From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #33 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 Monday, May 8 2000 Volume 01 : Number 033 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 6 May 2000 17:17:42 -0700 (PDT) From: Kathleen Meredith Subject: Re: [AML] Dramatic scripture reading That is too bad, I can imagine such an undertaking would have produced a lovely product. I wonder if the concern was or is that if recorded more dramatically, the scriptures mights come off sounding melodramatic to a generation or two that would follow after its production. Quite often I think we miss the point when we read aloud without the passion that was experienced by the writer. -I've sat through one too many mono-tone readings in Sunday School I imagine... - -Katheen Meredith - --- Paynecabin@aol.com wrote: > A dramatic reading of the scriptures, at least in > recorded form, would > probably not be welcomed by the general church > leadership. Some years ago, > the composer Marden Pond and I put together an > extensive proposal and a demo > of the Book of Mormon being read (I like to believe) > with a little more > passion than usual, with musical underscoring. > After a couple of years of > preparation, we were told by various tape > duplicating facilities in Utah that > the church had asked them not to manufacture new > versions of the Book of > Mormon for enterprises other than the church. We > abandoned the idea. > Marvin Payne - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 May 2000 22:44:10 JST From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] Mormon Web Magazines [MOD: Thanks to Andrew Hall for writing this thoughtful, informative, and--so far as I know--unsolicited review. It's items like this that help that help make AML-List an interesting place to be!] This is a quick review of the LDS-related web magazines that are out there. They have been mentioned in off hand ways on this list at times, but I thought a detailed introduction would be useful. Web magazines have become very popular lately. Most famous, I think, are Slate and Salon, which cover politics as well as other news, and have a lot of commentary, and also contain a lot of movie, book, and other cultural reviews. They also have lots of regular famous columnists, like Garrison Keilor is on Salon, I think. Apparently there are web magazines of all kinds popping up. Over the last year or so, three Mormon related sites have appeared. They are Meridian Magazine, Harvest Magazine, and Beliefnet's Mormon page. Meridian Magazine is the largest and apparently the most orthodox of the three (www.meridianmagazine.com). It has been around for about a year and a half, I think. It is part of LDS World, the web presence of the group that runs Infobases and LDG Gems. Infobases, of course, was acquired by Deseret Books, which is owned by the Church, so you can say Meridian is now, at least indirectly, a Church-sponsored magazine. It has a lot of the feel of the old This People magazine. In fact it is edited by Maurine Jensen Proctor and published by her husband Scot Facer Proctor, and I think that pair ran This People at one time. When I say it is the largest, I mean it has the most content, with new articles at least every week, and a small stable of columnists. As far as Mormon Letters are concerned, there are two columnists of note, Kieth Merrill, the creator of many Church films, such as "Legacy" and "The Testaments", who writes on contemporary film (and most recently, a lot about the making The Testaments), and our own Steven Kapp Perry, who writes on LDS music (although I haven't seen a column by him in a while). Also there are a couple of guys who review older films on video, and occasional articles on successful Mormon authors like Anne Perry. There are also articles on various issues of importance to Mormons (such as a recent one on the Boy Scout case before the Supreme Court), articles on finance and science from a LDS point of view, political stories by Jack Anderson, inspirational stories, and news updates of interest to Mormons (including both news about Mormons, like LDS Gems, and general news stories about moral issues, like the progress of gay marriage initiatives in various states). The tone tends to be pretty conservative/orthodox, and a common positions among Mormons on certain political questions among is routinely assumed. Maurine Proctor writes a lot of the lead articles, and I just don't think she is a very interesting writer. It is a commercial site, but the advertisements all seem to be "internal ads", for Infobase related products. I tend to check the site every week or two, and read a political or cultural story or two. I like inspirational stories as much as the next guy, but I don't look for that on the web, so I skip over the bulk of the articles in the magazine. Like This People it often has interesting content, but the quality is very uneven. Harvest Magazine is a newer entry into the web magazine business. (www.harvestmagazine.com). It