In “Green Grass Running Water”, find three examples of names that need to be spoken aloud in order to catch the allusion. Discuss the examples as well as the reading technique that requires you to read aloud in order to make connections. Why does King want us to read aloud?
Reading out loud is something that most of us are used to before we learn how to read any other way. First we listen, and then I think that as kids, before we’re able to read silently in our head, we read out loud. And then we mostly forget about reading out loud, except when we have the chance to read to little kids.
I was introduced to Slam Poetry a few years ago, with this video “Shake the Dust”. I saw some slam poetry in person and loved the power of it. There are all kinds of oral performance and storytelling, and it was neat to see Thomas King’s poem, “I’m Not the Indian You Had in Mind,” read out loud by three different people and with other things happening on video. Have you ever seen the 1996 Romeo + Juliet? The medium changes so much about what we hear, see, and understand. There are other forms too, like yesterday’s new Zen Pencils that puts images with written words.
But reading out loud is what we’re talking about. When I first read the above question, I started saying all the names in “Green Grass Running Water” out loud. As Jane Flick says of the origins of her “Reading Notes”, this focus on reading out loud “began a very entertaining search for the answers to little puzzles” (140). But I was surprised by how many names I couldn’t hear any meaning in. I was expecting a game something like Mad Gab, which I must say I’m pretty good at. Instead, more of the names are direct or modified references to real-world people, places, and events.
The most easily spotted play-on-words for me was Ahdamn (40). His character is very recognizable from his context living with First Woman in a garden. I was struck mostly strongly by how secondary Ahdamn is to First Woman, a refreshing reversal from Adam and Eve! King’s spelling is also a very interesting choice, framing Adam as a kind of mistake: ah, damn.
Another type of reference is, for example, the Grand Baleen Dam (112). It refers to the Grande Baleine (Great Whale) River Project, a hydroelectric project on James Bay (Flick, 150). Like other names, this one refers to a word in another language, but the spelling changes the pronunciation. I wonder why King would spell the word “baleen”, instead of using a spelling that would sound like the French word baleine. Or, do the two have the same sound, in a certain local French accent? I wondered the same for some Aboriginal words he uses, but whose pronunciation I don’t know. The Shagganappi Lounge (66) “comes from the Algonquian word for rawhide cord” (Flick, 149). But how similar is the sound to the Algonquian word that it comes from? Is there a standard spelling for that word, in English letters, that King altered, or no common spelling? Some Aboriginal names from literature and from history I imagine are spelt in a common way by people who refer to them. Chingachgook, for example, from a novel (Flick, 141). But character names like this may have been made up by white authors and not be Indigenous names or words at all. And the English spelling of Aboriginal leaders and historical figures may have been transcribed very differently from their true pronunciation.
These questions might be some of the answer as to why King wants us to read out loud. They generate an awareness of the power of language, and the difference between spoken language and the written word. I’m looking forward to reading and writing more about all of these characters more next week!
Works Cited
Aung Than, Gavin, illus. “Desiderata.” By Max Ehrmann. Zen Pencils, 2 July 2015. Web. 3 July 2015. http://zenpencils.com/
Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. 3 July 2015.
King, Thomas. “Green Grass Running Water.” Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
King, Thomas. “I’m not the Indian You had in Mind.” Video. Producer Laura J. Milliken. National Screen Institute. 2007. Web. 2 July 2015. http://www.nsi-canada.ca/2012/03/im-not-the-indian-you-had-in-mind
Mojgani, Anis. “Shake the Dust.” House of Blues, Orlando. 9 January 2010. Performance. Web. Youtube, 3 July 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qDtHdloK44
The Online Mad Gab Game. n.d. Web. 3 July 2015. http://www.freemadgabonline.com/
Travers, Peter. “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet.” Rolling Stone, 1 November 1996. Web. 3 July 2015. http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/william-shakespeares-romeo-juliet-19961101
Hey Kaitie!
I definitely agree with your ideas here. Another character that has an interesting name is Dr. Joe Hovaugh. While his name is an obvious play on “Jehovah” (as in Jehovah’s Witness) I can’t seem to wrap my head around why King would refer to Jehovah instead of a more mainstream, Christian God?
Perhaps this is King’s way of including as many religions as possible. For me, remembering the vast existence of (and interpretations of) religions opens my eyes to the issues of interpretation.
