From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #10 Reply-To: aml-list-digest Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Tuesday, April 11 2000 Volume 01 : Number 010 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 17:07:25 -0600 From: "Thom Duncan" Subject: Re: [AML] Mormon culture and Art / DUTCHER, _God's Army_ > Why their hesitancy, because they were very uncertain about the showing > of the actual priesthood ordinances on screen. It wasn't the miracle > which made them uncomfortable, but actually portraying in a very realistic > manner the actual ordinances. It was more than just the "Pearls before > Swine" argument. These brethren hold that power and literally view its > application in priesthood service as a divine gift. > They are always > willing to talk with others about this blessing of the Church. Yet, the > movie felt to them that showing the actual prayers and ordinances on the > screen made those ordinances "common", allowing them "overly frequent" > exposure to a large general public who will not appreciate their > sacredness, and thus, diminish that sacredness. IMO, these men are being overly cautious. This was, after all, a film, a piece of fiction, not a proselyting tool. People used to be upset at having Jesus portrayed so he was usually seen from the back. > When does our artistic work make common that which is > sacred? Never. The only harm that can be done to our ordinances if they are performed unworthily, and acting them out doesn't count (It is my understanding that some of the actors were non-members, so you would have a case where non-members are saying the words that Priesthood holders actually say. This is acceptable in my view because it is fiction.) > The above has been stated before, in words much more eloquent than mine. > However, "I" can't recall it being mentioned directly in this thread. So, > with last Sunday's experience still fresh in my mind, along with the > personal contemplations it generated, I wish to offer these humble, > always fallible, thoughts to you. I thank all of you for your patience > in considering them. I produced a play several years ago which, as I then discovered, was the first time a complete prayer had ever been uttered in a play. To top it off, I had another person interrupting the prayer and even swearing during it. The person giving the prayer wasn't being sincere -- he was giving it to force the other person into changing his life -- it was a hypocritical prayer. But I felt I had to make it complete with all the proper verbiage to drive home the point that religion can, and has been used as a weapon by some people. I wanted to "shock" the audience by showing something normally seen only in sacred circles portrayed on stage along with an angry commentary by the other person. As artists, I think we do ourselves a disservice if we approach the Gospel with too much the kid glove. Short of the Temple Ceremony, it all ought to be acceptable to portray any of its ordinances to suit the artist's purposes. Thom Thom [Duncan] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 20:04:35 EDT From: Paynecabin@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Re: Mormon culture and Art Two recent observations, both incorrect. D. Michael Martindale: <> Thom Duncan: <> Steve Perry and I begged and borrowed money to write "Wedlocked," hire technicians and designers, and build a set. Then BYU paid us to perform it on their Entre'act season, which is a four-or-five times in a year invitation to outside professionals to bring into the Pardoe Theatre a small, ready-made show. That run earned us a third of what we had borrowed, and nothing of what we had begged. There was no commission involved, but a stream of encouragement that might be described as incessant. But we're grateful for that positive attitude, because their announcement in the mail to eleven thousand people that we were doing the play on a given date, a complete surprise to us, pretty much precipitated its completion. (Sort of like a Colt .45 precipitates certain kinds of predictable cooperation.) Not a big deal, of course, but maybe worth correcting. On the thread: I'm not aware of much renaissance-style commissioning going on. I think most of us are still scrambling. Marvin Payne - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 18:31:21 PDT From: "R.W. Rasband" Subject: Re: [AML] MN LDS Member Examines Evil In Documentary I saw this last Thursday night, and was impressed by the wide range of spiritual thought presented. Andrew Delbanco, the author of "The Death of Satan", was paticularly good. Of course I had no idea "a devout Mormon" wrote and produced the show when I saw it. I wonder how his ward members felt about the interview with Marilyn Manson:_) R.W. Rasband Heber City, UT rrasband@hotmail.