From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #30 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Wednesday, May 3 2000 Volume 01 : Number 030 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 14:00:20 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: [AML] DUTCHER, _God's Army_ The LA Times gives a favorable review to _God's Army_, which opened there this last Friday. http://www.calendarlive.com/calendarlive/movies/sneak/20000428/t000000007.html Thom - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 13:25:57 -0700 From: owner-aml-list@lists.xmission.com Subject: [AML] Bela Petsco (was "And the Deseret Will Blossom" by Valerie Holladay) 4-11,18-22,25-29,35-38,46-48,50-54,62-63,72,74-75,79-81,83-88,90-94,100-101, 104-106 X-Juno-Att: 0 X-Juno-RefParts: 0 From: harlowclark@juno.com Sender: owner-aml-list@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: aml-list On Tue, 18 Apr 2000 AML-List ran an excerpt from Valerie Holladay's "And the Deseret Will Blossom." I read the whole article on the web, http://www.harvestmagazine.com, and found it engaging. I was especially moved by the part about Valerie's mother's manic-depression. I would love to see that expanded into an essay or even a novel. A couple of comments on Bela Petsco. > "It's been banned in parts of Utah, I hear," he said persuasively. > Whether or not that was true, he had my attention. That night I saw > Bla Petsco's Nothing Very Important The web version, of course, puts an acute accent over the e in Bela's name, which got stripped out here. I've noticed that a lot in visiting webpages. Text that got imported onto the webpage as ascii text loses things like em-dashes and accented letters and curly quotes, so it's common to see two words run together where there should be some kind of punctuation. This is an interesting problem for someone doing web-based publishing. > (the only night it played on campus, I understand, before it was > relocated). We played on campus two or three nights. The performance at Orem Public Library was by Dennis Clark's invitation, and I think we played on campus one or two nights after that. > I was amazed that someone had captured the essence of my > mission so completely, so painfully. I went away purged. A lot of people have said this. Bela got a letter from someone who had, I think, been inactive for several years after his mission, and finally felt someone understood him. Bela still gets letters from people looking for copies of NVI. He told me he is thinking about putting the book on a webpage. Maybe (as in I hope, I hope) he'll also post "The Blackness of the Darkness." > Petsco's short stories about Magyar's disillusionment with his This is the second time I've seen the character called Magyar. His name is Mihaly (Me-high) Agyar. I think I know why people call him Magyar, though. When Bela finished his thesis the master's committee wanted one more story, an introduction of sorts, so he wrote "The Impressionist." Agyar's artist friend Chaim comes by for lunch one day and looks at a painting Agyar has just finished, a largely green piece called "The First." "Your work is expressive, yet you are an impressionist at heart" (3). Later, he presses Agyar on his style, >>>>> "Well, think about it. Think why an impressionist turns out expressionistic paintings." "Let's just drop it," Agyar said, softly (4). <<<<< Agyar's reluctance to discuss his style suggests to me that he's not only expressing his impressions of the First Vision--Chaim recognizes it as a religious painting--but expressing something about his dead wife as well. But mainly, the story serves to introduce an older man who is going on a mission. It has the classic line, "My bishop is against it. He says I'm too old and . . . and he feels converts don't belong on missions. To quote him, 'Missions are for boys from Bountiful, Provo and St. George'" (4). As for the name _Magyar_, at the bottom of page 1 Bela shows Agyar's signature on the painting, M. Agyar. It's a wonderful joke. Agyar's family is from Hungary, and any beginning stamp collector will have several stamps saying Magyar Posta, and recognize Magyar as the name of the country issuing the stamp. I mentioned this to Bela and he said an agyar (he pronounced it ugyar, though he uses the a sound in cat for the character's name) is a little boar that's always poking it's nose into everything. Mihaly is the archangel, a kind of celestial agyar, the one who asks us about our lives. "Come clean. Remember everybody tells Mikey everything" (2) he says when Chaim says something to suggest that he's started a new affair. Later, in the middle of the book, in "A Singular Woman," Agyar and his companion Weldon (the good and faithful servant) go for a walk on the beach with member who has invited them over for dinner. Agyar has admired a painting she's done of her roommate, and gives her some compliments. >>>>> After a while he said, "Would you mind my asking a rather personal question?" "It all depends on the question," she said. "True. Well ... how is it that you are not married?" She paused. "That is a personal question. Do you always ask such questions?" "Yes. If I don't ask questions I would never get any answers" (126-7). <<<<< She tells him. She's dedicated, like he is, to a lost love, that's why she's a singular woman. When we were doing the play Bela made an