Month: February 2019

In order to address this question you will need to refer to Sparke’s article, “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation.” You can easily find this article online. Read the section titled: “Contrapuntal Cartographies” (468 – 470). Write a blog that explains Sparke’s analysis of what Judge McEachern might have meant by this statement: “We’ll call this the map that roared.”

As Moodie explains in her text Roughing it in the Bush, there are two maps, two ways of naming and knowing the landscape.  While the post colonial understanding of landscapes is through a series maps that express property lines, topography and borders; The First Nations knew their lands exceptionally well based solely on their uses and their names.  And while, as Moodie recounts, the Mississauga First Nations were able to perfectly understand where they were on every point of Mr. Moodie’s map, this knowledge was not shared.  

Nearly a century later during a Supreme Court hearing regarding the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en peoples’ land claim Judge McEachern was presented with a map drawn by First Nations People, once he was unable to orientate himself, he deemed the map as in adequate evidence.  McEachern was unable to understand the map which connected stories, songs and landscapes as the First Nations would have known it previous to the European colonialists.  When dismissing the map the judge made the controversial statement “we’ll call this the map that roared.”

Sparke’s article, “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation” deconstructs and criticizes this controversial comment.  Sparke first explains that by saying that the map roared he is comparing it to the idea of a paper tiger.  The paper tiger is a symbol for something that may appear powerful at first, but in reality bares no strength as it is just paper.  The reason behind this symbolism is that it is threatening that the First Nations had created a map that used Western language and terms, however in the end, it is irrelevant and they First Nations have no power. 

Sparke’s second explantation drew reference to a 1959 satirical movie called “The Mouse that Roared”.  Sparke believed that McEachern was comparing the First Nations attempt to reclaim their land, as ineffectual as the movie depiction of a small European country waging war against the United States economy due to wine exportations. 

In conclusion, this reading displays the intolerance and ignorance the Canadian government had (and still in some regards has) with First Nations traditions and culture.

In The Truth about Stories, King tells two creation stories, the story of “The Earth Diver”, and the story of “Genesis”.  King tells the stories in two different manners, the story of “Genesis” in a very authoritative voice, and “The Earth Diver” in a story telling manner.  I believe the clearest, and probably least controversial reason for him creating these dichotomies is because these were the ways in which they were meant to be, and originally told.  Genesis was originally written in an authoritative way.  The beginning reads:

 

[1:1] In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,

[1:2] the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

[1:3] Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

 

Keeping in mind this is even a translation, the originally text is in Hebrew, which was even shorter and more to the point. There are no questions as to how this is written, and to what events had transpired, it is very clear, it is very simple, and most importantly, there is no way to argue it. 

On the other hand, King tells the story of Charm and the twins in a more storyteller tone, as again, that was the original intention.  As King wrote:

 

Back at the beginning of imagination, the world we know as earth was nothing but water, while above the earth, somewhere in space, was a larger, more ancient world. And on that world was a woman.

A crazy woman.

Well, she wasn’t exactly crazy. She was more nosy. Curious. The kind of curious that doesn’t give up. The kind that follows you around. Now, we all know that being curious is healthy, but being curious can get you into trouble

….

Now before we go any further, we should give this woman a name so we don’t have to keep calling her “the woman.” How about Blanche? Catherine? Thelma? Okay, I know expressing an opinion can be embarrassing. So let’s do it the way we always do it and let someone else make the decision for us. Someone we trust. Someone who will promise to lower taxes. Someone like me.

I say we call her Charm. Don’t worry. We can change it later on if we want to.

 

This tone is engaging and fun and makes you want to keep reading, however it is not authoritative because the language used is not.  “And on that world was a woman. A crazy woman. Well, she wasn’t exactly crazy”.  Not only is King’s writing casual, replicating the casual tone of voice of a storyteller, however, the story second guesses itself by saying she’s crazy then saying she’s not exactly crazy, immediately afterwards.  This makes the story less authoritative — however much more engaging to read and listen to.  

