3:2 – Learning and Teaching go Hand in Hand

In her article, “Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel,” Blanca Chester observes that “the conversation that King sets up between oral creation story, biblical story, literary story, and historical story resembles the dialogues that Robinson sets up in his storytelling performances (47). She writes:

Robinson’s literary influence on King was, as King himself says, “inspirational.” When one reads King’s earlier novel, Medicine River, and compares it with Green Grass, Running Water, Robinson’s impact is obvious. Changes in the style of the dialogue, including the way King’s narrator seems to address readers and characters directly (using the first person), in the way traditional characters and stories from Native cultures (particularly Coyote) are adapted, and especially in the way that each of the distinct narrative strands in the novel contains and interconnects with every other, reflect Robinson’s storied impact. (46)

For this blog assignment I would like you to make some comparisons between Harry Robinson’s writing style in “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England” and King’s style in Green Grass, Running Water. What similarities can you find between the two story-telling voices? Coyote and God are present in both texts, how do they compare in character and voice across the stories?

For my blog this week, I decided to read parts of both Harry Robinson’s “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” Thomas King’s “Green Grass, Running Water,” out loud to compare the voices present in each of these texts. Reading both aloud emphasized the voices of each story for me.

Below is one passage I focused on in King’s story. I read it aloud a few times to myself and then to my fiancé.

“When that River starts flowing again, it flows real fast. It flows around those rocks, and it flows past those trees. Look out, says those Rocks, here comes Thought Woman. And those Rocks climb out of the River and sit on the bank. Wake up, wake up, says those Trees. You are floating away. But Thought Woman’s ears are under water, and she doesn’t hear those Rocks and she doesn’t hear those Trees. Oh well, says those Rocks. Too bad. They say that, too. And those Rocks dive into the River and swim around until they find a nice spot to sit. La, la, la, la says that River, and it keeps going faster and faster. And pretty soon it is going very fast. It goes so fast, it goes right off the edge of the world. Oops, says that River. But it is too late. Thought Woman floats right out of the river and into the sky” (King 232). 

I was drawn to this passage because it reminded me of the style in “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England,” in the sense that it is descriptive of the setting, but also because of the sentence structure. I found reading it silently that I was skipping over things or making short sentences into longer ones. Reading it aloud, I was able to focus on the story itself and realized that its mixture of long and short sentences gives it a voice. I love how everything in this story is given an identity and a voice because I feel like this emphasizes the relationship between the natural world and the human. The River and the Rocks are portrayed as meaningful through their being capitalized in the story and through their voices. Something else that I noticed while reading this story was how Thought Woman leaves the River because the River tricks her into getting in and she was under water and did not hear the warning from the Trees and the Rocks. This event reminded me of how once a story is told it cannot be taken back. It reminded me of this because I would not associate a River with wanting to do harm, but after reading this story I realized that things are not always as they appear to be. The River, although a part of the natural world, was able to trick Thought Woman and prevented her from hearing the warnings from the Rocks and the Trees. I think that also Coyote’s reaction to this story in the novel when he says “Oh, no … Not again,” impacted my thoughts about this situation. I feel like this story, along with the rest, show that there is great hardship in reconciling Native American culture and traditions with those of the modern world. Hearing the words “Not again” said aloud brought me a feeling of frustration almost. I felt like saying why do things like this have to keep happening? Why didn’t Thought Woman come up from under water and listen to the Trees and the Rocks?

Similarly to “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England,” the voice in “Green Grass, Running Water” is a teaching one. Through my reading of both stories I felt the same feeling like I was learning something sacred. I think that the mixture of sentence structure brings a realistic voice to the stories as well. From my experience of telling stories and listening to stories of others’, I find that there are often breaks, changes, emphasis on certain parts, repeated description, and distinct voices of characters. I think this occurs in both Robinson’s story and King’s book of stories. I think that both storytellers are able to portray a truth and significance about history that cannot be portrayed in a textbook.

Coyote and God are present in both stories and I think that one difference between them is that Coyote and God are shown as having a strong relationship in Robinson’s story, but some of the stories in King’s book emphasize how Coyote is impatient. I found that King’s book emphasizes how Coyote is learning and was drawn to this passage about Thought Woman and Coyote.

“‘But there is only one Thought Woman,’ says Coyote. ‘That’s right,’ I says. ‘And there is only one Coyote,’ says Coyote. ‘No,’ I says. ‘This world is full of Coyotes.’ ‘Well,’ says Coyote, ‘that’s frightening.’ ‘Yes it is,’ I says. ‘Yes it is'” (King 272). 

This passage presents Coyote as a student, whereas I found that Robinson’s story presented Coyote as a teacher. What I understand from this is that Coyote, and all beings of the world, are both students and teachers as if we learn from others and ourselves then we can teach others and ourselves.

Thinking about this idea of learning and teaching, I wanted to read more stories and hear more voices. I found this book online called “Tea and Bannock Stories: First Nations Community of Poetic Voices.” It is a compilation of poems that emphasize and celebrate the relationship between People and Land. I found it to be an intriguing experience to read a variety of poems that show this relationship in different ways through their words, themes, format, and images.

Keeping with the importance of learning and teaching, I came across a video called “Indigenous leader teaching the teachers.” I think this video highlights how learning and teaching go hand in hand and it was interesting to learn more about the land, but also about the process in using features of the land as medicine. The relationship between People and Land is clearly shown in this video through the teaching stories of Indigenous cultural ambassador Dean Kelly.

Works Cited:

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

Robinson, Harry. Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory. Ed. Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005. Print.

Ross, Annie, Brandon Bob, Eve Chuang, Steve Davis, and Robert Pictou, comps. “Tea and Bannock Stories: First Nations Community of Poetic Voices.” (2007): 1-160. 2007, https://www.sfu.ca/lovemotherearth/02poetry/tea_and_bannock.pdf. Accessed 28 Oct 2016.

UNSW. “Indigenous Leader Teaching the Teachers.” YouTube. YouTube, 06 Sept. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwOYhok3Gc. Accessed 28 Oct 2016.