is run by Dallas Robbins, who I believe is on this list. It just got started late last year, and doesn't appear to have anywhere near the financial backing as Meridian. Therefore it has put out much less content, and so it is harder to judge the nature of the site. While developing a pool of writers, it has depended on reprints of important writings from the past by authors such as Brigham Young, James Talmage, and Lowell Bennion, and reprints from other sites, such as Beliefnet and FARMS. The last two months it has begun to put out more impressive content. There was a very interesting article by (former?) AML President Valerie Holladay on her experiences with Mormon Literature, and a column by our own Edgar Snow, who appears to have signed on as a columnist. This is the first sign of a significant humorist on any of the web sites (excepting the anemic "Latter-Day Laughs" section on Meridian). There was also a book excerpt by Avraham Gileadi. Judging from their new essays and their choice of older writings, Harvest appears to have a more open, unsanitized tone than Meridian, a Sunstone to Meridian's This People (although that may be overstating it). But again, it is too early to tell. It really hasn't published very much new material yet, so we'll have to wait and see. Each page has your average web advertisements. Beliefnet is a new "spiritual gathering place" for people of all religious backgrounds (www.beliefnet.com). NPR did a story about the site about a week ago, with sound bites from people debating the appropriateness of paid advertisements on a religious themed web page. Besides its main home page it has pages on every major religion. Any of the general news or content that relates to that religion is included its own page. The Mormon page is significant in part because it is maintained by a non-Mormon organization. So while some of the content is created by Mormons, an equal percentage of it is produced by non-Mormons. The amount of new content rates far below Meridian, its overall quality is much greater. The most significant featured columnist is Orson Scott Card, who gives the site almost instant credibility. His columns resemble the ones he wrote for Sunstone in the 1980s (back when he was on speaking terms with them), many of which were collected in his "Storyteller in Zion" book. In his three columns so far, he has criticized those who would criticize Bob Jones III for saying Mormons and Catholics are going to hell, those who want the Church to make a formal apology for past discrimination, and those who tried to organize a movement to vote for President Hinckley as Time's Man of the Century. Agree with him or not, Card's gadfly essays always makes for interesting reading. He appears to be on a one column a month schedule. Linda Hoffman Kimball has also contributed several columns, lightweight pieces taken from her "Saints Well Seasoned" book, and one on the new Relief Society Enrichment meetings. Eugene England, historian Jan Shipps, former Dialogue editor Robert Rees, poet Emma Lou Thayne and businessman/politician Mitt Romney have all contributed one essay each, so it isn't clear that they will be regulars yet. England's piece was a review of "God's Army", and Shipps wrote about the new Apostles Testimony of the Living Christ. If some of these become regular columnists, BeliefNet would certainly have the biggest names involved of any of these three web pages. The site also features non-Mormons writing about Mormonism. For example Book Reviews of President Hinkley (positive) and Coke Newell's (negative) recent books, and of course Jan Shipps isn't a Mormon. Again, while there isn't quite as much content as Meridian, the quality tends to be higher. Also, it is connected to the larger BeliefNet system, which features a large number of other religious commentators and stories (the main story today is about the faith of the popular musician Moby), as well as movie and book reviews, prayer groups, and sacred texts. This is a very good site, but I only look at it a couple of times a month to keep up on the new material. It has advertisements on each page, but they are pretty unobtrusive, and I'm sure they keep more objectionable ones out, as they try to preserve a religious atmosphere. Writing this essay today, I came across another magazine, although it straddles the line between a web magazine and a plain old web site. It is LDS.net (www.lds.net), run by John Scot Denhalter. It has a few book reviews by Denhalter, and some articles on Church conferences by Nancy Cureton. There really isn't much here to recommend it. Andrew Hall Nagareyama, Japan ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 May 2000 23:32:44 -0600 From: Jerry Enos Subject: [AML] Introductions - --Boundary_(ID_DKRaa3V6fsclPbGQx6+4+A) Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hi, my name is Konnie De Enos (K.D. is my nickname, my first and middle inital). I am 37 years old and the mother of four children all still in the single digets. Which