Read “Coyote Makes a Deal with King of England”, in Living by Stories. Read it silently, read it out loud, read it to a friend, and have a friend read it to you. See if you can discover how this oral syntax works to shape meaning for the story by shaping your reading and listening of the story. Write a blog about this reading/listening experience that provides references to the story.
So, this question grabbed my attention immediately. As an English Literature student, I am forced *ahem* privileged to read thousands of pages in one year. However, so much of my reading experience is defined as simple, quick, and get the basic information, rather than ‘slowly work your way through and pay attention’. I might be throwing myself under the bus here… but hey, I was always told that honesty was a good thing! (Plus… I don’t think I’d ever get to go outside if I read 5 courses worth of material at a slow pace….. oye….)
There are some key differences is the oral versus optical versions in “Coyote Makes a Deal with King of England”. First and foremost though, please read through the few notes I made about each experience before getting to read my ‘big conclusion’.
————————————————–
Silently
I read through the story fairly quickly – I suppose I am just used to seeing a text and powering through it to get the basic ‘gist’ of the plot and its’ points. I found the beginning was hard to understand, I did not really comprehend the chasing of the boat and the fog part until the Coyote went to England and explained to the King how his men have been coming onto his land. Then it clicked for me that this was a colonial tale.
The story really picked up pace and I found the voice of the narrative changed when we got to around 1850, and I enjoyed the rest of the narrative.
Out loud
Really hard to read, the sentence structure is awful and it you really get a sense of the broken english. (Felt like I sounded similar to this kid). When the Coyote gets to England, that starkly broken english feel changes. I experienced ‘better english sentences’, albeit they were not perfect. Then it switches back after they discuss the treaty.
It was really hard to read out loud – the words felt foreign and disconnected to the story. Probably how the Aboriginals feel in regards to the Canada’s story. That they are a part of a story that doesn’t reflect them, as it is heavily determined by the settlers.
To A Friend
My sister (yes, my sister is my friend- big sister isn’t so uncool I guess 😉 ) stared at me and laughed as I started to read. “What the heck is this” she commented. “Sarah, you gotta let me read this – it is just as hard for me to say the words in this order… feels like I am reading a foreign language!” I replied.
So, once we got going… it got a little bit better. I found that I had to read slower than when I was reading it out loud to myself, because I r e a l l y had to annunciate so that she could follow this confusing combination of english words. She stopped me a couple times to clarify – and finally we made it to the end. “What a weird story” was her final comment. I told her that she had to read it back to me… “oh joy” she replied*.
*Just FYI, we are British and therefore heavily sarcastic… so don’t read her as a bratty young adult… she was very happy to do this for me*
Friend Reads to Me
I was shocked at how different this story seemed. By now I knew what was coming, but sitting there listening to Sarah read the story back to me in its’ awkward English was very strange. I felt like I had forgotten how to speak English, and that is why I was having such a hard time understanding her. The story sort of felt like how western culture impersonates the Indian accent. Where this clip of Jim Carrey telling the story is quite hilarious, the way that he phrases his sentences/ the order of his words reminds me of how this story is written. It is in English – but does not reflect our ‘proper’ style. However, I found that listening to the story was way way way more exciting than reading it myself… maybe I should invest in some audio books……..
————————————————–
The oral versus optical versions of this story demonstrate to me how differently we can experience history. When it is read aloud to us, we can sit back and let the story sweep us away into it’s depths. When we read it ourselves, we can get swept away, but more often than not (as I learned from this experience) we wind up focusing on the structure of the words and not their purpose. Rather than just letting the words tell me the story, I got caught up on where they were placed and missed out on bits of it.
Perhaps we can start to tell our own histories in an oral manner, instead of texting, face booking, emailing and blogging them all the time?
So, what do you think? Can you say your story out loud, and how differently would it be?
Works Cited:
Jim Carry – Canada. Perf. Jim Carry. Youtube, 20 Mar. 2008. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ic3xNfEP_o&spfreload=10>.
3 Year Old Reading Dr Seuss. Youtube, 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzIZ1415nuM&spfreload=10>.
Hi Susie!
