MOVE

What really caught my attention in the reading this week was not the prose or events in the lives of Silko's fictional characters. Rather, it was her reference to specific historic events that transpired in the US (page 619). Her inclusion of these injustices serve to back up the nebula of unrest and violence in the book, and strengthen her points about/accusations against the abuse of power towards the poor and dispossessed.

More specifically, Silko references the Attica prison riot of 1971 and the bombing of the MOVE compound in 1985. I remember talking about the firebombing in high school English; our teacher supplemented the discussion with a copy of a poem I only dimly remembered. After almost an hour of searching the internet, I tracked down the title and author-- "move," by Lucille Clifton-- but was unable to find the poem in full text. I also briefly researched the events, but won't include a summary here.

So far, I would rather read a narrated compilation of such governmental crimes, including the Kent State shooting of 1970, the Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City in 1968, the 1989 Tiananmen square incident, etc, than Almanac of the Dead. I feel like I will have taken very little from Almanac by the time I finish, just dim memories of the characters and a rough fraction of their complex web of interactions (as well as a host of unpleasant mental images). Yet if we were to read newspaper articles about all these events, we would be more knowledgeable world citizens.

In fact, it would be fascinating to have a class where we not only learned about such injustices towards students, prisoners, grassroots organizations, etc, but explored their implications and references in popular culture and literature, such as the song "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills and Nash, the poem "move," the song "Hypnotize" by System of a Down, etc. I suppose this all would have little to do with a Native American Lit course... but it would still be interesting.