This uncommitted and questioning tone and language continues as he names the woman.  He throws out a few names, “How about Blanche? Catherine? Thelma?” and then continues to speak/write colloquially until he concludes with “I say we call her Charm. Don’t worry. We can change it later on if we want to.” Which is again doubting and non-committed.  On the other hand, the narrator in Genesis only mentions the name Adam five times, and never ‘names’ him Adam, they simply just beggin to refer to man as Adam in chapter four.  Similarity Eve is only named twice, once when Adam names her, and the other where she gives both to her son.  (We can go into a religion class and talk about as to why she is only named in reference to the men in her life for hours, however this is neither the time nor place, but I personally needed to point this out regardless) There is no hesitation, no participation with the reader/listener, these are the events, these were the people they happened to. Simple as that. 

So in asking why does King create these dichotomies, I would argue that he doesn’t, the stories create them themselves. I don’t believe that he necessarily emphasizes the believability of one story above the next, he tells the stories in the ways they were initially meant to be heard, and based on King’s readers, myself included, our biases make Genesis more ‘believable’ because I am taught to believe an authoritative voice, a text book or news article, and not a stylized piece, being a book or op-ed.  

King is further trying to appeal to our biases as the reader in regards to the story’s believability in creating the opposing dichotomies of a world created through competition or co-operation.  It is easier to see the world being created in the same way in which we we our work today.  The Western World is VERY competitive and capitalistic, therefore showcasing the “Genesis” story of one made out of competition is more believable as that is the way in which we know the world today.

King provides us with this comparison as I believe that he is trying to show us this bias towards authoritative written stories.  He is trying to prove that we automatically believe written stories — being authoritative facts and actions, above oral stories — a colloquial conversation.  

—

Changing pace a little, the first question that Professor Patterson posed said: “you can only believe ONE of the stories is the true story of creation – right?”. I believe this is wrong.  As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, I grew up in a Jewish house and attended Jewish schools from grades K-12.  In Tanach (Jewish Bible) class in grade 10 we were relearning the story of Genesis — you learn each story multiple times as at each age you learn something new from the stories.  By this age, speaking to a classroom filled with teenagers that are planning on being doctors and scientists, it is hard to sell a creation story in which god dictates the story.  So my teacher devoted a lot of his lessons on the book of Genesis to teaching us how this story can fit into science of evolution.  The one example which I always thought was very clever — which is proven because I remember it from my grade 10 class, was from the story in which Eve ate the apple.  As the story is told, Eve is persuaded from the snake to eat the apple, and once she did and all was found out, his punishment was for the snake to lose his legs. The story my teacher told was that Eve was actually persuaded by a dinosaur and him loosing his legs turned him into an alligator.  I mean it is still very much a story, however it incorporates scientific facts that dinosaurs existed that are not expressed explicitly in the bible. It wasn’t much, but it filled a gap.

I think it is hard to believe more than one creation story, because upfront they are all very different and yes, everyone feels very strongly the way in which they believe.  However each of the stories are telling the same story about how we have come to be.  Therefore they are all very much the same, and as my teacher showed my class, there are ways in which you can intertwine the stories together allowing more than one to be true

Read at least 6 students blog short stories about ‘home’ and make a list of the common shared assumptions, values and stories that you find. Post this list on your blog with some commentary about what you discovered.

First off, thank you to everyone who was willing to share an intimate story of home. Its very interesting to see the different ways people have grown up, and how they can connect to that point of their lives now in their adulthood.

Reading through a variety of blogs it is very clear that many people believe that home is fluid and is always changing. Many people question what attributes to a home, and how someone can choose one place — often their parents home, over another — usually their current apartment. Ross Hilliam questions in his blog, is home “where [he has] created the strongest memories, where [he has] been happiest, or where [he] simply [has] the most memories?”. He comments how different names and relationships can be attributed to different places, and he also mentioned that he strongly believes that homes can change. I agree with this questioning and share similar sentiments in my blog post. Trying to decipher between my current apartment, my summer camp and my parents home, I too have asked these questions and think of my different homes in very unique ways. Similarly Dana Truhar spoke of multiple homes, as opposed to the feeling of one overarching one that one can definitely call “my home”. She also comments on how a home is constantly changing. Another similar comment between Dana and I’s blog’s was that we both iterated that probably when we have a family of our own it will be different. As I expanded, I think our questions of home is highly due to the stage of life that we are in in university, because as the cliché would go, we are currently ‘trying to find ourselves’ not form a home.

