Feature: All SWD Features
Region: Southwest Desert
Topics: C - O - TThis page features an abstract of a paper from STC-Link's Materials Archive. To view the entire paper, click here.
Indians Shmindians TELEPHONE CALL FROM a New York editor: Mander, you've got two books out there now; they're both selling. Are you working on anything new?
Mander: Yes.
Editor: What's the subject?
Mander: Indians.
Editor: Indians? Oh God, not Indians. Nobody wants a book about Indians. Indians have been done in New York; they're finished. Indians shmindians.
Mander: That's the point. The Indian problem is not over. In some parts of the world it's worse than it was here.
Editor: Indians! Mander, you're some kind of goddamn romantic. Like Brando or somebody.
Mander: Don't worry, I'll deal with that "romantic" thing in the book.
Editor: How's your agent going to sell it? Indian books don't sell.
Mander: They said that about TV books. Anyway, Indian books do sell. Look at Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and look at Castaneda and Peter Matthiessen's books. Look at Black Elk Speaks. I don't think Indians are a passé subject at all. People do want to know about Indians. The trouble is that people are told mainly about dead Indians. They don't get to hear about what's going on now, or why.
Editor: What's the title?
Mander: Maybe I'll use your title.
Editor: What title is that?
Mander: Indians Shmindians. It's got a catchy paradoxical ring to it. It's memorable, it's sensational, and it does seem to summarize our cultural attitude.
Mander, Jerry. In the Absence of the Sacred. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991, 1-7.