Monthly Archives: May 2014

Storytime!

Before time existed, there was a civilization that lived in peace and harmony. They did not understand the concept of greed or evil for they shared everything with their kin. One day, they gathered for a gigantic feast to celebrate the King’s birthday. The King was a generous man and was loved by everyone in his kingdom.  Men and women from the corners of his realm came to show respect and to celebrate this amazing day.

During the feast, the King announced that there would be a contest; a contest to see who could come up with the most startling and astounding performance. Eager to win the King’s curiosity and attention, some performed dangerous feats such as walking across fire. Others performed sleight of hand and magic tricks to stun the crowd.

The night was coming to an end and the King was about to announce his winner when suddenly, a strange individual stepped up from the crowd. The strange hooded figure wished the King a happy birthday and said he wished to tell a story. The story was a gruesome and violent tragedy about the downfall of a neighbouring civilization. A story filled with fear, greed and homicide.

When the story ended, the room was silent.

The lively and vibrant energy in the room turned into nervous chatter. The citizens of the room glanced at each other in disbelief. The king stood up, but took a few seconds to regain his composure. He announced that the story was by far the most startling and astounding. However, he told the man that such a story cannot exist in his Kingdom and asked him to take it back.

“But, of course, it was too late. For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.” (10)

Anxiety, fear and greed was introduced and the kingdom was never the same ever since.

 *****

Commentary and thoughts

I told this story to my friends while we were exploring pacific spirit park (at night). We figured that story telling would keep our noise level steady so we don’t scare any unsuspecting animals and it was also a great way to pass time. I noticed the version I told my friends was much more dramatic and exaggerated. I used a LOT more adjectives when describing things so it would fit the mood of when and where I told the story. I came to the conclusion that the context definitely affects how stories are told (in my case, I made my story sound like an epic).

I found some interesting parallels between the notion of a story and an “idea”. The similarities between the two are its resiliency and ability to be passed on. However, stories are much easier to change and be told in different ways. This quote by Dom Cobb from Inception highlights some interesting similarities and differences between the two:

“What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed – fully understood – that sticks; right in there somewhere.”(Inception)

References:

King, Thomas. “The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative” Toronto: House of Anansi P., 2003. Print.

Figuring out this place called home

Which would you say is the correct answer?

Why not both!?

The problematic nature of home can be introduced quite thought provokingly in this quote by Chamberlin:

“Home is caught up in the contradictions between reality and the imagination, here and elsewhere, history and hope.” (Chamberlin, 74)

Chamberlin’s quote highlights the few distinguishing qualities of home that point to the complexity of trying to define the word home. Home represents the compromise between reality and imagination. The home we miss and remember exists only in our memories and imagination. Those emotions are especially strong when you feel far from it (we miss the thoughts and feelings that come with the idea of home). Although home has such an abstract definition in the physical world, certain elements of home make it very real. For example, the land we stand and build our houses on are very quantifiable things. In addition, as humans, we form deep emotional responses to places that offer us success in protection and reproduction. It can be argued that those feelings of longing are not just  “imagined” or simply “stories”, but are cognitive adaptations we developed. The mixture of these two powerful elements make “home” a very  fluid and flexible concept.

Chamberlin futher illustrates why it is problematic to figure out this place we call home:

“The sad fact is, the history of settlement around the world is the history of displacing other people from their lands, of discounting their livelihoods and destroying their languages …

Put differently, the history of many of the world’s conflicts is a history of dismissing a different belief or different behaviour as unbelief or misbehaviour and of discrediting those who believe or behave differently as infidels or savages.” (78)

The conflict depicted by Chamberlin struck me as a problem of cultural relativism and cultural superiority. The European settlers viewed the indigenous as less advanced and pressed their culture onto them. For the natives, their voices became increasingly drowned out and what the natives once saw as home were now dictated by the Europeans. Our difficulty in figuring out Canada as a home is due to the past conflicts caused by imperialist attitudes. The founding of Canada silenced many voices and stories, and we have only just started to acknowledge, listen and appreciate them. How can we call Canada our home when we don’t listen to both sides of the story?

References:

“This is Home”. Digital Image.  http://www.thisishomeproject.blogspot.ca/ Web. 23rd. May 2014.

Paterson, Erika. Lesson 1.2. ENGL 470A Canadian Studies: Canadian Literary Genres.  University of British Columbia, 2014. https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl47098amay2014/unit-1/lesson-12/ Web. 23rd May. 2014.

Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground. Toronto: A.A. Knopf Canada, 2003. Print.

Buss, D. M. (2011). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of mind. Fourth Edition. Allyn & Bacon.

Hello! My name is Leo Yau and I am a fourth year student at UBC currently majoring in Psychology and minoring in English Literature. I was born in Vancouver but I quickly moved back to Hong Kong for kindergarten. Because of my upbringing, I was extremely disconnected with Canadian history and literature before arriving at UBC. It wasn’t until I took ARTH100, where I began to learn more about the indigenous people of British Columbia (specifically the Haida and the Kwakwaka’wawk).

This summer, I will be taking ENGL470A, where our class will be exploring Canadian literature with a focus on the overlaps between European and Indigenous traditions. A central theme about this course is the power of stories – how these stories affect how we view our “Home(s) and Native Land(s).” This course incorporates the use of social media (Facebook) and blogging to allow students to collaborate and critically assess the range of literature that is taught. I anticipate that this blog will help me document and further my learning in the Canadian literary genre.

Personally, this course pushes me out of my comfort zone a little. I’ve never blogged before in my life, so the thought of having my work displayed on the internet is a little intimidating but intriguing at the same time. Secondly, I never saw Facebook as an academic tool (as I was constantly told it was a distraction throughout high school). It is almost poetic that one of my last classes at UBC will make me feel like a first year experiencing something new again. I’m looking forward to learning more about  the stories and literature that helped shaped Canada.

References:

Paterson, Erika. ENGL 470A Canadian Studies: Canadian Literary Genres. University of British Columbia, 2014. Web. 15th May. 2014.

Cohodas, Marvin. ARTH100 Introduction to Art History. University of British Columbia, 2013. Web. 15th May. 2014