Growing up in a Christian home meant that I always knew how the world came to be. There was never a question of what was plausible, or whether I was sure (until my faith became my own). As a child, I was able to hear the stories and believe how the world came to be in 6 days. As I’ve grown up and sought out knowledge, I have learned so many different stories of the creation of our Earth, from Darwin’s theory, to Greek and Roman myths. As a child, I also learned about how evil came into the world as part of the same story of how the world was created – the tree of knowledge, the serpent, silly Eve (according to John Milton). In Thomas King’s narrative The Truth About Stories, he retells the story of how evil comes into the world. This story I will now retell to you.
While on a walk to clear the mind, Bailey saw a group of people huddled together on a field. They were surrounding a pair of dice, a gun and several sheets of paper, trying to come up with the wildest thing they could do with all of them. Bailey stood back, watching them, observing them, trying to predict their next move and idea. The people in the group tried many options: they tossed the die to see how many shots they had to put a bullet through the piece of paper; they put the gun on the ground and tried to spin it around the same number the dice gave with the piece of paper underneath it to keep track of the rotations; they made a paper airplane which could hold the dice, then shot it down with the gun. After a few more wild ideas, Bailey approached the group, saying, “I know the wildest thing you can do”. The people were confused as to where Bailey came from, or even how Bailey knew of their game, but they were intrigued. Bailey then told them of horrible things they could do with the dice, paper and gun – things that would give you nightmares and haunt you when you turned the lights off. The people in the group knew that this was the wildest thing they could do, but replied with trepidation: “Thank you for your help, and your idea is the most wild, but we do not want to do that. We cannot put those words into action, it is not good”. But it was too late. The story was now in their minds and their hearts, and they would forever know that it cannot be called back.
What I learned from this story is that words and stories are more powerful than actions. While all the witches were able to perform the scariest things, the words are what lingered. This reminds me of Chamberlin’s idea of the world of words. It seems that with these two stories in mind, the world of words will outlast the physical world. The scary things the witches, or the wild things the group, performed did not invite evil into the world, but the scary story full of “fear and slaughter, disease and blood” (King 9), and the wild idea that promised to haunt the mind of the listener, invited evil into the world. For me, this also emphasizes the fact that our world is based on the emotional and intellectual connection between people and between people and nature with less on the physical connection. Do you agree?
Works Cited:
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, Inc. Print.
Riggs, William G. “The Temptation of Minton’s Eve: ‘Words, Impregn’d / With Reason’.” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 94.3 (1995): 365-392. Print.
Hey Caitlin!
Wow, your story was definitely darker than mine and probably not the most appropriate to teach at Sunday School, that being said I really enjoyed the read. Like you, growing up I learned how to world came to be based on religion and Sunday School. Each year as I grew older, how the evil came into the world got a little darker and a little less “don’t do this because” but became “don’t do this or else” and more unique to each person and each classroom. Basically, each Sunday School teacher had their own interpretation of evil and we would learn that, that year and then another the next.
I think its interesting how you believe words and stories are more predominant than actions, as I agree with that but also believe that actions speak as loud if not louder than words! You’re completely right about the words lingering and the stories being told that is the scariest part of the “evil” in the witches case. Do you think the retelling of stories adds a different component to the evil and actually may make it almost more “evil” that the first story?
Thanks for your different interpretation! It was cool to read about a different opinion.
-Jessica Ramsey
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for reading 🙂 That’s kinda cool how each teacher would tell you a different interpretation of how evil came into the world. Hopefully the kids thought that was interesting and were able to form their own opinions around it.
I should have been clearer in my post: I don’t personally think that words are more powerful than actions, but that’s what I understood the story to be saying. I don’t know if I could say which is more powerful holistically, but I can say that there are times where one is more powerful than the other. There are days when all I need are words of affirmations rather than acts of service, but there are other days when words mean nothing and I need to see the actions behind them to believe it.
I think that King’s retelling emphasizes or reaffirms the evil, but I do not think that evil is on a continuum. I don’t see a more or less when it comes to evil, simply an evil. What do you think? Did King’s retelling is inherently evil?
Hi Caitlin,
Great story! I especially liked that last line – “the story was now in their minds…” It gave me this image of the story infecting the listeners thoughts, working on their imagination and I feel like this very nicely illustrates what it means for a story to be ‘set loose upon the world’. It also made me think about the connection between stories and memory – how the existence of any story depends on people remembering and re-telling it. You also raised an interesting point about words and stories being more powerful than actions. I do agree…and also feel that in most cases, words and stories are what causes action. Thanks for sharing – you’ve given me loads to think about! 🙂
Hi Tarana,
Thanks so much 🙂 You definitely gave me something to think about too when you said that you “also feel that in most cases, words and stories are what causes action”. I’ve never thought about it that way, but I think that there are many cases where this is true. Our actions are reactions to something, whether it be an need (like hunger), desire (like eating a delicious meal) or response to our understanding of something (like looking up a recipe we saw Jamie Oliver prepare on TV so we can make ourselves the meal because we are hungry). Cool thoughts, Tarana!
Caitlin
Hi Caitlin,
I don’t know where I stand with King’s retelling. Part of me thinks that evil is a continuum because evil, yes is evil, but it does progress. Something as not walking your dog when you have a whole day free is evil, yet hurting him would be more evil, wouldn’t it? You don’t have to answer that, I myself am confused if evil can progress or continue. I think King’s retelling is indeed evil because it is passed on and retold. I was reading a few posts and it seems like most of the retellings are suggesting evil as well, as we were assigned, but this indeed is passing on evil and recreating it while telling the stories. Regardless if someone puts any of this into action, it’s still being told and released into the world, in this case the WWW.
I agree that both words and actions are important in the retelling of a story because just like you, some days I need to hear certain words and some days I just want an act of kindness or to watch something rather than hear something.
Thanks for the response! 🙂
-Jessica Ramsey
Hi Caitlin – thanks for a great little story – some good dialogue too. But, I am still curious to know about what happened when you told the story? Who did you tell it to, and did the story change as you told it – ? Thanks 🙂