Talk:Leslie Marmon Silko

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[edit] Almanac of the Dead

I'm curious if whoever wrote the section about Almanac of the Dead receiving mixed reviews, and the subsequent reasons it was negatively reviewed, could cite the source(s)? I'm not saying I don't believe you, I would simply be interested in reading these reviews (I personally thought the book was beyond excellent). Particularly, I found the idea that the book has "villians" to be interesting; almost everyone in the book had a shadey or criminal past, the fact that a few of these (numerous) characters were gay could probably boil down to being merely statistically likely. -- Antepenultimate 23:21, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

• Unfortunately I don^t have access to ATHENS, MUSE or J-Stor at the moment, any of which would provide sources. When I get access again in January I^ll try to add sources. I didn^t mean to imply that the criticisms over sex and the Popul Vuh were the reason for the mixed reviews, though - there are a lot of reviews out there (e.g. Time`s review) which just plain think its poorly written and\or underedited. Vizjim 09:48, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
  • See http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_indian_quarterly/v026/26.4romero.html. I'll quote a footnote in full: Almanac 's negative portrayal of men who desire men works against the acceptance and inclusiveness Silko advocates in her cross-cultural politics. Although Silko has stated in Yellow Woman that ancient Keresan culture was tolerant of, and at times even highly respected, same-sex desire and transgendered individuals (67), her portrayal of men who desire men in Almanac does not express this tolerance or respect. Perhaps, like Silko's use of the phrase "all things European," this gap in her politics indicates a tension between ancient American Indian traditions and contemporary practices in which Silko has internalized some of the homophobia of mainstream American culture despite her best intentions to follow more accepting ancient American Indian traditions. For further information on Almanac 's portrayal of same-sex desire, see Janet St. Clair, "Cannibal Queers: The Problematics of Metaphor in Almanac of the Dead, " in Leslie Marmon Silko: A Collection of Critical Essays (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999), 207-22; and Tara Prince-Hughes, "Worlds In and Out of Balance: Alternative Genders and Gayness in the Almanac of the Dead and The Beet Queen, " in Literature and Homosexuality (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000). Vizjim 12:43, 22 February 2007 (UTC)