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 22:50:24 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] Mormon scripture in national publications Moses 7:30 - --An ancient text attributed to Moses _______________ Perhaps you could put the reference somewhere else than on the last page, such as on the back of the title page with all of the other credit/photo information. For example, "The quote on p. 99 is from an ancient religious text attributed to the prophet Moses." If you do the reference, I would add or use the word religious. Of course, I didn't write the book, so you do it the way you want to do it. Larry Jackson - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 22:21:47 -0600 From: "Sharlee Glenn" Subject: Re: [AML] GLENN, _One in a Billion_ Tracie Laulusa wrote: > Thanks for sharing about your book. Is it already in the "being > illustrated" phase? What is the time frame on publication? I would love to > hear more about the process from either you Sharlee, or Richard, or anyone > else that has gone through it. Yup, it's currently "being illustrated." We saw the thumbnails last week and they look great! Richard conducted a nation-wide search for an illustrator (with very good response), but ultimately settled on an enormously talented young local artist named Rachel Hoffman. The printing will be done overseas (in Hong Kong, I believe) and Richard plans to have the book ready for release by August. I have loved working with Cornerstone on this project. Ironically (or maybe not), my experience with Putnam has been a bit less gratifying, mainly because I have had little input there beyond the initial author/editor negotiations over text. Also, the whole process of publishing a picture book takes so much longer with a national publishing house. > BTW, are any list members planning to attend the children's writers workshop > at BYU? I'll be there. I'll actually be presenting on one of the days (don't know which one yet). The workshop faculty (Rick Walton, Laura Torres, Carol Lynch Williams, Dean Hughes, Louise Plummer, etc.) are all outstanding writers and/or editors and it should be a very worthwhile conference. Sharlee Glenn glennsj@inet-1.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 23:44:17 -0700 From: "Eric D. Snider" Subject: Re: [AML] Donny as Joseph >That said, I must once again register my utter bewilderment over the >power that JATATD holds over LDS audiences. I like it. I think >it's campy and fun, and makes for a pleasant, lightweight evening in >the theatre. But it's just nothing special. It really baffles me; >it's a charming, fun piece of fluff. And there's absolutely nothing >wrong with fluff--please understand me. I'm very pro-fluff. I >think theatre has an absolute obligation to, first and foremost, >entertain, and Joseph Dreamcoat does that, if nothing else. But I >have to ask. Are we so starved for 'clean family entertainment' >that we'll put up with absolutely anything? As a Utah theater critic, while sitting through my seventh or eighth or ninth production of "Joseph" in the space of 2 1/2 years, I've wondered about this myself. Why does Utah love it so much? These are my theories: - - It's short. Even with intermission, it's not usually more than about 1:40 in length. This makes it very appealing to people who want to bring their kids -- and when people bring their kids, that means more tickets sold, which translates into higher profits, which translates into theaters like the Hale Center doing it over and over and over again. - - It often has children IN the production. You put a bunch of kids on stage, and you're guaranteed several dozens parents, grandparents and other relatives who will pay to come watch their little darlings several times -- and again, butts in the seats = successful show. - - It's based, however loosely, on a scriptural story, has an uplifting message, and is pretty harmless in terms of content. Again, all great reasons to make it a Family Home Evening activity and take the kids. - - Let's face it, the songs are catchy, the lyrics are often very clever, and it's just generally a really fun show to watch. I can't think of any other shows that satisfy all these requirements. If anyone else can, I'd like to hear them, and I think theater producers in Utah would like to know, too. I'm all for finding a replacement for "Joseph." (As much as I enjoy the show, I don't really feel like I need to see it anymore at this point in my life.) Any nominations, anyone? Any shows that are short, fun, uplifting, have potential for children onstage, and are appealing to entire families? Eric D. Snider - -- *************************************************** Eric D. Snider www.ericdsnider.com "Filling all your Eric D. Snider needs since 1974." - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 08:12:19 -0600 From: "ROY SCHMIDT" Subject: Re: [AML] Church Museum Book of Mormon Exhibit My wife, son and I visited the show on Saturday. It is wonderful and worth a trip to the city. I was really touched by some of the entries for countries that have not had the gospel very long. The show is beautiful, inspiring, and humbling. Roy Schmidt - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 08:18:00 -0600 From: "Thom Duncan" Subject: Re: Re:[AML] Dutcher, _GOD'S ARMY_ Daarvell asks: > Yep, small things like that bothered me, too. The volkswagen bus bothered > me. What recent missionaries have ever driven a volkswagen bus? And why > wasn't the mission president contacted from the second bus station scene? > Didn't make sense. It's called artistic license. The filmmaker playing with reality because budget and protocol don't allow for a real mission car and the use of a church for baptismal scenes. Thom Duncan - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 08:27:35 -0600 From: "Thom Duncan" Subject: Re: [AML] Re: Mormon culture and Art - ----- Original Message ----- From: D. Michael Martindale To: Sent: Monday, April 10, 2000 4:09 PM Subject: Re: [AML] Re: Mormon culture and Art > Harlow Clark: "Another way of saying this is that not only has all the > critical academic work on American literature been done within my > father's lifetime, most of it was done within his academic lifetime... > Almost all the critical work in Mormon literature has been done in my > lifetime, most of it since I graduated high school." > > Another small piece of evidence that my belief that the LDS Renaissance > is at our doorstep is true. > The LDS Rennaissance has been going on since the 60's and continues to this day. While lauding the efforts of today's LDS artists, let us not forget the pioneers in this field: Orson Scott Card who was writing LDS plays for LDS audiences while Eric Samuelsen was still in grammar school, and Carol Lynn Pearson (and let's not forget their mentors, Charles Whitman and Max Golightly). Whatever one may think of Saturday's Warrior as art, without it I'm not sure there would be any market at all for LDS musicals today. In novels, we who have published in that field owe a debt to Shirley Seely. Before her, there was no Mormon novel as such.(Prior to Seely's explosion onto the Mormon market, I attended a Deseret Book publishing seminar in which the presenter said, to explain why there were literally NO LDS novels, "Mormons don't read fiction.") And The Three D's -- the great Three D's, and their folk song versions of Mormon hymns. Without them blazing the way, there would be no such thing as LDS music today. Some of you have grown up with all the LDS pop songs, plays, and novels you want. I'm old enough to remember when there wasn't any. Thom Duncan - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] Re: Mormon culture and Art Eric wrote that he'd urge a wealthy person to "build a new hospital wing = before I'd urge him to build a theatre, and I'm a theatre guy." Hey, "the= atre guy," that was a great comment. And probably true. But the irony of = the whole thing is that if people would learn to play more, (write plays,= act, enjoy, throw themselves to rejoicing) they wouldn't need as many = hospitals. So send those plays about the women to us, Eric! We are EXCITE= D to do them! (Villa, 254 S. Main, Springville, UT 84663) - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] Re: Family and Art The "China Syndrome" scared me, Jana. Every time I see some new idea for = destruction in fiction or film I tremble, waiting for the kook who will = actually play it out. I'm afraid that example didn't do it for me. I do = agree with you about the "gift of prophecy." It's helpful for artists to = "have." An interesting discussion! How does it relate to our idea of "pro= phecy" in the doctrine of the church? Marilyn - ---------- > Ummm....good questions Marilyn....ummmm. Yes, a dearth in all the > arts (I think I stated that, but I ramble so you know it's my > stream of consciousness don't you know so it's hard to keep track > of my darting thoughts.) Of course the passing glory of the Arts > is old news too. Didn't William Wordsworth say the same in one > of his odes? As far as the prophecy thing, well sure! Isn't the > art of poetry always mixed with a certain gift of prophecy? > > Artistic people seem to have that knack, even some in Hollywood > (The China Syndrome is all that comes to mind right now.) It's > probably more intuition than prophecy, though. Intuition is more > relegated to the Secular sector, whereas Prophecy is something > more directly associated with communication with God. That's old > news too. > > Read the Boorstin book.....that will give you a shortcut to my > stream of consciousness. Some might think I'm only touting the > philosophy of the Romantic Genre of Lit, which IS my favorite. > But I think all great artists, no matter what the genre, were > forward-looking, bending the rules, creating the ideal, looking > for hope, etc., etc. > > Jana Pawlowski > > - > AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature > http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm > - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 17:39:56 -0500 From: Kent Larsen Subject: [AML] MN Dialogue Starts Website, Resumes Publication: Kent Larsen 11Apr00 Dialogue Starts Website, Resumes Publication Kent Larsen 11Apr00 A4 SHAKER HEIGHTS, OHIO -- The LDS Journal Dialogue is now represented on the Internet, and has resumed publication following a recent move to Ohio. The well-known LDS Journal, founded in 1966 by a group that included LDS author and former BYU professor Eugene England and now LDS Apostle Dallin Oaks, is using the web to let the public know more about it and preview the table of contents of current issues. The website is located at http://www.dialoguejournal.com/ also includes information about coming issues, submission guidelines, contact information for the editors and information about subscribing and getting copies of past issues. On-line subscribing isn't yet available. Dialogue's publication was delayed last year when the editors, Neal and Rebecca Chandler moved to