should explain what my occupation is. You name it I probably do it. I have even done some work on our car (with my husband right there with me). I was born and raised in Southeastern Idaho and have lived in Western Washington State and Western Oregon. Right now I live in West Jordan, UT. I spent most of my childhood in Pocatello, ID but most of my life has been spent in the other mentioned places. I really don't claim any home town. My home is where I happen to be living at the time you ask. My connection to any kind of literature (Morman or otherwise) is that I read and write it. At the moment I am just hoping to be published someday. But someday WILL come. Any one out there that might be willing to help me in my efforts would be appreciated. Thank you for your time and you may post this on your site. (Sorry I have no picture to post with it.) Konnie Enos - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 May 2000 09:48:08 -0700 (MST) From: aml@xmission.com Subject: [AML] Jerry Johnston [ADMIN: Jerry Johnston, former AML board member, is a longtime book critic and columnist at the Deseret News. Best wishes, Jerry.] [MOD: This is Jonathan. "Admin" is Ben, who for the time being is continuing to help with forwarding items from Utah newspapers--though this is an area where we'd welcome additional help...] Deseret News, Wednesday, May 03, 2000, 12:00 AM MDT A life-saving encounter Utah hockey player helps save writer's life By Amy Donaldson Deseret News sports writer Jerry Johnston and Taj Melson work in the same city but had never met until Tuesday morning. It was in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, and only for a few minutes. They left the chance meeting not even knowing the other's name, although for a few brief moments, the two were inextricably tied as Melson worked to save Johnston's life. Johnston is a religion writer and columnist for the Deseret News who was returning from an assignment in Bolivia. Melson is a hockey player for the Utah Grizzlies returning to Utah after losing two playoff games in Houston. Both stopped in the airport just briefly to catch connecting flights to Salt Lake City. While hurrying to board the airplane, Johnston collapsed into the arms of the ticketing agent. Melson stood in line one person behind Johnston, and he said it looked, for a moment, as if the man regained his composure. "Then he started to fall backwards," Melson said Wednesday morning. "Another man and I grabbed a hold of him and laid him on the ground. "As he went down, you could tell he was scared," Melson said. "My first inclination was to find out if he was a diabetic. He said no. Then he started to seize." Both Melson and the other man tried to find a pulse on Johnston. They could not. "Then the other gentleman started compressions," Melson said. "I was asking for a ventilator bag." Melson had training in CPR in college and is just two classes from a degree in biomedical science. He'd done an internship in a hospital in St. Cloud, Minn., and had performed CPR twice unsuccessfully before. Both incidents involved car accidents. After using the ventilator bag on Johnston, he asked if the airline had an automated external defibrillator, and when it was handed to him, he placed the paddles on Johnston's chest. "It told us that he had a shockable rhythm," Melson said. After two jolts, Johnston woke up. Melson boarded the plane with the rest of the team, and the 52-year-old writer was taken to a Dallas hospital where he remains in serious condition. Doctors plan to run tests on Johnston Wednesday hoping to find out why his heart stopped. Johnston just wants to return to Utah by Friday so he can see his son graduate from Utah State on Saturday. Melson is nonchalant about his efforts Tuesday. "I'm trained for it," he said. "I think it's just kind of something you do. I'm just happy so many people close by knew what to do. And that we had a good outcome. You don't always have a good outcome with these types of things." He said he'd like to go into medicine when he finishes playing hockey. Like Johnston, Melson is focused on his own life and the fact that his team needs to win tonight or be eliminated from the Turner Cup Playoffs. He hasn't thought much about what happened and doesn't know how he feels about saving another person's life. "I'm just happy the guy is OK," he said. "I'm actually concerned with winning tonight . . . I probably won't ever think about it again." You can reach Amy Donaldson by e-mail at adonaldson@desnews.com Copyright =A9 2000, Deseret News Publishing Corp.=20 - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 May 2000 08:51:04 -0700 (MST) From: aml@xmission.com Subject: [AML] BRADY, _Great Gardens_ [From the Sunday Deseret News] GREAT GARDENS, which was developed at Brigham Young University's prestigious "Writers/Directors/Actors" workshop in 1998, makes its public debut May 12-June 24 at the Little London Dinner Theatre, 20 S. Main, Pleasant Grove. The new comedy, written by Josh Brady, focuses on what erupts when Mother Ilene gathers her grown children for a family celebration at a restaurant called the Great Gardens! All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. According to California-based guest-director Becky Baird, who first performed in the play when it was being "workshopped" at BYU, "the needs of Ilene's family bounce off her like rubbery dinner rolls." Brady, a Utah-educated writer, is now working on the West Coast. Baird said the playwright has not "watered it down to reach a larger audience." Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays, May 12-June 24 in the Little London Dinner Theatre, 20 S. Main, Pleasant Grove. Dinner is served at 6:45 p.m., followed by the performance. All tickets are $25 each, including dinner and show. Advance reservations are required. Call 785-0827 to reserve tickets. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 May 2000 08:52:42 -0700 (MST) From: aml@xmission.com Subject: [AML] CRACROFT, _Sam's Place_ [ADMIN: From the Deseret News. Paul Cracroft is the brother of Richard Cracroft, the dean of LDS literary studies, and is himself the author of _A Certain Testimony_, a Miltonian epic based in large measure on the Book of Mormon. Both he and Sam Weller are LDS.] SAM'S PLACE, written by local playwright Paul Cracroft, inspired by his friendship with legendary Salt Lake bookseller Sam Weller, will have a staged reading on May 11 as the final program in this season's Babcock Performing Readers' lineup. All Babcock Performing Readers' performances are free and open to the general public. The play received its first staged reading in the fall of 1998 at City Rep's Family Theater. Cracroft and Weller have been friends for nearly 70 years, attending school together at Wasatch Elementary, Bryant Junior High and East High schools. They worked closely together on two East High reunions in 1969 and 1989 after which Cracroft began researching and drafting the script. Sam's landmark store has been the gathering place for thousands of Utah book lovers, who have not only savored his new books, but also his collection of used and rare volumes. The reading's director, LaKay Stephenson, has edited and revised Cracroft's original script to placed most of the emphasis on Weller's business and less on his personal life. Readers will include John Matthews, Joyce Marder, Becky Hansen, Richard Russell and David Trujillo. There will be one performance only, at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, May 11, in the Little Theatre of the U.'s student union building. Free parking is available in the lot directly east of the building. Light refreshments will be served following the performance. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 May 2000 08:53:25 -0700 (MST) From: aml@xmission.com Subject: [AML] PRATT, _The Lighthouse Keeper_ Provo author skips edgy, goes for sappy "The Last Valentine" and "The Lighthouse Keeper" are inspired by life events Sunday, May 07, 2000 By AMY SCHOON Standard-Examiner staff Readers of James Michael Pratt's novel, "The Last Valentine" (St. Martin's Press, $21.95/hardcover, $6.99/paperback), gush the same warnings grab your box of tissues, bring out the hankies, prepare for a tug on your heartstrings. Pratt proudly admits it. He's a sap. "I'm the guru of sappiness. I'm the schmaltz king," said Pratt, the 47-year-old Provo resident whose first book reached No. 29 on the New York Times best-seller list in 1998 and has more than a half million copies in print. His second book, "The Lighthouse Keeper" (St. Martin's Press, $23.95), was released nationwide earlier this year, and two more are in the works. They promise his signature emotion-flooded storylines. "In today's world, we have "edgy' this and "edgy' that. I'm not edgy," Pratt said. "It's so refreshing to people when there's still morality and sappiness out there." "The Last Valentine," now in negotiations for movie development, is a tale of a Navy fighter pilot and his young wife in California, who must deal with his departure on their first anniversary, Feb. 14, 1944, to join the fight in the Pacific during World War II. Their story of love and devotion is told decades later by their son to a skeptical, not-so-sentimental female television reporter. The tale is a journey through heartbreak, tragedy and triumph, talking about the missing-in-action father hero he never knew. Pratt's new novel also is placed in the World War II era. It also follows a poignant story of love, angst and victory, this time involving Irish-American immigrants and centered around the Port Hope Lighthouse in Massachusetts. Peter O'Banyon is sent to live with his Uncle Billie when his parents and siblings are killed in a truck-train accident. Uncle Billie has his own troubles, mourning the suicide of his wife after the death of their child. The woe doesn't stop there. Peter grows up and marries his childhood sweetheart, only to leave her behind, pregnant, when he goes to war. He struggles to cope with the death and destruction, then returns home to yet another tragedy that threatens to destroy him. How can Pratt bear to afflict his characters with that much agony? "I try to break hearts on purpose, because there is no resolution or reward in having the high without the low," Pratt said. "You have to take people to the lowest level, then when you bring them back up, it makes them stop and think about their own lives." He has been compared by many to Richard Paul Evans, another Utah writer known for cranking out tear-jerkers, most notably "The Christmas Box" (Simon & Schuster, 1996). Emotion isn't the only commonality. Like Evans, Pratt was inspired by events in his personal life. Pratt grew up in Southern California, then attended Brigham Young University for three years. When his father's retail business had financial troubles, he left school to go home and help out. It wasn't the work he'd hoped for, he said, but he had the chance to work shoulder-to-shoulder with his father. The books he went on to write have been heavily influenced, he said, by his father's morals, values and work ethic. He also drew inspiration for both novels from his own parents' love affair and from others in their generation who lived and loved through the Great Depression and World War II. "I doubt I'd be a writer today if I hadn't left college," Pratt said. He ended up "wandering," as he puts it, in the business world for 20 years. The real estate crash and recession in the early 1990s left him broke and wondering what to do next. He and his wife, Jeanne, moved to Provo from California, and he worked by day as a construction manager. At night, the former college English major would write. Because he didn't have money for a typewriter, he said, he would take his BYU alumni identification card to the university's computer lab and type up his handwritten notes. Appealing to ordinary folks He had a story in his head and wanted to tell it. When it landed in the hands of editors at St. Martin's Press, they wanted the world to read it. "He seems to really reach into the heartland of America. In New York City, people tend to forget what the rest of the country wants," said executive editor Jennifer Enderlin. "But James writes what everyday, ordinary Americans want to read about ... courage, honor, love." Because of its elements of World War II, Enderlin describes "The Last Valentine" as a "fictionalized version" of Tom Brokaw's book, "The Greatest Generation" (Random House, 1998). Stevens Anderson believes that part of the attraction to the first book was Pratt's clear understanding of historical events and the clearly developed plot and characters. "He made it believable," said Anderson, a Fruit Heights resident and free-lance editor who helped Pratt polish the story's first drafts. Anderson admits that some people may say Pratt's stories are too finely crafted, bordering on contrived. But that doesn't seem to hurt sales or pop up in critiques from many readers. People magazine called the first novel a "return ticket to "Bridges of Madison County' territory," and a senior editor at Doubleday Book Club wrote that it was "the most powerful love story I've read in years." A review of "The Lighthouse Keeper" in Publishers Weekly gave the predicted reaction to Pratt: "His simple story will please readers ready for a good cry." More of the same Provo free-lance writer Hartt Wixom, best known for his fishing and hunting guides, taught a class at BYU several years ago on how to get published. Pratt attended it and talked Wixom into some private instruction. Wixom describes his student as gracious, enthusiastic and eager to learn. While Pratt has become a success and has natural talent, Wixom noted that he is still willing to work on refining techniques. "Some people want praise, everyone patting them on the head and telling them how good they are. James doesn't want that," Wixom said. "He wants people to tell him what's wrong so he can fix it and improve." There's one element of Pratt's work that he probably won't change. He still likes being a sap, being compared to the likes of fellow Utahn Evans, of "Christmas Box" fame. "I compliment him. He gave people hope again in normal, old-fashioned reading without sleaze," Pratt said, adding, "And, someday I hope he gets compared to me." You can reach reporter Amy Schoon, formerly Amy Pray, at 625-4277 or aschoon@standard.net. Copyright 2000 The Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 May 2000 09:01:18 -0700 (MST) From: aml@xmission.com Subject: [AML] Book of Mormon Art [From the Sunday Deseret News] Glen M. Leonard, Director, LDS Museum of Church History and Art; Robert O. Davis and Richard G. Oman, senior curators of art, Museum of Church History and Art, will speak on "Artists and the Book of Mormon: What They Have Done and What Could Yet Be Done," Thursday, May 11, 7 p.m., Museum Theater, 45 N. West Temple. Free; seating limited. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 08:40:27 -0600 From: Steve Perry Subject: Re: [AML] Mormon Web Magazines > From: "Andrew Hall" > Subject: [AML] Mormon Web Magazines > > Meridian Magazine is the largest and apparently the most orthodox of the > three (www.meridianmagazine.com). It has been around for about a year and a > half, I think. It is part of LDS World, the web presence of the group that > runs Infobases and LDG Gems. Infobases, of course, was acquired by Deseret > Books, which is owned by the Church, so you can say Meridian is now, at > least indirectly, a Church-sponsored magazine. Meridian _was_ originally part of LDSworld.com, but has since moved to its own webspace (www.meridianmagazine.com) and is not owned by the LDS church nor any of its subsidiary organizations. I was one of the Arts & Entertainment writers for several months before my time and financial constraints (i.e. the need to be paid) meant I had to resign for the present. Steve - ----- www.stevenkappperry.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 09:54:07 From: Marilyn Brown Subject: Re: [AML] Introductions Yea, Konnie! I see you are finally on our list! We're happy to have you here, and I hope you'll find our discussions lively and informative! Sincerely, Marilyn Brown At 11:32 PM 5/6/00 -0600, you wrote: >Hi, my name is Konnie De Enos (K.D. is my nickname, my first and middle inital). I am 37 years old and the mother of four children all still in the single digets. Which should explain what my occupation is. You name it I probably do it. I have even done some work on our car (with my husband right there with me). > >I was born and raised in Southeastern Idaho and have lived in Western Washington State and Western Oregon. Right now I live in West Jordan, UT. I spent most of my childhood in Pocatello, ID but most of my life has been spent in the other mentioned places. I really don't claim any home town. My home is where I happen to be living at the time you ask. > >My connection to any kind of literature (Morman or otherwise) is that I read and write it. At the moment I am just hoping to be published someday. But someday WILL come. Any one out there that might be willing to help me in my efforts would be appreciated. > >Thank you for your time and you may post this on your site. (Sorry I have no picture to post with it.) > >Konnie Enos - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 08:51:10 -0700 (MST) From: aml@xmission.com Subject: [AML] Swearing [MOD: Thanks to Larry Jackson for forwarding the Mormon-News summary that alerted us to this article.] Oh My Heck, Flippin' Fetch Isn't Really Swearing, Is It? BY BOB MIMS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE You slam on the brakes, rattling both your car and nerves, when yet another rush-hour idiot cuts you off. And as the air-conditioner conks out and you roll down the window to choking exhaust from the bus in the next lane, you can feel it coming. Irresistible, the rage rises from that hot knot in your stomach, accelerates through a growling throat and then explodes through your lips with volcanic fury. It is The Word, and it escapes in a rolling bellow at the Fates: "FUDGE!" Welcome to Utah, where even profanity is done in moderation. To be sure, more hard-core cussing is no stranger to Utahns' ears. Still, in a state that is 70 percent Mormon, a plethora of less-offensive colloquialisms have been crafted to satisfy the urge to verbally vent. Open your ears and it won't be long before you hear "Oh my heck" ("Oh my freaking heck," for especially notable occasions). "Oh Gash." "Oh my holy crap." "Dang it." "Judas Priest." "H-E-double hockey sticks (or toothpicks)." "Oh yeah? Well you're a horse's p'toot." The rejoinder could be, "Am not, but you're just ignorant" (pronounced: "ignernt," and meaning not so much mentally vacuous as just plain rude). "Ah, scrud . . . suds . . . sheesh," might be the appropriate counter-reply. But the favorite substitutes flirt with the acknowledged Mother of All Swear Words, the utilitarian four-letter Anglo-Saxon standby that begins with the soft "f" sound and ends with an abrupt consonantal click. There is "Flip," and like its X-rated progenitor useful as noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb or space-filling modifier. An example of the latter is Mapleton resident Roger Comstock's recent admonishment of his City Council: " . . . when it comes to replacing our Police Department, abso -- flippin' -- lutely you need our permission." Don't forget the aforementioned "Freak" and its variations, or "Fetch." Gordon Allred, an English professor at Weber State University, offered yet another soft-core "f" word candidate. "One of my friends who returned from a mission to France . . . was addicted to the word 'funch' with such variations as 'funchy' and 'funchin'," he recalled. "He used the word so frequently, in all three forms, that I finally nicknamed him 'Funch.'" Allred's own mission, some 50 years ago in Canada, found creative LDS Church missionaries fond of "Scrud," and for special emphasis, "Scrud Oh