Another similar sentiment I found in many blogs was the comment that home is a feeling, not necessarily a place. Cassie Lumsden spoke very well on this topic as she spoke of her and her family’s immigration story to Canada. Rachel Teasdale also spoke on the topic well as she wrote that homes “needs to be accompanied by loving people, and that feeling of safeness”.  Although it is not as drastic as Cassie’s story, Rachel explains how her and her brother had swapped rooms, and the different feeling of home between the two rooms.

Aside from the blog posts that are fairly similar to what I had wrote, there are two blog posts I find very unique which I can relate to, however were different from what I had originally wrote in my story. The first of the two blogs is Andrea Melton’s, and the way she explained her home through her genealogy. I found this very compelling as I am an Eastern European Jew. So, when someone asks me where my family is from, that is how identify, not as Polish, Russian, or German, but as an Ashkenazie Jew. I feel as if I have no connection to those countries as my homes, even though its where my grandparents and some aunts and uncles were born and raised. (I mean you can probably infer as to why the Jew doesn’t have a strong connection to Eastern Europe) So, the closest personal comparison to that comment  would be me seeing Israel — being Jewish and having the option of permanently moving there through the law of return , as a second home, and although many Canadian Jews do view Israel as their homeland, I do not.

On a similar theme, I also found Alexis Long’s blog post telling the story of her grandfather’s connection to home in Canada, even though he was discriminated against very interesting and similar to my family’s story. My grandparents and great grandparents immigrated to Canada not to long after Prime Minister Mackenzie King infamously said “none are too many”. Many places in Montreal had signs that read “no Jews” well into the 50s and 60s. Alexis posed a question in her blog about how one’s home can/should be affected if they’re not viewed as a citizen, regardless of growing up there, or having a good job and helping the economy. I found this comment very interesting because aside from the question of did my family feel as though Canada was their home when they immigrated here unwanted, I would wonder how my family felt with viewing these European countries as their homes during the atrocities of the Holocaust. As  both my grandfathers passed away either before I was born or when I was little, I was unable to ask them these questions, however my bubbie, that immigrated from Poland with her family when she was only a few months old, has explained that even though she lived in Montreal in Canada, her family still lived very similarly to the way in which they lived in Europe. They lived in a predominately Jewish community, ate kosher food, owned and would shop from Jewish-owned stores, and spoke Yiddish at home. She explained that they brought Europe to Canada, which I would figure would conflict your sense of home.

I think the notion of home is interesting, and it is has been a very fun and compelling exercise to read and compare everyone’s stories. Thanks!

 

References

Truhar, Dana. “Assignment 2:2 – My Home Story.” 31 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/canlit470dana/2019/01/28/assignment-22-my-home-story/.

Teasdale, Rachel. “I’m not meant to live alone, turn this house into a home.” 28 Jan. 2019, blogs.ubc.ca/rachelteasdale/.

Melton, Andrea. “Belonging Home” 28 Jan. 2019. https://blogs.ubc.ca/andreamenglish470/2019/01/28/22-belonging-home/#comments

Lumsden, Cassie “Home: The Family and the Familiar” 28 Jan. 2019. https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl470blog/blog-posts/

Long, Alexis “Blog 2.2: The Canadian Home” 28 Jan. 2019, https://blogs.ubc.ca/alexis470/

Hilliam, Ross “Home – Beautiful British Columbia” 28 Jan. 2019. https://blogs.ubc.ca/rosshilliameng470/

A lot of weight placed on identifying one’s ‘home’.  The notion of ‘home’ is unique, as It is not the same as being asked where you’re from, or where you live.  A home is not stagnant, as one grows up and changes, then subsequently their home will change as well.  To me, home is a place I feel surrounded by family and love.  A place where I grew up, learned and experienced new things, and where I am not afraid to be myself.  

I grew up in Toronto as a relatively active member of the Jewish community.  I attended 14 years of Jewish education, had a Bat Mitzvah, went to youth group events, and celebrated the holidays with my immediate and extended family.  However, in my later years of high school, I learned more in depth about the religion and I naturally started questioning a lot of the values and rules I grew up to immediately follow.  Additionally, once my brothers had both moved out, and my parents started traveling a lot more for work I was home alone a lot by grade 12. 

