6. 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?
Green Grass, Running Water is a book that requires it’s readers to play a game of mad gab while also having background knowledge in European and Indigenous culture in order to understand the on going jokes.
Have you ever played the game mad gab? Mad gabs is a puzzle party game that requires players to figure out “the proper phrase from a collection of words that otherwise mean nothing by themselves” (How do you play it). For example “Dawned Rink Hand Arrive” would be “Don’t drink and drive”. When playing this game in order to find meaning in a meaningless phrase it often helps to say the meaningless phrase out loud. In Thomas King’s novel in a way is like the game mad gab as he has many character names that seem like they are meaningless until you say them out loud and catch the allusion. However, King’s novel is not a normal game of mad gab, King’s novel has a big twist and this twist is that readers have to have knowledge on Canadian history, Canadian politics, Native studies, and European literature to be able to catch the allusion (Fee & Flick, 132). Catching these mad gab illusions were very difficult for me as a reader, and I found I needed a lot of assistance from “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water” by Jane Flick in order to to decipher this novel. However Fee and Flick make me feel a little bit better about not being able to understand much of the allusion in the novel as they explains that “There is no reader of this novel, except perhaps Thomas King, who is not outside some of its networks of cultural knowledge” (Fee &Flick, 131).
The first character name that was an allusion that I was able to catch was Ahdamn. This one is a little be bit more obvious as the story line shows pretty clearly that this Ahdamn is a “play on Adam and the Garden of Genesis” (Flick, 147). Another character play on words that I was able to understand with a little bit of help from some secondary sources is Dr. Joseph Hovaugh. Flick explains that “Dr. Joe Hovaugh is a play on the name Jehovah” (Flick, 144). And this is fitting as the character Dr. Joseph Hovaugh is obsessed creating order out of disorder as he “[creates] a carefully manicured garden” (Chester, 50). And he is also the authority figure running the asylum keeping which is keeping the Indians from escaping (Flick, 144). Chester explains that the connection that King makes with him to Jehovah is suitable as “Hovaugh [is shown playing] God with the lives of Indians” (Chester, 52). The last one that I was able to catch was the allusion of the characters Louis, Ray and Al from Manitoba, and this was all thanks to my grade 11 social studies class. Flick explains that Louis, Ray and Al is a pun on Louis Riel (Flick, 161). Other than the name and the place another hint that is given is that the character Louie in Green Grass, Running Water is a poet just like Louis Riel.
The last part of the question that I am answering asks me “Why does King want us to read aloud?”. And I feel I have discussed this question a lot in my previous blog post’s therefore I will give a shorter explanation here. It is clear to see King made his characters’ names play on words because he wanted to encourage and reward readers for reading out loud. And I feel that King wants his readers to read out loud because it adds to his oral syntax and makes his literature a hybrid of traditional oral and written stories. Furthermore, King ‘forcing’ the readers to read out loud in a way could be him paying homage and preserving oral traditional stories.
citations
Chester, Blanca. “Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel” Canadian Literature, 1999.
“Develop Your Listening Ear with Mad Gab: CanScribe.” CanScribe Career College, 2 Apr. 2019, canscribe.com/develop-listening-ear-mad-gab/.
Fee, Margery, and Jane Flick. “Coyote Pedagogy Knowing Where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature, 1999.
Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water” Canadian Literature, 1999.
“Louis Riel’s Handwritten Poems Displayed for the Public | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 17 Feb. 2009, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/louis-riel-s-handwritten-poems-displayed-for-the-public-1.776023.
King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. HarperCollins e-Books, 2016.
“Mad Gab Rules: How Do You Play Mad Gab?” How Do You Play It, 12 June 2018, howdoyouplayit.com/mad-gab-rules-play-mad-gab/.
Hi Sidney,
I found that your comparison to the game mad gab was very astute. Especially since it seems that phrases from mad gab are rooted in our own culture and understanding. You touched on how his references come from a variety of different sources. As someone who was not raised in Canada, I found that a lot of the references eluded me even when I could tell it seemed to be a reference to something. For example, when the characters named Louis, Ray and Al appeared, even when I found out what it was referencing I did not have any connection to who Louis Riel was until I further examined it. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on why King may have selected to include so many references to outside cultural information?
Hi Sophie thank you for the comment! I totally understand your feeling when reading this novel. There were many times where I knew that King was referring to some sort of reference but I had no idea what it was about. King chose many different references from different cultures, there are references in the book that refer to European, Indigenous and Settler networks of cultural knowledge. Therefore, Margery Fee and Jane Flick explain that “there is no reader of this novel, except perhaps Thomas King, who is not outside of some network of cultural knowledge” (131). In other words anyone reading this novel regardless what their background is will have to look up some references. Furthermore, Margery Fee and Jane Flick talk about crossing boarders and I feel that King makes references from different cultural backgrounds because he wants his readers to look up these references and learn about other cultural backgrounds other than their own.
Fee, Margery, and Jane Flick. “Coyote Pedagogy Knowing Where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature, 1999.
Hi Sidney,
Great post. I love your comparison to the game Mad Gab, I have never played this but I dont think I would be very good at it. I have found that besides the obvious names like Ahdam and First-Woman, I do not pick up on the references of Green Grass, Running Water very easily. It is interesting how, like in the game Mad Gab, the references only become clear when reading them out loud. I would agree with you that this forces us to participate in the oral culture of the novel and will add that this encourages us both to interpret the stories with our own background knowledge and to research information to understand them better.
Have you found that these clue-like names encourage you to do more research when reading? How has this impacted your reading experience?
Looking forward to working with you on the project!
Best,
Jade 🙂
Hey Jade!
Yes, whenever I am reading and I run into some sort of reference or name that I feel like is an allusion to something I do have the desire to go and look it up. This can make reading take a little bit longer as there are multiple references on a single page. Therefore, sometimes I must remind myself that it is okay not to know and not to look up every reference. The prof mentioned in her 3.3 lesson that “perhaps the most important reading strategy to begin with, is to be willing not to know” (Paterson lesson 3.3) and I totally agree with this statement as sometimes it is good to keep reading and be okay with not knowing everything that is going on.
Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3.3″ https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl372-99c-2019wc/unit-3/lesson-3-3/.
Hi Sidney!
Thank you for your post. I really enjoyed reading your comparison to Mad Gab. To be honest, I had never heard of Mad Gab before, but it sounds difficult! I think it would be entertaining though, but requires quite a bit of effort, and I don’t think I would do well and would get frustrated. I enjoyed reading how you related this game to King and the importance of reading out loud to him. Do you agree with King in terms of the importance of reading out loud? Or would you say you stress other aspects more strongly?
Thanks! Maya 🙂
Thanks for the comment Maya!
I think the way King writes sometimes encourages his readers to read out loud and I feel that this is an extremely important aspect of his writing. This is because King uses these mad gab allusions and oral syntax in his writing to make novel a hybrid of oral traditional stories and written stories. These features of his novel are important because these features make his novel a modern day tribute to the past Indigenous oral stories.