Dear!" The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, asked for comment on the Mormon euphemisms, skirted clear of direct condemnation. Spokesman Dale Bills would only say that the faith "teaches its members to use language that lifts and inspires others and that honors God's commandment to not take his name in vain. "Church members are encouraged to avoid the use of profanity and any foul language that shows a lack of respect for God, self and others." That being the case, Alexander Baugh, an assistant professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University, defends "alternative words" as an acceptable means of expressing intense feelings. "After all, 'heck' takes on a whole different feeling than 'hell.' I don't see that [heck] as profanity in itself," Baugh said. "No one would condemn me or gasp if I said some of those [substitute] words instead of the real four-letter variety." However, the late J. Golden Kimball might smirk. Memorialized in Utah folklore, the Mormon general authority was called to the First Council of the Seventy in 1892 and spent the next five decades lacing his talks liberally with "hells" and "damns." Among dozens of "J. Golden" stories is one in which LDS Church President Heber J. Grant tried to tame the former cowboy-turned-elder's tongue by writing a radio speech for Kimball and ordering him to read it. However, once on the air, Kimball struggled with Grant's handwriting and finally exclaimed, "Hell, Heber, I can't read this damn thing." Baugh admits that had Kimball substituted "heck" and "darn," it just wouldn't be as funny. Still, the days of swearing Mormon churchmen has passed. "There is no way today that any type of that language would be acceptable," the professor said. Perhaps not, but that does not eliminate the desire indeed, the need to "express deep emotion by breaking the linguistic boundaries," said John McLaughlin, an assistant professor of English at Utah State University. "Within this community the main profanity words still carry a strong social taboo against them much stronger than other segments of society, or even other segments of the country," he said. "However, people here still need the emotional release of words that flirt with the boundaries." Marianna Di Paolo, chairwoman of the University of Utah's linguistics department, agrees that local euphemisms may skirt the realm of the truly obscene. The intent, though, is the same as that behind the words that may have led to a bar soap snack in years past. "We all know that 'heck' means 'hell,' " she said. "When someone yells, 'Fudge!' we all know they don't mean, 'give me more chocolate.' But we tolerate it in this society because we feel that next to the other words, it's not that bad," Di Paolo said. Still, there is a danger that someday even "fudge" through its repeated usage as a sort of PG-rated expletive will also be a word no longer uttered in polite society. "In years to come, we might wonder how this word that means 'chocolate confection' came to have such a horribly profane meaning," Di Paolo said. "Well, we would find it was by sound identification [with the original F-word]." Published 29 April, copyright 2000 The Salt Lake Tribune - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 09:07:20 -0700 (PDT) From: Valerie Holladay Subject: Re: [AML] Mormon Web Magazines Just a small correction to Andrew Hall's review of the LDS-related web magazines (which was a terrific contribution to the AML-list; I certainly plan to check out the ones I'm not familiar with). > Harvest Magazine is a newer entry into the web > magazine business. (www.harvestmagazine.com).... > The last two months it has begun to put out more > impressive content. There was a very interesting > article by (former?) AML President Valerie Holladay > on her experiences with Mormon Literature... I was the AML Treasurer for a few years until I resigned (or my time was up, I don't remember). Never been president. The current treasurer is Henry Miles, who with the assistance of his wonderful wife, Carol, has been doing a terrific job keeping the membership up-to-date. I was a few months late renewing my membership and within days I had my copy of *Irreantum*, another significant contribution to the Association. My sincere appreciation to the people behind the scenes at *Irreantum* and the AML-List, and my thanks also to Andrew Hall for his kind words. Valerie Holladay __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 09:07:49 -0600 From: Steve Perry Subject: [AML] _Testaments_ Speaking of LDS magazines online... this was one of the most interesting articles I've seen this week. http://www.meridianmagazine.com/arts/index.html It describes the process of finding the actor who portrayed Christ in the film, and his description of the '10 miracles' which put him in the right place at the right time. Steve - ----- www.stevenkappperry.