From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #62 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, June 7 2000 Volume 01 : Number 062 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 01:17:12 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] MN BYU Museum of Art displays "Depression Era Printmakers": BYU Press Release From: BYU Press Release To: Mormon News Subject: MN BYU Museum of Art displays "Depression Era Printmakers": BYU Press Release 31May00 D3 Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 22:00:00 -0400 [From Mormon-News. This exhibit is already in progress.] BYU Museum of Art displays "Depression Era Printmakers" BYU Press Release 31May00 D3 PROVO, UTAH -- "Depression Era Printmakers," a new exhibit featuring prints from the Great Depression of the 1930s, will be on display at Brigham Young University's Museum of Art beginning Thursday (June 1). The exhibition will be on display in the Warrace and Alice Jones and Paul and Betty Boshard Gallaries on the museum's second level. Admission is free. The "Depression Era Printmakers" exhibition features works by Mahonri Young, LaConte Stewart, James T. Harwood, Joseph A.F. Everett and Elzy J. Bird. The in-house curator for the exhibition is Dawn Pheysey. The exhibition of 42 prints focuses more on the printmakers themselves than on the images they created. With few opportunities for other work, the printmakers eagerly accepted Federal Arts Project commissions. Interestingly, their prints, with few exceptions, show little consideration of the national catastrophe that defined and shaped the era. In 1937, Elzy J. Bird became the chief administrator of the Federal Art Project in Utah. He was responsible for matching sites and commissions with out-of-work artists in the state during the Great Depression. "They paid us to paint!" wrote the 91-year-old Bird in an opening essay for the exhibition catalogue focusing on printmakers in Utah. "You could hardly hear the music of the on-going Depression," he wrote. Bird and his fellow artists depicted landscapes, urban vignettes and rural scenes that presented a surprisingly positive view of life during the Depression years. Their work also demonstrates an expertise and sensitivity in graphic art techniques such as wood and linoleum cut, etching, serigraphy and lithography. A public lecture presented by Dan Burke, head of Utah Museum Services and author of "Utah Art of the Depression," will be held Thursday, July 27 at 7 p.m. in the Museum Auditorium. Burke will focus on Utah art history during the Depression. Admission is free. The Museum of Art is open Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. with extended hours on Mondays and Thursdays until 9 p.m. The museum is also open on Saturdays from noon until 5 p.m. - - ### - Mormon News Editor Note: Mahonri Young, LaConte Stewart and James T. Harwood were all LDS Church members. >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: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 00:19:40 -0600 From: "Gae Lyn Henderson" Subject: RE: [AML] FOWLER, Stages of Faith I have to agree with both Skip Hamilton and Rob Pannoni here as they talk about the community aspect of faith. I suppose as we focus on understanding and recognizing internal spiritual experience, we may tend to forget how much of personal testimony is forged through relationships with others. Eugene England's essay, "Why the Church Is As True As the Gospel," helps me think about this important aspect of worship. He points out that "besides being the repository of true principles and authority, the Church is the instrument provided by a loving God to help us become like him, that is, to give us essential schooling--experiences with each other that can bind us together in an honest but loving community; which is the essential nurturing place for salvation." A great example I can think of that illustrates this in Mormon lit is a wonderful short story, anthologized in _Bright Angels and Other Familiars_, about the Sunday School class members that request the removal of their too-liberal thinking teacher. The new "safe" arch-conservative teacher runs afoul of his predecessor in some very funny in-class interchange. The story shows us a very healthy "opposition in all things" (even in church). I also want to respond to Rob's comment that "I think that Fowler's framework is perhaps too individual-centric--. . ." Today in U.S. culture we see a resurgence of interest in religion, but much of it is not within traditional venues. Religious movements such as popular new-age spiritualism may leave behind the traditional congregation and revel in meditative practices and the individual inner experience of God. While we may tend to critique such practice as "individual-centric," nonetheless individuals who are struggling with orthodoxy (Fowler's Stage 4) may find meaning through such emphasis. And I would not want to dismiss any attempt to find God--the individual/personal relationship with God corresponds with Mormon doctrines of personal revelation and our belief that all human being are endowed with the light of Christ. Yes, people come to know God as they look inside themselves. Of course, Mormon doctrine also presents the fascinating paradox: it postulates God as a physical being, a separate being. God (the light of Christ) is within; and God is also the Other, the Unknown, the One Without. Gae Lyn Henderson - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 