What are the major differences or similarities between the ethos of the creation story you are familiar with and the story King tells in The Truth About Stories?
The creation story I am most familiar with is that of Genesis, found in the Christian Bible. I am more of a free spirit when it comes to the topic of religion, but I do know the basic story of the creation of the Earth by the hands of God. I actually just finished watching the new Exodus movie, which contains the story of Moses, which I found also helped me in understanding the differences between the story of Genesis and King’s creation story. To begin, God created the Earth in seven days; (please take some time to go to this site it has a more in depth insight into the creation of the Earth!) . Within the seven days, land, water, animals, days and humans and created, in the light of God’s image. In just a week, the Earth had been created and mankind would now begin its existence. From this comes the story of Adam and Eve, and the creation of the human being. Eve is tempted by evil and succumbs to the apple, which reminds me of how King also touches on this in the first novel we read in this course. This is the story I know about how we were created, but this differs greatly from that of King’s edition.
The story of Charm begins with her falling into a new world, quite literally. Her curiosity gets the better of her and she falls through a hole onto what is called now the Earth. She then uses the help of her water animal friends to find mud and create land. The Twins from that point create humans and life. From here, this is where society begins. You can see the differences in the stories by simply reading these condensed versions of each creation story that I have provided. Now, even though these two stories are different, they each have their own validity and truth. The Twins in a sense become the God that is found in the Christian creation story. They are the creators of mankind, although the do not create the entire Earth. Charm helps to create the Earth by sending down each of the water animals, awaiting for one to come back with what would be the creation of land. Both stories involve a form of faith; one must have faith in the validity of the story to believe in it. This is a similarity between each of these stories, they have a higher power that creates the world as we know it, and people as they are now. In an article I read regarding belief, the author relates faith which “is merely the innate drive to search for meaning, purpose and significance.” (Popcak). There is both meaning and significance in each of these stories, it just depends on which you have belief. King’s story broadened my view on creation stories, demonstrating another view regarding the creation of the world. Even though there are differences between the characters in each of these stories they have the same premise; the world was created by a higher power unto which all of life was created. For King, that is placed upon Charm and the Twins, and for the Christian religion upon God’s creation. Do not each of these stories have their own validity and do they maintain their story due to faith?
Popcak, Gregory. “Faith, Spirituality, Belief, Religion…What’s the Difference?” Faith on the Couch. Patheos Hosting the Conversation on Faith., 5 May. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
Blank, Wayne. “The Seven Days of Creation.” Daily Bible Study., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
6 Comments
Hey Alexandra!
First off, wanted to say that your post definitely got me thinking more about King’s story of creation and other stories of creation, as it was the same question I chose to blog about for this assignment. Initially, I was not at all familiar with the story of Genesis, but I feel that the link you brought to us from the Daily Bible Study was one that made it much more clear and concise – so thank you! I also agree with you in that both of the stories of creation are clearly different, yet still follow the same premise. In my post I compared the ‘curiosity’ of Charm digging too deep to the ‘curiosity’ of Eve eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge – causing both stories to end up on Earth. I do believe that both stories do have validity due to the definition of belief that you made available to us. What do you think about my comparison regarding curiosity?
Thanks for your post!
Devon Smith
Hi Devon!
I really like how you compared the curiosity of Charm and Eve; I did not even notice the resemblance until your post! Each of these women are curious about their world; Eve eats the forbidden fruit and Charm falls onto Earth through a hole. It made me think of what would have happened if these characters were not curious; well for Eve there would have been no children and for Charm the world would not have been created. Even though these women went against their “social norm” or rules, they inspired the creation of mankind. Through their curiosity, both Eve and Charm end up on Earth, which is a main similarity between both of these stories.
Each story does follow the same premise, but looking at the woman characters more closely reveals that they are more alike than what seems upon the surface of them. Eve and Charm could become interchangeable, as they both let their curiosity guide them to a new world.
Hi Alex,
I would submit that each story has its own ‘validity’ by virtue of its existence – est ergo est – and that faith (or belief, despite Popcak – where’d he get his doctorate, anyway?) might allow for the production of subjective meaning per that narrative. These stories are more useful as cultural artifacts than historiographies, of course, but they hold meaning nonetheless. Using ‘validity’ – instead of absolute truth – as your mode of interrogation was a good move, I think.
Cheers!
Joey
Hey Joey!
Thank you for the comment.
I do agree that each of these stories hold meanings, but it is up to the person reading the story as to what meaning is produced. I think that is where belief also comes in, as each person is subjective to a certain belief in which they have faith. I like how you put these stories as cultural artifacts, as I previously did not see them in that perspective. I have been reading up on Greek mythology and this made me relate to your comment. Their mythology has become their cultural artifact; we have learned so much about their culture due to their artifacts and writings. Will our current creation stories look the same as the Greek creation stories look to us in the future? Just an interesting thought 🙂
Hi Devon & Alexandra!
Devon – I really liked the comparison you made about Charm and Eve with their curiosity!! Now what that says about women or about women being curious is a different discussion than this! =p
I think with regards to the creation story from Christian or Native roots, we have been challenged from the beginning to view them not as separate ideas that work against each other, but perhaps to be able to view them as if they can exist together. So this question – asking us to think about the differences, is I feel putting divisions between stories again.
I really enjoyed The Truth About Stories by Thomas King. I read it first, and then I listened to them as an audiobook, and the story came to life for me. “The truth about stories is that that’s all we ever are”, this line is now stuck in my head permanently!
So perhaps the question was asking us what was different, perhaps in hopes that we would find more similarities than differences. In the way that Thomas King tells his stories in a circular fashion. In the way he starts of his chapters. In the same way Earth is the centre of the universe, and God created man in his image. In the same way we are here because curiosity. God and Coyote. Eve and Charm. The earth is the only thing they have in common. Perhaps this is the only thing that is real. Everything else, is a story.
Qihui Huang.
Hi Qihui!
I like the quote from King’s story that you really like and thank you for sharing it with me! It really made me think about our culture and our identity. We exist from the stories that we tell and that we pass down to our future generations. Our existence is crucial on the fact that we tell those in the future who we are and what we did.
As an interesting note, I was once told that instead of looking at time yearly, time is actually linear. I mean that there are no years, but each day continues to the next on a straight line. This thought came up when I read about how King tells his stories cyclically, meaning that the linear time eventually repeats itself. What happens in our lifetime will probably occur in the future again. Our story, whatever story that may be, does have the Earth as a main subject. That is how we came to be, put on the same planet, no matter what story you read or believe. I really like the last paragraph you wrote in this comment, it is how I feel as well when it comes to stories. We are real due to the fact that we all live on Earth. And Earth is real. It is one of the main links between each creation story and what makes them all similar to each other. Sure, some of the characters are alike, much like Eve and Charm, but the main thing that puts these stories together is that each of the characters makes their home on earth.