Thomas King’s Green Grass Running River is a book that is full of references and allusions. These are several names which caught my attention.
Ahdam
In the story of First Woman’s garden, this is where the name Ahdam appears. This is an easy and obvious one- it’s an allusion to Adam and the Garden of Eden. However, when I read Ahdam out loud, I end up breaking it up into two phrase: “Ah, damn!”. I think this is a witty play on words. The phrase “ah, damn!” appears to me as an “aha” moment when we come to awareness of something.
Polly Hantos
Immediately, this name on page 182 buried in the list of many reminded me of Disney’s 1995 film Pocahontas. It brings back images of Pocahontas and John Smith’s fictionalized love story. Jane Flick’s reading notes, however, gives a slightly more informed and lesser romanticized depiction of the “real” Pocahontas. On the Powhatan Renape Nation’s website, they explain that Pocahontas is merely a nickname meaning “the naughty one” or “spoiled child” (“The Pocahontas Myth”). Asides from what I knew about Pocahontas from Disney, I know little of the reality behind the movie.
Sam Monila
“There’s nothing like fresh pasta. Look, I got the flour and Sam Molina’s book on pasta” (King 245)”.
The name “Sam Monila” does not allude to a person. It is a reference to semolina flour, which is used to make pasta. George’s line actually made me laugh out loud because of its ridiculousness. It’s also because I had pasta the night before my reading. I find it funny how he doesn’t seem to know that he’s saying the name of the flour. It’s as if the “author” of the cookbook is mocking George’s lack of knowledge, even though he believes he is an expert on pasta cookery. This alludes how we tend to overestimate our understanding of a given entity. In reality, we know much less than we would really like to believe.
Reading techniques and King’s rationale
In order to fully make the connections between the literature and my own understanding, one approach I used was to slow down my verbal readings. Instead of merely glossing over the text with my eyes, I broke down the names into individual phonemes. I simultaneously spoke each one while clapping my hands together. Slowing down the reading process forced me to carefully enunciate each phoneme instead of rushing through it. It forced me to carefully think about what I was saying out loud, “for once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world” (King 10). Besides, King may be trying to show readers how effortful it actually is to be familiar with a culture (in this case, the novel). Reading out loud also dismisses the assumption that “speaking and listening are simple and natural, while writing and reading are cultivated and complex” (Chamberlin 19). When readers are put in this position, this illustrates how speaking and listening are multi-dimensional and are equally complex as writing and reading.
When using the mentioned reading technique, it reassured what I did know about the topic manner. More importantly, I became more aware of what I didn’t know. What I didn’t know far outweighed what I did know. Jane Flick’s reading guide further emphasized the great number of allusions I failed to make note of. This exercise also challenged my preconceived ideas over certain subjects. It made me examine how I came about knowing these ideas and whose stories these ideas belonged to. Accordingly, I was compelled to do further research on Google to enrich my comprehension.
This activity too confirms the impact of picking and choosing certain aspects of a culture to look at. When we overlook major and minor details embedded into a story, it is like only looking at the image of the “real Indian” (King 141). As tempting as it is skim over a reading, the consequences of doing so pose as a threat to both the storyteller and the receiver.
In high school, my social studies teacher emphasized the importance of referencing the dictionary when we didn’t know what a word meant in a book. He stressed the significance of making notes on things we didn’t quite understand and doing independent research on them. It was okay to not understand something as long as we strived to educate ourselves. I firmly believe this is what King wishes of the reader: not for us to know everything, but being open to learning from a variety of perspectives, and being okay with admitting that we don’t know everything.
Works Cited
Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground. Toronto: A.A. Knopf, 2003. Print.
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2003. Print.
Pocanhontas. Image. n.d. Disney Insider. Web. 10 July 2014.
Reading. Photograph. n.d. All Fantasy Worlds. Web. 10 July 2014.
“The Pocahontas Myth.” The Pocahontas Myth- Powhatan Renape Nation- the Real Story, not Disney’s Distortion. Powhatan Renape Nation, n.d. Web. 9 July 2014.
paniz89
July 10, 2014 — 10:07 pm
Hi Jenny! I really like your witty interpretation of Ahdam’s name and the approach you took in reading the text. The phonemic approach is something I did not think of, and I actually tried doing it after reading your blog. Doing this did make me feel a connection to King’s comment in his witche’s convention text.
You noted that King tries to get his reader to see a variety of perspectives, rather than just fixating on their own biased one. I too found this with his texts (in an ironic, strange sort of way), which is one of the reasons why I have felt so inspired by his work. Over the years of University, we are encouraged to continuously open our minds to new viewpoints. Quite honestly, after almost being done my undergraduate degree, not until this course have I really felt this type of encouragement. Looking at your points about reading technique, gave me a unique understanding of how my peer sees the story, a perpective that I may never have considered until I stumbled upon your blog.
