literary laughter

I went to a book & author festival sponsored by the Seattle U School of Theology & Ministry Saturday where the highlight was the final keynote by Sherman Alexie.

I'm sure you heard of his novels, stories and screen plays, but I don't think I knew before that he's written several books of poetry. He was in rare form. You have to think for a moment about the crowd that would show up for such a thing.

Does the phrase "Seattle Liberal" bring anything specifc to mind? Well it did for Sherman and he started off with that . . describing his joy at watching the Inauguration on TV seeing a pair of such types, wearing No-animals-were-harmed-in-the-making-of-this Gore-Tex parkas, with oatmeal colored hats and oatmeal colored sweaters.

"Arm in arm with a big, African American churchwomen, with a fur coat . . (pause while the audience recoils in horror) . . one of those fur coats with the fox's head still on . . they were swaying back and forth and every time they swayed, the fox head banged one of the oatmeal hat . . none of them cared . . . they were too happy."

Later he said he never understood why white liberals were so interested in Native American spirituality . . . "we love guns . . we kill animals . . we eat meat .. our sacred clothing is from dead aminals and endangered bird species . . . how does that even work for you?"

Towards the end, he started to read a poem (from an upcoming book?) something like "To a Polar Bear Death" . . . when he told us the title, there was an audible "Ohhhhhhh . . " throughout the hall. He had to stop and laugh: "Seattle audience . . in Alaska, they'd be cheering at that!"

If the presentation ever gets posted on the Internet tubes, I'll offer up a link.