“If Europeans were not from the land of the dead, or the sky, alternative explanations which were consistent with indigenous cosmologies quickly developed” (“First Contact”43). Robinson gives us one of those alternative explanations in his stories about how Coyote’s twin brother stole the “written document” and when he denied stealing the paper, he was “banished to a distant land across a large body of water” (9). We are going to return to this story, but for now – what is your first response to this story? In context with our course theme of investigating intersections where story and literature meet, what do you make of this stolen piece of paper? This is an open-ended question and you should feel free to explore your first thoughts.
Hey guys, I’m posting a little early as I’m out of town on Friday. This blog might be a bit of a clutter as it will be my first thoughts on this story, as the question asks. So let’s begin.
I loved this story, I have always loved stories that personify animals, hearing what someone thinks a Coyote or Fox would say is such a cool idea. I use to read creation stories and myths that personified animals in all of my free time as a child, I remember this one book that my mom had to have rebound probably eight times because I read it so many times.
This story was a little confusing at first as the timeline didn’t make sense at first but as the introduction explains, stories like these don’t usually follow a ‘western’ time line. Coyote was going back and forth between the beginning of time to talking with the king of England. I had trouble following who was where and when.
I was also confused by intrigued by the twins, I understand that the elder twin was Coyote and the ‘creator’ if you will of the Indians but was the other twin a coyote as well? Is the story not just about white settlers but also about the dual nature of coyotes? I really liked the idea of two beings, as you guys already know from Div and Des, so I really liked that part of the story I am just a little confused as to the specifics, maybe they weren’t included because that is not the point, I am not sure.
The other, I don’t want to use issue, but aspect of the story I paused at was the pure evil that seemed to emanate from the other twin, it was a lying and a thief and so were its creations. I realize that this story teller probably faced a lot of prejudice and genocide in his life, so that is to me makes the most sense for the second twin and the people that he created having no redeeming qualities mentioned.
Overall I really enjoyed this story and the nonlinear timeline it had as well as the idea of twins or duality. I, like the author of the introduction was a little confused as to the character of the Coyote, he is a sexual deviant in the first stories told but seems to be a calm trusting honest figure in the contact story. Nevertheless it was a really interesting concept for a contact story an d the idea of Coyote working with the king of England is a great one, I would love to see that.
Any time I read nonlinear stories it always makes me think of Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory.
Thanks for reading!
E
work cited
Robinson, Harry. Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory. Compiled and edited by Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talon Books2005
http://www.teachgenocide.org/files/UN%20Definition%20of%20Genocide.pdf
wikipedia commons