01:07:58 -0600 From: "Morgan Adair" Subject: Re: [AML] FOWLER, Stages of Faith Fowler's _Stages of Faith_ would be a good tool for analyzing Terry=20 Tempest Williams' _Leap_. The book begins with Williams saying that=20 she has left the "city" she was brought up in: " I once lived near the shores of Great Salt Lake with no outlet to the = sea. "I once lived in a fault-block basin where mountains made of granite=20 surrounded me. These mountains in time were hollowed to house the=20 genealogy of my people, Mormons. Our names, the dates of our births=20 and deaths, are safe. We have records hidden in stone. " I once lived in a landscape where my ancestors sacrificed everything=20 in the name of belief that we can be creators of our own worlds. "I once lived in the City of Latter-day Saints." Williams has been in Fowler's stage 4. Throughout the book, she=20 recounts how her ties to the church have been strained or broken.=20 According to Fowler, movement from one stage to the next is=20 precipitated by a faith crisis. Williams' crisis results from her = encounter=20 with a painting, Hieronymus Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights."=20 Williams is fascinated with the painting, and spent many hours studying=20 it over a period of months at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The painting=20 elicits memories and emotions, and brings Williams to re-evaluate her=20 relationship to her Mormon heritage. At the end of the book, Williams has moved on to stage 5. She has=20 returned home to Utah, not to the Great Salt Lake, but to the aptly- named Paradox Basin, near Moab. She is reconciled with her Mormon=20 heritage, but her relationship with the religion and culture can never=20 be the same it was when she was a young woman (with stage 3=20 conventional faith). "I now live in a landscape where the wind creates windows, windows=20 that become larger and larger through time until they turn into arches=20 one can walk through. "I am the traveler returning home after having wandered through a=20 painting." MBA [Morgan Adair] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 14:20:41 -0500 From: "Neal W. Kramer" (by way of Jonathan Langford ) Subject: [AML] PARKINSON, _Into the Field_ (review) The following is a review of Benson latest novel, _Into the Field_. Title: _Into the Field_ Author: Benson Parkinson Publisher: Aspen Books Date of Publication: 2000 Pages vi-viii, 1-226 Soft cover "For Without Me Ye Can Do Nothing" Since I thoroughly enjoyed Benson Parkinson's first novel, _The MTC: Set Apart_, I have really looked forward to the follow-up, the second in what should be at least a three-novel series. _Into the Field_ did not disappoint, though it did surprise. The adventures of Elders Wilberg, Rignell, Jeppsen, Anthon, and Fergason are even more intense and challenging than their preparation for missions and the two months they spent together in the MTC, which were the focus of the first novel. The language, culture, and weather of France all require significant adjustment. The details of daily missionary life are hard to master, from riding bicycles in the rain to learning to limit pastry intake. Their new companions are less than perfect missionaries. The few investigators they do teach break their hearts. The local members aren't always helpful or friendly. At first, it seems like these young men will not be describing their twenty-two months in France as "the best two years of their lives." Parkinson is not one to sugarcoat the missionary experience. His fictional MTC was very like the real place. Elders and sisters struggled with homesickness, companions did not like each other, some elders were aloof, others light-minded, thinking more of girlfriends than the gospel. Parkinson's elders even broke the rules, though they were always anxious to be good. Some couldn't learn the language, some struggled with memorizing the discussions, but all were blessed enough to survive the Provo compound and enter the field. His fictional France Toulouse Mission provides more of the same. From perpetual rain to blighted government housing, we are shown a grey world in which discouragement is never more than an angry woman's curse away. Even with all these challenges, though, Elders Wilberg and Jeppsen sadly have their missionary experience first corrupted by their fellow elders. Lazy, discouraged missionaries populate their districts and zone. They waste time everywhere, anxiously avoiding contact with anybody except other missionaries. When they do visit a non-member, they have lost the courage to teach discussions. They look more like Americans in a study abroad program than servants of the Lord. Anthon and Rignell have a little better luck. Rignell's companion is a devoted, hard worker. But he has no creativity, and his perspiration outweighs his inspiration. He is not happy to tract the days and weeks away, but he is certainly willing. Rignell obediently follows. But despair will be their ultimate destination, if something does not change. Anthon is sent to an unorthodox, somewhat rebellious, successful missionary. "Beach," as he is infamously known throughout the mission, is a native elder who baptizes wherever he goes. He also shows little respect for traditional missionary methods or the mission rules. His success is still transitory though, as his converts remain active only as long as he stays in the area. I was surprised at