Occasionally, He’s a Somniaticidal Maniac: Stephen Graham Jones Reclaims Home and History

Environmental activism and preservation of the land, acknowledgement of our shared responsibilities to the planet, to unci maka, to Mother Earth, to our home; these are obligations of love we as human beings embrace with devoted regularity. But what happens when we look at stories that might destroy the world entirely, might remold, reshape, reclaim and remake (or perhaps even “rename” in a restorative move) our histories and homes? What is the reception for works that defy the expectations of devotion to the environment in Native American literature one genre at a time? That address historic erasure by reshaping the future? This paper will examine some of Stephen Graham Jones’s prolific works, including Sterling City, “How Billy Hanson Destroyed the Earth, and Everyone on It,” as well as Chapter Six, all published in a variety of platforms and collections. In each instance, the worlds as home and future history described are decidedly reclaimed, perhaps for good reasons, and perhaps for not so good reasons. The worlds offered to choose from, however, are ones that will likely give you nightmares, or at least pause, even in the daylight.