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Re: Cultures and books as bridges OR If beautiful, not true, If true, not beautiful
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From: Uma <uma_at_gobrainstorm.net>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 10:30:24 -0800
Thanks for the nudge, Ebony, to remind us—the book, the book. Can we talk about the book?
Confession: I was scrambling to finish reading this amazing book, so I’ve had to grit my teeth and not speak up all along, but I want to say something about its art and craft right now. I don’t have questions so much as a need to engage in my own personal conversation with this funny, wonderful text.
So, where can I begin?
The effect of the use of music, for starters. Others have talked about it as a bridge or a way to connect, and that’s fine, but I wanted to go beyond this interpretation. As I read along, I noticed how the music played in my head, seeping inward from the chapter titles and influencing the setting up of the place and time—oh, it was love at first spin for me! And then I started to see how the feel of the Beatles’ music also does something else. It evokes a precise combination of laughter and resistance, and that’s the exact emotional mix of this book.
And then I want to talk about the emotional effect on the page. Right from the opening scene, through Ma’s refusal to go to Indian Culture Night, and all the way to the jokes about dead Indians. It all contains that core of reality the way only young people can express it, a reality in which history is something both inherited and resisted, deeply and from the inside and yet with a matter-of-factness that draws the reader into the spaces the character occupies. It’s all particular and yet it’s universal. I, for example, read the cutting of the braid with a little shock of recognition at two levels:
1. from having seen young Dine boys starting out school in northwest New Mexico with their beautiful braids intact, then seeing them get to middle school and hack those braids off. 2. being that I am that other kind of Indian, expat from the subcontinent and having my own associations with the cutting of hair and what that has meant in terms of religion and intolerance.
Regardless of the particular experiences a reader might bring to that scene, it grabs you and won’t let go. But the real brilliance lay in turning that around with the following scene in which we have Ma and the buzz cut and it’s the perfect, perfect demonstration of a kind of ironic compact between the generations. That and how Ma perks up when the kids bring in terms and idioms from the outside world—we have both generations experiencing the complexity of living in a world in which they cross cultural and social borders daily. The writer doesn’t shy away from those complications but he doesn’t stop to explain them either. I loved that mother unconditionally from that buzz cut onward, but its the use of such a physical metaphor that gets me to that point of connecting with both the kid and the mom in that way. I felt as if I was invited to get to know this family from the inside, and what a gift that was!
Finally, I want to say something about the setting, and all the contradictions implied within it. The name of the music store with the unaffordable instruments—Heavenly Music. The relationship with the principal’s daughter. The border with Red-tail Manor and all that it represents. The contrast between sticking to a place and being stuck to it, exemplified by the conversation with George about stickers and cards. The play on the word “shoe," with such sharpness that I did not for a minute need the following sentence translated for me: “I ain't having that oo(t)-gweh-rheh stuck to my shoe.”
Everything in this book is organically developed. Nothing is extraneous to the storyline and to the character’s longings. It’s lean and pointed and it has momentum. Yet It’s funny and lovingly drawn and it turned me misty-eyed in several places. It’s a book I’ll be sending my students to, I know, and one that I will want to revisit and savor again. Thank you for a beautiful book, Eric Gansworth, and thank you to CCBC for hosting this discussion.
Uma
Uma Krishnaswami uma_at_gobrainstorm.net http://www.umakrishnaswami.com http://umakrishnaswami.blogspot.com
What a heavy price one has to pay to be regarded as civilized.
[Kasturba Gandhi, on wearing shoes]
On Feb 28, 2014, at 8:25 AM, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas <ebonyt_at_gse.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> In the future, I really wish we'd use "diversity month" to discuss the works and achievements of authors, publishers, and advocates who have a commitment to diversity and multiculturalism. Instead of focusing on what we don't have in children's literature and media, why not increase visibility of what's out there? Why not celebrate this, and at the end of the month. The best part of this discussion was the week we talked about Tim Tingle, but there could have been so much more.
