Tribes – or what you can learn by reading fiction
The news earlier this week that Sherman Alexie had won the 2010 Pen/Faulkner Award for his novel War Dances reminded me that I’d been meaning to blog about the wonderful passage from his National Book Award winning novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The fact that the book is for young adults didn’t bother me a bit, especially when I came upon such a vivid illustration of what’s meant by tribes – digital or analog.
It’s so very clear when you engage with social media that we’re all members of many tribes. I’d love to see graphic illustration of tribes and how we connect with folks on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. based on our interests. Haven’t seen the app for that yet, although I’m betting there’s already one in the works.
‘I realized that I might be a lonely Indian boy,’ says Alexie’s protagonist, Junior, ‘but I was not alone in my loneliness…. I realized that sure, I was a Spokane Indian. I belonged to that tribe. But I also belonged to the tribe of American immigrants. And to the tribe of basketball players. And to the tribe of bookworms.
And the tribe of cartoonists.
And the tribe of chronic masturbators.
And the tribe of teenage boys.
And the tribe of small-town kids.
And the tribe of Pacific Northwesterners.
And the tribe of tortilla chips-and-salsa lovers.
And the tribe of poverty.
And the tribe of funeral go-ers.
And the tribe of beloved sons.
And the tribe of boys who really missed their best friends.’
‘It was a huge realization,’ concludes Junior. ‘And that’s when I knew that I was going to be okay.’
Whenever I think of this passage I immediately want to start listing tribes to which I belong. So I thought I’d give it a shot. Feel free to list some tribes to which you belong in the comments.
I’m a member of
the bookworm tribe
the feminist tribe
the WASP tribe
the Echo tribe
the PR tribe
the writer tribe
the social media tribe
the quilting tribe
the Canadian tribe
the Southern Alberta tribe (at the moment, anyway)
the Anglophile tribe
the Austen lovers tribe
the foreign film lovers tribe (my one regret about not having cable is the inability to get a dose of Bollywood once a week – don’t ask me why, I can’t explain it)
the Fitzgerald lovers tribe
the Salinger lovers tribe
the Eric Rohmer and Wim Wenders lovers tribe
the ‘why?’ girls’ tribe
the knitters’ tribe
the quilters’ tribe
the Six Feet Under tribe
the fast-talking Easterner tribe
That’s all I can think of at the moment. How about you?
Northern Voice 09 – afterglow?
What’s the difference between a love-in and an orgy? While I haven’t looked it up on Wikipedia, I suspect the difference is that a love-in involves friends and friends of friends, while an orgy involves interaction with total strangers.
I’m not using these sexual analogies merely to be provocative (saucy, for my friends in the UK), but because – well – if the shoe fits, you really are Cinderella, aren’t you?
Even allowing for my widely varying moods while attending the last three Northern Voices, it’s been interesting to watch it evolve as a conference. Sadly, however, its evolution is incremental, and there was, for me anyway, a certain sense of going through the paces this year rather than genuine excitement. Read more »
Northern Voice 09: the love-in
From Stewart Butterfield’s keynote, The Internet 1992-2009, A Love Story through Chris Heuer’s Death of Advertising, the official presenters’ track at NV09 is a paean to what the internet can do for you and your business. Read more »
Blogging goes mainstream
What else can one conclude, when everyone’s doing it? John P. Kreiss identifies five myths about blogging.
Your mom may be doing it. Shhh.
50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice
The resources out there are just amazing. Why am I trying to write my own plan when all I have to do is edit Chris Brogan’s 50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice?
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Another step on the social media journey
I had been blogging for close to a year before I met another blogger. I attended a meeting of the Vancouver Bloggers’ Meetup Group and met Carol Sill and Isabella Mori of Alphablogs, and heard of Northern Voice, the blogging unconference, from them.
I signed up for only the Saturday session Read more »
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