the physically and spiritually dreary world these elders entered. I was also angry for them. They deserved better from their companions. At this point in the story--about 100 pages in--I wondered whether I was reading a novel or a memoir. I had to shake myself a little to remember I was reading LDS fiction. Mormon fiction has not shown us many missions in this much turmoil. Missionary stories have tended to focus on the teaching and the baptizing--or the sexual misadventures of individual elders and sisters. Mormon folklore, on the other hand, is replete with whispered rumors of missions or zones gone bad, with elders being rebuked, sent home, and generally chastised. Through this missionary underground we even hear of mission presidents suddenly released or church troubleshooters coming to clean up the mess. So I was beginning to wonder whether I was feeling honest suspense (How and when will this change!?) or I was reading the overwhelmingly bitter experience of an elder beaten down by his mission. (Not unusual for European missionaries at all.) Thank goodness for the Burns conference! Hope arrives just in time in the form of an inspired church leader who confronts the missionaries with their failings and inspires them to repent--or be sent home. We are not surprised that our MTC elders work hard to pull it together--each in his own way, building on strengths we saw or suspected while they were in the MTC. I must admit that Parkinson had me practically on my knees, praying that each of these missionaries would have good missions, filled with spiritual vitality and just enough success to keep them humble instead of discouraged. The second half of the novel begins their salvation and my relief. I think many readers will need to be forewarned that that the first few chapters are disheartening. I also think that is a fairly accurate view of the the feelings of many young missionaries, though the laziness of some elders seems slightly exaggerated to me. Ultimately, however, this is a book about surviving adversity by receiving small gifts of grace. Each missionary who honestly seeks to serve finally finds a blessing. The challenge for readers and characters alike, though, is learning to recognize the blessings in the midst of the harsh reality of missionary life in France. The blessings appear in the daily effort to work harder, to leave the apartment on time, to keep studying the discussions, to listen to the Spirit, to be more friendly with investigators and members, to suddenly discover that you really do love these wonderful people. I especially enjoyed how Parkinson allowed these little revelations to sneak up on you. One moment, the work is is distressingly difficult; the next moment, you can know the missionaries are on the Lord's errand and that He is walking beside them. Exactly like a real mission. Therein lay my relief following the revelations of a mission gone "pagan" in the earlier chapters. Another strength of the novel is Parkinson's understanding that missionary work can become a tedious grind for even the best elders or sisters. He also understands that the most effective way to do the work has yet to be discovered. Therefore, through a variety of crises, he invites us to think carefully about how we honestly want to do this work. The crises are common to missionaries everywhere. Tracting is endlessly dull, yet it is the most obvious way to try to contact people. But it is often a monumental waste of time because it returns so few investigators for the amount of time invested. Friendshipping and fellowshipping are more successful, but they require the members to know and trust you. Teaching by the Spirit is very difficult. And even when investigators decide to be baptized, it is tricky business to know whether they have truly been converted. Within months, even days, of their baptism, many new members simply disappear. Retention rates are low. This all raises questions whose answers are crucial to the success of missionary work throughout the church. Should missionaries focus only on baptizing? How should members be included in the work? Why does the Lord send so much inspiration so freely and then allow the would-be convert to back out at the last minute? Why do the lukewarm get baptized, while those who would be strong, committed members, often decide against joining? Parkinson offers no simplistic answers, but he helps us see how central they are to the work. That, in turn, invites each of us sometimes too tepid members to reconsider our commitment to the work and support for missionaries around the world. Should you buy this book? Absolutely. Should you read it? Absolutely. Should you be more anxiously engaged in this work? Yes, indeed. We can only hope that more writers will work this hard to engage us spiritually and intellectually about issues fundamental to our church membership. Benson Parkinson encourages us through his fiction to move beyond our flighty enthusiasm for missionary work to the bedrock principles of hard work, deep commitment, and simple faith. Indeed, he follows the admonition of Elder Maxwell: "The enthusiasm of 'I'll baptize a thousand on my mission!' is best tempered by 'I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord . . . I'll do what you want me to do,' letting 'God give the increase.'" (Neal A. Maxwell, _Men and Women of Christ_ [Salt Lake:Bookcraft, 1991], 25.) We can only hope that LDS publishers will take more risks in