May 2016

1:5 – How Evil Came into the World

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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.

Once upon a time, on a farm far away, a large brood of hens gathered in the farmer’s hen house at sundown. The hens had been very bored with their pedantic lives on the farm: day in, day out, sitting on their nests and not having any fun. So one of the very smartest hens had suggested, in the most secretive way a hen can, that all the ladies gather and have a hen party! What a brilliant plan!

So they snuck out of their respective coops, after they were sure the farmer had gone to sleep, and into the hen house. It was a marvelous party. They played the egg and spoon race and ‘foxes and chickens’ and then they all snuggled up to watch their favorite film “Chicken Run.”

The movie was nearing the end, and the sky was beginning to lighten from it’s deep midnight blue, when suddenly a voice arose from the back of the house. “This movie is absolutely ridiculous,” it said. All the hens turned their heads to see who had spoken. It was the Rooster. He had, obviously, not been invited to the hen party, but apparently had snuck in the back door.

“What do you mean?” Asked one of the younger hens. “This movie is my favorite. Why on Earth do you think it’s ridiculous?”

“Well the plot is just so basic. Any dolt could come up with that story.” Rooster replied.

“I think you’re just going to have to prove that.” Said a very large, matronly hen from the front, as she paused the television. “Tell us a story that’s better than this movie.” She was extremely skeptical at this possibility, as she had been enjoying the movie very much indeed.

“Fine,” said the Rooster. “But we have to do this in the proper way. Follow me. “ And he proceeded to lead all the hens out of the hen house and out into the yard. “Stay here,” he said. The sky was even lighter now and the hens could see Rooster’s silhouette clearly against the sky as he proceeded to climb up to the very top of the hen house roof.

The hens waited with anticipation until finally the Rooster reached the top of the roof, dusted himself off and began to tell his story. It was an excellent story, but the hens thought, rather dark and scary in comparison to their joyful movie. It had only been a few minutes when suddenly they heard yelling coming from the big farmer’s house. The Rooster stopped talking and they all turned to see the farmer tearing out of the house and down the path with his hands waving up in the air.

“Stop that racket! Stop that racket AT ONCE, you evil little rooster! You’ve woken me from the very best dream!”

All the hens scattered and ran as fast as they could back to their respective coops, as the Rooster tried to get down from the house fast enough to avoid the farmer’s anger. But the farmer scooped him into his arms and began carrying him back to Rooster’s house. “I wish you had never done that,” said the farmer. But, of course, the rooster could not take back what he had done. He could not take back his story.

And from that night on, just before the sun rose each day, all the hens would gather in the yard to hear Rooster tell more of his story. And though the farmer grew to not be surprised at this early morning racket, each day he felt that this rooster had brought evil into his world.

~ ~ ~

Commentary: What I found interesting about this assignment was the difference between spoken and written text. I understood the concept that it would be different, but only in the realm of other people’s work. I never imagined that my own words, that I wrote on paper, would take on a whole other life when coming out of my mouth. They had new inflection and personality and subtext that appeared simultaneously as I was speaking.

The other thing that was interesting, that I know happens with all performance art, is the audience reaction and interaction. They always laugh when you don’t expect it, and are probably silent when you are expecting them rolling in the isles. You can never truly know how a story will be received.

In regards to creating the new story, I actually found this rather challenging. I wanted to make the story different, and I didn’t just want to change one simple element, but then, suddenly, I found that coming to the same conclusion as the original story was hard to wrangle. I think maybe this is sort of a testament to how stories evolve over time. It’s not normal for someone to hear a story and turn it completely on it’s head, but still want to get the same outcome. Obviously that happens sometimes successfully, but in my experience, it seems like stories evolve slowly, with just minor changes with each new addition, until you arrive at something that might be totally different.

Works Cited

Pless, Deborah, and DreamWorks Annimation LLC. “Chicken Run” freeze frame.        Digital image. Kiss My Wonderwoman. N.p., 06 Oct. 2015. Web. 28 May 2016.


1:3 – Finding ‘Home’

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Question 4) Figuring out this place called home is a problem (87).  Why? Why is it so problematic to figure out this place we call home: Canada? Consider this question in context with Chamberlin’s discussion on imagination and reality; belief and truth (use the index).Chamberlin says, “the sad fact is, the history of settlement around the world is the history of displacing other people from their lands, of discounting their livelihoods and destroying their languages” (78).  Chamberlin goes on to “put this differently” (Para. 3). Explain that “different way” of looking at this, and discuss what you think of the differences and possible consequences of these “two ways” of understanding the history of settlement in Canada.