Shaker Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland and Kirtland. Since the move, the Chandlers have managed to publish both the Spring and Summer 1999 issues, and say that the Fall 1999 issue will be mailed soon. They say that they anticipate catching-up soon and without any sacrifice of quality. The upcoming Fall 1999 issue is particularly noteworthy, since it has been guest-edited by BYU professors Gideon Burton and Neal Kramer, who are also on the board of the Association for Mormon Letters. The issue is devoted to creative works by LDS authors and critical perspectives on Mormon literature. Dialogue joins BYU Studies as the only academic journals that cover Mormonism on the World Wide Web. Sunstone is not yet on the web. Few other print magazines devoted to Mormonism can be found on the Web. The nascent Latter-day Sports has been on the web since its inception, and the now defunct This People magazine also had a website. The LDS Church's Church Magazines, the Ensign, New Era and Friend, are also not on the web. From Mormon-News: Mormon News and Events Forwarding is permitted as long as this footer is included Mormon News items may not be posted to the World Wide Web sites without permission. Please link to our pages instead. For more information see http://www.MormonsToday.com/ Send join and remove commands to: majordomo@MormonsToday.com Put appropriate commands in body of the message: To join: subscribe mormon-news To leave: unsubscribe mormon-news To join digest: subscribe mormon-news-digest - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] SNOW, _Of Curious Workmanship_ (Review) Yea! This is great. I think we should definitely pry open our wallets and= purses! Our own Edgar Snow on this list is doing well! Okay, folks. This= is the time when we actually SHOW that we CARE about Mormons and literat= ure! We BUY! I'm going to. This was a stirring review and piqued my inter= est! Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 09:59:48 -0700 From: "Christopher Bigelow" Subject: [AML] DUTCHER, _God's Army_ I wanted to weigh in with just a couple of comments on this movie, which = is still playing on two screens and selling out some nights in the movie = theater behind my home in Provo. There's even a kiosk in front of the = theater selling _God's Army_ paraphenalia. Overall I quite liked the movie and felt very happy and grateful to have = such a phenomenon in Mormon culture. But I would have to say I liked the = first half much better than the second.=20 I remember at one point thinking, My gosh, I don't think this movie is = going to try to pull anything like that scene I hated during my mission = from the Church film 'Heavenly Father's Plan' where the guy is standing by = a river and nodding cheesily up at heaven as he receives who knows what = kind of special spiritual feeling inside. But indeed, we did get to that point and worse in _God's Army_. I felt = that the first half of the film was intended to both disarm us and gain = our trust, break us out of our skepticism about unrealistic Church = propaganda. But then we get into total melodrama in the last third, with = the conversion, healing, and death. I'm sorry, I thought those elements = were quite excessive and over the top. In retrospect, the first half of = quirky portrayal of missionary life seemed disingenuous to me, sort of = like sugar to prepare us for the medicine of the last third, which I still = found gagging me. I don't think the movie should have avoided anything it went into, but for = my dry spiritual tastes it should have reduced the spiritual melodrama of = that last third by at least half. But maybe the filmmaker felt he had to = hit people over the head with faith-affirming spiritual stuff to atone for = the liberties he took in depicting missionary life. Actually, I could almost buy the main character's pacing in the kitchen = all night as he struggles to gain his testimony, but the last shot of him = kneeling and getting his answer was that 'Heavenly Father's Plan' moment = that rang false to me. I would have rather seen the process take a bit = longer and his clicking with the gospel come in a less simplistic way, = such as while teaching an investigator or brushing his teeth or some other = quirky, unexpected trigger. On the healing, I don't deny that such a thing could take place, but I = think it would have been more subtle and gradual. Both miraculous healings = I've personally been involved with took overnight at least before any sign = of healing manifested and still involved continued medical struggle. I = would have been much more satisfied just to see the guy take a turn for = the better and begin to make progress toward walking. Maybe Jesus and = Joseph could cause such instantaneous, dramatic healings, but I don't = think the rest of us have quite that power.