Monthly Archives: January 2014

I have a great story to tell you

An even longer time ago than before once upon a time, everything was pleasant. The Sun was always shining, and it would even hide behind the clouds when the people and animals below seemed to be showing signs of sunburn. It did not want to hurt them. When the crops needed water, the Clouds would be sure to let rain fall only in the middle of the night, when everyone was sleeping, so as not to get anyone wet. Everyone was very considerate during this time.

The world was not entirely without disputes. Once the bats, cats, and other nocturnal animals, such as the limax maximus and the average caffeine addicted university student, got together and signed a petition complaining about the rain at night. Since they were always out at nighttime, many of them had fallen ill from the constant exposure to rain. And a cat with the common cold, is one cranky animal .

The Sun, Clouds, humans and animals felt horrible for having forgotten about the nocturnal beings. They apologized most sincerely and a compromise was made. It was decided that it would rain slightly more often in the day time than at night, but when it did rain during the day, the sun would still be shining, and the rain would be light and cool. And after the rain was over, rainbows would appear. This was how sun showers came into the world.

So, everything was all nice and comfortable for everyone. Yet there was one creature in all the land, water and sky that was not happy with the state of things as they were. This was an Octopus. No one knows the Octopus’s name, or whether it was male or female. All anyone knows is that the Octopus’s life was just as pleasant as everyone else’s.

The Octopus had realized what others in the old world had not; that the price of being perfect was to be boring. So the Octopus swam to a large rock somewhere near the shore of the land; a rock that all creatures of the earth, sky and land could see. On this rock he wrote, with his very own ink, a story.

The story was about many things, including things that had, thus far, not been conceived of in the then perfect world; evils. No one knows exactly what these evils were, because the ink on the rock has long since been washed away by the rain and sea. All that is known are the first words of the story “Once upon a time.” Although tales were told before this story, many regard it as the first story because it was the first of its kind that was actually engaging to listen to.

The story was so compelling that creatures came from all over the world to read it, and they retold it when they returned back to their homes. The people and animals were so impressed with the Octopus’s story that they urged the Octopus to write more, and the Octopus did so.

For a time the Octopus was happy, because life was no longer boring; excitement could be found in the stories. Although the stories contained evils, they were not evil in themselves. They were dynamic and dramatic. In contrast to the aspects of evil were tales of extraordinary goodness, goodness that could not exist, or at least, could not be appreciated, without evil to compare it to. Hence were born myths of undying loyalty, selflessness, family, friendship… and love.

But then something very strange started happening. Stories like the Octopus’s began cropping up all over the place. At first, the Octopus was overjoyed. The Octopus thought that other animals and people had taken up the art of story telling as well. Yet the Octopus soon discovered that many of these stories were not entirely fiction. The storytellers were not inventing these stories, they were recounting them; for many of the atrocious events that happened in these stories, had really happened.

The Octopus was horrified. Somehow the fiction of his stories had inspired facts. What was worse was that for every true story the Octopus heard about goodness; there seemed to be a hundred more that contained evil. “I have made a horrible mistake!” cried the Octopus, “I take them back! I call my stories 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.

OBSERVATIONS
While telling this story to my friends I noticed several things. Different people responded to it differently. Some people found it really funny, others absurd. This caused me to change the way I told the story depending upon who was listening to it. If my audience seemed to find certain aspects funny, I would play them up. If they were not responding to the story at all, I would rush it to the end. I thoroughly enjoyed telling the story in front of certain audiences; and found it painfully awkward in front of others.

WORKS CITED

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Toronto: House of Anansi Press Inc, 2003. Print.

1. Explain why the notion that cultures can be distinguished as either ”oral culture” or “written culture” (19) is a mistaken understanding as to how culture works, according to Chamberlin and your reading of Courtney MacNeil’s article “Orality”.

