In last week’s blog, I managed to highlight some of the unique features of Green Grass Running Water. However, upon reading this 
week’s lesson, I realized I missed some detail about Coyote and what Coyote had to teach us. There were details which I had not considered during my initial interpretation of the text. For example, I understood the reference from Lesson 3.2 about Coyote being a trickster and comparable to the “Fool” characters in Shakespeare’s plays. However, I wasn’t entirely sure about Coyote as a “Transformer”. I wanted to familiarize myself with the idea of “Transformers” in First Nations story traditions before discussing my interpretation of the Coyote’s role in the novel.
The idea of the transformer is an essential aspect of Native oral traditions, a type of communication that goes against fixation. Coyote seems to embody that idea because the character is very multifaceted (almost unpredictable). King’s use of Coyote as a transformer introduces the element of irregularity, which allows the successful merge of native creation stories with Christian and contemporary ideas. In addition, Coyote’s character helps guide readers to question their “truths” and their assumptions. For example, in this passage:
“”There are no truths, Coyote,” I says. “Only stories.”
“Okay,” says Coyote. “Tell me a story.”” (King, 326)
King is directly questioning the idea of a “truth”. Does it exist? Are truths mutually exclusive? I believe good literature and good teachers lead their students to constantly ask questions and think outside the box. Although I think Coyote Pedagogy is quite an exaggerated (and funny) coined term, I found Coyote successful in provoking our thinking. This quotation from Flick’s article summarizes Coyote’s “method of teaching” pretty well:
“King’s strategy for writing for an audience primarily composed of the uninformed is not to pander to its preconceptions or to produce explanations, but to entice, even trick this audience into finding out for themselves.” (Flick, 132)
What better way to teach things to readers than to have Coyote be part of the learning journey as well? Although Coyote is rather terrible at learning the stories, he has the attributes that make him an eager student. Coyote is always tuned in to the storyteller and ready to ask questions. These small things further encourage readers to question assumptions and look for answers themselves.
**edit**
During my research on Transformers and Coyote pedagogy, I stumbled upon this interesting perspective on Coyote pedagogy by Hoefler. I wasn’t entirely sure how I wanted to include that information in my blog post but I felt it was worth sharing!
“The coyote teacher works on the basis of three principles (Hoefler 2009):
- The principle of disruption: Coyote is a boundary-breaker and a disruptor of things, and so the coyote teacher will try to disturb the learners and make them question their accepted beliefs and methods for doing things. If learners become disturbed enough, they will seek their own answers, and coyote teachers know that the road (i.e. the process) is more important than the destination (i.e. the answers).
- The principle of chaos: Coyote is often the cause of chaos, and when the coyote teacher creates chaos in the classroom, it often allows for new connections, new understandings – in short, learning.
- The principle of discomfort: Nothing is more discomforting than difficult questions, and it is the task of the coyote teacher to help learners discover such questions and then push them to seek their own answers. “
References
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. July 13, 2014
Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3:2.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies Canadian Literary Genres. University of British Columbia Blogs, 2013. Web. 13 July. 2014.
Hoefler, Eric. “Coyote Teaching”. <http://erichoefler.com/2007/02/14/coyote-teaching/> Web. 12 July. 2014
Hi Leo,
I really enjoyed reading your blog. Like you, “I understood the reference from Lesson 3.2 about Coyote being a trickster and comparable to the ‘Fool’ characters in Shakespeare’s plays.” Adding on to that, I thought that Coyote is most similar to a fool in one of Shakespeare’s plays because of his intelligence. For example, in “Twelfth Night”, the fool, Feste (http://www.shmoop.com/twelfth-night/feste.html), is arguably the most intelligent person in the play. He is the fool because he is so smart that he can tell truths repeatedly (mostly at the expense of the other characters) and get away with it, purely through his intellect and wording. After all, what’s funnier than speaking the truth? I feel like Coyote is very similar to Feste in this sense because he speaks the truth and does not filter what he is saying no matter who he is talking to. You said, “Coyote’s character helps guide readers to question their ‘truths’ and their assumptions” and I believe that you hit the nail on the head with this point because I believe that Coyote pushes people to question their truths because of the honesty behind Coyote’s statements. In a sense, he asks a lot of questions that I would ask as well, if I wasn’t concerned with offending others or appearing “dumb.” I also really enjoyed your “edit”. The principle I found most enlightening was: “The principle of discomfort: Nothing is more discomforting than difficult questions, and it is the task of the coyote teacher to help learners discover such questions and then push them to seek their own answers.” In an acting class a few years back, I learned that nothing happens when one is comfortable, only in discomfort is there room for growth. I think this is a great tool that Coyote uses and I believe that it works. A lot of his comments definitely made me uncomfortable and forced me to think critically. After reading King’s novel, I felt like a discomfort and a need to think about the book, similar to reading/watching a Bertolt Brecht play (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc15.htm). I feel like King used Coyote as a means to break up the story to ensure that the reader doesn’t get lost in the story and forget to think critically/be aware that it is in fact a story, which is very similar to what Brecht did with his plays.
Thanks for the detailed and well thought out reply!
The point you stated about the uncensored speech of both Coyote (a trickster) and Feste (a fool) is spot on. In a way, I think you can relate it back to how King sets up his novel. He filled it with allusions to people, places and ideas from a mixture of cultures which makes confusion part of the reading process. I think Coyote’s uncensored nature even encourages us to be in the mindset to actively seek out what we don’t know.
Hoefler mentioned that:
“If learners become disturbed enough, they will seek their own answers, and coyote teachers know that the road (i.e. the process) is more important than the destination (i.e. the answers).”
And I think that shows a lot in King’s choice of narrative style!
Leo,
As I went back to look at the proceeding chapters, I wanted to comment on your blog and the introduction you made to coyote literature and theory. That you for introducing the prinicples of coyote, and retelling Professor Patterson’s introduction of the ‘trickster’ through the use of further research. I think that King was trying to recall within each reader stories and plotlines which we have previously been exposed to as a way of ‘setting the stage’ (pardon the pun). As a ‘transformer’ character, akin to Shakespeare, I think it certainly makes sense for the character to follow that same arch. This way it is framed within what is expected, known, and previously experienced. As a story teller this allows King to also challenge that notion with Coyote as he so desires, thus confronting head on the narrative preconceptions we have as listeners/readers.
This Hoefler article too is very interesting, as the three principles seemingly summarize coyote very well. As this class is wrapping up, I also find that in many ways this blog format for the class follows these principles as well. Especially, the principle of discomfort:
“Nothing is more discomforting than difficult questions, and it is the task of the coyote teacher to help learners discover such questions and then push them to seek their own answers.”
Haha, hope you enjoyed learning on this classroom journey together. It was a pleasure