Kate McCosh Clark (1847–1926)

(Read some time ago.) This was a fun little book. I guess I’m ‘not smart enough’ or whatever to draw Grand Lessons of Life out of the story every time I read mythology & folklore, the way some deep psychoanalyst would, you know—that’s why I didn’t review at first. I’m also ‘not smart enough’, and not inclined, to ‘prove’ that there Are no lessons to life or in stories, the way a brain scientist might—maybe not all brain scientists, but the classic type, you know, the poster boy for white civilization. 🧠 Anyway, I think that a lot of the value in Native nations is that they largely didn’t create the division of specialized privileged people who say inscrutable nothings vs worthless slobs, or at least not to the extent of contemporary civilization. Much learning is unconscious, you know, and the aspect of entertainment is not to be fobbed off, except by the sort of people we are, you know. Or maybe only by the Western elite, but sometimes even the Western rank-and-file are casually overwhelmed with the idea that their TV and their paperback novels are Inferior to the Brain Scientists. Anyway—I know, too much about us, although we WERE all Native somewhere once, it’s a layer to our consciousness that’s still hidden somewhere, despite our cruelty directed at self & others—the story I liked most was the one about Maui, the Hawaiian hero after whom the famous island was named. He was a hero, a warrior, a big man, ‘the Polynesian Hercules’, I think Kate called him, and I felt big learning that because of migrations the Native Hawaiians and the Native New Zealanders are largely the same people, who tell some of the same stories.… (mehr)