=20 With the conversion and healing, the Lord's hand felt forced for dramatic = effect, with the spiritual results coming just when they would be hoped = for and expected--but that's not what happens in real life. I'm not even going to comment on the death except to say, Oh, brother. = Yeah I could buy he has a health problem and sacrificed to go on a = mission, but come on. I actually liked the ending device of telling us what happened to = everybody. It was a return to the tone of the first half, and it was a big = relief for me after the last third's gunk. That's my take on it, anyway. A great step in the right direction, but = much more restraint needed in that overdone last third with the conversion,= healing, and death. I didn't buy it, and I personally would have handled = it much differently. [. . .] Chris Bigelow * * * * * * Interested in novels, stories, plays, and films about Mormons? Check out = IRREANTUM magazine at www.xmission.com/~aml/irreantum.htm. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 09:59:48 -0700 From: "Christopher Bigelow" Subject: [AML] LABUTE, _The Danish Girl_ [MOD: This paragraph was originally part of Chris's _God's Army_ post.] On another movie-related topic, I saw the following item in Entertainment = Weekly:=20 WINNER OF THE WEEK: 'The Danish Girl' Not only has David Ebershoff's novel earned a gaggle of good reviews but = _In the Company of Men_'s Neil LaBute will write and direct the film = version. Chris Bigelow * * * * * * Interested in novels, stories, plays, and films about Mormons? Check out = IRREANTUM magazine at www.xmission.com/~aml/irreantum.htm. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 13:05:59 -0500 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: [AML] COLLINGS, _In the Image of God_ (was: Mormon culture and Art) In response to Harlow's reference: >"Michael R. Collings books on OSC, including, _In the Image of God: >Theme, Characterization, and Landscape in the Fiction of Orson Scott >Card_..." D. Michael asked: >Anyone know where Collings' writings are available? Not that I've >searched hard, but I haven't noticed them anywhere in passing. To which I reply: this particular title was published by Greenwood Press in hardback for about $40--not an atypical price for a small-run academic study, which this one is. Your best bet for finding it is to check a university library (I know BYU has a copy or two). I wrote a review of this book for _BYU Studies_ that was published in Issue 32 number 4 (Fall 1992), and later republished here over AML-List. I assume it's in the book review archive, though I haven't checked to make sure. Collings has also written several other critical studies of science fiction/fantasy/horror authors, including, if I recall correctly, Dean Koontz and Stephen King. He's LDS himself and teaches creative writing at Pepperdine. Perhaps most significantly, he's a notable poet who's been publishing since at least the early 1970s. His _Taliesin: A Cycle of Poems_, in which he writes in praise of the life of Joseph Smith in Arthurian terms, won rave reviews on the List here from Lee Allred and others. (As is so often the case with poetry, it's very hard locating copies of his work; you may need to contact him directly for some of his collections.) Jonathan Langford P.S. Every now and then, we've created bibliographies both of the works of individual authors and of specific genres within Mormon literature--or posted links to others, such as those by Marny Parkin for LDS science fiction and fantasy. Are those bibliographies or links to them available on the AML pages? If not, perhaps we should put them up there--a great service we could render (making us even more "the hub" for matters of Mormon letters). jlangfor@pressenter.com [MOD: Taliesin used to be available on the Web. Maybe Lee or Marny or someone could post a URL. The trouble with the AML web pages right now is no one is directly responsible for content. I headed up an ersatz committee to move what we had to XMission (see www.xmission.com/~aml), and Rob Pannoni chiped in with a nice new design (not fully implemented due to lack of time on all of our parts). But I'm just not in a position to verify and add links and street addresses, and several pages badly need updating. I'd appreciate it if any of you would go through and check the other links and report back with additions and corrections. I'd also appreciate any more ongoing volunteers to take on this side of things. (We recently had a volunteer offer to take on the review archive, for which I'm deeply grateful.) One other priority is to come up with a format for these second-level pages. Jonathan's idea of creating bibliographies from our old posts and of linking to existing ones on the web is excellent.] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 10:09:24 -0700 From: "Casey and MaryJan Munger" Subject: [AML] Mormon Culture and Art Why cast all the way back to the Renaissance to look for some guideposts to measure the progress of Mormon art? A much closer (in socio-economic structures and societal attitudes) analogue is the birth and maturation of American art. There was no national writing until well into the 18th century--this despite a couple of centuries of people born and bred on American soil, despite even 100 years of independence from European powers. It was only until nearly the Civil War with Hawthorne and Melville, Dickinson and Whitman that we have artists of more than provincial merit. Before that we have Anne Bradstreet's poetry (who has moments of grace) and Wigglesworth and the sermons of Cotton Mather et al. And regional writers like Sarah Orne Jewett. But even when Hawthorne & Co. were writing most Americans read