Since I have moved to Vancouver I have felt more and more disconnected to my childhood home. I am living a secular life in Vancouver detaching me from my religious upbringing, as well between school and summer commitments, I am actually living in my parents home for about  a total of three weeks a year. With this being said, I have often started referring to my apartment in Vancouver as my home. However, even though over my past three years living here I have accumulated enough cards, art work, and school projects, it is yet to feel like a true home.  Though I have grown up a lot in this house and I have learned a lot from new experiences, this is not my home.  As I mentioned, a home is a place you feel surrounded by family and love — which I do not in my small studio apartment. 

The final place which I have often always seen as ‘home’ is my summer camp, Wapomeo.  I started attending the camp when I was seven years old, and is the place I feel most surround by love from family and friends.  It is the place where I have most grown up having experienced a significant amount of first in my life.  It was there I had made my first best friend, learned to cook, to build a fire, had my first period, my first kiss, experienced my first loss, and my first heart break. Wapomeo was my home for 15 years as this is the first summer that I will not be going. 

When asked to tell a story that describes my sense of home I’m conflicted.  I wonder if the right story to tell is me arriving home on Fridays from school to the smell of freshly made chicken, or early Saturday morning hockey games, where afterwards I would want to buy a Liptons cup-a-soup instead of the more normal red or blue gatorade.  Maybe I should be telling stories of my friends and I pulling all nighters trying to finish projects and build models.  Like the one time we were making a cantilever from bending plywood by soaking it in my tub, shaping it with coffee table books, and drying it with hair blow dryers till we accidentally blew my entire apartments fuse.  Or maybe the truest collection of stories of home are from my 36, 42 or 50 days canoe trips.  About making life long friends, building new skills, winning competitions or accomplishing decade long goals.

Right now, I am not sure where my home is, and thats okay.  My home is not my parents home, which feels more and more foreign every trip to Toronto.  It is not my university apartment, nor is it the summer camp I no longer attend.  Being in university allows one to not have a home, as homes ground you and disable you from moving, and growing and changing — to me the main goals of ones young adulthood.  My sense of home is thinking of these places and imagining what the next stages of my life may include. One day I will have a home again, and maybe I will continue making chicken soup, playing hockey, and even going back to camp, but for now its just me trying to figure the rest of it out. 

Thanks for reading! 

I am going to tell you a story, 

A large group of children are sitting together in a simple and empty room.  The room  has four shiny white walls and a shiny white floor.   There are no doors, or windows.   All there is, are the children and a single countdown clock.

The 196 children are sitting together in silence.  Looking around, sizing up one another,  after a long silence one of the children looks up and begins to speak. “I come from a land made up of 40 different shades of green. Of winding rivers, lakes and canals.”

As the child is speaking, vivd images captures the room, transforming it into the landscapes they’re describing.

“We are surrounded by the whitest sand beaches, which frame our beautiful mountain tops.”

The other children are amazed at the sights around them, trying to absorb all that they see, one can overhear the faintest “oh wow!” or “look at that!”.

The first child continues  “Our mountain ranges are mysterious, as they are scattered with huge caves and crevices fills with centuries of history. We are surrounded by the ocean…” 

In the middle of the sentence another child bolts up and exclaims “My home is made up of low mountains and and fertile plains filled with rice paddies.  There are sandy beaches, and coastal mountains on the islands which run along our coast.  Our northern mountains are next to some of the highest in the world, and they are decorated with granite ridges that were formed millions of years ago.  We have rivers and streams that run through our valleys, and rolling mountain ranges.  I am simultaneously surrounded by bright colours from our past and glowing lights from our present. 

One by one each child stands up and tells their stories, each  more vivid from the last.  The room is continuously transforming from mountains to valleys, deserts to ice fields, and lakes to rivers to oceans.  The children were in awe of  the beauty and colours from everywhere around the world. 

After the group had heard from the first 195 children, ecstatic and happy, thinking they have heard it all, the last child stands up, reluctantly,  knowing that it is their turn.  

Standing, they take a deep breath and begin to speak. 

“I recognize the places you have all spoke about, however I know them very differently.  I only  know of arid valleys, and barren mountain tops.  I have never seen pristine beaches, only shorelines full of debris of  completely abandoned and destroyed cities. I know of the deserts you have talked about, but where I am from they have spread much farther then you ever imagine.  They are far into the farms and grasslands everywhere around them, making food very difficult to find.  I have never seen a rain forest, a coral reef or a glacier. I have seen many fires, and storms of ice, wind rain and hail. 