I believe that your point about easilty overlooking some major details in the stories we hear and read is an important one. On a daily basis we hear and read the stories of others, and it may become easy to glance over the little things, and sometimes even the big facts. Perhaps this is part of our human nature in trying to comprehend and grasp everythiing to the best of our abilities? Perhaps it is “tempting” to “skim over the reading” or only catch onto some of the words of a story being told… as we are people that constantly strive to know answers. It is part of human nature, unfortunately, to want to always achieve an end goal, instead of enjoying the journey while it’s happening in that moment. Today, King, Paterson, and most importantly you, have reminded me of the importance of our stories and perpective taking.
jennyho
July 10, 2014 — 10:49 pm
Hi Paniz, thanks for your comment! I just took a course on English grammar (bleh), but that’s primarily where I got my idea from! I had to make word trees in the class, so I did a “spoken” word tree instead. What I also did was look at the word itself and kind of “played” around with the letters to see if it would make other words, if that makes sense.
I would have to agree with you; the format of this course makes sharing our opinions and starting dialogue one heck of a lot easier. Everybody has the opportunity to say what they want without being cut off or time constraints!
As students, we can all relate to skimming, especially readings. We’ve all taken courses with terribly boring textbooks that have no pictures in them. Then we start to skip over some words and sentences, but paying attention to any bolded or italicized terms. Of course, when it comes to midterms and finals, it comes back to hurt us. Then we’re like “damn, was that even in the text?”.
So, I have a question for you- you said “It is part of human nature, unfortunately, to want to always achieve an end goal, instead of enjoying the journey while it’s happening in that moment.”
Is it? I’m bringing this up because had a dialogue on another blog (Caitlyn) that was on lesson 2.2, titled “The Dangers of Dichotomies”. Part of the discussion revolved around whether using dichotomies as a way of making sense of the world was predominately used by Westerners, or if everyone uses them. One psychology class I took last year had a major emphasis on goal setting, its importance, the best ways of doing it, etc. Psychology is predominately a Western field of study- it’s not as commonly studied in many parts of the world. That’s why it makes me wonder if achieving goals is purely human nature or if it’s a bit of everything. However, I do agree with you wholeheartedly about humans not living fully in the present moment.
pmconn
July 21, 2014 — 1:02 am
I like the way you approached King’s playfulness with language. At first I wasn’t sure how to approach it. I first noticed his references during Alberta’s debut in the novel with her student “Mary Rowlandson”. After that, everytime I read a full name, I felt like I should look into whether it was a reference or not.
I think you’re right when you say that’s what King’s doing with his writing. I’m not sure, but it seems important to the speaker that we as readers independently seek out these references for ourselves. For instance, there’s not much in the piece that would let us clue into the woman that Rowlandson was except for her name – a little clue to the reader that her life and work is part of a bigger sphere that would help to begin to understand the novel and its real world implications.
For you, do you find this playfulness affective, or annoying? Would you rather have King gone with the “Infinite Jest” approach of using endnotes?
jennyho
July 21, 2014 — 6:51 pm
Hi Patrick, I also find myself doing the same thing with all the names. For assignment 3.3, I pretty much typed up all the names on Google to see if there was any sort of relationship.
I think King’s playfulness is intelligent- it definitely takes a lot more thinking and planning out on his part. But yes, it is cumbersome at times, too. We (as people in general) are used to instant gratification and getting immediate answers/results for pretty much everything, so it is slightly frustrating on that level. No, I don’t think I would have appreciated an encyclopaedia of footnotes… now THAT would have been infuriating. I personally hate reading a ton of footnotes and tend to skip over them if there’s an overwhelming number of them. It would also make King’s agenda way more obvious and I would feel like he’s trying to shove his agenda in my face. I also REALLY hate being told what to think and to not form my own opinions. That’s probably just me though, I know the “training” in my other major has really shaped the way I approach the world.
I would be interested to see if there was a middle ground that could be achieved, something that would please Goldilocks. What do you think?
roserob
August 16, 2014 — 12:38 am
Hey Jenny! In looking at this again, I think it is very possible that Pocahontas was referenced twice here during King’s writings, both with Polly Hantos, as well as with Sally Jo Weyha. The intention here is obvious, along with many of King’s writings: to challenge what we had previously known through stories and pop culture as the readers. As Professor Patterson stated, our assumptions upon the direction in which the story will take are being directed by the author by alluding to our preconceived inferences based on cinema, literature, religious background, and history. With history, as you stated, the intent is to arise reconsideration in the reader as to the mediated history of Pocahontas displayed in Disney films and the tale told through children’s novels. The fact is that this story of events is so deeply engrained in the American psyche that ‘Pocahontas’ even can be found on American currency. Were the true story of Sacagawea known, this would simply not be the case. The true story is an exchange of sexual violence and a forced relationship rather than one of love and harmony as displayed by the film. I believe that King’s playfullness which you discussed is used to counter the reality of the stories and references which are made, which are removed in the public perception from the true story much like the names themselves are removed from reality. As he references Christopher Columbus’ voyage with, Nissan, Piulo, und Karmaiin Ghia, he again is describing how on one hand we celebrate the voyage as the start of one society, on the other it is the harbringer on pain. As others have stated ‘denaturalise the colonial perspective’, providing “an important opportunity for readers of the dominant culture to look in the mirror of stereotypical caricature” (Wylie)
Wyile, Herb. “Trust Tonto: Thomas King’s Subversive Fictions and the Politics of Cultural Literacy.” Canadian Literature 161-62 (1999): 105-24.