In Green Grass Running Water, King makes use of numerous techniques of oral storytelling to enrich his story with symbolism, allusion, and a kind of linguistic riddling. From the onset of the novel when the reader is introduced to Hawkeye, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe and the Lone Ranger, the reader is alerted to the fact that this book will demand a more thorough kind of reading. Even if the reader is uncertain of the specifics of the aforementioned characters of popular culture, they will most likely have heard the names referred to, and therefore attempt to place them within a real world setting. Information about the characters will be drawn from the reader’s experience with the various characters, relationships will be deduced, and the reader is asked to contribute their own cultural knowledge to the knowledge provided by the novel. The reader is asked to engage in a new kind of reading. This reading involves voicing some things aloud in order to best make sense of them. King seems to implore his reader to play. To understand “the unifying metaphor or the cultural impact” rather than just “appreciate the superficial aesthetics” of the book, the reader must find a new way to “read it” (King 128). Green Grass Running Water asks its readers to “lov[e] the sound[s] of it…[to appreciate the] majesty [of the] name[s]” (128). To read Green Grass Running Water successfully, the reader must understand that “there is no reader of the novel…who is not outside some of its networks of cultural knowledge…but every reader is also inside at least one network and can therefore work by analogy to cross borders into the others” (Fee and Flick 131).

The reader is therefore asked to bring his/her personal experience and cultural knowledge to the novel and to apply it to the world that King creates. What is not understood should be investigated where possible. Sometimes it will be decoded, and sometimes, it is meant to exist outside of comprehension. Words must be played with. Spoken aloud, rearranged, shortened, pronounced in different ways. The reader is taken back to the process of learning to read and is asked to sound things out.

A number of the allusive names that are illuminated through being spoken aloud are biblical names. Ahdamn, Dr. Joseph Hovaugh, and A.A. Gabriel are some examples of these. King therefore suggests that his book should not be treated as scripture. By engaging in word play with biblical characters he gives his reader permission to ask questions, to challenge accepted stories and to re-frame them within other cultural understandings.

Joseph Hovaugh is an example of a name that King asks his reader to engage in wordplay with. King places Dr. Hovaugh within a biblical context immediately. He is attended to by Mary, he asks for John, he observes the garden, and he discusses acquiring a pair of peacocks. Yet if the reader does not engage in wordplay with the name Joseph Hovaugh, they might miss the allusion that Joe Hovaugh = Jehovah. On my first reading of the novel, I must admit, I missed the full allusion.

Once King has established that nothing within his novel should be taken at face value, the reader is encouraged to continue manipulating the words and concepts of the novel to glean more information. Ahdamn seems an obvious reference. Phonetically, Ahdamn and Adam are quite similar. Yet the spelling of Ahdamn urges the reader to speak it aloud. “Ah, damn!” is quite different from “Adam.” By asking his reader to say the name in such a way, King makes a statement about just how seriously biblical stories are taken in his novel (King 68-69). The result is that the Adam character in the biblical creation story is diminished. First Woman becomes the active character, versus Eve in the biblical creation story who is vilified and damned. Ahdamn is passive in King’s version and First Woman is the active personage.

A.A. Gabriel operates in a bit of a different way. He is introduced within the context of his biblical significance. He encounters Thought Woman (whose name is Mary) and runs her through the requirements for immaculate conception. Yet once again, King asks the reader to play with the words of the character’s name. The reader must investigate and make the jump in logic to relate the situation to the character. The wordplay continues when Coyote “confuses” the “hosanna da” that is sung for the religious song Hosanna in the Highest. King then engages in word play to make a political point by having his narrative voice “mix up” the religious song for the nationalistic song “Hosanna da” as in “O Canada.” King’s political point is extended when he says the lyrics are “our home on Natives’ land” (King 270).

There are, of course, many other examples of names that must be read aloud to be fully understood. King demands that the reader not take the printed word at face value. Often, there are allusions that beckon to the reader like deja vu. For example, Polly Hontas might be passed over at first when traditionally read, but when read with an engaged approach of applying one’s cultural knowledge, the name suggests Pocahontas. Similarly, when Changing Woman encounters Ahab, the men shout “Whaleswhaleswhaleswhalesbianswhalesbianswhaleswhales!” (King 195). King asks the reader to go over what is presented at face value and to investigate it for deeper meaning. When read aloud, further significance is uncovered. Although I missed a number of Canadian historical references on first reading, I recognized Dr. Loomis as a character from the series of slasher horror films, Halloween. My recognition of the character from within my cultural knowledge of what he represents in the films colours how I perceive him as a character in King’s novel.

King therefore asks his reader to apply oral storytelling and listening techniques to their reading of Green Grass Running Water. The book becomes malleable. What one person brings with them as cultural knowledge will not match up with any other individual’s interpretation of the characters, events and settings. The result is multiple layers of meaning that are influenced by each reader’s worldview and relative knowledge. The story that is told aloud is manipulated and fiddled with, and King asks his reader to engage similarly with Green Grass Running Water to infer meaning. In oral storytelling, each listener has a different impression of the stories being told. One listener will glean certain things that are informed by his/her worldview and another listener will remember different things as important, things that are informed by his/her worldview.

In King’s storytelling, no story is told the same way twice, and no word should be limited to one incarnation. The reader must engage, ask questions, and play with language in order to truly find meaning. Nothing is as it seems, everything should be examined and investigated, even age old characters that have previously been treated as scripture. What is sought out may thus be found.

Works Cited

Davidpetercantus. “Hosanna in the Highest.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube. 11 Jul. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

“Dr. Sam Loomis.” IMDB. IMDB, 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Fee, Margery and Jane Flick. “Coyote Pedagogy Knowing Where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature. 161/162 (Summer/Autumn 2009): 131-139. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Fredde21. “National Anthem of Canada (O Canada).” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube. 26 Feb. 2008. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Perennial, 2007. Print.