6. Find three examples of names that need to be spoken aloud in order to catch the allusion. Discuss the examples as well as the reading technique that requires you to read aloud in order to make connections. Why does King want us to read aloud?
The world of Green Grass Running Water is full of allusions and puns. While many would find the massive amount of allusions in this novel daunting, I found myself quite enjoying it. I have always enjoyed literature that forces me to go down the rabbit hole, so to speak, in order to fully explore the narrative. Occasionally, filling your novel with such a large amount of knowledge comes with a certain amount of pretension. No one is ever going to know that much about that particular subject. For instance, if you have ever had to read T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, you are probably familiar with that feeling of condescension as you trudge your way through the poem. Comparatively, I read Mumbo Jumbo for an African American literature class that was filled with just as many allusions, but Mumbo Jumbo pokes fun at this assumption that an absurd amount of allusions = intellectual superiority.
As I read Green Grass Running Water, I feel similarly about King’s use of allusions. It is almost as though King is letting the read know that it is fine if they do not catch every allusion, but the reading will be enriched if they are able to catch and understand the allusions. I believe this novel works to destabilize normalized notions of storytelling and the devices used in storytelling, allusions in particular. I also feel as though King is trying to shake our knowledge base of what we assume to be truth. One of the ways he goes about this is through naming.
Naming in Green Grass Running Water is the most common way King establishes his allusions. Many of the characters are named after historical figures that play a part in the Indigenous history that King plays off of. Some of the names are left as is, while others are puns or a hybrid form of two different characters. A cursory look through Jane Flick’s notes on GGRW show that King was not short on material when he was naming his characters.
Back to the main question, I would like to discuss three names that I found throughout GGRW that required being read out loud to fully understand the allusion. Before I share these names, I would like to discuss why I believe King has used this technique in GGRW, which I believe has to do with his play on language throughout the novel. GGRW destabilizes many norms in literature, such as language and even norms on the reading of a novel. It is assumed that a novel is to be read quietly, in your own thoughts, which clashes with the idea of the oral tradition that we have discussed in several other assignments throughout the term. By creating names that need to be read out loud to properly interpret, King forces the reader to reinterpret his novel through an oral reading, as opposed to a silent one. This also makes me think of Robinson’s oral tradition technique that he used in Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory.
The first name, probably the easiest one to find was Dr. Joe Hovaugh. Read out loud, his name is meant to sound like Jehovah. This becomes relevant due to the fact that Dr. Hovaugh, as a doctor, maintains a sense of authority. With his name alluding to a religion that has been at odds with Indigenous culture and beliefs by attempting to impose their own ideas on Indigenous people. This also puts him in place to be in opposed to Indigenous culture, as Jehovah is “God’s unique name as revealed in the Bible,” (“Who is Jehovah”) which introduces an opposing creation myth in the narrative of GGRW.
The other two names first appear on the same page, not surprising considering the parallels between these two figures. The two characters are Sally Jo Weyha and Polly Hantos, who are Sacajawea and Pocahontas. I find it fitting that these two characters are introduced together as they have both been taken in by popular culture, to the point where often conjoin into a similar character, or are confused for one another. For example, there is the Disney movie about Pocahontas. Of course, the details of their stories have been altered in order to fit a narrative constructed by European cultures. Also, they are known to history in the context of their association with European historical figures. Perhaps this is why King westernizes their names in his allusion to these figures. What I enjoy about these allusions is that, while they must also be read out loud to be fully understood, it is not as straight forward as simply reading their names. Some syllables need to be skipped, or mashed together in a version of language that is unfamiliar to the ear. It is an excellent example of King using naming and allusion to construct his new language and put the reader in a position to read it.
Works Cited
“Pocahontas.” History, history.com/topics/native-american-history/pocahontas. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
“Pocahontas “Colors of the Wind”.” YouTube, uploaded by Disney Movies Anywhere, 26 June 2012, youtube.com/watch?v=pk33dTVHreQ.
“Sacajewea.” History, history.com/topics/native-american-history/sacagawea. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
“Who Is Jehovah?” Jehovah’s Witness, jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/who-is-jehovah/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. April 04/2013.
Hey!
I found your comment on Dr. Joe Hovaugh really interesting, I didn’t think of him as an authority figure in the text itself, nor as an opposition to the creation story provided in the text. I wonder if King also intends almost to introduce two separate streams of reality within the text with Jehovah and the Native People the text follows.
Hey partner! Thanks for commenting!
It occurs to me that I really didn’t define what I meant by authority figure in my post! I think what I was getting at was his assumed authority within the narrative, whether the reader respects this authority or not. As a doctor, there is an implied authority based on his credentials, as well as being the apparent “boss” of the hospital. Also, Sergeant Cereno also gives Dr. Hovaugh a heck of a lot more respect in his interview, in comparison to Babo Jones, as afforded by this assumed authority.
I think you are right that King is giving us separate streams of reality. Except, I think there may be more than two and I don’t think they are all that separate as many of the storylines step all over each other and intersect. I’m only about 3/4 into GGRW at this point (oops!), but I feel as though Dr. Hovaugh is the version of the backwards dog, or GOD, in the creation myth that exists in this storyline. This is why I think Dr. Hovaugh opposes the creation myth, though not directly.
I’m not sure that Dr. Joe Hovaugh is meant to be an authority figure, but rather a figure representing the colonial world in which the “Four Old Indians” escape from. I also think that he is not in touch with the world around him because he adores looking at the garden around him (an allusion to the Garden of Eden) and yet the desk in his office that he covets is made to look about as unnatural as it could look for being made from wood. The joke here is both on colonial and capitalist culture.
When you write that, “[King] construct[s] his new language and put[s] the reader in a position to read it,” I’m wondering what you mean. It could just be my interpretation, but I don’t think that King creates a new language. Rather I think that he just makes the reader think about what they’re reading and bridges the gap between orality and the written word in doing so.
Hey there Sarah,
As I mentioned in my reply to Karoliina, I think I just worded this poorly. I meant an assumed authority, not the authority that the reader thinks the character exudes. By this, I also mean the authority that is assumed on him by colonial, European cultures as based on his credentials as a doctor. I do agree that he is a reflection of colonial and capitalist culture. Sorry about that!
I suppose me calling King’s use of language as a “new language” stems from my experience with language itself. It is interesting to see how language, and the words we utilize in a language, shift as context shift. For instance, I took an Old English course and, though many of the words were the same, they had different context and definitions that separated the language from Modern English. I felt as though this was what King was doing in GGRW. Though he is using English, the historical and narrative context create the language of GGRW where Polly Hantos becomes Pocahontas.