I chose to read Robinson’s story, “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England,” prior to reading King’s article. By the time I came to King’s article I had read Robinson’s story in my head and out loud a few times, and I’m glad I arranged things this way. Reading King’s article after having gone through Robinson’s story, I found myself nodding along with how King described Robinson’s literature. One passage in King’s article in particular perfectly described my experience in reading Robinson’s story. At the bottom of page 186, King writes, “[Robinson] develops what we might want to call an oral syntax that defeats readers’ efforts to read the stories silently to themselves, a syntax that encourages readers to read the stories out loud.”
Just as King stated would happen, I found my efforts to read the story silently “defeated.” Though on my first reading I didn’t speak the story out loud (I did in my second reading), there was a very clear and distinct voice in my head that was, in a way, performing the story as I read it. The syntax of the story very plainly lends itself to this. The rhythm of the lines, the breaks between lines, the stops and starts, the word choice and “interesting” grammatical choices all work to make it feel unnatural to read silently – or, perhaps more accurately, work to make it feel natural to read out loud.
For me this effect was most pronounced in the parts of the story that consisted heavily of dialogue, particularly between Coyote and the King, like pages 70-75. I’m not sure there’s something special about dialogue, but more probably that there are more stops and starts in the text itself. It could also be that the unusualness of the word and grammar choice is most pronounced in the dialogue, as it feels more unnatural.
As to how this oral syntax shapes the meaning of the story, I’m not certain but I have an idea. Reading silently, I feel like I “smoothed over the text,” if that makes any kind of sense. The line breaks, pauses, etc. were all less emphasized. Reading it aloud on my second reading, I found myself accentuating those pauses and breaks, adding and detracting emphasis from certain parts of the text. Emphasis can do much to alter the meaning of something, as well as add an emotional layer that’s not present in a dry, “smooth” reading.
I also found myself imagining a speaker performing this story with hand gestures, though I never acted them out myself. The way the story is written lends itself to that, I feel.
Works Cited
King, Thomas. “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial.” Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism. Mississauga, ON: Broadview, 2004. 183- 190.
Robinson, Harry. “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England.” Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory. Ed. Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005. 64-85.
Hello Cooper!
It’s interesting how the different grammatical pairings within the texts allude to or rearrange our interpretations of the stories at hand. It’s particularly important to note emphasis and line breaks. Often, I find myself glossing over words and sentence structure, disregarding the punctuation and sometimes whole words. However, reading aloud tends to help us better catch the smaller details in writing, which is why we are often told to read aloud our texts in order to look for mistakes or improvements. It becomes particularly important when we look at punctuation, line breaks and certain wordings, noting the significance behind why a certain part is written, or spoken the way it is. I feel that your mention of body language also aids in this interpretation when we are talking about oral presentations. What body language do you think is important in our daily lives when we speak with others, and how does it accentuate what we are speaking? Following this, how do the body language we use in our daily lives relate to the body language that First Nations people use to describe their stories?
Hi Cooper,
I like the way you described your experience of reading the story silently vs. reading aloud. When I was reading “Coyote makes a deal with the King of England”, it occurred to me, that Robinson’s “oral syntax” in the story defeats my efforts not only reading it silently, but aloud as well. My temptation was to tell the story, not read it! I wonder if you felt something similar while reading aloud Robinson’s story.
You also pointed out that reading it aloud you found yourself adding and detracting emphasis from certain parts of the text, which can do much to alter the meaning. It prompted me to think that a storyteller may have more power to influence the listeners’ perception of the story due to the silent, verbal and non-verbal emphasis of certain parts of the text, comparatively to the writer-reader relationship. Do you think this assumption is fair?
Thank you,
Zhanna (Joanne)
Hey Cooper!
First, I’m sorry for the late comment. I’m just getting caught up on the last couple of weeks.
Second, I found it really interesting that you’d read both materials in a different order than I had. In my post I acknowledge my bias based off of a prior disposition to being told that Robinson’s story is mean to be spoken aloud. I think that this did effect my reaction to the material. What do you think?
Cheers,
Ari
Hi Cooper!
It was really interesting for me to read your blog post!
I personally have not read out loud for a very long time and sometimes feels awkward to do so. But when I imagined myself reading a text out loud, it made me think that I was able to understand the text in different ways according to the pauses and emphasis just like you said in the blog.
My question for you is what would the dialogue feel like if Robinson had used perfect grammar, without any pauses and breaks, would it still feel the same way because of the fact that it is a dialogue and would we still read it out the same way as reading out loud certainly is a completely different experience than reading silently.