Assignment 3:2, Q5 | Trickster Traditions
Reading Harry Robinson’s “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” for last week’s assignment gave me the chance to reflect on his writing style. As I then began to re-read Green Grass, Running Water to prepare for this unit, it was naturally at the forefront of my mind! That made my choice for this week’s assignment question very easy; question 5:
For this blog assignment I would like you to make some comparisons between Harry Robson’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?
First, a few things I noticed about Robinson’s writing style when reading “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England:” Robinson’s distinct voice is immediately apparent and serves an important role in his writing; as King notes, it encourages the reader to read the story in a manner that recreates the oral performance of its origins. The configuration of the lines on the page reinforces this, much as the layout in poetry does the same. The story also has a sense of flow that, while linear, disregards the normal flow of time; centuries pass in the blink of an eye as the story progresses. The transitions between settings is seamless, even though the connections may not be immediately apparent. There is also an element of repetition; key ideas are circled back to – or reinforced by short tangents.
Thomas King’s writing style in Green Grass, Running Water shares several commonalities with that of Robinson. He also has a very distinct voice; I found it less jarring, for lack of a better word, than Robinson’s, but no less distinctive. The mutability of time can be found throughout King’s novel, and the flow of the dialogue mimics the sense of storytelling that Robinson so deftly achieves. Even more than Robinson, King places emphasis on transitions. His characters frequently repeat the line that concluded the previous section, albeit in an entirely new situation, thus reframing a number of key ideas. Repetition also plays a crucial role in King’s novel, as evidenced by the beginning of each section of the novel.
In short, both King and Robinson achieve a remarkable sense of interconnectedness and fluidity in their works, pulling the readers into their story and creating a performative platform on which their storytelling can be brought to life.
“Both writers, Harry Robinson and Thomas King, create narratives that are saturated with mythic expressions.” – Veneta Georgieva Petkova, University of Iceland
Chief among these “mythic expressions” in both Green Grass, Running Water and “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” is the character of Coyote. Coyote shares several characteristics across both stories: he is first seen on the water, he speaks directly with other key characters (both “mythic” and human), he plays a crucial role in the stories’ events, and he demonstrates an ability to move fluidly through time and space. That is not to say the portrayals of Coyote are identical; indeed, I found King’s version of Coyote to be noticeably more playful and youthful in expression, whereas Robinson’s Coyote seemed to me a wise figure to be revered (while still maintaining the omnipresent Trickster attributes so central to the character). Both stories also offer portrayals of the Christian God. God does not appear as a character in “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England,” but it is an Angel sent by God who gives Coyote his task. In Green Grass, Running Water the portrayal of God we see is born from a Coyote Dream that is told it can be a dog, but gets it backwards. There is also an Angel (A.A. Gabriel) and a portrayal of Jesus (Young Man Walking on Water), but all three of these characters have less of a direct influence on the plot of the story than the Angel in Robinson’s story. There are some parallels in the two stories; Robinson describes “God’s thought” much in the same way King weaves in references to “Christian rules.” In both stories, however, it is Coyote who retains the mantle of key mythic figure. King’s description of Coyote explains why this might be: “I like the Coyote […] there’s this coming and going between chaos and harmony in Coyote […] it’s a very powerful figure for me and is certainly one that’s familiar to Native people.”
There is indubitably an identifiable influence from Robinson in Green Grass, Running Water; visible in both the writing style and the portrayals of characters like Coyote. What we read has a tendency to show itself in what we write, and the relationship between King and Robinson’s writings is a wonderful example of this phenomenon.
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Works Cited
“How to Find Your Writer’s Voice.” NY Book Editors. June 2017. https://nybookeditors.com/2017/06/find-writers-voice/. Accessed 11 Mar 2021.
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Kindle Edition.
King, Thomas. Interview by Tina Srebotnyak. “Green Grass, Running Water author Thomas King on using comedy.” CBC Archives. 7 Apr 1993. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/green-grass-running-water-author-thomas-king-on-using-comedy. Accessed 11 Mar 2021.
