Storytelling...or a recommended holiday reading

'Twas the night before Christmas...and I finished a book (not what you were expecting, were you?)

For those of you looking for a good non-fiction read that isn't heavy (like Romeo Dallaire's "Shake Hands with The Devil"...I haven't read it and I'm sure it's good, but I'm confident that the material is quite serious), I recommend "The Truth About Stories" by Thomas King. It was part of the 2003 Massey Lectures.

I will probably think and reflect about it some more, but I enjoyed it mainly for two things. One, it gave me a better understanding of the importance of stories in the Native tradition but also how stories are important in everyone's life in general as well.

We are writing the story of our life right now. It is almost a post-modern take on how we view history without the baggage of post-modernism. It reminds me of a line from Dogma. Rufus, Chris Rock's character, talks about ideas and belief. Ideas can be changed, he says, but not beliefs. People fight, die, etc. for their beliefs.

In the same way, I think that's what Dr. King's getting at with history. Stories can be changed (as you'll read in the book). But history, as the general public sees it, becomes cemented into a linear progression of events. If not for post-modernist thinking and the expansion of history as different narratives (Mr. King's subtitle is "A Native Narrative"), we would not hear about all the other stories out there that exist. In a sense (and trying very hard not to fall into the romanticizing of the Native traditions), storytelling is the realization of post-modern thought, of the existence of different narratives; only it doesn't seem to be as rationalized as post-modern thinking. The history of the world is a story of many stories and it always has been.

The second lesson I learned was how the perception of First Nations Canadians and Americans has become so regimented in such a variety of ways. It's a very big Catch-22. I don't think I'm up to the task of explaining it, needless to say, it seems that a First Nations person can't live his/her life as they see fit without either giving up their past or their future. But according to Dr. King, society's been lamenting their demise and surprise, surprise, the First Nations are still here.

But in a way, I've just told you a very bland story. Go read the book. Dr. King's a much better storyteller.