>
> Ebony
>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 10:30:24 -0800
Thanks for the nudge, Ebony, to remind us—the book, the book. Can we talk about the book?
Confession: I was scrambling to finish reading this amazing book, so I’ve had to grit my teeth and not speak up all along, but I want to say something about its art and craft right now. I don’t have questions so much as a need to engage in my own personal conversation with this funny, wonderful text.
So, where can I begin?
The effect of the use of music, for starters. Others have talked about it as a bridge or a way to connect, and that’s fine, but I wanted to go beyond this interpretation. As I read along, I noticed how the music played in my head, seeping inward from the chapter titles and influencing the setting up of the place and time—oh, it was love at first spin for me! And then I started to see how the feel of the Beatles’ music also does something else. It evokes a precise combination of laughter and resistance, and that’s the exact emotional mix of this book.
And then I want to talk about the emotional effect on the page. Right from the opening scene, through Ma’s refusal to go to Indian Culture Night, and all the way to the jokes about dead Indians. It all contains that core of reality the way only young people can express it, a reality in which history is something both inherited and resisted, deeply and from the inside and yet with a matter-of-factness that draws the reader into the spaces the character occupies. It’s all particular and yet it’s universal. I, for example, read the cutting of the braid with a little shock of recognition at two levels:
1. from having seen young Dine boys starting out school in northwest New Mexico with their beautiful braids intact, then seeing them get to middle school and hack those braids off. 2. being that I am that other kind of Indian, expat from the subcontinent and having my own associations with the cutting of hair and what that has meant in terms of religion and intolerance.
Regardless of the particular experiences a reader might bring to that scene, it grabs you and won’t let go. But the real brilliance lay in turning that around with the following scene in which we have Ma and the buzz cut and it’s the perfect, perfect demonstration of a kind of ironic compact between the generations. That and how Ma perks up when the kids bring in terms and idioms from the outside world—we have both generations experiencing the complexity of living in a world in which they cross cultural and social borders daily. The writer doesn’t shy away from those complications but he doesn’t stop to explain them either. I loved that mother unconditionally from that buzz cut onward, but its the use of such a physical metaphor that gets me to that point of connecting with both the kid and the mom in that way. I felt as if I was invited to get to know this family from the inside, and what a gift that was!
Finally, I want to say something about the setting, and all the contradictions implied within it. The name of the music store with the unaffordable instruments—Heavenly Music. The relationship with the principal’s daughter. The border with Red-tail Manor and all that it represents. The contrast between sticking to a place and being stuck to it, exemplified by the conversation with George about stickers and cards. The play on the word “shoe," with such sharpness that I did not for a minute need the following sentence translated for me: “I ain't having that oo(t)-gweh-rheh stuck to my shoe.”
Everything in this book is organically developed. Nothing is extraneous to the storyline and to the character’s longings. It’s lean and pointed and it has momentum. Yet It’s funny and lovingly drawn and it turned me misty-eyed in several places. It’s a book I’ll be sending my students to, I know, and one that I will want to revisit and savor again. Thank you for a beautiful book, Eric Gansworth, and thank you to CCBC for hosting this discussion.
Uma
Uma Krishnaswami uma_at_gobrainstorm.net http://www.umakrishnaswami.com http://umakrishnaswami.blogspot.com
What a heavy price one has to pay to be regarded as civilized.
[Kasturba Gandhi, on wearing shoes]
On Feb 28, 2014, at 8:25 AM, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas <ebonyt_at_gse.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> In the future, I really wish we'd use "diversity month" to discuss the works and achievements of authors, publishers, and advocates who have a commitment to diversity and multiculturalism. Instead of focusing on what we don't have in children's literature and media, why not increase visibility of what's out there? Why not celebrate this, and at the end of the month. The best part of this discussion was the week we talked about Tim Tingle, but there could have been so much more.
>
> Ebony
>
---
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Received on Fri 28 Feb 2014 12:37:41 PM CST