interesting comment about Sr. Richards, "This is the woman Agyar would marry if he could." And, indeed the story carries a poignant sense that Agyar would like something to develop here, perhaps she would as well, but nothing can. I wish Bela would rewrite Salem again (the novel about Agyar's wife that he keeps writing and destroying) and publish it, then write the third novel. His silence is very poignant to me. Harlow S. Clark ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 17:11:13 -0400 From: Shawn Ambrose Subject: RE: [AML] CARD, _Ender's Game_ Has Orson Scott Card written the screenplay of _Ender's Game_ himself? If you've read the novelization of _The Phantom Menace_, by Terry Brooks, you'll see that _The Phantom Menace_ would have made a terrific three or even four hour movie. It tries to cover too much ground in two hours; the cutting is atrocious! At least if OSC writes the screenplay himself he can choose which events to include and which are, in the end, extraneous. Melinda Ambrose - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 11:08:10 -1000 From: Randall Larsen Subject: [AML] _The Book of Life_ (movie) Listmembers: Here's a URL for audio streaming clips of 1998 Hal Hartley film The Book of Life a twisted version of the ancient drama of Satan against Man. http://www.best.com/~drumz/Hartley/Sounds/tbol.html First play "God's lawyer prepares to fly the coop" in real audio Then click on all the clips in streaming mode. The premise of the Film is that Jesus comes back to New York on New Years eve 1999. What strikes me about the Book of Life is its humanist perspective projected on to Jesus. Obviously the real Jesus was not a humanist, Jesus does claim the inheritance irrespective of competing claims. The humanists would like us to think that all paths are the same--that all paths lead to heaven. No need to find the strait and narrow way. Well LDS think differently--though the world hates us for it. If you listened to the clip of "god's lawyer flying the coup," you realize why no humanist wants to seriously take on the Mormons. I think the film inadvertently tells us what is wrong with the liberal humanist perspective. The film of course is not the first artistic work to dramatize the confrontation between Satan and Man. According to H Nibley, in the Magic Flute "a priest leads Prince Taminoto to his trials. the opera portrays several motifs familiar to Latter-day saints audiences, such as temple instruction concerining the meaning of life and initiation to become like the gods." See "A House of Glory" in Temples of the Ancient world p. 38. Nibley also notes that the story of Faust is mildly reminiscent of the endowment. See page 398 of Temple and Cosmos. The recent Keanu Reeves' movie about a Lawyer who was fathered by Satan also comes to mind. One of my friends a french director also made a film about the temptation of Adam and Eve. I arranged for the director to meet with my former employer Orson Welles. Orson was asked to play either God or Satan. Unfortunately, Mr. Welles died before the film began production. I am amazed how the garden story continues to fascinate us. Has anyone see The Book of Life? Theres an interesting NY times review posted at: http://www.best.com/~drumz/Hartley/Reviews/nyt-tbol.html The hopelessness of the Humanist position is talked about in H. Nibley's "The Terrible Questions" Temple and Cosmos p. 336 and in Three Shrines: Mantic, Sophic, Sophistic. The Ancient State p. 311 Some Notes on Sophic and Mantic p. 380. I found Henri Frankfort's Before Philosophy: The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man a disturbing example of the Sophic and Sophistic thinking that Nibley condemns. An author in this book praises the Jewish sages for inventing monotheism--its just too bad he can't credit those same sages with discovering that there isn't a god after all. Well The Book of Life comes full circle as I said in projecting a Humanist perspective and a Humanist agenda on Jesus. The film if read between the lines represents an illuminating falsehood. with apologies to Carl Sagan and other sincere humanists who have made a great contribution to our lives, Randall Larsen - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 01:18:58 -0600 From: Kathleen Woodbury Subject: Re: [AML] Julie KIRK (was Tooting my own horn) At , Marilyn & William Brown wrote: >This is great, Julie. Thank you SO MUCH! Exactly what I hoped you'd do. Now I am so jealous of people in California because I want to be there to see it happen! Sincerely, Marilyn Brown What Marilyn said. (Any chance a doodler here in Salt Lake could get some training in street painting and maybe even participate in such a festival here?) Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury workshop@burgoyne.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 01:17:34 -0600 From: Kathleen Woodbury Subject: Re: [AML] CARD, _Ender's Game_ At 10:18 AM 5/2/00 -0600, Thom Duncan wrote: >If they get any director with any clout (a good idea), Card >will more than likely NOT have veto power of any kind and will have to >settle for what the director thinks is appropriate. I heard, when they were filming THE STAND here in Salt Lake, that Stephen King was barred from the sets. If Stephen King didn't have any say.... Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury workshop@burgoyne.