Monthly Archives: November 2014

Today, as we finished up the documentary The Stories We Tell, I was thinking about (Sarah’s biological father) Harry’s idea that his story with Diane (Sarah’s biological mother) is just his, and doesn’t belong to anyone else. Furthermore, his idea that he was telling the truth. I felt that the way he felt about his story versus how Michael (Sarah’s unknowingly ‘adoptive’ father) felt about the story paralleled the binaries between written and oral tradition. I felt as if Harry believed his story existed in a vacuum of reality, and the draft of his story with Diane was the truth, and that it held more validity than the shared stories told in the documentary of everyone, where each voice held some weight. The documentary, to me, feels like it has more of an oral tradition to it. It all centers around one narrative, that of Diane and her life and times, but morphs with each individual perspective while retaining some key characteristics like Diane’s outgoing personality and her love for her children and such. Harry’s comment about how the multiple voices create a sense of bottomlessness with the story, and therefore a sense of falsification, was interesting. It also parallels the logic of why people often have a distaste for oral tradition: it’s difficult to distinguish one author, one voice, one truth. But don’t multiple voices decrease bias, and therefore lead us closer to this asymptote of objective authenticity everyone seems to be striving towards?

(note: I’m working from home, and for whatever reason the ubc library won’t let me log in and use the resources. But related articles to check out that I wanted to hyperlink: “Orality” by Courtney Macneil, in which she describes the differences between oral and written tradition/culture and it’s related controversies, and the book by Chamberlain titled “If this is your land, where are your stories?” where he discusses First Nations peoples and their use of stories in the creation of an ‘authentic’ culture.)

Chamberlin, J. Edward. If this is your land, where are your stories?: finding common ground. Toronto: A.A. Knopf Canada, 2003. Print.
Stories We Tell. National Film Board of Canada, 2012. DVD.
MacNeil, Courtney. “The Chicago School of Media Theory Theorizing Media since 2003.” The Chicago School of Media Theory RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2014.

(Note: I’m not entirely certain about my status as this week’s class blogger so here’s a ‘just in case’ post)

Pre-English 474F, I wasn’t very knowledgeable about the Haiti in general. I didn’t know it’s history, culture, or people. Dany Laferriere’s book, The World Is Moving Around Me, therefore provided an interesting first representation of Haiti to ‘fresh eyes.’ One of the things I noted and wish to discuss in today’s blog post is the aspect and role of religion on Haitian culture, as depicted by the book. I noticed a lot of Christian themes and tropes throughout the text, such as how emphasis is placed on certain places that are spared, notably gardens, as seen on page 16 and 45, 67, and more loosely on page 48 as a yard, and even in the preface on page 11 where Haiti is called a ‘Garden of Eden.’
Throughout the book, other religious topics appear frequently. Laferriere himself writes a passage on ‘The Role of God’ on page 121, depicting the religious image of the city ‘on its knees’ (121), an image of prayer and exhaustion. The people can only count on ‘themselves..and God.’ (121) In another section, DL (for short) discusses how “Homer believed the gods sent us misfortune so we might make poetry of it.” (51) There are many Gods and religions in this book, but I think the two prominent ones are that of Christianity and that of Voodoo. Filo, DL’s radio spokesperson and artist friend sang the praises of Voodoo on page 37, while DL’s mother preached the opposite, asking “What can you do but turn to Jesus?” on page 93. This split is interesting. Christianity was introduced to Haiti, as this helpful article clarifies. I was curious, what is the symbolism of people native to Haiti appealing to a foreign religion for help during the earthquake, during a time of need?
I know the religion has been well established following the murder of much of the native population upon Columbus’ arrival and the importation of slaves forced to adhere to the new religion, as the article denotes, but I still think there is some relevance in those who believe choosing to believe in something foreign, not home grown and, in antiquity, intrusive, opposed to a native religion. DL places a lot of emphasis on the intrusion of foreigners attempting to help, and makes a point of noting that the Catholic Church strategically worked its way into the hearts of the poorer classes in the last few decades (87). Does anyone else read a deeper meaning in the choice of some to appeal to a ‘foreign God’ and ‘foreign religion’?

Works Cited
“The History of Haiti and Vodou – Overview.” The History of Haiti and Vodou – Overview. Ethnological Museum Berlin. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. .

Stokes Jr., John. “Bible Gardens Revisited.” Bible Gardens Revisited. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. .

Laferriere, Dany. The World Is Moving Around Me. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.

woman ‘demanding answers from heaven’ 46