Greg Sarris' essay The Woman Who Loved a Snake was particularly perplexing and mind-boggling. Initially, after reading the essay, I felt confused and was not quite sure of where the essay had led me. My mind was running in circles, flitting from one question to the next. The story seemed to do so much with so little. Or maybe it wasn't supposed to. Maybe we are just supposed to take it for what it is. For me, this idea of just letting a work be what it is in its own right, without imposing our personal views and expectations on it, was hard. In school, I feel that we are often trained to search for the "point" of the story or the deeper meaning. While reading the essay, I felt like Jenny, the Ph.D. candidate who asked what the snake symbolized. Was it a man, a snake, or both? One can formulate an answer for any of those points and I agree with Sarris' idea that the reasons behind the way we answer is due to each of our own cultural and personal differences.
Sarris says, "Mabel's talk, which is oral, provides an opportunity to explore the territory for individuals who may in some ways share her territory...The territory, after all, is not empty, unpeopled" (152). Experiencing Mabel's story, orally or through the written word, allows our minds to explore the ideas of those who have come before us. Each person puts their own personal spin on the story, and if they pass it on to someone else, that person then has the ability to shape the story for themselves and for others later. This is what I think Mabel meant when she said that "there is more to me and you that is the story" (150). The story's circle of influence continues to expand and the story lives on in others, not just ourselves. The story's journey through different people and time is all a part of the bigger picture, which we will never fully see or understand because it will continue to change and grow.
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I completely agree with you in regards to the fact that in school we are always taught to dig into what we read to find deeper meaning. Especially after reading this article I agree that this is not always the right route to take, and sometimes we must take reading for what it is and the cultural influences within it. As we all learned in class yesterday, sometimes digging for deeper meaning can carry us in circles without the gratification of settling into any significant deeper meaning.
ReplyDeleteI had just commented on another blog saying that I felt the exact same way that you did! I was saying that I felt like Jenny. So strange that I come to this blog and see what I was thinking articulated so well by you. Haha! I definitely agree with you!
ReplyDeleteI think that "there is more to me and you that is the story" means that every person takes in a story differently, they take something from it differently. Case in point, Poor Sarah seems to have many possible "meanings" that varies with most individuals.
That's my opinion of what Mabel meant, which I think goes along with what you are saying.
It is interesting to further analyze the way that we communicate using this story as a point of reference. What are we missing out on by not thinking of discourse in this way? Are we doomed to remove ourselves from the big picture? How has that complicated our relationships?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your thoughts. I think Mabel's story is so vague purposely because it lets the reader or listener interpret the story in their own ways. And yea, I really don't think there's a set right answer or interpretation to her story. It lets your mind do the thinking and interpretations.
ReplyDeleteI kinda got what Mabel was saying. Some older folks I know tell stories like that, and when I ask for deeper meanings they say "its just a story." End of discussion. So either I end up confused as hell or think and find my own meaning
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Wow, I also blogged about Greg Sarris' piece and you did an excellent job interpreting this piece! Good use of textual evidence too! :)
ReplyDeleteI agreed with everything you said here, and there was one particular quote that stood out to me in the text about how "one party may write a story, but one party's story is no more the whole story than a cup of water is the river" (Sarris 145). This pertains to the same idea of how cultural and personal influences the way we perceives a text or spoken words. Though, I must admit, I was very confused about when I was reading both stories of Greg Sarris and Elias Boudinot.
Jenny definitely reminded me of how students are trained to look for the bigger picture. I think that the "space in between" that we diagramed in class is where people get puzzled like Jenny. I think oral story telling has no "space in between" because you should not ponder what the literal meaning is and just take it for what it is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with much of this post. I think this particular reading made a point against our usual concepts of story. Perhaps it challenges western storytelling in general. It's interesting how you acknowledge how the story changes over time, especially when passed to person to person. Even though this is supposedly a personal account this story is spoken possibly with retelling in mind. Can a personal story be fictional? Perhaps that's the question I should be asking.
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