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 19:14:14 -0600 From: "J. Scott Bronson" Subject: Re: [AML] CARD, _Ender's Game_ > I heard, when they were filming THE STAND here in Salt Lake, that > Stephen King was barred from the sets. > > If Stephen King didn't have any say.... > > Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury You heard wrong. He wrote it. He acted in it. He was one of the producers. I was in it too. I saw him there. Sat next to him at lunch. He wasn't barred. Wonder who started that rumor ... But, as for Ender's Game. I think Thom is right ... unless Scott foots the bill himself, ain't no studio gonna let him have creative control. No way. J. Scott Bronson--The Scotted Line "World peace begins in my home" - -------------------------------------------------------- We are not the acolytes of an abstruse god. We are here to entertain--Keith Lockhart - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 18:47:50 -0700 From: Julie Kirk Subject: Re: [AML] Julie KIRK (was Tooting my own horn) Hmm...I don't know of a festival in Utah, but it wouldn't be impossible to get one started, and I would think you could certainly work out doing a piece at an art festival or just doing one on the street! I'd had a conversation with the MOA at BYU a couple years ago about doing an exhibit there, and they were interested, but I never got to sending them the proposal, etc. as I had no idea how to even begin to write one (suggestions are appreciated, btw)...might get around to that ometime soon though, as I've always wanted to do a painting of my own design from the Book Of Mormon, but felt it was kind of disrespectful doing that at a festival sponsored by the Catholic Mission. I'm more than happy to give you more info on techniques, etc (probably private mail would be better than crossing the list with it), and open to any ideas if you want to find out about participating in one of the festivals out here, or if I can help you whenever I am out that direction (usually a few times a year to visit family and so on) If you have any specific questions or things I can help with, feel free to ask! julie [Kirk] > >(Any chance a doodler here in Salt Lake could get some training in street >painting and maybe even participate in such a festival here?) > >Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury >workshop@burgoyne.com > > > > >- >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, 02 May 2000 21:36:13 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] CARD, _Ender's Game_ Kathleen Woodbury: And I wonder what universe ... On the last page of our May 2000 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC there is a photo of Jane Goodall and a chimpanzee. ... TWILIGHT ZONE time? _______________ It's on the other side of the piece of paper that Jane and the chimpanzee are printed on, which, you are correct, is the last page, as opposed to inside the back cover, which was what I was trying to distinguish from, and not very good at all. (Whew -- what a mess that sentence was!) So, it would be on the next to the last page, or the front of the last page, or something. Since this part of the magazine is page number challenged, I had originally thought of counting from page 124, the last one with a number on it. That would make the boat on p. 137, the chimp on p. 138, and then the IBC (inside back cover). And I guess I should read the book. Larry Jackson ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 05:07:23 -0600 From: Kathleen Woodbury Subject: RE: [AML] CARD, _Ender's Game_ At 05:11 PM 5/2/00 -0400, Shawn Ambrose wrote: >Has Orson Scott Card written the screenplay of _Ender's Game_ himself? If >you've read the novelization of _The Phantom Menace_, by Terry Brooks, >you'll see that _The Phantom Menace_ would have made a terrific three or >even four hour movie. It tries to cover too much ground in two hours; the >cutting is atrocious! At least if OSC writes the screenplay himself he can >choose which events to include and which are, in the end, extraneous. Hmm. Well as I understand it, the director can choose which events in the screenplay to include and which are, in the director's opinion, extraneous. So even if he has written the screenplay, he doesn't necessarily have input--writers tend to be at the bottom of the food chain in moviemaking. Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury workshop@burgoyne.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 01:31:36 EDT From: CDoug91957@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Comments? (Reading the Scriptures) In a message dated 00-05-02 14:43:52 EDT, you write: << [MOD: Again, I don't want to cut off discussion on this thread, but simply encourage anyone posting on these issues to focus on the literary dimension of scripture and prophecy, as opposed to doctrinal questions.] >> Let me come at this from another direction. The scriptures given through Joseph Smith are the fountainhead of Mormon literature. They stand in the same relation to anything that can be called Mormon literature as the Iliad and the Odyssey Stand to Greek and thus to Western literature, or that the Pentateuch stands to anything that can be called Hebrew literature, or that the Bible as a whole stands to Western literature. The call for a Mormon literature has always been rather silly, because there has been one since 1830. We