Eng112W The Truth about Stories PDF

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The Truth about Stories lecture notes...

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Thomas King - Award-winning writer of works of fiction and non-fiction - Prof from Uni of Guelph - Editor of Indigenous anthologies - Indigenous writer -> desire to engage with Canadian public

Massey lectures - Deliver in person or publish - Pubic dialogue by public intellectuals - This year delivered by Sally Amstrong THE TRUTH ABOUT STORIES First chapter -

Begins with creation stories heard from community -> use it as critic and shape us how we know. - Our system connects to stories “There is a story that I know. It's about the earth and how it floats in space on the back of a turtle.” -> In all the tellings of this story, the earth never leaves the turtle’s back. -> Other aspects of this story and, in fact, every telling of the story is different. - Use amusing annotate - explores the idea of creation dn the role of the turtle as it carries the world - important foundational story bc he opens the book with this - twin babies help the process of creating the earth signifies the process of making and remaking, doing and redoing - he points out 2 stories are different as in context and the way of telling: The turtle story: tone and jokes, conversational telling Christain story: proper and lots of facts, objective telling. Give us insights of core value, creation is a collective enterprise, creation is a shared activity -These are all stories about beginning - ”the truth about stories us that thats all we are”(2) “You’ll never believe what happened” is always a great way to start -> stories is a way for others to access you -> influence the way we think and act The mother experiences sexism in work place -> she still get paid much less even though being moved to different position -> continue to live her life as the world goes on with sexism - The story of the father: the author has one memory of him and hes not sure if thats his father. -> the father is a figure that he longs for but continues to disappoint him THE TWIST: imagine talking to him in the bar,he wnats to leave his father with unanswer question the same way his father always does to him. “Drop us in trash can on the side of the road…” -> the story the author crafting

Comes to realization that brother and mothe ris important to him Stories matter to lives, origin “How stories can control our lives, for there is a part of me that has never been able to move past these stories, a part of me that will be chained to these stories as long as I live” (King 9) “What if the creation story…”(king 27) -> these stories we grow up with whether its created within our community they still continue to shape Canadian society in a number of ways Contains imagination, desire, hope Even though the story is fiction -> becomes foundational truth in his life, Difference between truth and story, facts and history, how to make history more than facts. Facts truth and stories How these concepts related What is something that meant to be true or not true

Chapter 2 1. What is the difference between the stories that open lecture 1 and 2? The difference is the speaker, the audience and space. Everything else remains the same. 2. Significance of these differences? 3. What does repeating the opening do? Stories shape your identity. Stories mean history, cultures, stereotypes.

“All knowledge is generated from particular positions, that there is no unbiased, neutral position possible” (Reder 7) Edward Curtis - American photographer - The North American Indian - “Curtis was fascinated…”(king 32) - He sacrifices, dies in poverty - He works on capture the Indigenous and “Nakotah LaRance” by Will Wilson

3 key ideas + Idea of authenticity + Idea of Identity : self identitfication and how other define him as a personIdea of power: power over people, other people’s power on you. Contructed throught the relationship between you and other, idea of authority

One of major point, authenticity is a problematic term for indigenous people, has serious consequences for indigenous identity. He opens with the creation story with a couple of tweaks when he speaks what he said that he is entertainment rather than knowledge. He experiences being judged for not being an authentic indigenous person. This structure makes clear, stories bring the application for the indigenous, present moments are being shaped by history.

Edward Curtis, creating the image, promotes the idea of there are an authentic way of being an indigenous person. Idea of measuring one’s identity to authenticity. Value when you try to test authenticity, to test how real it is, it measures the value of an object, doesn't make sense to do with people. Can’t say someone is fake or not, Identity is shaped by factors Self-identification, how others(family, friends, colleagues) see you, structure where you located (classroom, political structure, context categories) gender, age, language, religions, occupation, also shaped by stories that are crafted. Limited ways to understand ourselves He thought there is a real image of indigenous that he needs to photograph before they go away. “Mosa Mohave” (EC, 1903). He is staging what is real for us what is real on how we imagine how indigenous people to look. Not passive process but rather active in creating this image of authentic indigenous person. King, “the idean simply has to exist in our imaginations(54) “ points out particular features that we think are related to indigenous people (redskin, landlakes butter, scouts, black hall chicago) AUTHENTICITY: “they are the stereotypes and cliches that north america has conjured up out of experiences and out of its collective imaginings and fears(king, the inconvenient indian 53) You’re not the idian that i had in mind”(king, The Truth 48) Mention Will Rogers, he is famous indigenous, he doenst look like an authentic indian, not indian enough for photographers want to capture. What we see contradict with what we think is real, in hollywood, indians wear headband, in fact indians don't wear headbands, the only reaosn why film cvrafted the imagine is the headband hold the wings. Page 88,89 “he participated in ceromony, not an urban indian, not an indian at all…” The critera comes to whether you live in preserved or city, -> stereotype sthat are held before. “And in spite of the fact that curtis met a great variety of Na…” (king, the truth 36) One hand, he encourages Other hand he against the stereotype that Curtis believes in Ratio dynamics 1960s in cali., ration divide between mexicans and non mexcicans, he ask this girl to prom, the father doenst let Karen date mexican. One can experiemnce racism even tho they are not in that group, racist is a kind of fiction a, experience of racism is very real. The constant we see thru out the story there are different racism but operating in the same way, not true, carry lots of power,

“Yet how can something that has never existed- the Indian- have form and power while something that is alive and kicking - indians- are invisible? (king 53) “But for those of us who are indians, this disjunction between reality and imagination is akin to life and death. For to be seen as “real”, for people to “imagine” us as indians, we must be “authentic”.(king 54) All stories come from our emotions. “But worse, there was that rhetorical question again, as long as I dressed like an Indian, I was entertainment. But if I dressed like a non-Indian and reasoned like a non Indian, then not only was I not entertainment, I wasn’t an Indian”. (Kinhg,68) There is such concept about how indians should dress and if King does’t behave like how Indian should behave, he doesnt fall into that category of being an Indian. Stories are powerful , has tremendous effect. “For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.(10) -> how we tell that story shapes us so much. Emphasize how powerful stories are, reminding us a sense of ourselves “That is, we wrote knowing that none of the stories we told would change th world. But we wrote in the hope that they would”(king, 92) -> Stories about depression, suicide There is a way that stories that can maintain our survival, “The magic of native literature - as with other literatures - is not in the themes of stories (king, 112 )

Connects to the idea of surviving: - Indigenous can be reduced. King tells stories - > refusal can be reduced due to moral, we have to think through them, considering the connection between those sories and refer the lives they are in. - He refuses to be a sterotyle and be gated to the past - Stories can live our lives meaning

“If we stopped telling the stories and reading the books, we would discover that neglect is as powerful an agent as war and fire” (king 98) - Social equality - “For anderson, the nation “is an imagine political community - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” Bounded and imagined - “Did you ever wonder how it is we imagine the world in the way we do, how it is we imagine ourselves, if not through our stories” - “But the act of reading… individual acts’ (king 154) - who tell the stories, when you are hearing it, who hears the story. - Listening and engaging with the story teller there is a change in the story itself

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Christian stories takes 7 days, There is no clear beginning and ending, its a long process We live in stories...