In his article, “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial,” King discusses Robinson’s collection of stories. King explains that while the stories are written in English, “the patterns, metaphors, structures as well as the themes and characters come primarily from oral literature.” More than this, Robinson, he says “develops what we might want to call an oral syntax that defeats reader’s efforts to read the stories silently to themselves, a syntax that encourages readers to read aloud” and in so doing, “recreating at once the storyteller and the performance” (186). Read “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England”, in Living by Stories. Read it silently, read it out loud, read it to a friend, and have a friend read it to you. See if you can discover how this oral syntax works to shape meaning for the story by shaping your reading and listening of the story. Write a blog about this reading/listening experience that provides references to both King’s article and Robinson’s story.
I chose to address this question in my blog for a few reasons. Firstly, I am a school teacher who focuses on literacy and Language Arts. It is my role to teach my students a variety of reading comprehension techniques. Some students respond well to reading silently, others comprehend better when they are listening. I figured this question would be a great way to explore the effects of various reading styles. Secondly, I truly enjoyed King’s “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial”. His approach to the terms currently used to describe Indigenous literature, and the terms he used, really opened my eyes to the Euro-centric approach many (including myself, if I’m to be honest) have when it comes to Native literature. His discussion of Robinson’s story-telling method piqued my interest and had me wanting to know more. My third reason for addressing this question is more personal. My husband and I used to read aloud to each other all the time. Our lives are much busier now than they used to be, so unfortunately, reading to each other has fallen to the back-burner. I thought this would be a great excuse to get back to it!
I first read the story silently to myself.King describes Robinson’s writing as having an “oral syntax that defeats readers’ efforts to read the stories silently to themselves” (186) and this may well be the most accurate description of a piece of writing that I’ve seen. Reading Robinson’s story silently was like reading a story written in a language in which I had only the most basic fluency. The language sounds stilted and jumbled- take the example of the search for Coyote: “But when they can’t see him, what they gonna do? No more. And that’s for a long time. They try to find” (chap. Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England). I found myself constantly having to re-read lines.
Next I read it aloud, alone. When I first started reading this story aloud to myself, I felt as though I were giving a monologue. I added pauses where I thought a pause should be. I added emotions. Despite me being alone, I read it as though I had an audience.And it got me thinking- Courtney MacNeil argues that “orality is not the external and impersonal sound produced by the voice but rather a means through which an exterior drive toward communication is accessed”. So in this case, if I am reading aloud but am not communicating with anyone, is this an example of orality?
When I began reading it to an actual audience, I had the sensation that I was reading a transcript, a written version of a story originally told by someone else. Just like I did when reading it aloud alone, I added pauses and inflections. I also found myself speaking rhythmically, and often adding voices to the characters. I wanted to engage my audience.
When listening to someone else read the story, it comes across less as a transcript. Instead, it sounds like a story, a live event. There are many part of this story that don’t seem to translate from oral to written- when the narrator describes the book as being “about this long and this wide” and having a “little padlock, about that size” (chap. Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England), it seems nonsensical to a reader. How on earth are we supposed to understand the size to which he refers? Yet, when I listened to the story, the reader (in this case, my husband) added gestures to demonstrate. Naturally, he interpreted the sizes in his own mind, but it still added an extra layer of life to the story. King seems to be aware of this, as he points out that one common problem with translating oral literature into written literature is the loss of the “voice of the storyteller, the gestures, the music, and the interaction between storyteller and audience” (186), but that Robinson overcomes these issues.
Listening to someone else read the story clarified it quite a bit for me. Robinson uses many colloquialisms; he is fond of using the term “ ‘em”. Sometimes this term replaces the pronoun “him” and sometimes it replaces the pronoun “them”. Reading it myself (especially silently), this often tripped me up. However, when listening to the story, I found that identifying the correct pronoun was far more intuitive.
It is clear that Robinson’s work uses elements primarily found in oral literature. In “The Nature and Kinds of Oral Literature” Albert Bates Lord writes that traditional oral literature includes a “pattern consisting of (1) absence of a powerful figure (or disabled elder), (2) devastation, (3) arrival (or return) of a powerful figure, and (4) justice or restoration of order”. I found these patterns in “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England”, where we start off with the powel figure of Coyote being absent from the live of the Indigenous people, followed by a devastation (sparked by the arrival of Europeans), followed by the return of Coyote. In the end, I suppose the idea of justice or restoration of order can be debated; the laws are returned to the Indigenous people, but is that truly restoration of order?
Like much other oral literature, Robinson’s story explores magic realism. Time is fluid (even the author seems unsure), and there are definitely anachronisms (such as the existence of the camera in what seems to be a time period centuries ago). Nothing seems to be set in stone; even Robinson fluctuates, often correcting himself in a very colloquial manner, like when he says, “And they give ‘em this book- the four of them, the three of them” (chap. Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England).
Style add meaning. In the case of this story, I found the repetition, the familiar tone, and the use of colloquialisms creates a story that feels intimate with the reader. Unlike many other stories (I can’t help but think of King’s discussion on the Genesis story), “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England” does not seem to come from a place of authority. It comes from a memory, perhaps a shared memory, and is now being passed on to us.
Works Cited
“Aboriginal Concepts of Justice”. The Aboriginal Justice Implementation System. N.p., n.d. Web.16 Feb. 2019.
King, Thomas. “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial.” Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism. Peterbough, ON: Broadview, 2004. 183- 190. Web. 15 Feb. 2019
Lord, Albert Bates. “The Nature and Kinds of Oral Literature”. The Singer Resumes the Tale. Center for Hellenic Studies. Harvard University.
MacNeil, Courtney. “Orality.” The Chicago School of Media Theory. Uchicagoedublogs. 2007. Web. 16 Feb. 2019.
Robinson, Harry. Living by Stories: A Journey of Landscape and Memory. Ed. Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talonbooks. 2005. Kindle edition.