Assignment 3:7 – Hyperlinking Green Grass, Running Water

The pages I chose to reflect my assignment on was p. 104 – 114.

I found that in these pages there were a lot expressed about origin stories of characters. The dichotomy of these stories mixed with the allusions to Christian symbolism is very apparent in this passage. I also found the idea of “Dead Dog Cafe” seemed to have such a potent representation in this passage. I didn’t have an initial reaction to the allusion, so I definitely wanted to see if I could expand on that at all.

Dead Dog Cafe:

The name of this place must certainly catch your attention. The characters that work here, like Latisha, Cynthia, Norma, and Rita seem like they are capitalizing on the novelty of their cafe. They’ve even configured up menu items with names such as “Dog du Jour”, “Houndburgers”, etc. Upon researching allusions for Dead Dog Cafe, the first of my search took me to a CBC Radio show based off of King’s Green Grass, Running Water. This was an aftermath of King’s novel, which depicts different characters (from the novel) who worked in the cafe. Jane Flicks’ comments that the Dead Dog Cafe “jokes about traditional Blackfoot cooking and tourists’ desire for the exotic. Ruth Beebe Hill exploited the eating of dogs in Hanta Yo (1969) and Custer mentioned it in My Life on the Plains (1982-1874). Also refers to starving Indians having to eat their dogs. Possibly a play on Nietzsche’s assertion that “God is Dead” (Flick, 149).” I thought that Flick’s connection to Nietzsche was a revelation, definitely not something that I made a connection to at all. I don’t have a vast knowledge of Nietzsche’s rhetoric and philosophy, but I imagine that the connection is alluding to the idea of the Christian God as being obsolete in this environment. It seems like through the Dead Dog Cafe, King is inviting us to think about how the tourists have this novel idea of what “exotic” is from the inside looking out versus what we might be exposed from outside.

Ishmael:

Flick references Ishmael to the “character in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, who begins the story with one of the most famous opening lines in American fiction: “Call me Ishmael.” (Flick, 143).” In the link above, they relate Ishmael (Moby Dick) as being a storyteller which seems rather appropriate given his role in King’s novel. The name Ishmael also have biblical resonance, Ishmael’s story is one of repent. It feels as though the biblical impersonation augments the satirical retelling of other characters (like  – Changing woman) in accordance to that of the Bible. Although I can also see that there is room for more interpretation on Ishmael’s biblical implications.

Changing Woman:

Flick’s interpretation is that Changing Woman is a Navajo deity. After some research into the Navajo traditions of Changing Woman, I found that she represents the balancing of male and female energies in the universe. This was definitely not the first allusion that came to mind, as later on Ishmael claims that the Changing Woman falls from staring at her reflection onto a canoe. The canoe definitely seems to be a satire of Noah’s ark, with it being “full of animals”. My interpretation is that the play on the biblical story interprets Changing Woman to be in the lead role of Noah, spinning the gendered role of Noah.

First Woman:

The First Woman was also mentioned alongside to the Changing Woman, so clearly they are not meant to be confused. Being that we have Ahdamn in the novel, it’s safe to assume that the First Woman can have some semblance to Eve. Flick writes that the First woman may have “North American Indian mythology” but also “lots of fooling around with the Genesis creation story here (147).”

Works Cited

Altein, Yehuda. “The Story of Noah and the Ark in the Bible.” Judaism, 19 May 2005, www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/246609/jewish/The-Story-of-Noah-and-the-Ark-in-the-Bible.htm.