King, Thomas. “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial.” Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism. Mississauga, ON: Broadview, 2004. 183- 190. godzilla-complete. Accessed 1 Mar 2021.
Petkova, Veneta Georgieva. “How Thomas King Uses Coyote in his Novel Green Grass, Running Water. University of Iceland. May 2011. https://skemman.is/bitstream/1946/8380/1/One%20of%20the%20final%20versions.pdf. Accessed 11 Mar 2021.
Robinson, Harry. “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England.” Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory. Ed. Wendy Wickwire. 2005. Kindle Edition.
Hi Magdalena,
I loved your post this week! We responded to the same prompt, and we had a lot of similar ideas about the two versions of Coyote and God/GOD, but you also had some really cool thoughts that I hadn’t come up with! I love that you point out the immutability and ephemeral sense of time that is present in both of the stories; its something that I picked up on almost subconsciously, but hadn’t realized it until I read your post! I think this is absolutely a way of blending the boundary between oral and literary myth, as oral myth tends to be ambiguous in its temporal location, so channeling this into literature is effective (as King and Robinson demonstrate). I also loved that you mention the fact that ending sentences also become beginning sentences. I hadn’t thought of it as a reframing mechanism, but now that you mention it I totally agree with you! I think it also reflects ideas of cycles, that history repeats itself – or, in conjunction with the way that time functions in both narratives, it can contribute to a sense that time is simultaneous. I also appreciated your closing comments about the way that our voices as writers are shaped by what we read. I find this phenomenon happening to me often, not only with fiction but with formal academic writing. I wonder what you think about King and Robinson’s differing portrayals of God; do you think King and Robinson has different ‘agendas,’ so to speak, with how they choose to characterize Christian figures?
Also, conference papers are coming up, and based on your blogs so far, I would be interested in working with you! Leo and I have already agreed to work together, and were wondering if you’d be interested in joining our group! We both are really organized people and want to stay on top of this assignment 🙂 If you wanted to join, you can message me on Facebook!
Hi Victoria!
Thanks for pointing out how King’s technique of using repeated ending and beginning phrases relates to cycles; I hadn’t considered that element, and it’s a wonderful observation!
As far as your question about King and Robinson’s agendas goes, I’m not entirely certain. Both seem to create a representation of God that is somewhat derisive, but that could also simply be my reading of their stories! I think both King and Robinson may have been primarily concerned with ensuring that alternative stories to those common in Christianity were told, so perhaps their “agendas” aligned in some ways, at least!
I’m sorry we didn’t end up able to work in the same group, but I look forward to reading your team’s research and continuing to dialogue via our blogs – I have very much enjoyed reading your posts, too! 🙂
Hi Magda,
I look forward to working with you and Laura on our project! I noticed that no one was able to see that we were working together, so I thought I would post some thoughts here to be more in line with the instructions (oops).
You made an impression on me early on, as you mentioned your pursuit of a Masters in Music! That’s so exciting! I am a bit of a musician myself, but not nearly to the same caliber as you. I mention this because you made a reference to storytelling being essential to music early on, and made references to music in some of your posts and responses. It feels like music is a big part of how you interpret the stories that we tell, and this is something that I can really relate to.
Anyway, to business.
I’ll be honest, I am a bit of a procrastinator — at least if given the option between that and ‘organizer.’ But I am also very accommodating of other people’s needs and restraints, so this has never been an issue with group projects before. Just letting you know where my baseline is. If there are any issues with this, I am very open to feedback.
I am a very good editor, and though I haven’t been using many visuals in my blog posts, I have a decent eye for visual formatting. I am also great with technology.
As for my schedule, at the moment I am on Spring Break from work, and will be working to get ahead over the next few weeks, but come April I will be working during weekdays with some availability in the evenings. At that time, weekends will probably be best to coordinate with each other.
