In her article, “Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel,” Blanca Chester observes that “the conversation that King sets up between oral creation story, biblical story, literary story, and historical story resembles the dialogues that Robinson sets up in his storytelling performances (47). She writes:

Robinson’s literary influence on King was, as King himself says, “inspirational.” When one reads King’s earlier novel, Medicine River, and compares it with Green Grass, Running Water, Robinson’s impact is obvious. Changes in the style of the dialogue, including the way King’s narrator seems to address readers and characters directly (using the first person), in the way traditional characters and stories from Native cultures (particularly Coyote) are adapted, and especially in the way that each of the distinct narrative strands in the novel contains and interconnects with every other, reflect Robinson’s storied impact. (46)

For this blog assignment I would like you to make some comparisons between Harry Robinson’s writing style in “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England” and King’s style in Green Grass, Running Water. What similarities can you find between the two story-telling voices? Coyote and God are present in both texts, how do they compare in character and voice across the stories?

“For a long time, Coyote was there
On the water, sitting on that boat.
And he eat right there.
And then they got a fire.
And the fire, they never go out.
They still burnin’ just like it was when they first set the fire.
It’s that way all the time.
And, been there a long time, just like they put him in jail.
They still there.” (King, 64)

Conceptually and structurally, Robinson and King’s storytelling methods can be considered similar. In the introduction to “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England”, King sets the story in motion with this notion that whatever happened is still happening, the fire is burning just like the first time it was set. This image is parallel to the image of the Four Indians in Green Grass and Running Water, who are in the contemporary world and are trying to fix things, but their attempts only cause more issues. That important task that needs to be done, is still ‘being done’. Both King and Robinson have similar purposes on establishing this permanent existence of First Nations issues, whether it be in the form of the Black and White, or the Four Indians.

On the other hand, both writers emphasize different aspects: Robinson continues executing choppy lines and informal dialogue that causes us to slow our thoughts down, while King has Coyote pose questions between traveling through time and situations with characters, almost as part of the reader’s audience. Yet, in similar ways, we are constantly working to understand these stories that are thrown around in present tense. It is this skillful sense of constancy (of how life is never ending nor beginning and how literature mimics such) in oral narratives, that seeks a response from the readers. Both writers create a motion in their words and this echo of past meeting present–Robinson, in repetition of the law/agreement between the King of England and Coyote, and King, in his occasional reference to the image of puddles, and water rising, as Lionel’s past mistakes resurfacing.

Robinson’s character of God is rather simple in which God commands and gives Coyote a power for an important task. God is seen as this all-powerful, all knowing being, yet his own actions don’t show regard for the people on Earth. The dialogue between the King of England and Coyote tells more of a story of distrust and politics, but as this story is not as stretched out, there are not as many plot details to examine here. However, both texts suggest a hint of skepticism toward the Christian God.

On God and Coyote, King further provides more context that satirically deals with Christian influences. He “reverses [the renaming of First Nations individuals with familiar Christian names by] renaming Christ as Young Man Walking on Water” (Flick, 270). Moreover, in King’s interview at the end of the book, he mentions that “there is a certain meanness and arrogance in religion, and in society in general, that prevails… Religion is this way because it is run by humans, created by humans and inhabited by humans” and says that “[he tends] to look for those imperfections” and is “not a person full of faith” (5). While there is this implication that Coyote is supposed to be an impulsive and difficult to understand or interpret “god”, in King’s story, he is not only a trickster but a complex, omniscient time traveler. He tells the ‘wrong’ stories by mentioning soldiers who “have flowers in their hair” (324), seems to call upon a storm (273), and is seen as this “yellow dog dancing in the rain” (279). In the many questions he asks, sometimes he gives the right observation, and sometimes he just gets it all wrong. Not to mention that it was implied he was involved in Alberta’s pregnancy, we don’t know where to start in understanding who he is. Does this bring perspective into King’s opinion on faith and religion especially in the manner which Solnit (who brings a personal account as well) says that “perfect is not only the enemy of the good; it’s also the enemy of the realistic, the possible, and the fun” ? How is Coyote portrayed similarly yet differently from the Christian God?

While there is no explicit Christian God in King’s novel, the concept is contrasted nonetheless. And while King may have been inspired with Robinson’s storytelling voice, he also brings into account many other aspects to the realm of literature and reality. We learn through both writers’ dialogues the projections and influences of complex characters such as that of Coyote and God.

Works Cited

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161/162 (1999). Web. 25 October 2016.

Giffen Sheila, Kathryn Grafton, Laura Moss. “Challenges of Textualizing Orature.” CanLit Guides, The University of British Columbia, 19 Aug. 2016, http://canlitguides.ca/canlit-guides-editorial-team/orature-and-literature/challenges-of-textualizing-orature/.   

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

Mallette, Linnaea. “Beware Of Coyotes Sign.” PublicDomainPictures.net, http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=110922&picture=beware-of-coyotes-sign.

Robinson, Harry. “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England.” Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory. Ed. Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005. 64-85.