comfortable little domestic verse or novels of polite sentiment (if they were run-of-the-mill respectable Americans) or--if they were aesthetes--they pooh-poohed any idea of American letters, preferring to have books shipped in from England (Dickens, George Eliot, the Romantic poets). Even while Henry James and Edith Wharton were writing, real art was largely seen as a luxury import from France, Italy and England and so it continued up until after the World Wars--up until then most American artists of any merit were perceived as expatriates (think T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, H.D., Amy Lowell, e.e. cummings). And all this time you could find critics bemoaning the stillbirth of American letters. And crying out for a patronage system like what was found in Europe. And then one morning someone looked around and noticed that hey! despite the vacuous materialism of American culture and the bourgeois democratic market-mentality somehow we'd managed to produce a remarkable body of work. Of course analogies are not prophecies and it's not as if it is our scripted fate to progress from stage to stage following either the American or the European Reanaissance. But why waste time saying the whole idea of Mormon art is impossible? It's already been started. May Swenson has written her poems already. Virginia Sorenson has already written her stories. Already we have the writings of Levi Peterson and poems by Lance Larsen and Lisa Bickmore, plays by Tim Slover and Eric Samulesen. We already have Orson Scott Card and Margaret Young. And I'm leaving out scores of other writers I myself have read and consider of real merit. We have what I consider the third-best novel I've read anywhere in the past five years (and I read more than I should)--_Tabernacle Bar_ by Susan Palmer (#1: _Oscar and Lucinda_ by the Australian Peter Carey, #2: _dazzle of day_ by Oregonian Molly Gloss) of which I have heard surprising little discussion--have none of you read this? This is not silly optimism. This is bare-bone realism. I'm not saying we've arrived. Any more than the lyrics Wyatt wrote in admiration of the Italian sonnet were as marvelous as Shakespeare's were going to be. But the ascent is on and I don't want to fritter away my time moaning over the steepness and the rocks that each individual writer is going to have to gird themselves up and get over some time or other anyway. Rob Pannoni said, "I live in a very conservative ward, so perhaps my experience is biased. But I don't find many ward members reading boundary-stretching, thought-provoking mainstream literature either. The comment I hear most frequently is that ward members choose to read works by authors who they know won't offend them. I believe that's a perfectly legitimate choice. It just isn't going to create a thriving market for world class art." I say, So? Most people in the *world* aren't reading boundary-stretching, thought-provoking literature either--let alone most Americans. The question is, are we? It is almost a stereotype that the most pessimistic "critics" of Mormon letters almost always let slip the disclaimer, "But then I haven't read much Mormon literature." (I suppose because they assume it's not worth their time). It's as if they once read a Jack Weyland novel and saw Saturday Night's Warrior and read some poems by Carol Lynn Pearson and think they know what they are referring to when they say "Mormon literature." Robert Pannoni again: "Thankfully, there are a few brave souls like Eric and Marvin who manage to create interesting work within a framework the church and the university can tolerate (at least so far). But the compromises are heavy and the question of "acceptability" is always in the background. Imagine what they might create if they were un-handcuffed." Almost all great works have arisen from under oppression (perceived or real). I think artists like to have something to rage against. The rage itself isn't particularly aesthetic or clever--that comes from the pressure to make what they want to say heard and visible and inherently delightful and irresistible to a "hostile" populace. Rage is the coal and the need to express is what forces out diamonds. I am afraid "un-handcuffed" art would be very boring--where's the risk? what's at stake? Might as well just trade comments about the weather. No, art is seduction not some protected or even privileged form of everyday expression. Okay, off the soap box. Just one more thought. Jana P. wrote a while back: "What I like about the great artists, is that they are on the cutting edges of these cycles or even ahead, not yesterday's news. That is what is exhilirating to read in good writing. Not just the style, but HEY, they Know stuff ahead of time. I guess that's why I'm reluctant to write in this forum (LDS) at this time, because I think there's this lag-time between the saints and the rest of the world." I think it would be a mistake to assume that obscurity or the lack of sophisticated polish of your neighbors and wardmembers means that whatever you write is going to be "backward" or that any thoughts coming out of that community are going to suffer from a 5 to 10 year lag. (After all, what is new, really? Is there any thought anyone has had recently that hasn't been written down