I hope this is all still in line with your expectations, but if there are any deal-breakers in here feel free to let me know — I will understand 😉
How about you? What are your work-habits like?
Haha – thanks for correcting that oversight, Zac! 🙂
Apparently I should have read this before sending out an email regarding work habits – oops!
I look forward to working with you too!
Hi Magda, me again.
I was reading through your response and it made me think of a few connections that I hadn’t thought of before.
I hadn’t really noticed the particular way that characters mirror each others’ phrases until you had mentioned it — how they tend to begin sentences the way other characters before them had finished their sentences, but with brand new perspectives. Laura had also drawn reference in her post this week to the way that characters completely different perspectives overlap in the words that they say. It seems to me to be a very interesting way that we can explore how the words that we use are at once unifying and at the same time dividing — how people can be saying the same thing from 4 different perspectives that mean entirely different things.
I also loved to listen to that Thomas King Interview you linked to.
About half way through, he was talking about how we live by what could be called christian rules, and while he doesn’t have a particular problem with those rules, they limit us, and he likes to examine in his writing how they limit us, particularly those from the indigenous perspective, as those rules have been used to hold native people in place.
In my own post I referenced how King writes about GOD in a completely different manner than how Robinson writes him. In Robinson’s case, he seems to speak about GOD with a similar reverence to how he speaks about Coyote: with the same respect and authority that you might see in a priest’s sermon. King, instead, flips it on its head, and talks about God like a newborn puppy — born from a dream. King’s way of viewing GOD seems to imagine a world where we do not need a GOD of the bible, not just as a mythical, cosmological being, but even as a being from these convenient stories we’ve come to live by. Where we do not need his rules and can instead embrace the rules of Coyote: Try to do good, find lessons in mistakes.
The connection you notes between the way King characterizes GOD with his views on the limits of Christian rules makes a lot of sense to me! In some ways I think it circles back to what Victoria was questioning about King’s (and Robinson’s) “agenda” – I think both stories aim to provide an alternative to stories that are perhaps more familiar (at least among Christian-dominated English speakers!). The message you derived fits in beautifully with how I found King’s story to read, and I think it resonates through Robinson’s work as well!
Hi Magdalena,
I enjoyed reading through your comparisons! The tone of the story was something I focused on as well during my reading of King, and had a similar feel of orality. I could see in my mind the possible gestures that could accompany the words. It did however, take my brain a few re-reads of the first 10-20 pages to catch onto the story flow, and read-between the lines. It was this ambiguity that I also felt was similar to Robinson: the first few pages of Robinson I had to re-read a few times before I caught on. This is a concept that King touches on – “We are going to have to do this again. We are going to have to get it right” (142) – and Robinson does indirectly as well, through Wickwire’s introduction: “you can hear that again […] once or twice more” (Robinson, as quoted by Warwick, 18). These stories contain “hidden messages and connections that would take time to decipher” (19).
I also enjoyed the CBC article you linked to, with King’s interview. It was enjoyable to see his thought behind the story, and his perspective on some of the allusions he added in. Like King, I enjoyed Coyote within Green Grass, Running Water; the characterization made me feel invested in the story. With Robinson’s story, I found that the characters had less of a draw for me, but the story itself held my attention.
What I particularly liked was your mention of how the author’s voice and experience comes through in their writing. It reminded me of “The Truth About Stories”, and King’s statement that stories are “all we are” (11). Zac’s comment as well fits well with this, in the way that we all have different perspectives, and how we create our worlds is dependant on this.
As a final note, I was wondering if you have found a fourth member of your group as of yet? If not, I would be very interested in joining you, Zac, and Laura (I have reached out on Laura’s post as well). I look forward to hearing from you!
Thanks, Samantha! I’m glad you were able to join us and look forward to working with you! 🙂
I think you’re definitely on to something; it seems to me that everything we’ve seen so far can be traced back to the importance of stories in our identities, recognized or not!