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 12:30:32 EDT From: MarieUtah@aol.com Subject: [AML] Introductions Hello. I would like to follow Konnie's example and introduce myself as well. My name is Shirley Hatfield and I live in Highland, Utah. I just joined AML and the list so I will probably be quiet until I get a feel for the list discussions. I am in my 40's, married with 5 children. Two daughters are married and a son is current serving a mission in Brazil. I enjoy Church and Local History and researching my family roots. I grew up in Alpine and have a wonderful pioneer heritage. I am primarily a screenwriter (nothing sold as yet) and have written a couple of full-length screenplays and several Star Trek episodes (again unpurchased by the powers that be at Paramount Studios.) =D I recently quit my job as a correspondent for New Utah! Newspaper to concentrate more on my own projects. I hope to continue writing movie scripts that tell a good story in a manner that everyone can enjoy. I also belong to the Utah Valley Chapter of the League of Utah Writers where I serve as Secretary/Treasurer. Thanks for letting me introduce myself. =D Shirley Hatfield - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 May 2000 23:28:04 -0600 From: Kathleen Woodbury Subject: Re: [AML] Reading the Scriptures At 11:42 AM 5/4/00 -0600, Thom Duncan wrote: >But that brings up another point. Does it harm the worth of the BofM >stories if we posit that, perhaps, some of the stories aren't >event-by-event true and that the structure was imposed by the editor? >IOW, have the prophets done what historical writers do all the time, >pick and choose the events that serve their end and, in some cases, >maybe fudge some minor facts? I'm not suggesting a Paul Dunn kind of >fictionalization, just one that takes out irrelevant things to get to >the point faster. > >An instance from recent history may serve my point: In most histories >about Joseph Smith which deal with the martyrdom, you won't find mention >of an event that John Taylor (in DHC volume 7) said took place: Joseph >gave the jail keeper's son some money to buy wine which, when purchased, >was then passed around to all present to calm them down and to help >relieve their depression. Depending on your reason for writing the >history, you may or may not include this interesting bit of history. >Today's audiences, for instance, would find it problematicaly, asking >more questions than it answers: Why did they drink wine back then after >the Word of Wisdom was given, etc.? -- So, to avoid having to deal with >that issue, you the writer of the Joseph Smith bio, overlook that. > >Is the story of Joseph's final days substantially harmed if you left out >that little incident? Of course not. The spirit of the surrounding >story remains intact, complete with all the drama of the mob attack, >etc. Mormon was, after all, =abridging= the records he had before him. Of course he had to pick and choose. He only had so much room on the plates and so much time (in between fleeing and fighting) to do his abridging. Consider what may possibly be the most blatant exclusion in Mormon's abridgment: the incident regarding the writing on the wall of the temple mentioned in Alma 10:2 as referred to by Amulek, descendant of the man who interpreted that writing. (From a literary standpoint that was on the same order as Sherlock Holmes' Giant Rat of Sumatra--giving a hint of a much larger story than we can hope to know and adding to the depth and breadth of what we do have to read.) That incident had to have been of some religious/spiritual significance, yet Mormon never included it. (I suppose he kept in Amulek's mention of it because he was quoting Amulek and didn't feel he should edit the man's own introduction.) It reminds me of a short story Isaac Asimov wrote about Moses dictating Genesis to Aaron. At first they talk about being ready--Aaron has all the materials to record Moses' words, and Moses is ready to dictate. Then Moses starts: "In the beginning was the Big Bang." Aaron stops him right there and protests that Moses can't really intend to write =all= the details of the creation. Moses asks why not and Aaron explains that he doesn't have enough papyrus (or whatever) for all the details. So Moses asks how much papyrus he has. Aaron tells him he has enough to cover six days. >Could something similar be happening in Scripture? In Genesis, for >instance, it is not explained where Cain's and Abel's wives comes from >(another creation?) It seems as though the writer of Genesis failed to >include that part of the story for whatever reason. Was that on purpose >or an editorial error? Does it really matter, since the main story of >Adam and Eve remains intact. Well, that could easily be grouped with all of the other failures to mention women in the scriptures. Those who recorded scripture and compiled into canon what others had recorded put in what they (guided by the Spirit) considered important. There was a lot to choose from, after all. 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 ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #33 *****************************