already by the ancient Sumerians?) I recently re-read the bio of the Brontes by Rebecca Fraser. Talk about a family of people living in the past, in a backward religion and an obscure hinterland. And yet the one thing I came away from this time is that Charlotte and Emily could never have been as revolutionary and as shocking as they were to London society if they had been part of the up-to-date "modernism" with its own contemporary brand of political correctness. I agree wholeheartedly that real poets are prophetic but I think the lag, the sagging into worn-out platitudes, comes more from trying to please whatever orthodoxy surrounds you (secular as much as any other) instead of writing what you know in your bones to be true. Skip Hamilton's comment is particularly apt in this respect: "That is one aspect of our artistic practice which places a little more serious contemplation on the work we do. We do not just tell stories about, our "only" human lives. We, as writers, are dealing with ordinances and priesthood power, and we, as writers, hold that priesthood power. We perform those ordinances with an acknowledgment in our performance of that ordinance that we in actuality are speaking for our Father in Heaven and his Son. When does our artistic work make common that which is sacred?" Do I miss Skip's point because unlike him I do *not* hold that power--though it is as sacred and as peculiarly mine as I believe it is to anyone? Artistic work is uncommon enough that I do not think it *can* make what it touches common. I believe that, rather than discouraging us, realizing our role as priests and priestesses makes more explicit for us what the task of all artists has been. It would be a mistake to think that Chaucer wrote "against" the church or that Milton wrote to express himself or that Michaelangelo painted to please his own whim. All artists of real worth subsume themselves to the demands of Truth as they most intimately perceive it and then have to try to show these truest faces to the homely, familial people around them, who say what the people say in Wallace Stevens' poem, "The Man with the Blue Guitar (I), inspired I believe by a painting by Picasso: The man bent over his guitar, A shearsman of sorts. The day was green. They said, "You have a blue guitar, You do not play things as they are." The man replied, "Things as they are Are changed upon the blue guitar." And they said then, "But play, you must, A tune beyond us, yet ourselves, A tune upon the blue guitar Of things exactly as they are." You asked, Marilyn, if I am writing. I am because I don't know how not to. Not necessarily is it any good of course. I'm in the middle of a new thing and it is giving me fits which is why I am spending my writing time today mouthing off instead of working. Motherhood, like anything worthwhile, is always demanding and my life as always is messy but I've never found the thing yet to cure me of my scriptophilia. Maybe I have just been blessed with the ability to ignore almost as many inessential things as all the necessary things I believe, hope and hope to be able to endure. MaryJan Munger - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 12:40:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Stacy Burton Subject: Re: [AML] SNOW, _Of Curious Workmanship_ (Review) > named "Edgar" (according to Amazon.com, there was another "Edgar Snow" in > the 1940's who wrote a book titled "Red Star Over China" Edgar Snow, a journalist, was an important figure in U.S.--China relationships from the 1930s through his death (in about 1972). _Red Star Over China_ is one of the most thorough accounts of the 1930s Communist revolution, written by a sympathetic observer who spent much time in China. It was a bestseller in the U.S., and Snow was at times a government consultant on China matters later in his life. (For those interested in Mormon trivia, Snow's first wife, Helen Foster Snow, grew up with a Mormon background in Utah. She went to China in the early 1930s, a secretary who hoped to become a journalist. There she was involved in workers' movements, met and married Edgar Snow, and began an extensive writing career [often using the psudonym Nym Wales]. Both--particularly Edgar Snow--are mentioned in many Western accounts of the revolution and are respected in China for their historical role. In the 1990s, the LDS Church started sending retired couples to China to teach English at colleges and schools. Late in the decade, it played a significant if not primary role in establishing a private school in Xi'an--with some of the teachers being retired LDS couples--named after Helen Foster Snow.) In the last week or two, the AP reported that Snow's widow, his second wife Lois, recently travelled to Beijing, where half of her husband's ashes are interred on the grounds of Beijing University, for the first time in over a decade (she had not wanted to be seen as supporting the crackdown on intellectual freedom). During or following her visit, she announced that if the current crackdown on intellectuals continues, she will ask that his ashes be returned. Stacy Burton - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #10 ***************************** - AML-List Digest - http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm