"Welcome To Your Authentic Indian Experience" Review

Original story by Rebecca Roanhorse at: https://www.apex-magazine.com/welcome-to-your-authentic-indian-experience/

Hey, remember that time we slaughtered all the wild bison to kill off the Plains Indians' main food supply in an effort to starve them to death?

The first time I read "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience," I was hella confused. Especially when I got to the VR part of the story. But after re-reading and doing some analysis, I was able to grasp the underlying message of Roanhorse's work. The message becomes most obvious when you take note of the quote she provides at the beginning of the piece:

Sherman Alexie, How to Write the Great American Indian Novel

"In the Great American Indian novel, when it is finally written, all of the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts."

To me, this quote in and of itself doesn't make much sense. But put into context with the events of this story, both the quote and the story work hand-in-hand to convey Roanhorse's underlying message.

Which moments are real, and which are not?

This story leaves you with an uneasy feeling as the main character is unfairly kicked out of his home, abandoned by his wife, fired from his job, and betrayed by someone he considered a friend. Because of the VR aspect to the story, you are left to question what parts of the story are real and which are fake, especially since the narrative gets increasingly vague toward the end of the story. At one point it is revealed that the main character was not home for two days, creating this area of lost time within the story, painting the main character as unreliable and unable to accurately relay events to the reader. As, one after another, unexpected and dreamlike events occur, the story gets more and more unbelievable. Why did DarAnne not recognize her coworker? Why did White Wolf betray him? Why did his wife just up and leave? What is the main character not telling us, or are there moments within this story that he cannot remember? These answers are not supplied to us, and we are expected to imagine for what happened for ourselves.

The ending as well is extremely vague. Is the main character just logging out of a VR experience, meaning that most of the events of the story are just a fantasy? But if so, why would he be VR'ing events that make him upset? Or is the main character dying at the end of the story, completing the prophecy of Sherman Alexie's quote provided at the beginning of the play? Either conclusion is hard to wrap my head around.

The moments that felt most real to me were the ones leading up to the main character's first VR experience. I believe these are the only moments of the story with any real credibility. But then again, who knows?

Losing Grip on Reality

This story reminded me of these hyper realistic dreams I have of my teeth falling out. Sometimes they get loose and start shaking in my gums and I pull them out. Sometimes they shatter in my mouth and fall out in tiny, dust-sized fragments. I'm always left wondering how I'll get my teeth back, or how much I'm gonna have to fork over to get veneers. These dreams are always incredibly stressful and very, very real. Sometimes I get to this point in the dream where the reality of being toothless becomes so horrific that I know I must be in a dream, and I grab hold of the fabric of my dream-reality and rip it to pieces. I force myself to wake up. Sometimes I wonder if that is what dying is like- finally figuring out how to grab this reality, like a sheet of paper, and tear it apart. Will the next reality feel even more real than this?

When Reality Becomes a Dream

The worst moments of life are when we feel like we should be in a nightmare, those times when we should be able to wake ourselves up, or take off the VR mask. Those moments when you get an unexpected phone call... or when you get fired, or when your wife leaves you, or when your best friend betrays you. Because there is no control in these moments. The only thing you can control in dreams is waking up (unless you can lucid dream, which I can't, so it's irrelevant). The main character of this story has lost his ability to control reality, without it even being his own fault. Maybe that's why the story feels so unreal. We want the main character to wake up, take off the VR mask, everything's fine... but is it, really?

Social Commentary

So, obviously this story is about the white man coming in and appropriating and demolishing Native American customs and culture and reality, even. The quote at the beginning of the story makes that pretty clear. White Wolf is obviously a parody of those white people who go around claiming they are part Native American, looking for their spirit animal and making their kids craft feather headbands with their "Indian Name" glued on with cheap felt stickers every Thanksgiving. (Yeah, thanks for the enthusiasm Karen but no one wants or needs you to do that. It's embarrassing.)

But I think the not so obvious commentary with this piece is that unlike Jesse, who can remove himself from the VR whenever he wants, and unlike everyone in the world, who can wake themselves up from their nightmares, the native people of America cannot do the same.