Fandom Snowflake Challenge Day 8

[tjs_whatnot]

Day 8

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

I'm going to try really hard to get through this as distinctly and precisely as I can without getting too overly off topic. I just have a LOT of feelings about this subject and hardly any of them are things I normally talk about, so I might vomit it all over you all. Sorry in advance.

On Being Indian*
Smoke Signals: John Wayne's Teeth

*Native American, not from India, or of Indian descent--Columbus' fuck up makes it much more complicated than it should have been.

***

On the fourth day of the challenge, I asked for people to come to me with their love of tiny fandoms. Nobody took me up on the offer (yet), but that's okay. Mostly it was just an excuse for me to wax poetic about this one.

Smoke Signals is a 1998 movie written by Sherman Alexie, based on his short story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona" (well, really, these characters come and go in the entire short story collection of "Tonto and The Lone Ranger Fistfight in Heaven" and a lot of his other works too). I could spend this time talking about Sherman Alexie and what he means to me as an Indian who was born and raised in Spokane Washington (not a Spokane Indian like he is, but still...) and went on to tell stories about Indians in the West. How he shaped me as both an Indian and a writer... but who has that kind of time?

I'm not even going to talk about Smoke Signals--not really--only a run down of the plot so you can follow along. Then I will do as I'm told and pick a particular part of the movie to spend the rest of my time articulating what it means to me. The movie is about Victor Joseph, a Coeur D Alene Indian (he's Spokane in the books--don't ask me why they changed it), who after hearing of his father's death in Phoenix, ropes Thomas Builds-A-Fire to come with him to collect the ashes. He and Thomas have an incredibly complex and complicated relationship, as does Victor and his father.

There's one scene, where they're sitting on a bus and they've...well, here, just watch the scene, yeah?

Watch on YouTube

I just... *sigh* It is just everything. Like most of Alexie, it is funny, heart breaking and a social commentary that cuts to the bone all at once.

For me as an Indian though, it is just so much more. It's hard to talk about what chants and heartsongs mean to me. I'll try to explain it the way that I always make sense of things. With stories:

Everything I know about being Indian I learned from my Grandmother. She and my mother have a complex and complicated relationship (a theme that runs through a lot of Indian stories obviously) so we didn't spend a lot of time with her, and my mother refused to talk about her heritage. What I remember most of my Grandmother though, is the rare occasions when I stayed at her house and would have bad dreams or couldn't sleep. (I have a long history of problems with both those things) My Grandmother would crawl into bed with me, hold me close and chant.

We were transformed and transported. There's something that a chant does to a voice, something it imbues it with that is hard to explain. I thought it was all in my childhood imagination that my grandmother changed in those moments, became... magical. I thought she was legitimately magic.

Fast forward many, many years and many, many deaths--including my Grandmother's--and I'm writing my first novel. It's all about two Indian siblings trying to find each other and themselves, and it's about family and what it means to be Indian. And because I suffer terribly from some kind of Imposter Syndrome, I researched the crap out of the chants I used, what heartsong was used for what ceremony and how each "Hey" and "Ho" meant something. But, because of the Imposter Syndrome, I'd never actually chanted myself, I'd drummed while others chanted and I went to a lot of Powwows and listened to others--transported each time. But I couldn't. I feared the absence of transformation and magic. What it would mean.

So, I wrote the book, it got published and I went to a conference where I had to read a bit from the book, any bit I wanted. I picked out something and it wasn't until I was standing up, microphone in hand, that I remembered there was chanting in the section. A heartsong that I had written for one of my characters. It was too late to go back now. I tried to put it out of my mind because on my best days, I am a horrible public speaker. It's something I've had to work on A LOT since readings are sometimes required in the life of an author, but I'm really horrible at it.

But something happened.

I was transformed.

I was transported.

I was legitimately magic.

And I've never felt more Indian in my life.

/story

So yeah, chants are truly magic. They can even turn a crap song by Train and transform it:

Hey Red Sister by The Rappahannock Dancers and Drummers at the Virginia Indian Festival

And now to get back to Fandom--this being a Fandom Snowflake Challenge and all--I'll pimp the Smoke Signals fandom:

It's TINY! Like ridiculously so. It has 4 stories and one vid on AO3--or from 2004-2012 it HAD 4 stories. I was honored last Yuletide to be assigned the fandom to write for. *meep* Which is why I have rewatched the film a few times lately and why that scene has been on my mind so much.

So this is the time where I add to my Day 3 Challenge of Reccing fanworks, and an Upcoming Day's Challenge of Self Reccing (spoilers--self reccing will again be a thing, shhh don't tell anyone) and drop some links.