don't usually speak of the scriptures of the Restoration in that way, for, I think, several reasons. One is the narrowing of the definition of literature since early in twentieth century. "Literature" no longer includes sacred texts, history, philosophy, state papers, biography, etc., but is used to denote only belle lettre, or "imaginative" writing--secular verse, prose fiction, drama. I don't know just how or why that narrowing happened, but I suspect it was connected with the replacement of religion by art as a source of values by the Western intellectual elite. The Mormon literati has been educated in colleges and universities shaped by that elite and has accepted that narrow view pretty much unquestioningly. This is a major mistake. Understanding the Western literary tradition requires a knowledge of Homer and the Bible. (Northrop Frye recognized the centrality of the Bible and wrote a fine book--The Great Code--to help correct his students' ignorance of it.) Likewise, understanding the Mormon literary tradition requires a knowledge of the works of Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon is the Everest in relation to which stands the interesting molehill The Backslider. (I do not speak disparagingly of The Backslider; this is merely a matter of proportion.) But we pretend (most of us) that the Book of Mormon is not there, as a work of literature. By rights, the Book of Mormon and other works of Joseph Smith should be receiving the greater portion of our critical attention, and the kind of attention that Northrop Frye and others, such as Robert Alter, have given the Bible. Why do they not receive that attention? There is the reason I have already mentioned--the excessive narrowing of the definition of "literature." Then there is the general ignorance among the nonliterati, who include most of the membership of the Church, including most of its most influential figures, of the methods of literary analysis and their lack of interest in learning them, and possibly their reluctance to deal with the ambiguities that such analysis inevitably reveals. Then there is, perhaps, reluctance on the part of--I'm looking for the right way to say this--the more manticly inclined?--literati to take what they perceive as certain risks involved in revealing ambiguities. Also, maybe, it's easier for the larger Mormon literary community, with all its varieties of citizens, to find common ground for conversation in the more peripheral literature of Mormonism. Whatever are the reasons for not giving serious, critical, literary attention to the scriptures, and a lot of it, we need to do differently. To do differently we need to establish a method (or methods) for such study with which students of Mormon literature who hold vastly varying degrees of faith in the religious message are comfortable. This is pretty elementary, but it seems to me that the question of authorship is a good place to start. People who assume that the scriptures are authored directly by God, and people who assume that they are human artifacts created by people who claim experience with God as their material, will approach the "words on the page" differently, will deal differently with a multiplicity of types of ambiguity. I assume the latter, though I also am a believer in the prophetic mission of Joseph Smith. Now, it seems to me that the literary and the doctrinal intersect at this point. Is my premise--that the scriptures can be treated as, because they are, human artifacts--tenable for a believer in the prophetic mission of Joseph Smith? And if it is, does it create ground on which believers and nonbelievers can meet for productive conversation? (Or do I have my shorts in a knot over nothing important?) [Colin Douglas] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 03 May 2000 09:54:04 -0400 From: "Eric D. Dixon" Subject: Re: [AML] _The Book of Life_ (movie) Randall Larsen wrote: >Here's a URL for audio streaming clips of 1998 Hal Hartley film The Book of >Life [...] >The humanists would like us to think that all paths are the same--that all >paths lead to heaven. >No need to find the strait and narrow way. Well LDS think >differently--though the world hates us for it. I actually belong to a mailing list for discussion of Hal Hartley's films, so I was a little startled to to see the line "Well LDS think differently" in this post -- without really paying attention to the subject line, I just assumed this message was coming from the Hartley list... 8^) Although _The Book of Life_ presents a fascinating "what if" scenario of Christ returning to earth on the last day of 1999 to begin Armageddon (he wears a business suit & The Book of Life is an Apple PowerBook, which displays little dialogue boxes like "Are you sure you want to open the fifth seal?"), the movie (can't really call it a "film" since it was shot on digital video) is interesting to Mormons for another reason. At one point, Jesus (the always-excellent Martin Donovan) is visiting God's lawyer, explaining that he doesn't want Armageddon to commence after all, that he'd rather be merciful and let humanity continue to thrive, despite the evil that continues to live and grow in the world. Suddenly the lawyer's secretary calls over the intercom, saying in a frantic voice "The Mormons are here!" The lawyer looks dismayed, and pulls a gun out of his desk. As the lawyer