Assignment 3.2
- What are the major differences or similarities between the ethos of the creation story or stories you are familiar with and the story King tells in The Truth About Stories ?
I want to start this blog off by explaining some of my biases about creation stories. I was not raised in any particular religion. My parents do not practice any type of religion at all, but they were raised by their parents to be Christian. After countless years being forced to go to church as children my parents broke the cycle and did not involve religion in my sister and I’s upbringing at all.
That being said we do celebrate commercialized holidays based on Christianity. We celebrate Christmas, and Easter but not because of Jesus. We celebrate Christmas as a time to spend with family and indulge in food and drink, and Easter is much the same. I have one distinct childhood memory about my Dad telling me what Christmas was based on. He was concerned I thought it was only about Santa Claus and presents because for our family it was.
When it comes to creation stories I believe in the Big Bang and evolution. For me the two creation stories king tells in the first lecture in the Truth About Stories hold the same amount of meaning to me. I have not been raised valuing the Christian story. This is why I wanted to answer this blog question. I feel like I can provide a good observation of the ethos King uses because I am not biased when it comes to the creation stories he tells. Yes I am more familiar with Adam and Eve than Charm but to me they are equally valuable to understanding the cultures that surround me. I do not value one more than the other.
The woman who fell from the Sky (Sundance TV)
First King’s ethos is established before we even begin listening to his lecture. Thomas King is a renowned Canadian writer. The reader, even if unfamiliar with his work, knows he is reputable solely based on the fact that he is conducting a CBC Massey Lecture. When King tells both creation stories in his First Massey lecture he spends much more time on the Woman Who Fell From the Sky. He admits this is based on his assumption that “most of [us] have heard of Adam and Eve, but few… have ever met Charm” (22). I think he makes a valid assumption here, most people the Genesis creation story.
King tells both creation stories quite differently and he discusses the ways in which they are different so his listeners/ readers can see how ethos is used. Genesis has a “sober voice” (23) and is always recited quite formally. It is a serious story about the beginning of the world. The story is always trying to establish itself as truth and its serious and formal tone does this. There is no fun in this story only ‘facts’. King tells it in this way to stay true to how it is typically told.
On the other hand the Woman Who Fell From the Sky is told quite differently. King also keeps with tradition when telling this story but he is now following First Nation tradition. He establishes a strong oral storytelling voice. The conversations way of telling this story often “diminishes its authority” (King 23) and King is very aware of this. The Ethos in both recitations are very different and in doing this King is pointing out that this suggests “values that may be neither inherent nor warranted” (22).
For someone like me who has no religion, I can see these stories as equals. The talking animals in Charm’s story aren’t a problem for me. In fact I would tend to have more criticism towards the gender biases perpetuated in Eve’s mistake in Genesis than anything else. Neither stories play a part in my values or beliefs about the world. But I can recognize the importance of these stories to those who value them. King draws our attention to the ethos in these two different tellings because he doesn’t want anyone to “make the mistake of confusing storytelling strategies with the value or sophistication of a story” (23).
Works Cited:
Busby, Brian John. “Thomas King.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, 04 July 2008. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.
King, Thomas. “I’m not the Indian You had in Mind.” Video. Producer Laura J. Milliken. National Screen Institute. 2007. Web. April 04/2013.
King, Thomas, “The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative.” CBC Massey Lectures. CBC Ideas. Web. April 04/2013. .
Hi Nicole!
Thank you for your post, I feel like I really connected with what you have said as I too am not religious. Rather than ask you any questions about what you have said I would just like to discuss my connection with your post.
I was raised by my parents, who were both raised Catholic, and went to a Catholic school for my whole life. However, rather than being raised a devout Catholic I was given the opportunity to enter the public schooling system and I was able to decide on my own time if I would follow a religion or not. As my parents did the same as yours, I think it is really great that they broke the cycle and gave you your own voice to decide your own religious values. I chose to stay in the Catholic school system not because I was religious by any means but because I found it extremely interesting learning about a religion that I was not a part of. Being that I did go to a Catholic school and I did learn about all the stories within the Bible, I do have the religious understanding of the Genesis creation story. On the other hand, because I do not follow any faith I too can see these stories as equals and recognize their major importance to those who cherish them.
I seem to be rambling on here, but I really enjoyed your post and I would be inclined to discuss how you understand the Genesis creation story without having any religious bias about it.
Thank you 🙂
Cait
Hi Cait,
Thank you for your thoughtful comment! I have to admit I was a little nervous how some people might interpret my blog post this week.
I appreciate you sharing your experiences with me! That would have been very interesting to learn about Catholicism from that perspective. You would have really seen how important Genesis is to people of that faith.
I see the Genesis creation story as a creation myth to a religion I do not belong to. I see it’s deep importance to those who believe in Christianity, but it does not mean anything to me. Since Genesis is not something I learned was truth (there was no one story my family told me was truth) I feel that it would be easier for me to see all creation stories as equal. I don’t have any personal attachment to any of these stories, but I can see how important they are to the people who believe in them. On the other hand I think people who are religious could still value other creation stories, but this is not always the case. I think it varies from person to person and education definitely plays a huge role in this.
I would love to hear more of your thoughts on this! 🙂
Nicole
Hey Nicole!
I found your thoughts really interesting, especially because I come from pretty much the same background where religion was mainly absent from my upbringing, though I still celebrate most of the major Christian holidays. I very much agree with your observation that the story of Genesis and the story of King should be seen as equals, but where do you think The Big Bang Theory/Evolution falls in comparison to them? Is it equal to them-after all, evolution is still regarded as a theory–though there is scientific evidence for them. Because they’re scientifically based, instead of based in literature, so we see them as being more legitimate than what we call ‘stores’?
Hi Natalie,
Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I would like to think the Big Bang Theory/ Evolution is more legitimate than ‘stories’ because it is based in science; however, it is still a story. It is a story just like all the creation stories. Christianity believes Genesis can be backed by facts just as much as Scientists believe they have facts to back up their Theory of Evolution. So I guess the question still remains can we value that theory more than the others because of science? Based on my own personal beliefs I think so, but I think many people would disagree with me.
What do you think?
Nicole
Hi Nicole! Thanks for sharing a unique post. It is interesting reading how you view these stories and how your background being non-religious has affected this perspective.
It is interesting to me because I have been raised in neither a Christian nor a First Nations culture, but rather in a Muslim one. The creations story that I grew up with, and many other stories, bears the same characters often as the Christian story. But the actions and the consequences are often different. For example, in the creation story,Adam and Hawa (Eve) were created and lived in Paradise. However, unlike the Genesis story where Eve is tempted to eat the apple and then tempts Adam and triggers their eviction, I heard that Satan tempted the two and triggered their eviction.
I share this because growing up in a culture where colonization has left a ‘Christian imprint’ on the culture, it becomes very easy to mix the two stories together. Especially as both are so similar, I often find myself untangling them in my mind. Do you find the same thing? That these dominant cultural tropes leave a subtle imprint on your perspective?
Hi Maryam,
Thanks for the comment! You raise a really interesting point. I have to admit I don’t think I have actually read the story of Adam and Eve from the Bible directly, but I know it so well due to an over whelming amount of references to it in everyday life. I see it reenacted in pop culture, in literature, and I have heard summaries of it in the classroom. It is so prominent I feel like I have read it even though I recall ever having read the original version. The social pressure is there to embrace and adopt Christianity, but going up in a non-religious home had a bigger impact. I don’t have anything to untangle the Christian creation story (or any other religious story)with. Although I do try to weed it out in the literature I read and see how it affects the story.
Living in a largely Christian society must have left imprints on my perspectives of the world. I am sure my perspective is different than someone who grew up in a different part of the world or even in a different province but I don’t think it is due to being surrounded by a specific religion. I think culture is much bigger than that.
I kind of started rambling here. Sorry!
I would be interested to hear more of your thoughts on this!
Nicole
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for an interesting read! I chose to address the same question for my post, and found a number of similarities between our experiences; I see that many other commenters relate to your story, too. I would like to comment on the Big Bang theory, since this is the creation “story” that I also believe. However, like you, I briefly mentioned the Big Bang before moving on to discuss Genesis in relation to King’s creation story, even though I find more truth in the Big Bang than I do in Genesis. I’m interested to find out why you passed by the Big Bang theory in your post, much like I did. Personally, I found it difficult to discuss the BBT in relation to this question because I have trouble applying the same story-related terms to it. The BBT consists of scientific evidence and explanation, with a sequence of events, rather than a developed plot; there is no relatable setting, such as a garden or earth, but rather a discussion of unfathomably small subatomic particles expanding into the unfathomably enormous universe; there are no human, or even human-like characters until very near the end of the whole theory’s timeline, where we encounter (human) evolution. I would be fascinated to see a comparison of the Big Bang theory with King’s creation story, although (and because!) I felt unable to offer one myself.
Hi Emma,
The main reason I passed through the Big Bang Theory quickly was because I wanted to focus most of my attention on Genesis and King’s creation story. I think it would be difficult to compare it to these stories because of all the science involved in it, but at the same time it is telling a different story of how the world was created. I think it could be done but I would need a separate blog post to do the comparison justice. For a fun example of how the Big Bang Theory is translated into a more typical storyline the Barenaked Ladies song “The Big Bang” is a great example (also became the theme song of the popular TV show). Take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMSYv_Z4SI8. Yes it is simplified immensely, but most creation stories are. They need to be able to be passed from person to person as easily as possible especially before people had writing.
Thanks for the comment! 🙂