PSU Magazine Spring 2005

Jesse, the new boy, continua lly finds himself in trouble with the town rule makers-from cutting baseball practice to shoplifting to blowing up a small dam that blocks the passage of wild salmon. Wade, a dutiful town son, tries to help Jesse stay within the rules of Calamus society. But as he sees how much harder the town is on Jesse than on other teenagers, who misbehave within the accepted societal norms, Wade gradually begins to see Calamus in another light. Meanwhile, Lorna, Wade's girlfriend, must figure out just how much wildness-and sexuality– a woman is all owed in Calamus society. "In my mind ," says Cody, "the rea– sons it gets blocked are so peripheral to the book. l thought, 'Okay, I'll make it easier for teachers and s hool boards to get this book into the hands of kids. ' It started as a compromise. I'll budge. I'll tone down the sex scenes, and see if l can take out some of the logger language. That's the way I went into it." Cody turned to Ooligan. Ooligan is Portland State's teaching press, where students run a real-world publishing house. The 70 or so stu– dents in the program edit, produce, and publish books Lhat honor the cul– tural and natural diversity of the Pacific Northwest. Ooligan's first book, Abraham Lincoln: A Novel Life , was published last year. Ooligan's publisher, Dennis Stovall, is the former co-owner of Blue Heron Press, which published Lhe paperback edition of Ricochet River for several years until Blue Heron shuttered its doors. When Stovall took on the top job at Ooligan, Cody looked him up. The six students in PSU's graduate ed iting class separately reviewed a copy of the book-marking unclear passages and Oagging profanity, then met to discuss their findings with each other. "We were very much on the watch for vulgarity or overly sexual themes," says Karen Kirtley, instructor of the ed iting class. "We understood that was the main thing we were being asked to do. We wanted to keep all the vivid color and power, at the same time we wanted Lo eliminate the obstacles to the book being adopted. We spent a lot of time discussing this." Among the more extensive debates, Kirtley says, were those over the profanity. "Often the deterioration of language reflects the deterioration of the charac– ter," she says."We thought the vulgar– ity, most of it, could go wi thout significantly reducing Lhe color. We took as a given that we needed to help Robin make Lhis book something thaL would pass under the radar. " Finally the students met with Cody to review their suggestions. Cody, truth be told , was shocked. Wen Knopf published the hardback edition in 1992, he recalls wryly, the editors changed nary a word. BuL Lhe students, he soon saw, had taken their task with the utmost seriousness. Some of their suggestions were no-brainers. The students politely pointed out LhaL since the book was set in Lhe 1960s, Lhe reference Lo U2 was an anachro– nism. "They were Lhinking rock band," says Cody. "I was thinking spy plane." No point in confusing readers over such minor details, Cody figured. He made those changes and others of the same ilk. In all, he figures, he accepted about a third of the student editors' suggestions. The students also marked each occurrence of a profanity. Again, Cody reviewed each suggestion. "After I got their consolidated edit," he says, "l made the decision which vulgarities would remain." Mostly, he says, the changes consis ted of replac– ing "f---" with less offensive expletives. Cody spent the summer and fall tak– ing an even more critical look at his first novel-at the language, at the development of the theme , at the craft of the writing. And at the two sex scenes. "lf you put something you write in a drawer for six months , then read it you'll see stuff to change," Cody says. Ricochet River was his first novel and it had been years since he'd viewed it afresh. "Some things were surprisingly good, like, 'man , I never wou ld have thought of that,' yet I wrote it," he says. "On Lhe other hand , you learn a loL about the craft of wriLing. There were lots of ways to make this betLer. You read a paragraph and thin k, 'This isn't helping."' And he looked with a criLical eye at the scenes of passion. ln the first, Wade and Lorna waLch salmon spawning, are inspired by the rhythms of nature and make love. "That was the scene people liked to take out of context and say how horri– ble the book is," says Cody. Cody fell the scene was essential to the theme of the novel, buL fell he could tone it down. "I just made iL less explicit about how far they go," he says. "lt's still there, but it doesn't describe Lhe body to body stuff." The second scene was less thematic, although Cody admits it was one of his favorite comic scenes. In it, the three teens take a road trip and spend the SPRING 2005 PSU MAGAZINE 7