leaves the room, Jesus says, "Who are the Mormons?" Then it cuts to a scene with a couple of guys in white shirts and ties shooting up the place, with the lawyer and his secretary returning fire (the intruding Mormons are listed at imdb.com as "Mormon Thug #1 and Mormon Thug #2). No one ever explains why a couple of gun-toting Mormons would be trying to kill God's lawyer, and there's no real doctrinal comment on Mormonism other than Jesus not knowing who we are, but it was still a chuckleworthy scene. All in all, it was a fascinating look at how a Christ figure might be conflicted over his father's calls for justice and his own inclination toward mercy, at least according to this simultaneously traditional/speculative Christian theology. It also portrays the devil in an interesting way -- he's depressed that he hasn't been able to attract more decent people to his side, and that he'll have to spend eternity with the dregs of humanity. _The Book of Life_ has been shown mostly at film festivals and limited-run screenings as part of the "2000 As Seen By..." series (I finally managed to see it just before Christmas, 1999, in Portland, OR), and it's not available on video yet. But it does show a few times a month on the Sundance channel right now, for those of you with satellite dishes or digital cable. I had a friend tape my copy. You can find out more about the movie at the unofficial Hal Hartley home page, here: http://www.best.com/~drumz/Hartley/Films/tbol.html Eric D. Dixon "What a lot of trouble to prove in political economy that two and two make four; and if you succeed in doing so, people cry, 'It is so clear that it is boring.' Then they vote as if you had never proved anything at all." -- Frederic Bastiat - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 00:08:32 -0600 From: "Richard R. Hopkins" Subject: Re: [AML] Comments? (Reading the Scriptures) - -----Original Message----- From: CDoug91957@aol.com To: aml-list@lists.xmission.com Date: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 9:16 AM Subject: Re: [AML] Comments? (Reading the Scriptures) (snip) > Here are a few rules I think I might want to add to the list. (snip) >Colin Douglas >cdoug91957@aol.com Trying to stay within the topic for the List, I appreciate Colin's comments about my book and his discussion of the rules of hermeneutics. It is also interesting to note that the scriptures do not contain any effort by the Lord to correct prevailing mistaken notions about science. For example, the long time assumption of the people living in the Mediterranean area was that the world is flat. Such expressions as going to "the four corners of the world," a common expression in scripture, among others, are references to the assumption of a flat world. It is interesting, I think, to note therefore another rule that might be added to the list, namely that, in interpreting scripture, we must also take into account the misapprehensions common to the people of the time. Richard Hopkins - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 03 May 2000 09:04:13 -0400 From: Richard Johnson Subject: Re: [AML] Julie KIRK (was Tooting my own horn) > >I'm more than happy to give you more info on techniques, etc (probably >private mail would be better than crossing the list with it), and open to >any ideas if you want to find out about participating in one of the >festivals out here, or if I can help you whenever I am out that direction >(usually a few times a year to visit family and so on) > >If you have any specific questions or things I can help with, feel free to >ask! > >julie [Kirk] Julie: I hope you don't mind, but we (at Georgia Southern University-Southern Georgia) have a Youth Arts Festival in March or April every year, and I submitted your name and web page to the Festival Director. He usually consults with me about Puppet Companies to bring in- - - we'll see if he considers my recommendation about street art. Richard B. Johnson Husband, Father, Grandfather, Puppeteer, Playwright, Writer, Director, Actor, Thingmaker, Mormon, Person, Fool I sometimes think that the last persona is the most important http://www2.gasou.edu/commarts/puppet/ Georgia Southern University Puppet Theatre - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 11:57:33 -0500 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: Re: [AML] Comments? (Reading the Scriptures) Colin Douglas wrote: >The call for a Mormon >literature has always been rather silly, because there has been one since >1830. We don't usually speak of the scriptures of the Restoration in that >way, for, I think, several reasons. One is the narrowing of the definition of >literature since early in twentieth century. "Literature" no longer includes >sacred texts, history, philosophy, state papers, biography, etc., but is used >to denote only belle lettre, or "imaginative" writing--secular verse, prose >fiction, drama. I don't know just how or why that narrowing happened, but I >suspect it was connected with the replacement of religion by art as a source >of values by the Western intellectual elite. Very good points (and--slipping briefly into Moderator mode--very appropriate to this List). The whole question of treating scripture as literature--that is, interpreting it in the same way we interpret literature--raises a host of interesting issues. Personally, I've been fascinated to note that