Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Week 9 Reading Notes: Blackfoot Stories, Part A

In the description, it says the language has been translated from original Blackfoot Indian stories, so it is readable now. Even from what i've read so far, I can tell which spots aren't quite as translated from the Blackfoot. I thought it would make it harder to read or bother me, but I actually enjoy it a little bit because it gives it more of a realistic feel.

The point of the storytelling is similar to some of the others I have read in the class. They give fictitious accounts of characters, which lead to the reason something is the way it is today. In this case it was about the deer and antelope bodies.

(blackfoot  --  Henning Leweke)
Flickr
The story about the rolling stone is quite a stretch. The whole time I was focused on the conflict between the man and the rock (which was already pretty crazy), but the purpose of the story didn't even turn out to be about them. It was about the way hawks look today and why they do. Pushing their bills against a rock to be formed that way… I don't know about that one as much. I did enjoy the writing style, which sounded authentic. I'm not sure how good I would be at writing in that style though. If I was to do a story based on the Blackfoot, I could use another style and make it a parody. Maybe a super thick cowboy accent or something.

The old man is common in the stories. I wonder if Grinnell meant for this old man to be the same person among each of the stories he is in, or if they are all different old men?

The last story with the sun theft didn't seem to have much of a point. I guess the moral would be not to try and steal, but I think it would've been more comical if it had something to do with the old man lying. Then it could have tied into the common saying, "Liar, liar, pants on fire" because his pants were set on fire in the end.


Bibliography: Blackfoot Stories by Grinnell

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