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An Interview With Thomas King
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10704 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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6 / 1993 |
1,241 Words |
| Author
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Clark Munsell
Clark Munsell is a Book World editor at THE WORLD & I. |
Much like the wily old Indians in his latest novel, Green Grass, Running Water, Thomas King is trying to "fix" part of the world. What needs fixing, he says, is the way Native Americans are perceived in the twentieth century. According to King, movies like Dances with Wolves and Last of the Mohicans, "though good in the sense that they portray native actors, native language, and native humor, still perpetuate the nineteenth-century stereotype of the noble savage riding bareback, shooting arrows, and living in tepees." King, with other native authors, is challenging these stereotypes by depicting Native Americans who live in the modern world, who face the same obstacles the rest of us do yet adhere to their traditional culture and ways. King objects to the notion of a "typical" Indian: His native characters come from a variety of backgrounds and hold professional jobs.
At 6 feet 6 inches and sporting a bushy mustache, King, forty-nine, is an imposing figure. His father, a Cherokee from Oklahoma, deserted the family when King was about five, leaving him and his brother to be raised by their mother (who is of Greek and German extraction) in a small town in central California. King is chair of the Native American Studies department at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He lives with Helen Hoy and their two children, as well as his son from a previous marriage.
King's previous work, Medicine River, won the Alberta Writer's Best Novel Award and the PEN/Josephine Miles Award. Last year, it was runner-up for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize. He wrote the script for the TV movie Medicine River, airing this spring in Canada, and also plays a small part in the film.
Variously described as a Native American Kurt Vonnegut or Ken Kesey King spins his loopy tales using the oral narrative style of traditional native storytellers. In Green Grass, Running Water, he weaves native myths with Judeo-Christian stories to expose the truth and falsity in each. Ultimately, he is trying to show the need to restore balance and harmony in nature and in one's personal life.
In a previously published interview, King said that Christianity enjoys a privileged position in Western history and culture. THE WORD & I asked him about this comment and some other questions raised in Green Grass, Running Water.
Thomas King: Whenever we think about the way the world is constructed, especially the way relationships work their way out-specifically, humans and animals,
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