Seriously, all these fics (and vid) are amazing. If you've ever seen the movie or read the story (if you haven't PLEASE DO!) then you should read/watch these. They're short and there aren't many of them. ;)

First mine:

This is What it Means to Say Coeur D'alene Idaho (4485 words) by tjs_whatnot
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Smoke Signals (1998), The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven - Sherman Alexie
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Thomas Builds-the-Fire/Victor Joseph
Characters: Thomas Builds-The-Fire, Victor Joseph
Additional Tags: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Chromatic Yuletide, Chromatic Source, Teen Romance, Internalized Homophobia, Mild Sexual Content
Summary:

And each time, it ends with a story...

[Vid] Talk Don't Matter (484 words) by sanguinity
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Smoke Signals (1998)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Thomas Builds-The-Fire, Victor Joseph, Arnold Joseph
Additional Tags: Character of Color, Video, Chromatic Source, Chromatic Character
Summary:

"For a long time I was mad because I thought my dreams had lied to me. But they didn't. Your dad was my vision. Take care of each other is what my dreams were saying. Take care of each other."

Falling (2991 words) by Melthalion
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Smoke Signals (1998)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Victor/Thomas
Characters: Victor Joseph, Thomas Builds-The-Fire, Arnold Joseph, Arlene Joseph
Summary:

Arnold Joseph haunts Victor until he lets himself go. Thomas tells a story and gives good cuddles.

Where There's Smoke (Signals) There's Fire (1532 words) by Devilc
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Smoke Signals
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Victor/Thomas
Characters: Victor Joseph, Thomas Builds-The-Fire
Additional Tags: Character of Color, Chromatic Character, Native American
Summary:

Because Thomas Builds-The-Fire was so in love with Victor ....

Telling Tales (1445 words) by Tiriel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Smoke Signals (1998)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Thomas Builds-the-Fire/Victor Joseph
Characters: Thomas Builds-The-Fire, Victor Joseph
Additional Tags: Yuletide 2007, Post-Canon
Summary:

The power of stories and the things that get you through. Includes elements from the book as well as the movie.

In the silence afterwards (394 words) by marginalia
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Smoke Signals (1998)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Thomas Builds-the-Fire/Victor Joseph
Characters: Thomas Builds-The-Fire, Victor Joseph

Comments

[ragdoll]

As if I couldn't love you more. This was beautiful (and something I didn't know about you despite knowing you had First Nation^* ancestry).

^* I just like the Canadian name for your people.

[tjs_whatnot]

♥ Like I said, it's not something I talk about all too much. ♥

Haha, if I were Canadian, I would be ALL over that title. ;)

[ragdoll]

It's a beautiful story. Of course here I am angsting over a lot of frivolous things for this day's challenge. You win the internet.

I first heard the term when I was in Alberta in 1999, and there's something that just resonates with me. There's something really respectful about First Nations vs Indians (as you said, FU, Christobal) and more poetic than Native Americans. IDK. ♥

[tjs_whatnot]

D'aww! Thank you! And haha, I either get super earnest (like this one) or super flaily (like almost all my other ones) but super verbose in both instances. I think you'll have super fun and interesting things to educate us with. ♥ ♥

Yeah, I first heard that term the last time the Olympics was in Canada. And while Canada has similar issues with their First Nations, I do really like that term, it's like they're already starting at a much better place, ya know?

[lokifan]

This is such a great post! Could you PM me the name of your book? Or say it here if you're cool with that, whatever.

This is gorgeous and I'll definitely be tracking down the rest of that film - I loved that scene and I loved Alexie's Diary of a Part-time Indian.

[tjs_whatnot]

I will PM you the title--just because this post is public.

The movie is great and I hope you enjoy it. I loved Diary of a Part-Time Indian and I hope that he writes more YA. He has a great voice for it. ♥

[cookiegirl]

This is so beautiful, thank you for sharing this with us <3

[tjs_whatnot]

Thank you for reading. ♥♥

[meridian_rose]

That's really touching story. Thank you for sharing it :)

Also that chanting is magical, yes! We get the word 'enchantment' from that, we sing nursery rhymes to aid children's development, and every culture develops music of their own.The voice is the first instrument, clapping and drumming next, so it's deep within all people. But the specifics are your own and connect you to your people, and that's magic of its own :)

[tjs_whatnot]

Also that chanting is magical, yes! We get the word 'enchantment' from that, we sing nursery rhymes to aid children's development, and every culture develops music of their own.The voice is the first instrument, clapping and drumming next, so it's deep within all people. But the specifics are your own and connect you to your people, and that's magic of its own

YES! This. This was what I was trying to say. ♥♥

[spikedluv]

Your post is so moving! ♥ Thank you for sharing it.

[tjs_whatnot]

Thank you for reading! ♥♥

[therealsnape]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful story.

[tjs_whatnot]

Thank you for reading! ♥ ♥