One discussion question in particular for The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven stuck out as representative of the entire book. It was the one regarding the mingling of humor, sorrow, and tragedy in the stories. Although we discussed this in class, I would like to once again point out the portion of the text where Sherman Alexie literally answers that question. It's a few lines from 'The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor'.
"Still, you have to realize that laughter saved Norma and me from pain too. Humor was an antiseptic that cleaned the deepest of personal wounds."
While Sherman Alexie seems to occasionally tout this trait as something uniquely Indian, I don't really think it is. It strikes me as something that is entirely accurate, but representative of the entire human species. I believe the root of this kind of statement is the same one that created the old idiom that 'laughter is the best medicine'. After all, Alexie is basically calling it that when he uses the term antiseptic. Laughter like the kind in these stories often shows up in action/ adventure movies. The protagonist will go through something strenuous and damaging, then when he finds out it was futile or that it might continue endlessly, he just laughs as the blood trickles down his forehead. (The episode of Nightmares and Dreamscapes called 'Battleground' comes to mind) It's an interesting phenomenon I've experienced myself after falling down an extended flight of concrete stairs. I lost most of the skin on my chin, both my knees, both my elbows, and both my shoulders. When I stood up and turned around, blood already leaving a trail, I realized I had to walk all the way back up the winding set of stairs to access other people or bandages. So I laughed. Then I started on my way back up. Although I certainly didn't feel it with the same intensity that a Native American might when joking about a racist cop or the size and shape of his tumors, I think I can accurately report on what it does emotionally. It's sort of a reset. Everything that bothered you before seems to vanish. The clean slate after the laughter quickly gets muddied up again, but there is a moment of clarity whee all that exists is the laughter.
While I haven't been very appreciative of Alexie's prose up until this point, I do have to admit that he captures this moment where nothing but laughter exists perfectly. While I don't think Native Americans experience the sensation differently than their fellow humans, they may have had to resort to this kind of 'antiseptic' a lot longer than other groups.
Whenever I watch a civil rights documentary or read some kind of slave narrative, I notice that the African American communities tend to bond over songs and some ideal of internal strength. This is opposed to Indians, who have invested their emotional fortitude in the ability to laugh and absorb the Popular culture ideas of their history into their lives. It's almost as if the majority of American Indians subconsciously decided to view their history as a sort of sour joke, the kind someone might laugh at without smiling.
The idea of an Indian laughing without smiling actually made me think about the Cleveland Indians baseball team's mascot. Seeing it now and comparing it to Indian culture is kind of a moment of horrific realization.
http://www.sportsgeekery.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/indian-wp-1.jpg
having read Sherman Alexie's book... I can't think of anything that looks less Indian than that. Even Thomas builds-the-fire from Smoke Signals doesn't smile like that. It reminded me of the racist caricatures of black people that used to show up in Warner Bros. cartoons. (Midnight skin and big gummy worm like red lips) I've also got a book of political cartoons made by Dr. Seuss during World War II, and it reminded me of the Japanese caricatures with the buck teeth and the squinting eyes. Looking at it makes me think that the Cleveland Indian really reflects white people a lot more than Indians. That creepy cartoon smile seems to say, "Hey, look what we did to the Indians. We took everything. We called them savages. Then we forced them to show their pearly whites on merchandise." it's like the Cleveland Indian knows his own existence is as a hideous money grubbing exaggeration of a people it wouldn't bother to protect. it's sinister. All I can really say is... That is not an Indian's smile.
A quick wikipedia search has revealed something even more tasteless. The mascot's name is 'Chief Wahoo'. Seriously. If I had taken it upon myself to come up with a hideous insensitive cartoon name for an Indian designed to insult them, I could not come up with anything better. While I agree that the Cleveland Indians have the first amendment right to use the mascot and the name, I think it's in incredibly poor taste that they continue to do so. I imagine it's a combination of the merchandisers not wanting to lose all the nice profit a good recognizable logo leads to and the baseball fans who are typically American in that they never want anything to change even if it will erase something so inappropriate. I mean, imagine the outrage if they changed their team name to the Cleveland A-rabs and had a turban-headed tan-skinned head with sinister curly eyebrows.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Wahoo
No comments:
Post a Comment