they hate

sherman alexie stopped drinking when he had kids, so fuck off

[Serpentov]

Interesting stuff!

[1know1know]

I am a Southern white woman, born in the same year as Sherman (1966), and after being introduced to his work as I helped a high school student do a book report on "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" (no underlining or italics available) this year, I find myself developing a huge crush on this man. I really cannot explain it. He is so weirdly sexy. I am just really crushed by what he regards as his best advice ever: "Don't #@*! groupies."

[TheNightFox007]

Well, he does bring up this point in terms of objectification. Interesting...

[aka1darkknight]

I'm a southern boy, born a lot later than you...Sherman Alexie is the man! I've got a poetic crush on him (as well?)! What else do you recommend to read? Rock on for showing someone his novel!

[avalonandon]

@aka1darkknight -- Reservation Blues is probably my favorite book of all time. check it out : )

[walterkeathley]

I just read Reservation Blues, I have to say I agree with you. I love it.

[mihirmaiden18]

he's actually from the spokane tribe, just like william loman, the main character he made for "flight patterns."

[matteotti9matteotti]

it's so cool to listen him talk about the indian and his life. i can stay here listening to him for a lot of time!

but why not a lot of people look this video? it's very strange!

[dustyrose429]

I could listen to him about his books and his life for hours. He is a great speaker and story writer.

[beledigrrl]

I could listen to Sherman speak about his life all day.

[freddiedostal]

Why aren't more people watching this?

[skaten06]

nobody has 27 minutes to get beat over the head

[freddiedostal]

Oh.

[walkingbear56]

why not when theres so much unintelligent stuff longer than 27 minutes on the net and the box nowadays;