Which story is the most believable for me?
At the end of it all, realizing the existence of so many different religions also trivializes the existence of religion in general. Because there are so many different stories, who’s to say any of them are true at all? Aren’t they just stories, really?
I love your point about “Ahdamn” appearing to be a play on “ah, damn”. This is also the first thing I thought when I saw his name. When I think about “ah, damn” I also think about mistakes, but I also think about do-overs; starting over and creating a different story (hence the existence of so many).
Cheers!
Hailey
Hi Hailey,
Thanks for your comments!
Interesting thoughts on the connotation of “ah, damn”. I like your way of looking at it, a chance to do something over rather than just a mistake. Ahdamn actually does that when he tries to name the animals. First, he names the Elk a microwave oven. “Nope, says that Elk. Try again.” (King, 41). The Elk doesn’t just see the mistake, but gives him another chance. Ahdamn’s character is also creating a different story, as you say, as King changes the Adam and Eve story to make his own.
Thanks!
Kaitie
Hi Kaitie,
I first read “Ahdamn” as a play on “I don’t give a damn,” since he was so secondary to First Woman. But when he kept being told to “try again” upon misnaming animals, I got the second meaning.
I think Hailey’s insight on “Ah, damn” meaning a need to start over again is really interesting, as that connects to the Medicine Wheel. I just realized this, but maybe “I says” is a reference to Isis–the Egyptian goddess of rebirth… Whoa.
Another one is Charlie Looking Bear. After awhile, I read it as “Charlie Looking Bare,” which seemed really intimate and vulnerable. I started feeling as sorry for him as I did for Lionel.
Hi Evan,
Interesting that we can find multiple meanings for all these names. I really like your take on “Charlie Looking Bare”. Even if Thomas King didn’t mean these specific things when he named his characters, I’m sure he’d be interested in all the possible connections!
Thanks for your comments,
Kaitie
Hi Katie,
The Shaganappi [http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5769/pg5769-images.html] is the name of a story by E. Pauline Johnson – in GGRW, it is “Polly Johnson” who leaves a copy of it at the Dead Dog Cafe with a tip for Latisha. The Shaganappi is the story of a Metis boy who goes to a private school and encounters a great deal of discrimination from classmates – he eventually proves his worth and wins the respect of the other boys, despite being a “half-breed”. Interestingly, Pauline Johnson was part Mohawk and part British, her career specifically playing with these two parts of her identity; Latisha is a mother of children who are biracial – this layers within this gesture have always fascinated me within this book (hence my reply!).
Jane Flick also talks about how The Shaganappi Lounge is also supposed to sound a bit more louche, as it is the place Alberta is headed for a one-night stand – the “shag” and “nappies” referencing British slang for sex and diapers.
I felt compelled to comment because I think this particular form of intertextuality is expertly done, and it always cracks me up when “Polly Johnson” admits that no one ever reads her books.
Heidi
Hi Heidi,
Thanks for this – great to learn about the background story! I also really liked Polly Johnson. It seems like through his jokes about her, he’s making fun, lovingly, of Canadian writers as a group. Self-mockery, a great foundation of Canadian comedy!
Thanks,
Kaitie
Hi Kaitie,
I agree that the medium through which things are presented change what we grasp about them. It’s interesting to think about how that impacts other interactions in life, and how stories that are told vary by storytellers. I did this question as well and had the same kind of stutter when I realized the names weren’t like Mad Gab, and were more a cherry pick of pop culture figures (albeit some less known that others). The analysis of Ahdamn’s name was an interesting one, there appear to be a handful of references to religious texts (Jehovah, Mary, & Joseph were a grouping I had noticed). It’s interesting to think about who his targeted audience was, some of the names and places were quite obscure and Jane Flick did quite a bit of work elaborating what she thought they meant. I wonder how a non-Canadian, or culturally in-touch reader would approach this book.
Hi Landon,
Thank you for these thoughts. There are a whole lot of references that I’m really not familiar with, even when I read about them in Flick. Maybe King enjoys his own private jokes even if a lot of his audience don’t quite get them, or maybe he’s making some obscure on purpose, to illustrate the complexity of stories or the absurdity of the cultural contexts they come from. In any case, it makes for some great puzzles!
Kaitie