Flight, by Sherman Alexie

[rachelmanija]

Teenage half-Indian, half-Irish "Zits" has spent his life being bounced in and out of foster homes and juvenile detention. One day, in yet another holding cell, he meets an angelic revolutionary of a white boy who calls himself Justice, seduces Zits with talk of bringing back the Ghost Dance, and eventually sends him out alone to randomly shoot up

Comments

[m00nface]

I have a question not related to the book: I had thought 'Indian' in this context was politically incorrect, and I've come to think I'm wrong on that, but at the very least it's confusing - I read your first sentence and thought, "Hey, I'm half-Indian too!" and took a few sentences to realise that wasn't what you meant. How do you distinguish between the two in the USA? As you can imagine, it doesn't really come up over here.

[rachelmanija]

Check these out: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmterms.html

http://www.allthingscherokee.com/articles_culture_events_070101.html

I used the same terminology the book does, and yes, that same thing often confuses me as well before I figure out the context.

[m00nface]

I thought this might also have affected you, Rachel talking about Indians but not India is probably big part of what threw me in this instance! Thank you, those links helped a lot. I'll be a little more informed if the topic ever crops up (or at least not be shocked if somebody uses the term "Indian").

[smillaraaq]

That first link Rachel includes below is the one I usually paste at people when I want to give all sides of this issue in a nutshell; it's very much in line with my own experiences and what I've seen talking with relatives, native friends from different tribes, and reading Indian writers from various parts of the US and Canada. There's still a definite perception in mainstream society that "Native American" is more PC and proper, and the terminology seems particularly entrenched in academia, so some folks will tend to use that in writing or speaking for a political or academic context just to go along with the default expectation of their audience; but "Indian" (and various slangier terms) is a lot more common for just casual in-group speech amongst ourselves. Generally speaking, most native folks I've known don't have a really strong preference either way, and so long as you're not using an actual slur, they won't be offended if you use their less-preferred general term; and even the minority of folks who do strongly prefer one of

[lady_ganesh]

That's terribly disappointing. I suppose not every one can be a home run, though.

[spectralbovine]

Oh, perfect. Because I was just talking about Sherman Alexie today and decided it was stupid that I hadn't actually read a book by him, and these were the two that seemed the most interesting to me. I'm disappointed that Flight doesn't seem to live up to its premise, but I still want to read it. Which do you think I should read first? I was thinking of doing it the order you read them in, but maybe I should do the better one second.

*goes and requests them from the library*

[rachelmanija]

Actually, a lot of stuff in Flight makes more sense if you've already read Absolutely True - Zits' state of mind, basically, they're not actually related.

[spectralbovine]

Oh, interesting. Because I know some of his books are a little interrelated, but Absolutely True came out AFTER Flight. But thanks for the tip; I'll read in that order.

[spectralbovine]

Yeah, I'll agree with you. I really liked it, but the ending was a little odd (and the terrorist thing out of place after everything else was about Indians). I think Sherman Alexie works well in a teenage voice; it allows him to question really complex ideas with very simple verbiage.