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 Robson’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?
Throughout this course, I’ve been interested with the notion of oral syntax, and oral culture in regards to storytelling. While I was reading through Green Grass Running Water, it was undeniable that Robinson’s influence really shone through. However, both have their own stylistic flair.
For example, both emphasize the importance of oral culture, which is exemplified by King’s way of forcing us to interpret messages through reading aloud. To elaborate, naming his characters “Louis,” “Ray” and “Al” may be lost on the reader when silently reading, but when we sound these out then we understand that they are meant to sound like “Louis Riel.” This is slightly different than what Robinson does, but it drives home the point that orality is important. Both King and Robinson’s works are written, but they craftily create a hybrid reading experience, joining written culture and oral culture together. Like King, Robinson also forces the reader to read words with the nuances and tones that come from oral culture, such as using colloquial phrases like “gotta.” Interestingly enough, the Eurocentric worldview seems to heavily promote written culture over oral culture, citing it as being the better “civilized” and “educational” way of communicating. However, I found this article that argues against that very idea, instead promoting oral culture as an asset to learning.
Furthermore, both Robinson and King present very dynamic characters, in the sense that these characters are synonymous with Indigenous identity. Combined with orality, this breathes life into the Indigenous narrative. To elaborate, Coyote is a prominent figure in Indigenous myths, and pairing him up against Colonial figures such as the King of England and God himself make for an interesting contrast between the Indigenous and Colonial communities.
While Robinson tells the story of Coyote and a mortal being, King takes it one step further and places God as a deeper part of the narrative. However, he strips God of his title, instead titling him “Young Man Walking on Water.” This draws parallels to how Indigenous people were renamed and given European names, and there is an inference to be made here that King is reclaiming the Indigenous culture and even satirizing the notion of renaming. When read aloud, the words “Young Man Walking on Water” do not carry the same connotations that one would get from the title, “God.” Thus, King takes away the power from one of the most powerful symbols of European culture – their religion. This differs from Robinson’s character of God, which is a lot more simple. Although the two authors share similarities, King’s disdain for the Christian religion and its implication of Colonialist values is shown through his method of storytelling.
While looking into the influence of Christianity on Indigenous culture, I came across this interesting entry by the Canadian Encyclopedia. It describes that some Indigenous cultures adopted Christianity into their communities, creating a sense of hybridity between the European religion and their own religions and values. At first glance, it appears that King and Robinson do this by placing God in their stories alongside Coyote. However, to King, he does so in order to deliver some subtle scathing commentary about Eurocentric religions.
WORKS CITED
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
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.
Sandford-Cooke, Julia. “5 Reasons Why Reading Aloud Isn’t Just for Children.” Government of Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada, Translation Bureau, 26 Mar. 2018, www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/en/blogue-blog/lire-haute-voix-reading-aloud-eng.
Smith, Derek G. “Religion and Spirituality of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2011, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/religion-of-aboriginal-people.
Hi Katrina, thank you for your insightful response. I really enjoyed reading through the links that you shared as well.
I think the “5 reasons why reading aloud isn’t just for children” does raise the idea that oral reading is more educational than silent reading, but it’s still referring to reading written down literature. The fact that she is reading aloud written texts doesn’t undermine the false “civilized” notion that many Western’s project onto written stories. One problem that I had with this article is that Standford-Cook doesn’t have a lot of references or research to back up her claims. Another argument that could be used to say that the Eurocentric view does not necessarily think orality is lesser than written stories is the fact that Christianity (that has obviously influenced the European view) places high importance on orality. I shared an article in case you are interested. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/oral.html
The “Religion and Spirituality of Indigenous Peoples in Canada” was very informative and comprehensible. It’s interesting to see some similarities between Christianity and Indigenous beliefs, and how they can mix. On the other hand, the article also mentions the authoritarian stance Christianity takes and how detrimental to other beliefs and people that can be.