TRUE VOICES

I need to get out in the mountains. How's that for a follow-up to yesterday's post on the non-open, non-agreeable, introverted but at least non-neurotic Alaskan personality?

Something happens when I get couped up for too long. We've been painting and doing chores and getting ready for winter around here. I've been tinkering with stories and writing reviews and thinking deep thoughts about the state of our nation. I've gotten out, but not for long. Not in a meaningful way.

I listen better in the mountains and the woods. Out there I rediscover the fundamental connection between voice and truth, the one that comes by way of deep grounding with the earth, the one that for me happens best in wild and rugged places.

Author Jennifer Hubbard has a great post on voice. It got me thinking about the truest Alaskan voices, especially now as we're bombarded from the political arena with noises that are neither pleasing nor authentic.

Thanks be for writers like Dan O'Neill and Seth Kantner and Velma Wallace and a host of others whose voices ring true. And thanks be to my friend who invited me out to the mountains this weekend, where we can listen together and reflect on what's true.

THE ALASKAN STATE OF MIND

Are Alaskans neurotic? Open? Agreeable? Conscientious? Extroverted?

Using a 44-question test to evaluate these five personality traits in 600,000 Americans, researchers have profiled all 50 states, with results reported in the Wall Street Journal's "The United States of Mind," .

Some states fit existing stereotypes; some didn't. As one might expect, our state's profile was, ahem, extreme. We scored as not at all agreeable, correlating with our already documented high rates of crime. The survey also showed us to be not at all open, translating as very conservative and, unfortunately for us writer-types, not very creative.

In keeping with our stereotype as a place that attracts rugged isolationists, Alaskans bumped bottom on extroversion. We also scored low on conscientiousness, a result that surprised me. The bright spot: Alaskans aren't overly neurotic, which should mean we're healthy, at least.

How does that stack up with what you guessed? This jumble of traits makes for interesting fictional characters. Politicians? Well, that's another story.

WHY NOT TO WRITE

As if the writer's path weren't challenging enough, career specialist Penelope Trunk offers Five Reasons Not to Write a Book.

If you're looking for a platform for self-promotion or a surefire way to pad your bank account, book writing is hardly the way. I recently learned a new legal term for what I do: "voluntarily underemployed."

Offsetting Trunk's five reasons not to write books are at least five hundred reasons why we do. Ironically, most are imprecise, visceral, and hard to put into words. Like raising children, writing is hard work. It's an uncertain walk into foggy places. And if you can't revel in the sheer joy of something you can't fully explain, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

ALASKA'S BUSH DOCTRINE

Just when I've decided I can't read one more sentence about Sarah Palin, another Alaskan author pens an essay that gives me pause. Today it's Scott Woodham's "Why Sarah Didn't Blink," in The Alaska Dispatch.

Pundits have been dissecting Sarah's non-answer to Charlie Gibson's question about the Bush doctrine. Ironically, what caused the non-answer is Alaska's own Bush doctrine, otherwise known as "can-do" spirit. As Woodham points out, it's the reason why Sarah didn't blink when offered a shot at the VP slot.

When you live in the Alaskan Bush, you have to be resourceful. You rely on your own talents and skills, no matter how minimal, because the experts aren't around. You take your chances with things like home improvement and small engine repair, even if you know little about them. You muddle through. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Blue tarp roofs, Tyvek "siding," snowmachine carcasses, and personal junkyards of pieces and parts happen when the Alaskan Bush doctrine fails. "Can't do" trash litters yards throughout the Alaskan Bush.

You have to admire the guts, the self-reliance, the ingenuity. But our country's discard pile of failed policies and bad faith is already overflowing. Neither Bush doctrine is good for the long-term health of our nation, or our world.

ALASKAN AUTHORS WEEKLY ROUND-UP

The talk of the publishing world this week: Boris Kachka's article "The End," in New York magazine. It's a lengthy tome, but well worth the read. Kachka's hardly the first to declare the end of publishing as we know it, but the fact that the business is dying a slow death can't stop the funeral march. Books and readers will prevail. Despite what I wrote earlier about vetting in publishing, Kachka affirms that celebrity-making is as alive - though perhaps not as well - in book-selling as it is in politics.

