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.

My title is a parody of this amazing song. Words are good for absolutely everything, in my book. Communication is the key to healthy relationships, and communication cannot be fully present without words. Of course, nonverbal communication plays a major role as well, but without words we would not have the ability to explain our actions or our looks. Nonverbal communication exists on a basic level, but words are needed to elevate the communication; to make the communication more precise or accurate. Chamberlin writes extensively on the power of words as riddles and charms. I was particularly challenged by his ideas on riddles. He claims that “riddles–often by way of nursery rhymes and trickster tales– give us our first lesson on how to meet [the challenge of both believing and not believing]” (160). Reflecting on the nursery rhymes and tales I was told as a child, I do not know if I agree with this. I did not learn of the characteristics of the trickster until I read The Master and Margarita as well as The Kiss of the Fur Queen in my second year at UBC. But I do believe that written words are tricks of sorts. They conjure an image, idea or feeling because of how they’re used or intended. We are able to enter into a new world that we are able to create simply because we can conjure our own image.

This “world of words” Chamberlin introduces us to had me puzzling for a few days trying to wrap my brain around it. While the world we live in is full of words, he is speaking of a world that is based on words. How a word can be two things at once. How when we see the word cat we see not only the letters on the page, but also the animal. For myself, when I see the word cat, I think of one of my cats. This to me is why we feel closer to the world – we take words that are impersonal and make them personal. We see our beloved cat when the word “cat” is before us. We see our home when they word “home” is before us.

Chamberlin finished his introduction with a complicated idea of home, which rattled me more than anything else in the book. He said, “Can one land ever really be home to more than one people?” (4). I believe that his “world of words” plays into this. While we are physically on land, we imagine the world around us using images. Then we use words to communicate those images and act out those intentions we have in our imagined world. The idea of home in the world of words is a fluid one, and could change drastically for each person’s imagined world. But in the end, we feel closer to each other when we share common ideas around words; when the word “home” conjures the same idea or meaning in a story for two people, they are able to easily relate to one another and thus become closer. Stories, filled with words, are what bring us together between time, distance, obstacles. Through this “world of words”, we can see each other a bit clearer and begin to understand each other a bit better.

Works Cited

Chamberlin, J. Edward.  If This is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2003. Print.

Grahe, Jon E. and Frank J. Bernieri. ” The Importance of Nonverbal Cues in Judging Rapport.” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 23.4 (1999): 253-269. Web. 18 Jan 2015.

Thibault Viaene. “Edwin Starr – War (What is it good for?).” Youtube. Youtube, 22 Jan 2007. Web. 18 Jan 2015.

Hey, Hi, and Bonjour! Glad you stumbled upon, or very purposely arrived at, my blog. I, along with several other students, will be responding to numerous questions posed by both my prof, Erika Paterson, and my fellow students of English 470A. This class is suitably called “Oh Canada… Our Home and Native Land?” For me, the emphasis is on the our. Whose land is this? I’m currently in Koerner’s Pub, so technically this is the occupied, unceded, traditional, and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations. But, I may be getting a head of myself…

I’m Caitlin, a 5th year English Lit and French Lit student who is super excited to someday become a high school teacher. I (very) recently returned from a 4-month travel around Australia.

There are 9 nationalities represented in this photo! I’m on the bottom, second from the left.

Nothing makes you more proud of being Canadian than not being in your home country. Maybe proud isn’t the right word… I think aware is what I mean. I was very aware that I identify as Canadian, even though many people were confused by that. One of my favourite (sarcasm) conversations goes like this:

“So, you don’t sound Australian…”
“Good eye. Or ear, shall I say”
“Yea thanks. Err, what are you, then?”
I don’t have words here, so instead just imagine the face of having to answer this question countless times, because apparently this is an appropriate question.

I know that they’re either asking about my ethnicity or my nationality, but I just want to be that person that responds quite literally: “A woman. A person. A human. An avid reader. A world traveller. A lover of tea, fine wine and food. A Christian. A sister…. is that what you’re looking for?”

I’ve always been Canadian, and I will (hopefully) always be Canadian. I had a “typical” Canadian childhood, filled with Rick Mercer talking to Americans and Mr. Dressup. I grew up much (un)like the Degrassi kids, and slowly began loving beer at the appropriate. My family eats too much bacon at Christmas and my dad owns 8 flannel shirts. 8/11 shirts are flannel. My mom’s boyfriend smokes his own salmon that he has caught himself. If these things don’t make you Canadian, I don’t know what does.

But my version of “Canadian” is not universal. Waneek Horn-Miller is also Canadian and her life has been different than the childhood you read about above. Not only is she an Olympian athlete, a mother of two cute children, a survivor of the Oka crisis, but she is Kahnawake Mohawk. She is currently participating in a law suit so she can live with her non-Native husband in the community she has grown up in and raised her children in. Her story, which I heard a snippet of at the 2014 Student Leadership Conference held here at UBC, is drastically different than mine, but equally valid as being classified as “Canadian”. I hope that through this course, I am able to “learn to recognize and challenge colonizing narratives and representations”, as the Course Overview suggests.

Thanks for reading, and I’m excited to have you along for this journey of exploration through Canadian literature.

Works Cited
BonoRocks100. “Rick Mercer – Talking to Americans!!” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 13 Apr 2012. Web. 6 Jan 2015.
“Course Overview.” UBCBlogs. Erika Paterson, n.d. Web. 6 Jan 2015.
“Former Olympian Waneek Horn-Miller among Mohawks suing Kahnawake council.” CBCNews. Kate McKenna, 2 Nov 2014. Web. 6 Jan 2015.
lakesidepark2112. “Mr. Dressup CBC Television animated opening.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 19 Sept 2008. Web. 6 Jan 2015.