In Edward Chamberlin’s book “If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories,” he speaks about the history of settlement as “the history of displacing other people from their lands, of discounting their livelihoods and destroying their languages” (78). He then goes on to describe this history, in what he says is a different way, as “a history of dismissing a different belief or different behaviour as unbelief or misbehaviour, and of discrediting those who believe or behave differently as infidels or savages” (78). It seems to me that this second way of thinking about settlement is not different at all, but an elaboration or even justification for the actions of these settlers. Not to say that Chamberlin condones these actions– It’s very clear that he does not – but he humanizes the action by giving it a motivation. The consequences of this could be troubling. Now the settler does not simply say, ‘I need a place to live and I choose this place.’ Instead, despite the fact that it is wrong, the settler makes an active decision to displace someone from their home with a strong justification—that being, because the original owner does not believe in, whatever the settler has decided is the ‘right’ belief. And of course, this is exactly what has happened in Canada’s past.

Now the Native is displaced and what are they to do? They could turn around and force someone else from their home, but this doesn’t seem to be the trend. Why not? Perhaps because Indigenous people have a different connection to what ‘home’ means than the settlers (and their descendants) do. So then I ask, what is a home? To me, ‘home’ represents a place of safety, comfort and love. I haven’t had too many homes in my life but what I’ve found interesting is what the transitions from home to home have been like. Sometimes the anticipation has been gut-wrenching, sometimes anxious and excited and sometimes I don’t notice it at all.  However, there is a large distinction between how I would describe my personal home and the collective Canadian homeland. As I am not an Indigenous person and have no background as such, I can only speculate at this, but I wonder if people who have a more passionate, spiritual connection to the physical land they live on, have a deeper connection with their ‘homeland.’ I’m very proud to be Canadian, but ask me to describe what it means to be Canadian and I would struggle, especially after a few enlightening years of higher education that blew the lid off my, perhaps, sheltered, naïve understanding of Canada’s history. In his book, Chamberlin talks about the differences between belief and truth, or something you imagine and something that is real. For most of my life I believed that Canada was the greatest country in the world. Way better than those crazy Americans, but perhaps slightly less cool and classy than the Brits. I believed that in Canada everything was fair: we have public health care and everyone gets to go to school. Is this a product of the stories I heard as a child and growing up, from my parents or the media? Yes, it very likely is. And for some reason I didn’t get to hear stories that had something different to say. If we return to the idea of settlement and displacement, it must also have been from stories and experience that caused those settlers to create their beliefs. The mistake they made was confusing those manufactured beliefs for reality.

Works Cited

Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2004. Print.

“Downton Abbey.” PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.

Ullrich, Julia. Park Bench in Deep Cove, N. Vancouver. Digital image. N.p., 19 May 2016. Web.

“What Does Home Mean to You?” Real Simple. Time Inc. Lifestyle Group, n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.

 

1:1 – Hello world!

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‘Hello world’ is right! This is my first experience as a blogger, so I’m interested to see how it goes. Hopefully it doesn’t become a landing strip for my silly stream-of-consciousness. So far, making my own blog as pretty as the template is completely evading me. It’s going to be a technological adventure.

My name is Julia. I’m an actor and singer, but have finally made my way back to the land of scholars to complete my Bachelor of Education (recently ranked No. 9 in the world!) in the coming year. Being that I’m an actor, telling other people’s stories, or being a part of a story is something I’m constantly working at. What I think is interesting is how, no matter what story you’re telling, no matter what it’s about, if you have an open mind and the ability to examine the tale from different angles, you can find something that you connect with and a new perspective to add to discussion. A question that has sparked my interest so far from the 470 course website is, what is meant by ‘stories we tell ourselves’? To me, this implies an untruth or fabrication that we may be adding to our stories. Why are we doing this? What are we trying to change about our perceptions and understandings of Canada through our storytelling?

This blog will be an exploration and conversation about Canadian literature in conjunction with the UBC course ENGL 470A: Canadian Studies. What I hope to gain from this course, other than an increased digital literacy and proficiency, is a better understanding and appreciation for stories that come from Canada and stories about Canada. I am ashamed to say that I was not anxious to take this course, as I often find that Canadian content pales in comparison to anything which comes out of America or Britain, so I hope that, throughout the summer my eyes will be opened. That being said, it was my privilege to participate in the 2013 In Tune Conference here in Vancouver, which is a conference/ festival to celebrate and develop new Canadian musical theatre. I was so pleased and proud to learn about the high quality theatre coming from Canada. In fact, this year’s conference debuted a new adaptation of Pushkin’s Onegin, commissioned by Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company, which was later fully produced to great success and acclaim.

Works Cited

“In Tune 2013.” Touchstone Theatre. Touchstone Theatre. Web. 12 May. 2016

“Onegin.” ArtsClub. Arts Club Theatre Company, 2016. Web. 12 May. 2016.

“QS World University Rankings by Subject – Education.” QS Top Universities. QS    Quacquarelli Symonds Limited, 1994 – 2015. Web. 12 May. 2016

Ullrich, Julia. Entrance to Stanley Park in October. Digital image. N.p., 09 May 2016. Web.