Coyote Columbus

I love Coyote.  There is no other figure in literary history I can appreciate more than one who enters a space just to rain all kinds of chaos down upon it.  The beauty, I think, lies in the complexity of the character's influence.  Tricksters are never evil or malicious, though they may occasionally target the high and the mighty in and attempt to provide a lesson in himility.  Their actions are always simply chaos in its purest form, never good or bad, simply cause and consequence. 

I've always wanted to teach the Trickster figure to a classroom.  I don't know if I want it to be part of a unit, a unit itself, or the subject of an entire class.  I think in any case, the trickster would be an engaging subject for students.  There are tricksters from nearly every culture: Coyote differs depending on which tribe or band is providing the story; Britain had fools and jesters to provide a chaotic element to the storytelling; in Japan, the fox or kitsune champions the lowly and challenges the powerful.  For all our love of order, I have to believe that humans attain just as much pleasure from seeing their systems, structures, and institutions torn asunder. 

I would use King's Coyote Columbus in my classroom in a heartbeat.  It provides such an excellent counterpoint to everything European creation stories teaches, and its main character, just as in King's Green Grass, Running Water, is a trickster.  It's important for students to hear about these alternate narratives to give them perspective on authorship and history.  So often we're told that history is written by the winners, but how often do we adopt that perspective when we learn history?  This story is a disruption of epic proportions, and it's going into my teaching library.