{"id":49,"date":"2015-07-20T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T19:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/?page_id=49"},"modified":"2015-07-20T12:01:17","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T19:01:17","slug":"blog-3-5","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/blog-3-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog 3.5"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n

Blog 3.5: A Common Matrix of Cultural Knowledge<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\"creation\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Question # 5: Narratives assume, in Blanca Chester\u2019s words, \u201ca common matrix of cultural knowledge.\u201d The Four Old Indians are perhaps the best examples of characters that belong to a matrix of cultural knowledge, which excludes many non-First Nations. What were your first questions about and impressions of these characters? How have you come to understand their place in the novel?<\/p>\n

In the beginning of my reading of \u201cGreen Grass, Running Water\u201d, by\u00a0Thomas King, the sections in the novel which narrate The Four Old Indians, created a confusing plot line for me to comprehend. Like most novels I read, I always find it important to start reading the story with an open mind, while getting a sense of how each character plays a role in the plot. Characters in the novel, such as Alberta, Lionel, and Eli, were easier to piece together in terms of getting to know exactly what they were about,\u00a0as there was a\u00a0thorough understanding of their personalities. However, The Four Old Indians\u2019 narration followed a somewhat choppy dialogue through the four sections of the novel. This made it\u00a0difficult\u00a0for myself to understand\u00a0because it was uncertain to know whom was talking at times. The Four Old Indians (Elders) were presented throughout segments of the novel, with little to no detail of their characteristics.\u00a0I found that upon finishing the novel is where I finally understood their roles in the storyline, and pieced together their purpose in storytelling.<\/p>\n

My first impression of the LoneRanger, Robinson Crusoe, Hawkeye, and Ishmael were that they were quite humorous. They added a lot of satire to the plot line, a goofiness that enrichened their creation stories. Additionally, they added a childish and non-structured way of telling stories. I quite enjoyed their method of telling stories because it painted a simple picture in my mind of how these creation stories occurred. Identifying their genders was another one of my questions; however as the novel unravelled, I slowly discovered more details about whom they were, and why they were.<\/p>\n

As mentioned in the former, it was close to the end of the novel when I noticed a trend of The Four Old Indians\u2019 narration stories. While each elder had recited a story in the four sections of the novel, each elder was also connected to the mythical being in their stories. There is an evident intersection of Judeo-Christian figures that are presented in every story, which contrasts with the protagonists of the creation stories, whom are characters from Native oral traditions. The genre of narration that The Four Old Indians used to express their stories merged Aboriginal oral tradition and European-American cultured stories. Whilst reading the first creation story involving The First Woman, it reminded me of The Miller\u2019s tale, being a parody of The Knight\u2019s tale, in \u201cCanterburry Tales<\/a>\u201d, by Geoffrey Chaucer. For instance, Lone Ranger\u2019s story about The First Woman alludes to the creation story of Adam and Eve, with a humorous twist. Details such as the \u201cforbidden fruit\u201d not only being the apple (like in Adam and Eve), but also included pizza and fry bread, which were humorous additions the Lone Ranger\u2019s creation story.<\/p>\n

\"millers<\/a><\/p>\n

I quite enjoyed how each elder had a different type of creation story, which responded to Coyote\u2019s question of why there was so much water everywhere. The plot is even more humorous when discovering that The Four Old Indians are actually mental institution escapees. Knowing this while reading the stories, really explains as to why the stories are told in such unstructured manners, although still very capturing and easy to follow. Another interesting aspect of The Four Old Indians is that they seem genderless for the majority of the plot. They are eventually revealed as being men, but they also possess a strong feminine side because of their associations to the female characters in their stories. I find it contrasts other creation stories, for example, the Christian creation story of man where the \u201cLord God made a woman from the rib\u00a0he had taken out of the man<\/a>\u201d (Genesis 2:22-24), making \u201cman\u201d the alpha creation, because in all the Elders\u2019 stories, the women were the creators, and the bearers of life.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

King, Thomas.\u00a0Green Grass Running Water<\/i>. Toronto:\u00a0 Harper Collins, 1993. Print.<\/p>\n

Chaucer,Geoffrey. The Canterbury tales<\/em>. ChaosCafe. The Electric Literature Foundation. 1991-2012. Web. 26 June 2015. <http:\/\/www.canterburytales.org\/><\/p>\n

Genesis 2:22-24. The Bible<\/em>. Bible Study Tools. 2014. Web. 26 June 2015.
\n<http:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/genesis\/passage\/?q=genesis+2:22-24><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog 3.5: A Common Matrix of Cultural Knowledge Question # 5: Narratives assume, in Blanca Chester\u2019s words, \u201ca common matrix of cultural knowledge.\u201d The Four Old Indians are perhaps the best examples of characters that belong to a matrix of cultural knowledge, which excludes many non-First Nations. What were your first questions about and impressions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31774,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-49","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31774"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ariannerobyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}