the future on books like this one and that the growing LDS audience for spiritually compelling, serious fiction will buy books like _Into the Field_--and even give copies to their friends. Neal Kramer - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 06:49:16 -0500 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: Re: [AML] Divorce in LDS lit. Jacob Proffitt wrote: >A divorce says something about a >man. If he is at fault for the divorce then he has some serious repenting >to do for breaking such an important covenant. But even if he *isn't* at >fault for the divorce, you have to know that his judgement is suspect. He >made a major mistake with one of the most important decisions you can make. Although this reflects a common attitude, I wonder if it's the only possible attitude. Is it possible for the Lord to sanction a marriage and for it then not to work out? I think so. I think LDS theology accepts the possibility that a decision can be a right one at a given point in time, and then become wrong through later human choices. I see here all kinds of potential for different--conflicting--views of marriage, and of a protagonist's past marriage, for Mormon literature, particularly if the author is willing to entertain the notion that a marriage can be a right decision at the time, worthily entered into, and then choices by one or both partners make it fail later on. Or do we believe that if we're sufficiently righteous and wise, the Lord will always grant us the spiritual insight to avoid a marriage that ends badly? I think that's often what we subconsciously believe in Mormon culture, but I'm not sure we're justified in thinking so. Anyway, I can imagine both the protagonist himself/herself, and his/her friends, taking the attitude of "So, was I unrighteous (that I caused the marriage to end) or stupid/out of tune with the Spirit (to enter the marriage in the first place)?" (Rather reminds me of the New Testament question, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?") Both of which options make one feel really good about oneself and confident about entering into new relationships, yeah right. (Signal for irony.) (This whole discussion reminds me, by the way, of--well, of a lot of things; but most particularly of a very dear friend of mine who's single and will shortly be turning 40. A few years ago, she told me that the bishop in the ward where we were both living rather hesitantly asked her in an interview, "So, have you ever considered marriage?" She said that because she really liked and respected him, she didn't react in any of the ways she was tempted to, like saying, "Why, no, marriage had never occurred to me, what a thought." But she was definitely tempted.) 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, 7 Jun 2000 08:09:34 EDT From: AEParshall@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Divorce in LDS lit. In a message dated 6/7/2000 5:55:44 AM Mountain Daylight Time, cgileadi@ns3.burgoyne.com writes: << Tell you what: someone describing the LDS Singles Dances could have a heyday :). >> More genre fiction -- the Mormon Horror Novel. Ardis Parshall AEParshall@aol.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 08:45:47 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: Re: [AML] Divorce in LDS lit. Cathy Wilson wrote: > Tell you what: someone describing the LDS Singles Dances could have a > heyday :). > As evidence by Carol Lynne Pearson's bitter-sweet musical, _The Dance_. Thom - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 09:16:42 -0600 From: "Richard R. Hopkins" Subject: Re: [AML] Divorce in LDS lit. I really want to thank everyone for their comments in this thread and encourage the continuation of this discussion. All the emotional as well as literary comments are a great help to me in trying to build the hero's character, which I can see now really must be that of a divorcee. There's just too much to be explored for me to miss that opportunity. - -----Original Message----- From: Clark Goble To: aml-list@lists.xmission.com Date: Wednesday, June 07, 2000 5:54 AM Subject: RE: [AML] Divorce in LDS lit. >But then that's probably why the >divorce rate has been getting so high. Actually, I've seen the most recent statistics. The divorce rate in Utah is notably below the national average, which itself has dropped to about 25%, surprisingly low in my mind. But what I'm talking about in the story I'm writing is a "good," 14-year, temple marriage, and that presents very special problems. For your information, the divorce rate among temple-married LDS is a surprisingly low 6%. >(For the record I'm 30 and single, so I may be a bit touchy on the issue) > >-- Clark Goble Thirty is nothing, Clark. Many men in my family did not marry until their early thirties and they were very happy in their marriages and entirely "normal" in every other respect. It just took them longer to find the right one. Of course, it becomes more difficult to make certain changes in your life, changes that are necessary in order for a man to successfully live with a woman, the longer you wait after about 25 to get married, but imagine a hero in his early forties and still unmarried. I think we're getting into a whole different and very difficult situation for a hero that age to have never been married. Don't you think? If a hero is, say, a bishop, and his wife "goes off the deep end" and divorces him. What issues do you see arising? I had a great Stake