Write a blog that hyper-links your research on the characters in GGRW according to the pages assigned to you. Be sure to make use of Jane Flicks’ GGRW reading notes on your reading list.

In this week’s assignment I will be attempting to analyse as well as connect various allusions and puns from a passage in Thomas King’s novel Green Grass, Running Water. I chose a passage which begins at a point that I believe addresses many of the major themes in this novel and decided to delve right into the middle of the story and chose pages 238 – 243 for my analysis. Thomas King has written his incredibly layered story in a circular fashion. I feel the theme of dichotomies has been present in many of my blog posts and it appears once more in this book, but with similar grey area in between. King intertwines the worlds of men and women, past and present, “native” and “white”, oral and literate, and most importantly of real and imaginary. The underlying idea that this is a creation story remains in these selected pages, and this passage was in the midst of an explanation. Throughout the novel, even as the many perspectives changed I always found myself waiting to get back to the unique point of view of the unknown narrative (written in first person, and if read out loud may in fact be the reader?) and Coyote. Therefore, as the narrator suggested, over the next few pages, I seated myself and listened (239).

This passage picks up with Robinson Crusoe explaining his version for a creation story that explains why there is so much water. He begins with the Thought Women and the story of the River. We also have commentary from Coyote and our Narrator, as well as Dr. Hovaugh and Babo continuing on their pursuit after the four. There were a few allusions in particular that stood out to me involving Robinson Crusuoe, the concept of the light, and the inclination towards miracles.

Robinson Crusoe: 

I knew I had heard this name before  I could not, however pin point why the name gave me so much discomfort. You have to understand that I am enjoying my “summer” mentality but it bugged me so much that I couldn’t quite grasp where I had heard it. I hadn’t even finished fully typing out the name of this character into google search before I was given options of “Robinson Crusoe Island”, “Robinson Crusoe 1997”, “Robinson Crusoe board game” and all of a sudden I realized that he is in fact the same figure that haunted me on my Intermediate Macro Economics exam this past winter semester. He was as an example for international trade based on the fact that he is a single individual on an island in Daniel Defoe’s 18^th century novel “The Life and Adventure of Robinson Crusoe”. We used him to discuss mutual benefits under conditions of equality, reciprocity and freedom. The novel itself is a well known travel narrative and I believe King was referring to the themes in the novel regarding legitimizing colonization and its distorted representation of the “Other” in the novel. As well I believe he chose Crusoe to symbolize the unfair relationship between humans. In the novel, as Jane Flick points out  Crusoe “is aided by his Man Friday, the “savage” he rescues from cannibals, and then Christianizes“.  Crusoe goes on to develop a master slave type of relationship with Friday. Over the course of the novel Crusoe eventually refers to himself as “’King’ over the natives and Europeans, who are his subjects”. Defoe investigate the relationship of the colonial mind, a similar concern to Thomas King. Flick also points out that King goes on to mock his character Crusoe and even adores him in shirt that says “the one with the palm trees” (142).

There are countless allusions to Christian archetypes in this novel and it is a way for King to use humor to undermine Biblical narratives. These following two comparisons are just a couple of the examples he includes.

Light:

“As the old Indians watched, the universe gently tilted and the edge of the world danced in light” (233).

My initial thought of creation stories has to do with Christian ideals and maybe due to the influence of  a common Western lens. Even though I do not practice any type of Christianity I know of the common saying “And then God said ‘Let there be light’”, or something along those lines. It was also still fresh in my mind because it was the creation story that Thomas King compared his own to during his CBC Massey Lecture.  On page 230, there is a conversation regarding the turning on of a light, specifically having Coyote do so. King’s own writing may be a nod towards the biblical reference, and positioning  Coyote as the creator and introducing light into the world. After the light is turned on, a star settles in the distance in the west. This star is also seen by Babo as he and Dr. Hovaugh trek towards the Canadian border. The allusion here may regard the Biblical star of Bethlehem. In a similar manner to the three wise men who searched for “the young Child”, Babo and the doctor use it as guidance to find the four natives.

Miracles:

After Babo points out the morning star that he sees in the distance, the Doctor too stares at it for some time and Babo asks “What do you think? Omen or miracle?” (238). From what I understand, the bible has many references to miracles, where by it is defined as something that cannot be explained by natural scientific laws. Instead it relates to the supernatural. Often, explanations in the New Testament are  that miracles are performed by faith in God. Here again a very quick explanation for the light made by Dr Havaugh is to simply brush it off and refer to it as a miracle.

Work Cited

2003 CBC Massey Lectures, Thomas King, The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative:http://www.cbc.ca/ideas.

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161/162 (1999). Web. 18 July 2016.

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. New York: Bantam Books, 1994. Prin

“Robinson Crusoe and the Secret of Primitive Accumulation.” Monthly Review. N.p., 01 Sept. 2011. Web. 25 July 2016

“What Does the Bible Say About Miracles?” Christian Courier. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2016.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.

1. Coyote Pedagogy is a term sometimes used to describe King’s writing strategies (Margery Fee and Jane Flick). Discuss your understanding of the role of Coyote in the novel.

My elementary school was situated next to a densely forested park, home to many coyotes. Each year we would have an assembly that would teach us how to deal with a coyote if one ever found itself wondering on the playground or on our ways home. We were told that they feared easily and were almost always more scared of us than we of them. The speaker at the assemblies would tell us to stretch out our hands and yell “GO AWAY COYOTE”, if we ever encountered one.  My first instinct when I think about coyotes always traces back to these moments in elementary school as opposed to Wile E. Coyote, although I am very familiar with him as well. We ran into many when we would go on runs for gym class or track and field. Each time the coyote would simply scamper away. Therefore, my understanding of coyotes assumed them to be fearful, harmless, and an animal species that keeps to themselves. It was incredibly interesting, thus, to read of and try to understand Thomas King’s Coyote in Green Grass, Running Water.

