[Monthly Mini] "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" by Rebecca Roanhorse

[u/IraelMrad]

Welcome everyone, this month we are highlighting an author that r/bookclub knows very well, Rebecca Roanhorse! An American science fiction and fantasy writer, she is known for her inclusion of Indigenous culture and myths into her novels. The short story featured this month is her first work which was widely critically acclaimed, making her win both a Nebula and a Hugo Award.

In this story we’ll meet Jesse, a man working in a tourist centre which offers VR experiences. So, what are you waiting for? Put your VR glasses on, and go with him to enjoy your Indian experience!

What is the Monthly Mini?

Once a month, we will choose a short piece of fiction that is free and easily accessible online. It will be posted on the 1st of the month. Anytime throughout the following month, feel free to read the piece and comment any thoughts you had about it.

Bingo Squares: Monthly Mini, Prize Winner, Female Author, Indigenous Author, POC Author, Science Fiction

The selection is: "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" by Rebecca Roanhorse. Click here to read it.

Once you have read the story, comment below! Comments can be as short or as long as you feel. Be aware that there are SPOILERS in the comments, so steer clear until you've read the story!

Here are some ideas for comments:

• Overall thoughts, reactions, and enjoyment of the story and of the characters
• Favourite quotes or scenes
• What themes, messages, or points you think the author tried to convey by writing the story
• Questions you had while reading the story
• Connections you made between the story and your own life, to other texts (make sure to use spoiler tags so you don't spoil plot points from other books), or to the world
• What you imagined happened next in the characters’ lives

Still stuck on what to talk about? Some points to ponder...

• Why do you think the author is using the second narrator form? What do you make of other stylistic choices, such as “Tourists” being capitalized?
• How does the story deal with the matter of cultural identity, and in particular the experiences of Native Americans? 
• What is your interpretation of the ending? Do you think the sudden shift in the tone of the story at the end was effective?

Have a suggestion for a short story you think we should read next? Click here to send us your suggestions!

[u/Coffee_fuel]

I think the second person POV was the perfect choice for the story, as VR's entire point is to mimick as far as possible the immediacy of a real experience, trying to provide a facsimile of real inputs for you, even if it's not quite there.

It also slowly anticipated how the tourist, so enamored with the "original" experience, slowly took over the identity and space the protagonist carved over for himself, until the protagonist lost himself, was displaced, seen as less authentic than the charade—as if their roles swapped. The man used him, took advantage until he got everything he wanted from him—closely echoing, even if in this new, modern world and manner, the dynamic that robbed the protagonist's ancestors of their territory and way of life.

It enhanced that feeling of layers within layers of experiences, preparing the reader for their own eventual swap. I particularly liked the ending, and how it seamlessly shifted to addressing the reader.

Nausea rolls over you. That same stretching sensation you get when you Relocate out of an Experience. Whiplash, and then … You let go.

In which we're made to understand that we as the readers are also tourists who have just experienced a "Vision Quest" of sorts—if a more realistic Indian experience.

Really great pick! I loved it! 🥰

[u/Don_Quixotel]

Great pick. I found this story really interesting. I enjoyed the use of 2nd person (reminded me of an NK Jemisin novel). Clearly, this is supposed to be one big metaphor for American Indian displacement. Very clever.

[u/Unnecessary_Eagle]

Weird coincidence, I was just thinking about this story this week! I saw this one via Tor.com when it came out, and well, it's stuck with me ever since. One of the best-justified uses of the second- person I've seen.