Speaking of politics - you didn't really think I could breeze by that opening - a new Sarah book is in the works, and this one's not through a Christian publisher. 101 Things You—and John McCain—Didn’t Know About Sarah Palin should hit bookstores in a couple of weeks.

I'm working on a review of Willie Hensley's Fifty Miles from Tomorrow for Bookforum, so I'm thrilled to see that Barry Scott Zellen will be speaking Monday from 5-7 p.m. at the UAA Campus Bookstore on "Breaking the Ice: From Land Claims to Tribal Sovereignty in the Arctic." Important and timely issues all.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?

"I've lived in Alaska for ____ years." Fill in the blank, the bigger the better. We've heard it often of late, especially as our rank and file have weighed in on the Palin candidacy.

I invoke it myself, because in Alaska, years-in-state offer street cred. Where else do residents talk about everyplace else as "Outside" and draw dubious lines of distinction between cheechakos and sourdoughs?

Dating back to 18th century Russians and going right up to present-day oil field workers who get the hell out of here at the end of their shifts, we've had more than our share of those who take and run. So sheer staying power means something. But how much?

We can make a good case that Alaska is more than just a state or even a place - it's an experience. We've got more than our share of quirky independent types. Heck, we even have a political party that wants a re-do on the statehood vote. And most of us would agree that Outsiders who wheel in, muck things up and leave (are you listening, Truth Squad?) - they can go home anytime.

It's all well and good to feel special, but at some point that crosses into arrogance. Denying Alaskan arrogance is a lot like denying that shrinking sea ice affects polar bears.

Starting with Jack London, transplanted authors have written deeply and well about the Alaska experience. Like London, not all of them did long shifts in the North, but they managed to pen eloquent, thought-provoking reflections anyhow.

Seat time doesn't count much when it comes to real learning, and we should take care in assuming how much it counts in our state. What matters is that Alaskans think and care and act in ways that promote the good of all that's genuine and worthwhile in this thing we call the "Alaska experience."

THE TRUTH SQUAD

Still pondering that pesky distinction between fact and fiction? Never fear, the Truth Squad is here.

Yes, according to KTUU and confirmed in the Alaska Dispatch, John McCain has sent his self-proclaimed Palin Truth Squad to set you straight on the ever-complicated details of Troopergate.

You thought a bipartisan committee voted 12-0 back in July to investigate whether Palin abused executive powers in firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan? You thought Palin agreed to cooperate fully with the investigation, saying she had nothing to hide?

Boy, did you get that wrong. Check out the Truth Squad's poster (suitable for recycling in your high school student's current events report). All roads lead to...you guessed it, Barack Obama. Yup, all that stuff you thought happened back in July - lies. Apparently back then even Sarah Palin was drinking the Democratic Koolaid the neo-cons keep talking about.

Thankfully, the McCain campaign rescued her, and they've come to rescue Alaska, too. Although Palin never mentioned it in the past two months, turns out Monegan was "insubordinate." Independent investigation? That's actually "McCarthyism." A three-person personnel board, appointed by the governor herself, with a legendary record of firing all those who cross her, is all the independence we need.

Subpoenas? Former no-name lawyer-turned-Attorney General Talis Colberg says the Palin folk don't have to answer to those. (Note to criminals: consider donating to the McCain-Palin campaign, and maybe you, too, can dodge subpoenas.) Palin's commitment to be open and transparent? Not when it comes to explaining her role in this mess - she won't testify. Oh, and Republicans supporting McPalin have filed two separate lawsuits to stall the investigation, which they say is tainted by partisanship.

All these details are so complicated, aren't they? Our friends in the Lower 48 can't be bothered. Thank heavens for the Truth Squad, which makes everything simple and crystal clear: this whole mess is the fault of the Democrats.

By the way, all questions on the investigations are now to be funneled through the TS. No fair asking the gov's attorney or, heaven forbid, the governor herself.

Time to dust off your copies of Brave New World.