Loud and upset whispers echoed throughout the crowd drowning out the voice of final child.

As images of destruction run through the room, the rest of the children shudder with fear.  ““Okay you win,” they said” weeping, looking at their beautiful world destroyed. 

““But what you said just now — it isn’t so funny. It doesn’t sound so good. We are doing okay without it. We can get along without that kind of thing. Take it back. Call that story back.”

But, of course, it was too late. For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world” and it is too late to go back.

---

First off, thank you for making it through my story.  I really struggled with this assignment as I would never have referred to myself as a ‘storyteller’.  In school I study architecture, so we learn that every decision we make needs to have a purpose, nothing can be arbitrary.  So although they’re was definitely a formula that went along with changing this story, I really struggled with arbitrarily making one up.

However, I really enjoyed telling the story to my friends.  It was interesting how much the story changed every  time, mainly due to being interrupted mid sentence to answer questions. However each of these questions helped to formulate the final version of the story.  It made me understand what was working both story wise, and through the style in which I was telling the story.  Taking a note from King’s book, where he spoke about the difference in the ways he told each creation story, I hoped to tell my story in a stylistic manner, as opposed to a descriptive manner, and accomplishing this was difficult.  I hope you enjoyed it, and remember, turn off your lights, separated your garbage, and try walking instead of using a vehicle, because every little bit of effort can help the world.

 

References

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Peterbough:Anansi Press. 2003. Print.

“Ireland’s Special Landscapes.” Ireland.com, www.ireland.com/en-us/about-ireland/discover-ireland/landscapes-with-attitude/.

Hafner, James A., et al. “Thailand.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 18 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/place/Thailand.

From family histories to creation stories, story telling has always been a major aspect in human civilization.  Oral story telling, being the oldest method if story telling, was (and in some regards still is) often used in religion as a way to pass on laws and stories between generations. Although over time these stories go through a process of ‘broken telephone’ and subsequently change between generations, oral story telling has often been sought after due to the interactions it enables between the speaker the audience.  On the other hand in most western cultures, the second method of story telling, being written stories, are viewed as more factual, as the story or history has not changed since it were recorded.  Though factual, this method allows stories to become outdated as they do not interact with the readers and do not allow for questions to the author. 

There has always been a clear distinct difference between oral and written stories.  However due to the WWW, and the presence of digital publication and social media, this clear difference has become blurred through a new form of story telling combining the positives aspects of both original methods.

Firstly, the largest hurdle with written literature, is the ability for someone to get published and distributed.  This issue has been abolished with the WWW’s tools that allow for anyone to publish their work.  Between blogs and social media, everyone (with access to the internet) has the ability to publish their work, and tell their stories, for people all over the world.  However, while digital publication conquers one of the largest hurdles associated with literature, it does not quite contain the reputable advantages of written literature. The WWW abolishes the role of the editor, allowing for anyone to publish work, regardless of written quality, or accuracy.  This hurts the reputation of written literature, as no longer can one argue that if something is written then it is true, as much on the WWW is biased, and false. 

Additionally, as previously mentioned, another large issue with published literature is the lack of interaction between the author and the reader.  Drawing on the the largest positive from oral story, digital publishing has allowed the reader and author the ability to interact with one another.  It allows for online comments and replies, as well as the authors ability to return to their work at any time and edit anything they want.  However the most significant difference is the ability to hyperlink additional information into ones stories.  Allowing the reader to essentially ‘choose-their-own-adventure’, creates a new dialogue between the author and the reader as it allows for a different story to be told dependant on whether or not the reader clicks on the hyperlink.  Aside from hyperlinking and commenting, simply being on the WWW allows for anyone to easily search any additional information they may want on a topic they are reading about. This acts as the new form of question asking to a verbal story teller, that was not present in written and published literature. 

Overall, I believe that these additions have positively impacted literature, as they are not taking away from the previous methods. Hard published written stories and articles are still the most reputable, and well written sources and stories.  Additionally, verbal stories are still more interactive, regardless of how much editing or hyperlinks an author puts into their work.  However this new form of publishing allows for an easier access to more wide spread publishing, with some interactions to written work, which has created a whole new, and more accessible, form of story telling.