many of the most active and influential interpreters of scripture in the LDS tradition of the last 50 years or so have been lawyers by training. Relatively few have been literature majors. Which may say a number of different things, but at the very least it suggests to me that the LDS way of looking at scripture may at this point--for whatever reason--be more amenable to juridical than literary interpretation. The scriptures are The Law, not The Story (or The Poem) in LDS thinking. Each different community that deals with written documents develops its own ways of interpreting them. In some cases, such as carpenters' use of blueprints, those ways are both sufficiently specialized and sufficiently different from the way other documents are treated that we see no reason to even think of them in the same categories. In other cases--and I think scripture is perhaps the most prominent, though by no means the only example--several different fields may compete for the privilege of interpreting the same documents. (If I recall correctly, I was in a graduate class where one of the students did his term paper on Darwin, interpreting his work in terms of the genre of the romance. Don't ask me.) At that point, different modes of interpretation become largely matters of genre, with different methods considered as appropriate depending on which category the document is considered as falling into. It's true that the field of literary studies (so-called) has specialized primarily in the study of drama, fiction (narrative), and poetry. Some contemporary areas of literary study are more broad in their emphasis--certain types of rhetorical criticism, for example, are designed for the study of argumentative or persuasive writing--but on the whole, I think that the "narrowing" Colin speaks of is simply a reflection of increased specialization. The field of literary study, as currently defined, deals primarily with certain types of texts, but not so much with other types, except as they can be looked at *as* fiction, poetry, etc. I think it's a real question to what degree the techniques of literary criticism are appropriate to scriptural exegesis. The simple answer to the question would seem to be: To the degree that scriptures can be considered as poetry, drama, and narrative, the techniques of literary scholarship ought to be appropriate to their interpretation. Unfortunately, this answer leads immediately to the more difficult question of to what degree the scriptures can be considered as falling into these categories. If we say they are *nothing more* than these, we seem to be denying their status as scripture. If, on the other hand, we say that they may be poetry and narrative, but also something more, we implicitly acknowledge that while the methods of literary scholarship may contribute to their understanding, these methods by themselves are incomplete--and possibly misleading, if we stop there. It's important, too, to recognize that biblical scholarship and literary studies in general have long since followed separate paths. I'm not a student of biblical scholarship, but my sense is that the commentaries of Frye and others from a "bible-as-literature" perspective are likely to be viewed as completely uninformed within the field of biblical scholarship. So when we talk about incorporating the methods of literary scholarship into our way of looking at LDS scriptures, we need to ask ourselves which approaches, which theories, which methods, which standards--keeping in mind that we're talking about at least two fundamentally different communities. (Both of which have come under criticism for what many believers see as an overly secular approach to their subject. Can a criticism developed without reference to God be adequate to describing scripture?) Please note that I'm not disagreeing that all these methods can profitably be applied to LDS scripture. Personally, I think "scripture" is an umbrella that includes many different types of text: legal, historical, narrative, poetry, wisdom literature, and much more. Each of these types of text can be approached from several different directions, many of which have the potential for adding to our understanding. I guess that what I'm arguing is that there are a lot of questions about how and to what degree the methods of general literary scholarship are appropriate to scriptural interpretation. Jonathan Langford (speaking for myself, not the List) jlangfor@pressenter.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 11:37:46 -0700 From: jana@enivri.com Subject: [AML] Re: Up for Review Folks: I'll be making the final selections of reviewers tonight so if you'd like to review one of the following titles please submit your request ASAP. Thanks, Jana Remy AML-List Review Editor - -------------------------------- Signature Books: _Riptide: A Novel_ by Marion Smith As a therapist, Marion Smith has heard too many stories of families torn apart by child stalkers. In this gripping psychodrama, her heroine is a grandmother who is frustrated by police and church inaction, and who finally gets a gun. Laurel Greer carries on this fragmented conversation with herself: "Hold the edged blade, Medea," she thinks, "wipe the blood on your cheeks, your lips, your hair. Moan silently, Eve, ...and weep long and shrill, ... for my child is screaming in the night." What should she do? What