How do we hold space for our ideas? How do we transcribe our ideas into latches for our communities to grab on to? \u201cThere There,\u201d a novel by Tommy Orange, offers up these questions through the lens of a Bay Area Native. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere There\u201d asks the reader to rely on their own interpretation of hope, to engage in an episodic body of work that is open-ended. It\u2019s a book that leaves the reader with more questions than answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a hopeful time when I was finishing the book,\u201d said Orange. \u201cI was watching everything unfold at Standing Rock\u2014watching elders pray for clean water and being shot by rubber bullets and pepper spray. Trump just got elected. It wasn\u2019t a hopeful time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commemorating National American Indian Heritage Month,\u201cThere There\u201d was selected as the SFPL\u2019s 15th annual One City One Book\u2014a citywide literary event that aims to encourage community members to read the same book at the same time\u2014and on Nov. 20, SFPL and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library hosted a reception for Orange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The weight the reader brings to a book is always present to Orange. In a high school in Wisconsin, a young Native youth asked Orange: \u201cIn the Thomas Frank chapter, was that sadness your sadness?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was telling me that was his sadness and he wanted me to know that,\u201d said Orange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a struggle of Native truth. To remain honest to the best of the artist\u2019s ability is part of the reason why \u201cThere There\u201d stings the heart. It\u2019s a book ready to listen to pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy view of life is that it\u2019s tragic,\u201d said Orange. \u201cI like works where the engagement is up to you and I wanted to give enough so there would be a reason to be hopeful.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Towards the end of the novel, native elder Opal counts swinging doors, she projects into the swings and counts a total of eight. \u201cIt\u2019s a reason to have hope. I like what it does. To question the reader\u2019s own faith. Whether you think the ending is good or not, to leave it open to the reader\u2019s engagement, this a more interesting to me as a decision,\u201d said Orange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ideas of home are never lost in his work. The more gone from home Orange is, the more he understands home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t grow up going to libraries than any other reason than to read enough to get tickets to an A\u2019s game,\u201d said Orange. \u201cLibraries to me were a reminder that I wasn\u2019t smart and that I wasn\u2019t good enough to be smart. A reminder that people like me weren\u2019t in books.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, Orange was dedicated to creating a body of work that was not only hopeful but honest during a time in history where it was painful to exist. To essentially create a rope intertwined with hope, so strong it would hold the narrative and the idea throughout the entire book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of the decisions I made for the book have to do with craft,\u201d said Orange. \u201cI like reading books with a lot of voices\u2014that\u2019s why I did that. I like books with prologues because the audience has the option of skipping it if they want. I like books that leave the ending to the reader\u2019s faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Orange approaches his writing process with questions on how his truth is being told. \u201cThat\u2019s part of what I bring to revision and writing, does this feel true? In writing or literary realism, I am trying to depict life as it is, and truth comes into that equation. In revision, I ask, \u2018is this something someone would think? Is this something someone would do? Is this staying to true to what life is like?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are so many people in the Native world who\u2019ve gone unacknowledged for doing more amazing work in community, than me,\u201d said Orange. \u201cI try to keep true to what reality as I\u2019ve experienced it. I\u2019m native. I grew up in a native community for enough years to ask: Does this feel true to my experience and what I\u2019ve witnessed? How can I revise my pages into the best shape to qualify as feeling true to the reader? If someone from my community\u2014my people were to read it, would they feel it\u2019s true? This is what I bring to revision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately, Orange has received warm feedback from community members who have felt seen, heard, and like he\u2019s doing it right, said Orange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an artist, Orange wants to step aside and leave room for others within the Native community to have the stage for their own truth. \u201cI feel like my book has gotten wild success, but if that means people considering more Native work, more than what they might have before my book than I\u2019d be happy to contribute in that way because there is so much good work, amazing powerful work, that needs to be paid attention to.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do we hold space for our ideas? How do we transcribe our ideas into latches for our communities to grab on to? \u201cThere There,\u201d a novel by Tommy Orange, offers up these questions through the lens of a Bay Area Native. \u201cThere There\u201d asks the reader to rely on their own interpretation of hope, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":42419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[18510],"class_list":["post-42415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","post_format-post-format-gallery","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n