Montag, 7. Mai 2012

"Toronto at Dreamer's Rock" - pages 23 to 42

In this next passage Keesic's interest for the new development of his tribe sticks out most to me at the beginning. Keesic doesn't understand what the difference between a mountain and a cement factory is and can't understand why people don't just live with what they have. This made me think because I often just take our manmade products for granted. Furthermore it is hilarious when Keesic asks about the lines which are roads and speculates that hunting must be very good to make people fat enough to need a path that wide. I really enjoyed this joke and think it is interesting to imagin that things like roads are unfamiliar to some people. It reminded me of my time in Ghana where one of my students tried to get rid of the freckles in my face, because he thought it was dirt and another one told me that his biggest wish in life was to see a traffic light once in his life. Both things seemed so normal to me that I didn't even pay attention to them anymore. It was interesting for me to find out that I transferred the concept on to other cultures and didn't just stick to the present/past concept.

In the middle of the passage Keesic reveals that he has been at the rock before when he was little. He spend five days there without food. While being there he had a vision that told him to follow the path of medicine. Unfortunately he says that he ist not strong enough to fullfil the vision. Now that he is back at the place that helped him once, he hopes for a sign from above again. Rusty tells Keesic that dream quest and visions have died out since no one believes in them anymore. To me this seems like a further point to add to the list of changed/lost values and beliefs of this particular tribe.

Towards the end of the passage the thirt protagonist, Michael from the future, all of a sudden appears. It is funny how suddenly Rusty, who seemed so modern to me, appears outdated because of Michael's appearance and his reactions towards Rusty. It is stated that he comes from May 2095 and it seems very surprising to me that Rusty's face and name are familiar to him. It must mean that he is famous for something and this is hard to believe, given the way Rusty has been portrayed by Drew Hayden Taylor. I don't feel to sympathetic towards him, because he seems very uninterested and short-tempered.

It seems very inappropriate to me when Michael states his fascination about Keesic coming from such a long time ago by calling him "subject matter". I was unsure, if I understood it right, so I looked up the word to make sure that I understood it correctly. Doing so my thoughts were ratified since it means something like "Gegenstand", "Angelegenheit" or "Thematik". Therefore Michael doesn't refer to Keesic as a human being but rather as a thing.

All three protagonists speculate about the reason for being at Dreamer's Rock. Michael speculates that the power of Dreamer's Rock brought them there. He thinks that it might be similar to the Poltergeist phenomenon that is common in Germany. It is intersting that Drew Hayden Taylor refers to Germany here. Comparing this play to his play "'The Berlin Blues" it almost seems like Germans truly fascinate Drew Hayden Taylor and appear in a series of his plays. Additionally Michael guesses that they came together to defend Dreamer's Rock from the "alcoholic era". It would be intersting to find out more about this and discuss it with students.

The cawing of the crow, which seemed strange to me at the beginning (because it was highly emphasized) is referred back to in this paragraph. According to Keesic crows are messangers of the creator. He cannot believe that Rusty didn't even try to listen to what he was trying to say. Rusty just thought of the noise as being  very annoying, which fits to his indifferent attitude.

Additionally the first part of the title "Toronto" is explained. It isn't only the place in Canada but also means places in general where important things happen. Therefore it will be intersting to see what significant events  will follow on the next pages......

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