The Falling Sky, at least so far, was a real shift away from the narrative strategies we have encountered so far this semester. I think what i like the most about it, was that Albert waits till the end of the work to justify his role in the production of this work. The foreword does a good job of establishing the connection between Davi and Bruce, but holds short of establishing Bruce’s credentials as a requisite to valorize the work. It felt as though there wasn’t a ‘this is why you need to read this’ section. Especially in Davi’s intro, we see a sort of inversion of the trope in Guaman Poma where instead of coming to the table with a we can both learn something attitude, Davi essentially tells us to shut the fuck up for a second and listen.
Beyond the intro, the actual content of the work was also a shift away from what we’re used to. Although there is only a single narrative voice, there is a certain conversational tone to the work. The text didn’t feel as filtered as Menchú or as discontinuous as Marcos. I think was definitely helped by the candor Davi seems to express throughout his work. He’s not afraid of admitting his struggles and mistakes as well as his successes.
Davi also situates himself within his own world. He makes sure we know he isn’t the end all be all of Yanomami knowledge. In this section, he also remarks about the adaptability of the words of the shamans. How it takes on a life of its own, merely influenced and adapted by the shamans along the way. In a sense, he ties Yanomami futurity to the life of their word., and in giving it itos own life, he immortalizes the Yanomami. On an entirely unrelated note, I found “people of merchandise” an incredibly apt title for colonizers. Our fixation on material goods is never as apparent as when we are confronted with those who are indifferent to material objects.
Fundamentally, it felt as though this was a work to show us how the Yanomami can live without us or our knowledge, but the inverse cannot be true. It’s a firm rejection of what the western world can offer while affirming the value of Yanomami knowledge and history.
I really like your comments here! I also like how the justification of Bruce as a writer/secondary author is at the end. I think it says something that the authors trust the readers and their own work enough to believe that people will still be able to read the text and get something out of it without that reasoning beforehand. I also like what you said about Davi and how is is honest and vulnerable about his shortcomings. I felt the same, and also sort of thought that about Bruce as well. It seemed like he was able to admit the faults in his past views without fully using that as an excuse.