would any of us do in her position? These are questions that trouble Laurel, and the reader, to the end of the story. _Of Curious Workmanship: Musings on Things Mormon_ by Edgar C. Snow, Jr. Ed Snow mixes nostalgia and humor equally in his musings about things Mormon. For instance, in singing "Tit-Willow" as a youth (remember the old Recreational Songs book?), the resulting giggles are vivid in his mind. Or, as another example, the unusual fulfillment of the "gift of tongues" in the Swiss mission. That happened when Ed and his companion received a local beef tongue delicacy from a grateful convert. Poker faces all around. The author continues to find moments of guilty pleasure in his current Sunday school class, every time an Alexander Pope saying is attributed to President David O. McKay, or when "Zeezrom" was defined as meaning "dirty, stinking lawyer" in Egyptian. (Actually, Ed contributed that nugget.) Ah, it's good being Mormon! Ed proclaims. There is great comfort in the rhythms of church life. And, as Ed believes, there MUST be a higher purpose to all of this! Ed Snow is an AML-List columnist, and many (all?) of these essays appeared first on AML-List Magazine. _Sanpete Tales: Humorous Folklore from Central Utah_ by EDGAR M. JENSON and WILLIAM JENSON ADAMS Tucked away in old trunks, desks, and bookcases in countless homes are stories of the pioneers who made the American West what it is today. These journals tend to be terse, matter-of-fact ("Our son John died last night of inflammation of the bowels. Buried near Fort Bridger."), the kind of simple honesty that led to this collection. The author remembers the guilty pleasure he felt when first reading this journal entry: "Sharpened ax this morning. Wife died this afternoon." A sad moment, but amusing in the unintended irony that rivals the best remembered J. Golden tales. Sometimes the humor is less subtle, such as when a forgetful Danish bishop finally said at a wedding, "I now pronounce you fadder und modder." These are not traditional pioneer stories. Rather, they are the collected folk humor of the Scandinavian immigrants of Sanpete County, Utah. They provide a peek at the humanity of the people who helped build the West, as if a comedian were cast in the lead in John Wayne's place. The tales are straightforward and simple, loaded with broad, earthy humor and topped with dry wit. _A Daughter of Zion_ by RODELLO HUNTER A free-spirited Mormon, Rodello Hunter has unconventional ways. Take her manner of serving in the Lincoln Ward of the Granite Stake of Zion. How best to manage unruly teenagers in her Mutual Improvement class? Talk straight, inject humor, admit you're human--advice that she freely passes on to the ward's male leadership, as well. On the other hand, she harbors a few secret misgivings, some deep questions that contradict her cheery exterior and the aplomb with which she approaches her church obligations. These little heresies, her occasional un-daughter-of- Zion- like tendencies, are shared honestly, much like the nun in "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All to You,"only this time it's a Mormon story. _Dancing Naked_ by Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner Terry Walker is an even-tempered, successful mathematics professor, comfortable with his world--the order and predictability of it. He likes the kind of life one lives in a quiet Salt Lake City subdivision. At his children's births, he masks his terror with numbers--his wife's contractions and dilations, blood pressure, heart rate. At funerals he absorbs his grief by calculating the cubic feet of earth the coffin and vault will displace. But control is illusive, something his fifteen-year-old son Blake never lets him forget. A sensitive boy, Blake has refused to eat meat since the time he could walk. Fearing he will hurt his friends' feelings, Blake withdraws from a spelling bee that he could easily win. More importantly, however, Blake harbors a secret that he keeps from Terry. Driving this important first novel are issues and characters Thomas Mann himself would have found compelling. Terry Walker's inability to accept what he knows and does not know about his child, what he possibly could never accept, exacts a high price. Almost at the threshold of insanity, the father begins waging a war against a powerful chaos. Van Wagoner takes his readers beyond a simple foretelling of what happens in such situations to deep beneath the story's skin, to a place readers will find familiar and perhaps even irresistible. Deseret/Bookcraft: _Love's Labors Tossed: Trust and the Final Fling_ by Robert Farrell Smith In book 3 of this trilogy, Trust and Grace head back to Thelma's Way in the days leading up to heir wedding. But things have run amuck in Thelma's Way. Because it doesn't appear on any official maps, county planners are constructing a dam that threatens to turn the little backwater town into nothing but backwater. _I Sailed to Zion: True Stories of Young Pioneers Who Crossed the Oceans, 1840-1890_ by Susan Madsen and Fred Woods This book is filled with fascinating, firsthand accounts of these young pioneers who braved the perils of sea travel for their beliefs. Their true stories add another dimension to our understanding of the pioneer experience. _Three Days Without Light_ by Timothy Robinson Told from the perspective of a Nephite