Winner of the 2015 CBC Bookie Awards - Non-Fiction "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. This is a book both timeless and timely, burnished with anger but tempered by wit, and ultimately a hard-won offering of hope-a sometimes inconvenient but nonetheless indispensable account for all of us, Indian and non-Indian alike, seeking to understand how we might tell a new story for the future. In the process, King refashions old stories about historical events and figures, takes a sideways look at film and pop culture, relates his own complex experiences with activism, and articulates a deep and revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands. Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, The Inconvenient Indian distills the insights gleaned from Thomas King's critical and personal meditation on what it means to be "Indian" in North America, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other.
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In the last hectic days of the British Raj, Victoria has to choose between marrying a British Army officer or a Sikh, Ranjit, as she struggles to find her place in the new, independent India. Evoking the tensions and conflicts that accompanied the birth of modern India, the characters struggle to find their place in the new India that is emerging. īhowani Junction is set in the wake of the partition of India, as the British prepare to withdraw from the newly independent country. Bhowani Junction is set in the wake of the partition of India, as the British prepare to withdraw from the newly independent country. He feels that this is why these tales meet a strongly felt need and are carriers of such deep meaning. Mircea Eliade, describes these stories as “models for human behavior by that very fact, give meaning and value to life.’ Drawing on anthropological parallels, he and others suggest that myths and fairy tales were derived from, or given symbolic expression to, initiation rites or other rites of passage - such as metaphoric death of an old, inadequate self in order to be reborn on a higher plane of existence. Even Aristotle, master of pure reason,said: “The friend of wisdom is also a friend of myth.” Modern thinkers who have studied myths and fairy tales from a philosophical or psychological viewpoint arrive at the same conclusion, regardless of their original persuasion. He suggested that the future citizens of his ideal republic begin their literary education with the telling of myths, rather than with mere facts or so-called rational teachings. Plato may have understood better what forms the mind of man than do some of our contemporaries who want their children exposed only to “real” people and everyday events -knew what intellectual experiences make for true humanity. Study the passages below and answer the questions that follow each passage? |