Before I started this novel, I did a quick look up of two things: the word pedagogy –  which turned out be not what I had in mind – as well as the origins of the title.  Pedagogy actually refers to the method and practice of teaching, usually in the form of an academic subject or theoretical concept.  With this in mind, I had an odd first encounter with Coyote. Understanding that he was a trickster I had foreshadowed that we might learn through his mistakes, but he turned out to be both a student and teacher through the course of the novel. The title of this novel Green Grass, Running Water  serves as a metaphor. It is from a famous line drawn out of the contracts between the Europeans signed with the Indigenous people. Both the title of this book and Coyote serve as symbols that King has placed for us to distinguish between what is myth and what is reality, and both these concepts serve as themes throughout the novel.

Coyotes character comes across as the traditional trickster often found in Aboriginal Tales. He’s the second animal I have read about, portraying  this role, the first being a raven. However, trickster in this sense is a synonym for protagonist. Coyote is impish, lively and almost childlike as he rushes to the next tale and has a never ending desire to start the next story for the creation of the world. There is a clear  but unknown first person narrator in the novel, however Coyote is prone to interrupting and joining in with him/her/it.  My understanding of Coyote’s role is that of challenging authoritative norms. This novel is a symphony of voices telling the tale, with both orality and literacy in play and King has created a unique platform for his story to exist.

Coyote is a character who leaves autonomy for readers to draw their own conclusions.  Carlton Smith studied the role of post modern tricksters and has called this text “performative” (520), and I think it’s a perfect word to summarize it. This read was far from anything I have read before – that is to say conventional Western literature. As Fee and Flick state, readers of these conventional literature have an understanding and “knowing where the borders are” (131). King’s text had blurred an unclear borders and he ultimately challenges his readers and through Coyote and ultimately Coyote Pedagogy forces his readers to become tricksters.

It was great fun to read with its many points of view, quick pace and resulted in a great chorus  the many voices managed to orchestrate.

Works Cited

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. April 04/2013.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

“Pedagogy.” Dictionary.com. 2016. Web. 18 July. 2016.

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. April 04/2013.

Smith, Carlton. “Coyote, Contingency, and Community: Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water and Postmodern Trickster.” American Indian Quarterly. Berkeley: Summer 1997. (515-535). Print.

The combination of the Quiet Revolutions in Quebec and the women’s movement in the 1960s and 70s broke apart the visuals of white men running  a country. These movements were just the beginning of what would lead to multicultural policies and later a nations perceived identity. Put simply, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act is a law passed in 1989. The purpose of this act attempts to maintain as well as improve multiculturalism in Canada. The initial lead up to the Act began in 1971, under Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, as he introduced multicultural policies that Canadians would adopt. These policies would ensure that Canada recognizes and respects all societies and their diversities regarding religion, culture and language. These policies also made Canada one of the first countries  in the world to adopt such views.   Two fundamentals of the Act, as per the Parole Board of Canada (PBC),  are: “All citizens are equal and have the freedom to preserve, enhance, and share their cultural heritage.” And “ Multiculturalism promotes the full and equitable participation of individuals and communities of all origins in all aspects of Canadian society.”

The act establishes the policy of the government to ensure that every Canadian receives equal treatment  and has the government celebrate diversity. Gingrich et al focus their attention to both the criticism and the applause that have been given to the Act. One criticism they states is that there is no definitive meaning attached to the term and as a federal policy, multiculturalism is difficult to explicate. They also state that no other policy initiative has greater relevance for the lives of new comers than it. The authors conducted research in order to investigate what Canadians understand by multiculturalism. On the one hand it brings positive light on those wishing to immigrate to this place to call it their new home. However, after reading the CanLIt guide, the multiple policies and acts that have been documented seem to all just be building blocks in what, on the outskirts, appears to be a nation’s identity.

After learning more about imagined communities through what Eric Hobsbawm and Benedict Anderson point out many nations have attached certain traditions and culture in hindsight, in order to take on a form of national pride as well as national loyalty. The idea of multicultural policies seems more to sugar coat and gloss over important social injustices that were and remain in “Canada”. Some critics, as stated in the CanLit guide, have argued that the multiculturalism policy leads to token displays of diversity while ignoring more important issues. As well, this form of diversity seems more to perceive minorities as exotic while taking attention away from political and economic exclusion.

Daniel Coleman introduces and discusses ideas of white civility, and he breaks the long silence and takes a step back to observe the roots of Canadian whiteness as a literary project of early colonials and nation builders. He states that the fictitious idea of a white and civil Canadian ethnicity has greatly distorted the perception of Canadians that live on the land. Coleman begins his book by recounting Himani  Bannerji’s short story  in which a South Asian mother from Toronto is shocked after seeing the picture her daughter drew of their family for a school assignment. The family in the picture consists of blonde hair and blue eyed members, none of which represent the family. Coleman uses this example to set the tone and to show how “ the workings of White normativity shape people’s perceptions of themselves, their families and their relation to social legitimacy” (Coleman 3).  His idea of a “fictive ethnicity” as well as the creation of the Canadian national identity is a good summation and in that sense the Multicultural Act is simply another building block that has been part of the construction.

Works Cited

“Aboriginal and Diversity Initiatives.” Government of Canada, Parole Board of Canada, Policy Sector, Clemency and Pardons Sector, Communications Sector. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2016.