Assignment1:5

Your task is to take the story about how evil comes into the world, the story King tells about the Witches’ convention in Chapter One of The Truth about Stories, and change it any way you want, except the ending. You can change to place, the people, the time – anything you want. But, your story must have the same moral – it must tell us how evil came into the world and how once a story is told, it cannot be taken back.

First, learn your story by heart, and then tell the story to your friends and family.

After you have told the story a few times,  post a blog with your version of the story and some commentary on what you discovered about story telling.

“It was witch people. Not Whites or Indians or Blacks or Asians or Hispanics. Witch people. Witch people from all over the world, way back when, and they all came together for a witches’ conference. In a cave. Having a good time. A contest, actually. To see who could come up with the scariest thing. Some of them brewed up potions in pots. Some of them jumped in and out of animal skins. Some of them thought up charms and spells. It must have been fun to watch. Until finally there was only one witch left who hadn’t done anything. No one knew where this witch came from or if the witch was male or female. And all this witch had was a story. Unfortunately the story this witch told was that human beings were created. Unfortunately the story this witch told was that human beings were created. As a result, the faith in God(s) as being the creator(s) would be perpetually doubted whilst the witches being imprisoned in oral tales and written literature And when the telling was done, the other witches quickly agreed that this witch had won the prize. “Okay you win,” they said. “[B]ut what you said just now — it isn’t so funny. It doesn’t sound so good. We are doing okay without it. We can get along without that kind of thing. Take it back. Call that story 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 (italic and underlines mine, King, 10).”

I admit that I thought it was a crazy idea to make up a Creation story of my own when I came across the assignment of rewriting Thomas King’s story about the Witches’s convention in Chapter One The Truth about Stories. It is not only because I had never thought of the origin of the world beyond the terrain of science but it feels kind of transgressing a sort of divine law or offending a divine providence.  I mean it is a subject that is too deep for an ordinary person like me to consider or a job that is too “sublime” to do as stories may contribute to creating the world and in this sense the imagination might become reality (“Lesson 1:3”). In fact, I found myself ending up with futility when I tried to reproduce a story about how evil came into the world that is completely different than King’s version, no matter how hard I pushed myself to. Then I began to blame the Chinese Creation tales which provide only simplistic roles of evil, comparing to for example the characterisation as much distinctive and complex as that of Satan in its Western counterparts. The under-portrayal of the evil presence in the Chinese culture did not seem helpful when it came to conceptualise how evil is brought to this world with a story.

However, as soon as I managed to rewrite the story by making some minor alteration of the original text, I found that I could have felt less uneasy if I was aware that actually the story “is all we are” and that “we are the stories we tell ourselves” (King 153). It implies, in the case of writing or re-writing a kind of Creation story, we are actually and symbolically demonstrating how we make sense of how the world works, or simply using the story to parody the reality; rather than offering an explanation of what we believe has exactly happened. So rewriting King’s story offers an opportunity to communicating my values and beliefs. For example, when I had the witches all to agree that the creation of human being is the scariest thing in the world, I was suggesting that I personally think that humans themselves are actually the cause of evil, which is in a way illustrated by the conflict between the desire for profit and the Aboriginal resistance as shown in the news posted by the course instructor (“Canadian”). Having said that, the alteration also demonstrates my critical thoughts on the “evilness” of mankind by having the witch to say that the reason human beings are scary is they are capable of critical thinking about such as the conceptions of God(s) and witches. By linking human beings’ “flaw” of losing the faith in providence with their abilities of being critical, I intend to leave the readers of this altered story contemplating the complex relationships between stories, values, beliefs and humankind.    

In addition to the story-rewriting experience, the experience of preparing myself for telling a story also struck me as interesting. I was aware that telling a story could be found more challenging than writing or rewriting a story when I was preparing to tell the above story. Although I have not got the chance of telling someone else the story in question yet, I came to realise that whereas the text of the story could be kept to the writer him/herself and edited in whatever way one wants before it is made available to the readers; “once a story is told, it cannot be called back” (King 10). So you as a story-teller would better off being careful with the story you are going to tell and subsequently lose control of. This, I guess, tells a lot about the fascinating power of stories as manifested during the process of my seeking to rewrite and tell King’s story.   

Works Cited,

“Canadian First Nations, U.S. tribes form alliance to stop oil pipelines.” 23 Sep. 2016. YouTube. Web. 22 Sep. 2016.

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Peterbough:Anansi Press. 2003. Print.

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 1:3 Introduction To Thomas King and Story”. ENGL 470A Canadian Studies: Canadian Literary Genres Sept 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2016. Web. 22 September 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/unit-1/lesson-13/