Ceremony

I find the writing style of Leslie Marmon Silko very evocative, visual, she uses many colors in her words and description of the land, of the inner emotional states of Tayo, Harley. It is a delicate yet powerful style of writing and usage of words.

I think that Tayo, Rocky, Emo and Harley know each other from the reservation and from their youth. Josiah is part of it too but he stayed in the reservation, as I understand it.

Silko uses flashbacks in her description of Tayo during the war, during his captivity and after during his illness, and his constant PTSD as we call it nowadays. She blurs time and space, as these are blurred for Tayo who is constantly experiencing the past even in the present.

As in Erdrich, we can see that alcohol is a way to anesthetize one's senses to pain and suffering and facing reality. Alcohol was brought by the settlers to Native American who did not use it, and they fell for its addiction and the way to escape their loss of identity, and as in the case in our book, to escape the suffering brought by the war and its horrors.

In an article I read (http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/hhr93_2.html), the author explains the importance of three figures in Pueblo mythology: Thought Woman, Corn Mother and Sun father, as we can read also in Silko.

Another comment on Silko's interview

Another striking statement,

The first one relates to the fact that each person has a contribution to make and that the older you are the more valued you are. It seems to be true in some cultures of South America as well and in the Hassidic/kabbalist culture/religion as well.

It is so important to me, as we can see in our society, US as well as in France, for example, that when someone is getting "older" (for some 40 is old and surely 50) is considered a reject or someone who has nothing to bring, neither professionally, neither as a person.

I find the introduction to Native American culture, literature and narrative very interesting and I look forward to further reading.

"Yes, it is a culture in which each person has a contribution to make. The older you are the more valued you are but each person is valued. The oral tradition stays in the human brain and then it is a collective effort in the recollection. So when he is telling a story and she is telling a story and you are telling a story and one of us is listening and there is a slightly different version or a detail, then it is participatory when somebody politely says I remember it this way. It is a collective memory and depends upon the whole community. There is no single entity that controls information or dictates but this oral tradition is a constantly self-correcting process"

Leslie Marmon Silko

While I am still attempting to recover from an acute bronchitis and complications, and while I still have to finish posting regarding Love Medicine, I am starting with the next book to make sure I do keep up with the assignments and work my way back to the previous book.

I am reading about the author, the interview made when she visited Leipzig and a comment she made definitely caught my attention:

"Yes, when one grows up in the Pueblo community, in the Pueblo tribe the people are communal people, it is an egalitarian communal society. The education of the children is done within the community, this is in the old times before the coming of the Europeans. Each adult works with every child, children belong to everybody and the way of teaching is to tell stories. All information, scientific, technological, historical, religious, is put into narrative form. It is easier to remember that way. So when I began writing when I was at the University of New Mexico, the professor would say now you write your poetry or write a story, write what you know they always tell us. All I knew was my growing up at Laguna, recallings of some other stories that I had been told as a child."

Several things come to mind-

I was reading an excerpt from the latest book written by H.H.The Dalai Lama, who mentions the sense of deep loneliness experienced by many individuals in our society, due to the loss of the sense of community, lack of involvement in one's community, whatever community it may be. There are many reasons for the loss of belonging to a community in such a mobile and technology oriented society....

I find it very interesting that the author describes that all experience and information is related in narrative form. It also reminds me of Jewish culture, which, as far as I know has a lot of narrative and story telling in the Hassidic tradition.

The sense of raising children in a community reminds me somewhat of Herland, the utopic society evoked by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

The Beads

I am not sure that I do understand the family tree in the chapter about Marie Kashpaw.

On the f amily tree we can see that Nector Kashpaw and Marie Lazarre were married and had 4 children.

I am not understanding then the relation between Marie and June, as on page 84, Marie says that she did not want june Morrissey at first.

But the family tree shows June adopted by Eli, not Nector and Marie.

Am I misunderstanding something? I would appreciate anyone's insight and will check other blogs for possible explanation.

Family tree

I am getting lost at times in relation to the family tree. I do not know if someone else has this issue.

The chapter about Marie Lazare was an emotionally difficult one to read for me: it describes abuse of a young child and also I find that it has a "darkness" apparent in the chapter, maybe it would be better to use the word "weakedness"?

Marie Lazare is abused and Marie Lazare takes her revenge in a way against Leopolda.

Love Medicine

I am wondering if the title "Love Medicine" could have been chosen to point out that the medicine healing family rivalries, disagreements or other conflicts is love. I might see it in a too simple manner.

Some thoughts

Why do you think Erdrich chose to write her novel in the way she did, using time leaps and a series of different narrators to recount their own tales? What do you think is gained by this form of narrative? How might the form's emphasis on individual storytelling relate to the novel's larger themes?

I think that Erdrich uses different narrators to make the reader discover the "whole" story from each protagonist point of view. It could be a mosaic of stories and personas, each with their own sets of beliefs, feelings, stories and time frame. Their lives and stories are interrelated yet individual.

As to time leaps, it seems to give a different perspective, as in films with flash backs, for instance, thus the reader can be transported in various eras and also events.

It is also possibly a technique used to captivate the reader.

Introduction

Hello Everyone,

Just attempting to post an introduction message. I hope a blog will be a useful tool to use for this course.