boy living in Zarahemla at the time, this book covers the dramatic events of 3 Nephi 8-11--leading up to and including the resurrected Saviour's appearance to the Nephites at the temple. Darkness and wailing give way to unspeakable joy as the Saviour ministers to the faithful and calls that children to his knee. Timothy Robinson is a participant on AML-List. _Gabriel's Well_ by Blaine Yorgason When a mysterious geologist stumbles out of the rain with tales of hidden oil deposits on the outskirts of town, Cluvarous Jones and his family will never be the same. Set on the boom-or-bust frontier at the turn of the century, this is a timeless tale of greed, sedition, and one man's courageous refusal to compromise his word, told through the eyes of his not-so-constant son. _The Book of Mormon Sleuth_ by Carl Andersen Twelve year-old Brandon is sure his summer vacation has been ruined when his parents drag him to the Midwestern farm of his mother's eccentric aunt. What the unhappy seventh grader hasn't counted on is Aunt Ella's ability to bring alive their daily reading of the BOM. From its pages she spins an intriguing game, turning her house, dairy farm, and daily routines into a puzzle--a labyrinth that can be solved only by using clues taken from the scriptures. _White Out_ by Robert Marcum Deputy Sheriff Raif Quinn is moonlighting as a hunting guide to a couple of big city high rollers in the rugged wilderness outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming, when a blizzard hits. Raif is just beginning to warm to the idea of waiting out the storm with his wealthy client's lawyer daughter when a body turns up in the snow. Raif thinks he knows who did it, but when the suspects are found dead, he knows it's time to scramble. _Memorable Stories with a Message_ by Boyd K. Packer Boyd K. Packer is known for his outstanding ability to use stories that teach gospel principles in an unforgettable manner. Memorable Stories with a Message includes 60 stories on such topics as missionary service, revelation, judging, self-reliance, bearing witness, following the Spirit and submitting to the Lord's will. _The Arms of His Love: Talks from the 1999 Women's Conference_ _The Best of Women's Conference: Selected Talks from 25 years of BYU Women's Conference_ _Contemplations of a Convert_ by Kenneth Johnson It wasn't until he was 19 years-old that Kenneth Johnson first met a Mormon--an intriguing young woman he would later marry. Prior to that encounter at a community dance, he was a typical young Englishman, largely indifferent to organized religion and very much caught up in popular music and sports. Now, some 40 years later, having served in such calling as SP, Regional Rep, he is a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Writing in his unique tone, Elder Johnson explains how he came to join the Church and uses experiences from his life to illustrate what a difference the gospel has made in his outlook. _Brigham Young: Images of a Mormon Prophet_ by Richard Holzapfel and R.Q. Shupe Noted authors have brought together for the first time all the known paintings and photographic images of Brigham Young from his lifetime in the most complete visual record to date. This unique volume also includes a sampling of the numerous graphic images that appeared in newspapers and books from the same time period. Some DeseretBook reprints that are available: _Charlie's Monument_ by Blaine Yorgason _Women's Voices: An Untold History of the Latter-Day Saints 1830-1900_ by K. Godfery, A. Godfrey, J. Derr _Women of Covenant_ by J. Derr, J. Cannon, M. Beecher _One in Thine Hand_ by Gerald Lund _Leverage Point_ by Gerald Lund and Roger Hendrix _The Alliance_ by Gerald Lund _The Freedom Factor_ by Gerald Lund _Stone Tables_ by Orson Scott Card Marilyn Brown Award winning novel: _Windows_ by Dorothy W. Peterson (vailable on floppy disk only) An engaging story about a woman whose act of adultery resonates through all of the events of her life. A story that fully involves the reader." - --Marilyn Brown, AML It is 1923 and Abbie's husband, Phillip has been called on a mission. She knows it is right that he should go, but wishes it were not--wishes she could keep him home without destroying their marriage. She celebrates the call along with friends and family, but harbors a secret dread. Cornerstone: _Disoriented_ by Michael Ritchey An imaginative and powerfully emotional story about an attack on earth's resources inspired by forces from the unseen world. When an uncertain prayer for help is offered by a young biologist, the intricate answer is a compelling witness to the power of God and His love for those who humbly seek Him. Aspen Books: _Into the Field_ by Benson Parkinson, paper, 226 pp. This is the sequel to _The MTC: Set Apart_. The first novel follows four young elders from their conversions through their stay in the MTC. _Into thee Field_ follows the same group through their first year in the field in France. Parkinson writes in a frank, realistic, psychologically penetrating style that pays special attention to the profound spiritual experiences of missionaries. Benson Parkinson is the outgoing moderator of AML-List and a current co-managing editor of Irreantum. - - 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 ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #30 *****************************