J. Edward Chamberlin discusses how societies that communicate mainly through speech and performance were and in many cases still are, classified as “oral cultures.” Such cultures are generally considered to be naïve and simple. By contrast, cultures that communicate in terms of the written word, classify themselves as “written cultures,” and consider themselves to be more “cultivated,” “complex” and superior. The argument goes that oral cultures are simply repeating formulaic notions and not capable of superior thought. Chamberlin explains that this notion causes those belonging to “written cultures” to feel superior to those of “oral cultures.” In Courtney MacNeil’s article “Orality” this way of thinking is further explained; “for the Toronto School, writing – alphabetic writing in particular – is the key to evolutionary progress: that is, that literacy is ‘absolutely necessary for the development not only of science but also of history, philosophy, explicative understanding of literature and of any art, and indeed for the explanation of language itself,’ [2] while orality is the marker of ‘tribal man’” (“Orality”). This “encourages people to treat other societies with a blend of condescension and contempt while celebrating the sophistication of their own” (Chamberlin 19).

Chamberlin argues that the very idea that there are such things as “oral cultures” and “written cultures” is incorrect. So- called “oral cultures” he argues, are actually very rich in literature “albeit non-symbolic and non-alphabetic… woven and beaded belts and blankets…masks” and so on. On the other hand, the institutions of our supposedly superior societies (schools, courts and churches, for example) “are in fact areas of strictly defined and highly formulized oral traditions” (Chamberlin 20). Ignorant and arrogant members of western society have in the past, and in many cases still do, dismiss oral forms of communication; “Western egocentrism encourages the notion of orality as a secondary (and inferior)” (“Orality”). What both Chamberlin and MacNeil argue is that firstly, our own cultures rely on oral forms of communication more than we may think, and secondly, orality should not be judged as inferior.

Just because a culture communicates and tells stories differently than we do, does not mean that such a culture should be deemed lesser in any way. In fact, through their different language and ways of communicating, these cultures may understand things that westerners do not. Instead of dismissing other cultures as “primitive” or “barbaric,” we should respect the value of their ways of knowing and doing things.

WORKS CITED

Chamberlin, Edward. If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground. AA. Knopf. Toronto. 2003. Print

MacNeil, Courtney. “Orality.” The Chicago School of Media Theory. Uchicagoedublogs. 2007. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.

Welcome to my first attempt at a blog. I consider myself somewhat technologically challenged, so it might take a little while for my blog to look as pretty as the rest of yours do.

My name is Greta and I am a 4th year English Literature major. I hate it when people ask me where I’m from, because I’m not really sure of the answer. On paper, I’m a Canadian citizen, but I spent nearly all of my life living abroad with my family in Singapore. When I first came to Vancouver nearly four years ago, I would tell people that I was Canadian, for the sake of simplicity. Unfortunately, the two-or-so minutes this saved me during introductions was not worth the instances in which I was quietly judged to be a bit of an idiot for not knowing the kind of things that a Canadian girl who grew up here should know. Or, for some of the interesting slang that I picked up in Singapore… And then there was the first time it snowed, and the only shoes I owned were a pair of flip flops. So, now I give people the longer answer.

Because I am a bit of a cultural concoction myself, I am very excited for the fact that this course will focus on both European and Indigenous perspectives and traditions in Canadian literature. I love learning about different cultures and really enjoy considering the same story, topic or event from a variety of view points. I hope that this course provides me with a richer understanding of Canadian indigenous people, and their perspectives on the history of this country.

In this course we will read several Canadian stories and articles. A primary focus will be the consideration of how racism has and continues to effect the content and readership of the Canadian literary canon. Social media will be utilized extensively in this course. We will be keeping of our own blogs, as well as reading and commenting on the instructor’s blog and the blogs of our peers. We shall also create an online Conference presentation. This project will allow us to consider ways in which it may be possible to influence the future of Canadian Literature. At the end of the term we will write a term paper in which we will synthesis much of what we will have learned in the course.

I am looking forward to working with all of you!

WORKS CITED:

Gung, Greg. “How to Speak Singlish.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 17th Jan 2013. Web. 8th Jan 2014.

Paterson, Erika. ENGL 470A Canadian Studies: Canadian Literary Genres. University of British Columbia, 2013. Web. 6 Jan. 2014.

“Tech Impaired Duck.” Quickmeme. N.d. Web. 7th Jan 2014.

YourSingapore. Singapore Tourism Board. Web. 8th Jan 2014.