Apple: Skin to the Core

This section summarizes “How to Be Less Popular in High School When You Are Indian and/or Poor,” “From Iron Man to Skywalker: 7. Clone Wars,” “Electric Blanket as Ouija Board in Sixteen Parts,” “Jaboozie Passes Me the Book,” and “Jaboozie’s Sister Teaches Me About Fire.”

“How to Be Less Popular in High School When You Are Indian and/or Poor” is a list of some of the experiences Gansworth had in high school, including being discouraged from taking college prep English classes. When he wrote fiction about an authoritarian society, people assumed that he was writing from the point of view of a monster, but he was simply writing “the true story of [his] life” (173).

In “From Iron Man to Skywalker: 7. Clone Wars,” Gansworth recalls watching the Star Wars movies in theaters. He related to Luke Skywalker but questioned Luke’s initial desire to leave his home planet to join “the Academy,” a gateway to the Empire. He also related to Luke’s relationship with his father, Darth Vader.

In “Electric Blanket as Ouija Board in Sixteen Parts,” Gansworth recounts how his mother bought him a secondhand electric blanket. He loved its warmth, but one night it started sparking. Gansworth was forced to get rid of it lest it spark a fire and burn the house down.

“Jaboozie Passes Me the Book” recalls Jaboozie’s returning for a visit. She was dating Gansworth’s cousin. She gave Gansworth a book called The Reservation by Ted C. Williams, who grew up on their reservation. Gansworth read it and asked his mother if she remembered things as Williams describes them. She just said she remembered “the truth.” Gansworth reflected on the complicated process of writing about real people and how writers must “[rearrange] people’s lives to protect / them and celebrate them at the same / time” (189).

In “Jaboozie’s Sister Teaches Me About Fire,” Gansworth recalls how Jaboozie’s sister told him about an accident in which a frying pan broke, spilling a hot grease fire all over her arm. She continued to use the frying pan because she didn’t want to let fear rule her life.

This section summarizes “Beneath the Constellations, the Smoke Moves Home,” “Jaboozie and I Love Naked Eyes,” “Lines Spoken to Me Through High School and Let’s Face It, Beyond,” “Migration,” “May I Have This Dance?” and “Jaboozie Passes Me the Atlas to My Future.”

In “Beneath the Constellations, the Smoke Moves Home,” Gansworth recalls watching Smoke Dancers and meditating on the generations of people who came before him and those who will come after him.

“Jaboozie and I Love Naked Eyes” explores the changing relationship between Gansworth and Jaboozie. They used to tell each other everything, bonding over music like “Always Something There to Remind Me” by Naked Eyes.

“Lines Spoken to Me Through High School and, Let’s Face It, Beyond” is a collection of things that people told Gansworth about himself while he was in high school, including things he was either good at or bad at “for an Indian” (196).

In “Migration,” Gansworth notes that he considers himself an “Indian writer,” which people take to mean “Native American storyteller” (197). He compares himself and his siblings to baby robins. Initially, their parents fed them, but they later forced them to leave the nest when they grew too big for it. While baby robins leave and never come back, his siblings left and returned, continuing to live at home or on the reservation.

In “May I Have This Dance?” Gansworth explores the complexities of “Reservation Romance.” He rarely saw people kiss, but people showed interest in one another in other ways: They might share their venison, for instance. Marriage didn’t always come before children. The idea of joining another family through marriage was uncomfortable, as was the thought of becoming “that uncle… / everyone knows will never settle down” (206). He attended a school dance. The white kids danced as couples, but the Indigenous kids formed a circle and did an impromptu Round Dance together. Gansworth realized that he wanted a kind of love that people on the reservation didn’t believe existed.

“Jaboozie Passes Me the Atlas to My Future” describes another of Jaboozie’s rare visits home. She gave Gansworth a book about cult movies. They shared a love of cult movies like Night of the Living Dead, which they once saw at a midnight showing together. Jaboozie told him that at her college, people studied these movies in classes. The book showed Gansworth a future he didn’t think was possible.