Author Archives: Rachel Kim

I’m writing this blog on a mountain. The Lazy Z Resort proudly calls itself “a mountain hideaway.” It certainly is secluded, judging by the winding, motion-sickness inducing road and the spotty wifi that fulfills my barest online needs. Not that I’m complaining. The stars here are gorgeous.

And I do mean the fiery balls of gas in space, not the apparently well-known folk who have stayed here before. The photo wall does make a decent gallery of sexy white women, cowboy hats, and fringed leather jackets.

Who are you people?

I have to say, the further I am from major cities, the less I feel I belong in North America. Isn’t that funny? Moving through a predominantly white population is jarring, considering I spent most of my life surrounded by the Asian diaspora of the Lower Mainland. It’s not that I experience unpleasant encounters here in places such as Twain Harte or Sonora—far from it—but the sensation that I’ve crossed into “Otherness” does tend to creep under my skin from time to time.

I suppose with that, I’ll dive right into my assigned pages (page 169-181) for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water. (But first, I’d like to apologize for the lack of proper GGRW in-text citation because I’m currently working off an ebook that has no page numbers. Curse you, Amazon.)

There is so much to talk about even in these few pages; it’s a little overwhelming. Continue reading →

American Progress by John Gast

Reading through Susanna Moodie’s introduction, I had the sense the underlying narrative in her words reflects a combination of two different Christian stories: the Garden of Eden (and subsequent expulsion) and the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. (I apologize for how rooted in Christian narratives this reading is, when I’m supposed to be extracting myself from that framework, but the draw was too strong and I am so weak.)

Journey Through the Wilderness
(A Gift from God / The Magical Map)

Biblically, the Israelites are referred to as God’s chosen people, much like the “high-souled children of a glorious land” that Moodie separates from ordinary emigrants because of their “higher motive.” Like the Israelites, these people “go forth to make for themselves a new name and to find another country…to exult in the prospect of their children being free and the land of their adoption great” (Moodie).

Canada, “lauded beyond all praise” for its “salubrious climate, its fertile soil, commercial advantages, great water privileges, its proximity to the mother country, and last, not least, its almost total from taxation” (Moodie) sounds like the Promised Land God offers the Israelites—the fertile Canaan (which, hey, coincidentally sounds similar to Canada).

Then Moodie writes this passage:

“It is not by such instruments as those I have just mentioned, that Providence works when it would reclaim the waste places of the earth, and make them subservient to the wants and happiness of its creatures. The Great Father of the souls and bodies of men knows the arm which wholesome labour from infancy has made strong, the nerves which have become iron by patient endurance, by exposure to weather, coarse fare, and rude shelter; and He chooses such, to send forth into the forest to hew out the rough paths for the advance of civilization. These men become wealthy and prosperous, and form the bones and sinews of a great and rising country. Their labour is wealth, not exhaustion; its produce independence and content, not home-sickness and despair.” Continue reading →

image by: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

Robinson gives us one of those alternative explanations in his stories about how Coyote’s twin brother stole the “written document” and when he denied stealing the paper, he was “banished to a distant land across a large body of water” (9). What is your first response to this story? In context with our course theme of investigating intersections where story and literature meet, what do you make of this stolen piece of paper? This is an open-ended question and you should feel free to explore your first thoughts.

On the surface, the story of how Coyote’s twin brother stole the “written document” seems to resemble the dichotomous narratives so common in European/Christian stories, but I think there is an interweaving of holistic ideas, of “one-ness,” in it as well.

I was first struck by the binary imagery of the black and white twins which seems to echo the “this or that,” “us or them” dichotomy that we’ve been struggling against, though the nature of the brothers being twins introduces another dynamic. While their behaviour and their colours—Coyote as “goodness” and his brother as a “liar and a thief” (Robinson 11)—reflect a divisive stand-off in terms of imagery (they become geographically divided as well, when the younger brother is banished) the fact that they are twins implies they are also the same. In my first draft of this post, I used the phrase “two sides of the same coin,” which feels fitting but I’m also wary it might not be quite what I’m trying to say. I found it interesting that Coyote is given a name, while his twin is only referred to as “the younger twin” (9). Perhaps another instance of dichotomy. I wonder if there is a significance in not naming the younger brother. Continue reading →

Howl’s Moving Castle

I haven’t been able to define a sense of home for myself yet. Even in my own story, I didn’t intend to point to one location as a home (though perhaps Vancouver seemed the likely candidate). However, while reading through the other blogs, I’ve noticed a recurring theme of comfort and change that have helped me think further about my own ideas of home. Continue reading →

i.