President once who had this very experience. I often wondered what was involved, and though I knew his family quite well, I never asked them about it. (I've always felt the urge to respect people's privacy, not a really good trait for an attorney, unfortunately.) His wife was a little strange, then suddenly became very strange and divorced him. What issues do you think he had to grapple with? Is there fault on his side? What would be interesting to explore in a situation like that if you were writing it? Richard Hopkins - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 09:15:38 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: Re: [AML] _The Testament of One Fold and One Shepherd_ "R.W. Rasband" wrote: Here are my observations about the film, using this email as a starting point (I'm too lazy to write my own review, so I'll piggy-back on this one.) > This film is fully the equal of the most expensive, elaborate > Hollywood-produced effort. The sound, special effects, costumes, sets, > photography and acting are on the same level as anything made for a paying > American audience. The invented story, however, is pedestrian in the extreme, and is about as riveting as limp Ramen. > This is the first church film this can be said about; > its a quantum leap over even "Legacy." > The decision was obviously made to make this film as entertaining as > possible, given the restraints imposed by respect for scripture. Thus, the > climax somewhat resembles a Spielberg-Lucas movie set in ancient America. The climax, however, is in the wrong place. Instead of it being, as it is now, at the destruction of the Nephite city, it should have been where the story demands it, the coming of Christ. Instead, there are all these great special effects of the city falling apart, burning, etc. and then when Christ appears, it's like -- here's this whispered sound you can't quite hear, this beam of light, and Christ appears, descends a few feet, and there he is. Arnold Frieberg got it right. The coming of Christ *should* have happened way high up in the sky; we should have seen the descending form of a man encased in light; the people below shouldn't have been able to hardly look up without shielding their eyes; as He descends, some should have slowly realized who this was, fallen to their knees, etc. As it now is, Christ appears, and the people react like it happens everyday. >I > did not feel, however, the annoyance I frequently feel at the manipulations > of a big-budget flick. Here the technique was in a good cause. Interestingly, that's exactly why I felt annoyance: because they did not use the big-budget effects in the right place. They should have been pulling out every stop for the descent of Christ. In the BofM, his descent is clearly THE climax of the entire book; in this film, it is almost an afterthought, and clearly anti-climactic to the destruction of *one* city, by the way. > It is impossible to tell one ethnic group from another in this film. > Everyone has the same light brown skin. The words "Nephite" and "Lamanite" > are never uttered. Not only that, but the love interest was no more ethnic than I was and her brown skin makeup was decidedly lower than professional standards. > At one point the father, Helam, has to literally save the life of his grown > son, Jacob, who has fallen in with a secret combination. I thought how rare > it is you see a depiction of a strong competent male parent these days. Can you see the similarity between this story and the one for Legacy. The believing parent, the unbelieving son? The story was no completely predictable that it held no suspense for me. How could a viewer not have known, for instance, that Jacob would come back to the fold? And was anyone surprised when the monument fell on the Lamanite Leader? And, of course, Helem would get his eyesight back. > Because our culture worships youth, most parents, and especially most > fathers, are depicted as boobs. As opposed say, to the strong fatherly character (the King) in _Braveheart_, or the similar character played by Richard Harris in _Gladiator_? > Lastly, the finale of this film is really something to see. I feel awkward > describing it in words because of the events involved. Suffice it to say it > has been shot and edited with the utmost forcefulness and will rock you back > in your seat. Hours later, after the spiritual impact had faded somewhat, I > thought to myself "Now, *that's* how you end a movie!" That's okay, I took the responsibility upon myself to describe the ending of the movie which was a disappointment for me, considering how it could have been done. > > The most important thing you will take away from "Testaments", of course, > are your feelings. My own were humbled and grateful. It has been designed > as a missionary tool, but this film is a must-see for LDS audiences, if only > to find out what the church and its artists can accomplish when they really > set their minds to it. > It must be seen, yes. Technically, it is far and away the best thing the Church has ever produced. But, as with all other Church films, it is *too* respectful of the material, so that the characters speak too much in the BofM idiom, even the fictional characters. And the coming of Christ, though performed in the film very accurately according to scripture, was virtually stripped of any emotional appeal (as far as I was concerned), except for what the viewer might already have about the story. