KING AND THE INFLUENCE OF CREATION STORIES
In his novel, The Truth about Stories, King re-tells two creation stories, the Christian one with Adam and Eve, and a First Nation one about Charm and her twins. After recounting both stories, King tells us we must choose only one to believe in, as that is the nature of a creation story (King 33). King admits to his hypocrisy, telling us that he understands that dichotomies are rarely true, but they are simple and powerful tools to express the values of a society and the differences of one from the other.
To think of it, societies are groups of people and we are often defined by our cultural norms, these norms showcase the differences between what is ‘mine’ and what is ‘yours’. Korean, Japanese and Chinese history and culture are very intertwined, but the things that are emphasized are generally their differences, the type of traditional robes and headdresses, etc. Though they hold onto these differences, ironically some people would group all three into one.
Like other parts of cultures, creation stories are often used to differentiate the beliefs of societies. The way he emphasizes the believability of the story of “Genesis” with the use of an authoritative voice, over an “The Earth Diver” story with a storyteller’s voice, is a showcase of the values of the individual societies. Distinctions between us as people are created in what we are not in reflection to the other. That is why dichotomies are so powerful, he tells a list of the ordinary ones we believe in, rich/poor, strong/weak, men/women, etc. and these shape the way we live our lives, how we think of the world. If you are not rich, you are poor, if you’re a man you can’t be a woman. If one story is right, the other must be false.
In asking us to choose through use of a dichotomy, he showcases the power that dichotomies have in creating narratives about us, in reflection to others. If you are strong, that means you’ve overcome weakness, it is an oxymoron to describe a person to be strong and weak at the same time because they are antonyms to each other. Similar to how the British used narratives such as this to distinguish people in their vast empire, seen best in an ABC book for children with the line, “C is for colonies. Rightly we boast, that of all the great nations Great Britain has most.” To be a nation is to not be a colony. Politicians use dichotomies for their opposition, such as the phrase “tough on crime and countries do so in war propaganda, such as how America demonized the Japanese in WWII, presenting narratives of good vs. evil, rather than the actual economical and resource driven conflict.
He tells us that we must pick because King believes that the stories that we grow up with shape our view of the world and our values. When King asks us to imagine what kind of world we would live in if God had forgiven Adam and Eve, he believes that stories are those that represent the world views of society (King 34). And in picking a story we choose to believe in something that would fundamentally change how we interact with the world around us. King even admits that if he could tell us to abandon all our stories and gods he would, but knows that is impossible, so he tells us to pick our values first and than our stories (King 34). If we are told that life is filled with good, we start to image it that way. Even if we don’t believe in creation, these stories are the philosophy of our lives and we must pick. It is similar to picking a philosophy, a way of life, vegetarianism. We must commit ourselves to a way to view the world so that we are kinder and more understanding than we are now. He doesn’t want us to fight or stay close minded in the way dichotomies encourage but rather to understand what these stories say about our values and how we look at the world.
The stories we tell ourselves, are all lies, they don’t reflect reality. In truth, no one cares about us as individuals and the world would be a better place if we stopped imagining ourselves specifically to be the center, be-all, end-all of everything, as our creation stories have made us believe.
Reference:
Arbuckle, Alex, ‘This Unsettling British Children’s Alphabet Celebrated Colonialism and Conquest’, Mashable<https://mashable.com/2016/08/27/abc-for-baby-patriots/>
King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories: a Native Narrative. House of Anansi Press Inc., 2010.
‘The Path to Pearl Harbor’, The National WWII Museum | New Orleans<https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/path-pearl-harbor> [accessed 25 February 2020]
‘Turtle Island | The Canadian Encyclopedia’ <https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/turtle-island>
‘WWII Propaganda: The Influence of Racism’, Artifacts Journal // University of Missouri<https://artifactsjournal.missouri.edu/2012/03/wwii-propaganda-the-influence-of-racism/>
Hi Nargiza,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. I answered the same question and found we were both interested in the greater meaning of dichotomies, however, you went a different direction and explored what they signify about society. I did not consider how it is us as individuals who choose to believe in these stories and that they reaffirm our sense of self. King agrees with this and says the Christian creation stories are about the individual and ultimately believe in hierarchies. It is God, then humans, then animals, then plants, and so on. This hierarchy is a construct that becomes reality. For example, colonization, as you mention, is a way for Britain to boast about their power as a nation over other nations who they view as subordinate. King’s other story, however, proposes a creation story that is about community rather than the individual. These stories, as King suggests, are thus a reflection of the values of particular societies.
I look forward to reading more posts from you!
-Jade 🙂
Hi Jade! I actually read your post and commented on it as well! It’s really interesting how our ideas were similar but we got different messages out of the same text. Yes I found King’s message on the substance and mythology of societies to be interesting and have seen many theories regarding readings of history and the use of anthropology in the way stories become a major part of civilization. I think that relates strongly to the course itself since the construction of States involves the constructions of stories and the stories that define Canada are generally constructed by settlers. I love how king relates this to the actual stories of creation and it says a lot of interesting things about our interactions with the world.
Thanks for your comment!
Hi Nargiza,
Like Jade, I also answered the same question as you but you brought up some points I hadn’t considered, thank you for that.
It is interesting that you mention how Japenese, Korean, and Chinese culture and history are quite similar but that we often focus on the things which are distinct from each other. I wonder if another reason that we all like dichotomies is that allows us to feel like an individual, special (interesting article about the need to feel special: https://www.edwarddreyfusbooks.com/psychologically-speaking/the-need-to-feel-special/), or different, from everyone else in some way.
As you mention, some people may group all of Japenese, Korean, and Chinese people and cultures together. I think this is especially true if that person hasn’t had much exposure to or chances to learn about the differences in the cultures. I grew up in a small town which was about 98% caucasian at the time (1.8% Indigenous, and then 0.2% everyone else), and as a child, I certainly would have grouped all of these cultures together. Now living in Vancouver I can think of many differences. I’m wondering if you think we can use the same sort of thinking about the two creation stories King presents? Do you think, that to an audience further removed from Western society (for the sake of my scenario, let’s say someone living in a rural Asian town) would have an equally challenging time accepting that both creation stories might be true? Do you think they would agree with the settler view that the “Adam and Eve” story is the “correct” story?
Thanks!
Katarina
Hi Katarina~
The idea that we enjoy dichotomies because they make us feel special is an interesting point. I have never considered that line of thought, but I probably don’t know enough about individualism to comment as in-depth as I would like, but will try. When we engaging in producing and reproducing dichotomies we are in the act of differentiating and in that way we separate ourselves from others. But in terms of dichotomy I feel that it may give us feels of being part of a group, an us vs. them mentality. But I’m not sure if it would extend to such individual ideas, because we as individuals fight against dichotomies naturally. When we say we’re special, we generally list many things that make us different. My list would be something like, female, young adult, Uzbek Canadian, loves trashy romance novels, favourite colour is blue etc. Though some of these categories are dichotomies, others can’t exist as such (i.e. you can’t really say there are two countries to identify from or race or culture or colours, etc.). In this way, as individuals I feel that we rarely use dichotomies to define ourselves, rather we often view ourselves as large lists of different identities that don’t really work with dichotomies. So for me the idea of individual uniqueness actually seems separate from dichotomies, because one complicates and makes us distinct, while the other simplifies and groups us.
For your other point about how if I believe that someone removed from the situation would find it easier to believe that both creation stories that King tells could be true, the simple answer is no. To extend on this point I mean to say that they would probably have their own complicated creation story and would find both of King’s stories to be false, while theirs is true. What I mean in my blog post when I say that dichotomies are powerful is that they over simplify complex ideas and identities. Take the propaganda poster in this post, it is so simple, you understand the message, Japanese people are animalistic and killers of innocents, and it brings this idea of an us vs. them mentality. It reduces the complexity of WWII and a whole group of people to such simple ideas which are false. In a way we all find it challenging when we are told our story is not true or when we try to image the truth of another story. It doesn’t matter so much in which story we think is true, but rather that we must think of how and why we value these stories. What do they teach us? What is their purpose and why should we allow them to exist. The simply act of King making us choose a story as the right one and reduce all others as wrong is that the question makes us stop and consider what he has asked us. Because in all honesty it seems like a big responsibility when he asks us to do this, but we do this unknowingly, automatically and unthinkingly every minute in our daily lives. We never really consider what we are agreeing to until we stop and consider the question of what we value and is it worth it?
Sorry about that! I tried to make my ideas as linear as I could, Thanks for the comment though! You had some really interesting questions to consider!
Nargiza,
I really enjoyed reading your post. What is interesting is (I lightly touched upon on my blog) you extensively explained the binary concept of Adam and Eve story explains how individuals group things into 2 different categories, right/wrong normal/abnormal, good/evil…and that pertains to cultures as well. We have mainstream culture, and then … everything else. I love how you explained that to some people, Korea, Japan and China are the same thing because for an outsider looking in, all it is, is different from the norm. But if we took the time to understand, and learn we see that in fact there are differences, and one is not superior to the other, they simply are. It really made me think when you said that is why the differences are emphasized so frequently….so true!
You also said that the stories we create are imaginations, and thus a construction of the society we live in, and overall the world we live in. I could go as far as to say perhaps human nature as we know, are based on the stories we choose to make.
Thank you for your blog.
Hi Sashini,
I’m glad you enjoyed my post! I’m glad we had similar ideas! I’ve always found this idea that differences and similarities need to be emphasized so extensively a little strange. I find it just relaxing to think of us all as boring people. We don’t really need to understand each other in such detail in order to treat each other as human. We’re all different but ridiculously similar at the same time, we’re just here, existing.
On your comment about human nature as a story, I totally agree, the story of humans ourselves is just another one in a long list of stories, but maybe a bit more fundamental. Interestingly enough, I’d say that stories about human nature is similar to creation stories. They seem to be a fundamental part in our ideas of our place in the universe and how we should interact with the world. I’ve always had an interest in how we use stories to justify our actions, sometimes two different actions can be justified by the same story. Such as religious belief, many people can do extremely kind and selfless things through religion, but can do equally cruel actions as well. And it’s not even limited to religion, you can use the example of when when you seem extremely patriarchical societies justify their abuse of women as their way of protecting them from other evils, etc. Even economic and social philosophy can be made into stories that are just used to hide behind in order to justify and explain inexcusable actions. Like the use of science from the English to justify letting the Irish starve during the Irish potato famines. Our lives as humans revolve around our stories, for better or worse.
Thanks for your comment!