It’s the same conversation that happens every spring at the end of exams: what day am I leaving, what time is my flight, how great it is that I can finally eat some decently cooked food like a normal person.

My friend, C, is sitting on the lumpy dorm room mattress in Marine Drive. I’m slowly spinning around in my desk chair. There’s a box of pizza sitting between us on the desk, three slices going cold.

“Excited about going home?” she says. It’s one of those questions that already have a scripted answer.

I watch the room move around me as I spin. My posters with the corners curling off the wall. The cardboard box on top of the dresser being used as a makeshift bookshelf. More textbooks and novels on the floor. My pillow and my blanket, piled at the bottom of the bed. My DVDs. My laptop. My lonely little phallic cactus. C, reaching for another pizza slice.

“Yeah,” I say, “I guess so.” Continue reading →

the Kola Superdeep Borehole, closed and abandoned.

In 1989, the Trinity Broadcasting Network released a story about scientists discovering Hell in Russia. The story goes that scientists had drilled a hole deep into the pit of the Earth, straight into a hollow cavern. They say the temperature there measured over 2000 degrees, and when the scientists lowered microphones down into the hole, they heard the screaming of a million tortured souls.

Of course, the “Well to Hell” story is a hoax. It had already been told multiple times before TBN, morphing through various versions, since the publication of an article in 1984 about the very real and very un-damned Kola Superdeep Borehole. Besides, we all know evil is often much quieter than shrieking hellfire.

But you should also know, somewhere in the world, there is a well that reaches into the heart of the earth. It’s said to contain the darkness to make way for a world that needed light. The well was first created before the world began, back when Time was still learning to walk. For as far back as people can remember, a thick iron seal has always covered the well. This is all we need to know anyway, since even Time can’t remember when the well was freely gaping maw in the earth.

A small village used to surround the well. The people there were innocent and kind. They didn’t know how to be anything else. Eventually, after generations upon generations had passed, the task of guarding the well, set by the first villagers, became a hazy inheritance. The only ritual they were certain of was the Resealing that took place after every earthquake that loosened the iron seal. Until one day, they forgot. Continue reading →

Consider two aspects of digital literature: 1) social media tools that enable widespread publication, without publishers, and 2) Hypertext, which is the name for the text that lies beyond the text you are reading, until you click. How do you think these capabilities might be impacting literature and story?

Hint: hover over the faintly underlined text when you get to it!

It seems no other generation has been so obsessed with and capable of telling and recording their own personal stories to the degree that we do now. Everyone has become a writer in one shape or form. I profess I’m not one to use Facebook very much and I haven’t been able to connect with the idea of being addicted to it. But it’s clear, under the guise of “regular updates,” that social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.) are polished stories that people record about their lives. Who really escapes the mediocrity and ho-hum of regular life? Even if they do go to fine dining restaurants every night of the week (and subsequently take pictures of every single course).

Hello there, Gorgeous. Yes, it is I.

I’ve found my own online presence to read differently than how I really am. Oh, there are similarities for sure (my online persona does have a base — I’m hardly a catfish), but I’m careful to rework what I say, crafting a personality that is, what I hope is, more eloquent and confident than the clumsy and shy person I am in real life. The Internet, then, is arguably made up of stories. It is a library of our lives and our imaginations. In this space, the intersections of stories/orality and literature merge or become interwoven. Continue reading →

Hello everyone! My name is Rachel Kim. I am a fourth year English major student at the University of British Columbia and am also studying for the LSAT to apply to law schools next year. I’m a greedy consumer of media and enjoy creative writing and art.

I am currently enrolled in ENGL 470A for the summer session. I will admit that I am taking this course to fulfill a requirement for my major but, as I see the enthusiasm of my fellow classmates for the course, I’m beginning to generate my own excitement too. The online format and the amount of discussion/interaction required gives me some anxiety, so please excuse my inevitable stumbles.

Continue reading →