In her article, “Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel,” Blanca Chester observes that “the conversation that King sets up between oral creation story, biblical story, literary story, and historical story resembles the dialogues that Robinson sets up in his storytelling performances (47). She writes:

Robinson’s literary influence on King was, as King himself says, “inspirational.” When one reads King’s earlier novel, Medicine River, and compares it with Green Grass, Running Water, Robinson’s impact is obvious. Changes in the style of the dialogue, including the way King’s narrator seems to address readers and characters directly (using the first person), in the way traditional characters and stories from Native cultures (particularly Coyote) are adapted, and especially in the way that each of the distinct narrative strands in the novel contains and interconnects with every other, reflect Robinson’s storied impact. (46)

For this blog assignment I would like you to make some comparisons between Harry Robson’s writing style in “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England” and King’s style in Green Grass, Running Water. What similarities can you find between the two story-telling voices? Coyote and God are present in both texts, how do they compare in character and voice across the stories?

What similarities can you find between the two story-telling voices?

In his article “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial”, King refers to Robinson as a creator of oral voice within the written stories with “an oral syntax that defeats readers’ efforts to read the stories silently” (186). King says that Robinson’s prose has become a source of inspiration and influence for other Native writers, including himself (187). His novel “Green Grass, Running Water” is an example where King follows Robinson’s storytelling traditions to create “metamorphosis – written to oral, reader to speaker” (187).

Robinson’s story “Coyote Makes a Deal With the King of England” and some of the storylines in King’s “Green Grass, Running Water” both include that “oral syntax” which prompts for text to be read aloud. The most prominent similarity in the two story voices is that they use short, broken or incomplete sentences with colloquial language which resemble the ways in which one would tell an oral story in a casual manner. At times, it seems like if you read such fragments in your head, you may miss subtle nuances which are crucial for understanding of what is said.

Coyote and God are present in both texts, how do they compare in character and voice across the stories?

Both texts start their narrations from the figure of Coyote. Coyote on the water. The presence of the water immediately made me think of the creation stories.  But the first question in my head was about Coyote. Who is Coyote? Why he is present in both stories?

In some Native stories, Coyote is the Creator or has the power of creation. In other stories he is a trickster, outsmarting people and animal-people, or messenger, bringing culturally significant information to people (Lockwood).

In Wendy Wickwire’s Introduction to “Living by Stories”, she identified Coyote in the story “Coyote makes a Deal with the King of England” as the central figure, which was not “the trickster/seducer/pest”(11). He was portrayed as the “original ancestor of the “Indians” … In this story he represented goodness” (11). Because of this uncommon representation of Coyote comparatively to Robinson’s earlier stories, Wickwire “bracketed this story as an anomaly” (11).

In Robinson’s story, Coyote calls himself “king”(69), as well as other Indigenous characters: “That’s Coyote. That’s the king for the Indians.” (83). There are no Kings in the Indigenous world, but when Coyote or TOH-ma speaks to European people, they use the term for Coyote which would be clear to them. Coyote’s presentation as a “king” suggests that he is superior figure for the Indigenous people in the story.

In King’s narration, Coyote is not portrayed as superior to the Indigenous people. The Oregon Encyclopedia explains the figure of Coyote as “playing his role of scheming, self-seeking trickster, stirring up trouble, testing and violating moral precepts”, which is in my opinion is close to Coyote’s representation in King’s novel. Here he is rather a trickster with a mystic nature, who appears in the story together with four old Native people, and seems to be like one of them. Four old Indians and Coyote certainly have some common goal, which suggests to me that Coyote’s role in the novel is to help to these people.

Similarly to King’s narratives, Coyote in Robinson’s story is also a mystical creature. This is evident from the beginning of the story, when white people from the East can see “somebody on the water” (Robinson 64), but they are not able to get close to him. When Coyote comes to England, nobody can see him or his boat (67), unless Coyote wants to be visible.

Further similarity in the two storylines is that Christian God is also present in both Indigenous narratives, but the relationships between Coyote and God are shown differently.

In Robinson’s story, Coyote goes to Europe to meet with the King of England, because this was an order he got from God:” he’s got to go because they wouldn’t say no” (68). This is why God is superior to Coyote in the Robinson’s story. By contrast, in the beginning of the King’s novel, God is portrayed as helpless and angry, because he is not “in charge of the world” (1). It appears that Coyote is the one who got a leading role in the story, so Coyote is superior to God in King’s storyline.

Thus, from what I’ve read so far in “Green Grass, Running Water”, Coyote is not represented identically in Robinson’s and King’s storylines (“king” vs. trickster, different relationship between Coyote and God), but in both stories this is a mystical figure, which connects and intervenes elements from different creation stories, traditional Native stories and contemporary world. I’m really looking forward to continue reading King’s novel, and, at times, reading aloud!

Works Cited

Chester, Blanca. “Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999).Web. 20 Feb, 2020.

Coyote (legend). The Oregon Encyclopedia, A Project of the Oregon Historical Society, Sep. 11, 2018, Web. 20 Feb, 2020. https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/coyote_legend_/#.XlK7FUp7mUk

Frederick N. Wilson, “Coyote Went Up the River (detail)”, Collection of Glenbow, Web image. Web. 28 Feb, 2020.https://www.gallerieswest.ca/news/romancing-the-canoe-in-calgary/

King, Thomas. “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial.” Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism. Mississauga, ON: Broadview, 2004. 183- 190.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

Lockwood, Jeff. Two Coyote Stories by Jeff Lockwood, SNReview (SNR), 2005, Web. 20 Feb, 2020. http://www.snreview.org/0205Lockwood.html.

Robinson, Harry. Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory. Ed. Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005, 64-85. Print.