I had a great time reading your post and I, too, had my sister read it aloud to me! I guess they can come in handy once in a while… huh!? (All jokes aside – sisters are the best).
Anyway, I thought it was really neat how our experiences differed and intersected. Ultimately, we both found that oral stories have the capacity to turn your attention more towards the meaning of the story than the structure of the sentences. At first, I too had trouble reading the story because of its structure and found that I simply could not make sense of it. When you had the story read out loud to you, did you find yourself paying attention to physical cues like gestures and facial expression? I found myself more actively listening to the story when my sister read it aloud to me and I paid attention to her movements and tone!
In response to your questions at the end, I think we can all tell our stories aloud and will find that in doing so, we may be able to add so much more meaning to them. For me, personally, the physical aspect of telling a story out loud (with the gestures, etc.) would be important to telling my own story so I could convey more visibly the meaning intended and emotions I am trying to evoke. I think the intermingling of physicality with oral narratives gives them so much more depth and helps preserve the meaning of the narrative! Often times, when things are written out, it can be difficult to understand the emotional context behind them. For me, hearing them aloud helps navigate the reader.
– Shamina 🙂
Hey Shamina,
Thanks for the reply 🙂 Im glad we shared similar experiences! I think you are on the right track with how stories aloud, versus stories written, make way more things accessible to the reader. I know that whenever I tell a story to my friends versus making it a facebook status, I enjoy saying it to them so much more!
Cheers!
Hi Susie,
Us big sisters really aren’t so bad eh? I’ve also made my sister participate in this class and although she makes snide comments about deserving some credits, she’s also a good sport. I’m finding it very interesting that both of the blogs I have now read and responded to about this topic found it very difficult to read the story out loud! I personally found reading it out loud so much more straight forward. I think if I tried to read every word perfectly it wouldn’t have made sense but allowing the story to flow and by letting my eyes shift ahead of the words I was saying I found that it became quite easy to read. When reading in my head, I think I did the same thing as you, we do grow accustomed to speed reading in order to get through all of the readings for all of our classes (you’re right there’s no point in denying that!). To answer your question, I love telling stories. I hate to brag but I’ve become my families story teller. Maybe it’s because as a kid my dad used to tell us stories of his childhood but story telling has always been my families way of sharing. By telling stories out loud you are able to relive the moments and let others be there with you at the same time.
-Jennifer Heinz
Hey Jennifer,
Hahah, definitely not, us big sisters are the best! I shall have to try your reading out loud experience – I guess years of grooming have meant that when I read out loud I emphasis and pay closer attention than when I read silently!
Thats awesome you’re now the story-teller! Do you think that that only works because of your families closeness therefore there is a space in order to tell stories?
Thanks for the thoughts!
Susie
Hey Susie!
I’m really looking forward to working with you on our upcoming group project. You seem to have a really great understanding of the course material and you offer some interesting points that help to spark questions within all of us.
Your post for “One Story, Four Versions” was really intriguing because of the way you set it up on the blog. For one, the division of each version helped to convey your message better. And when talking about the optics of storytelling and listening, I find that this is a huge and important feature. I tend to become obsessive with the way in which the story is structured. This forces me to pay less attention to the content and more attention to the cosmetics of the piece. It honestly tends to take away from the message that the story is trying to convey, if and only if, the structure is not appealing to the reader. For example, when reading this blog post, the clean-cut structure and color coordination was appealing to me because I am a perfectionist. I like to see the beginning and endings of points, arguments and topics. For someone who was not so “obsessive” with this, the storytelling would sound just as good reading it off a piece of paper as it would listening to it being told aloud. So to answer your question, yes, I think that storytelling aloud and story telling via books or online totally make a difference, depending on the reader. I personally think that the understanding and comprehension of the reader or listener is completely dependent on what type of person you are and the way you learn or listen!
Jess P
Hey Jess!
Thanks so much for you feedback – I look forward to working with you too 🙂
I had never factored in learning style before when considering the differences between oral and written stories.. so thanks for bring that to my attention!
cheers 🙂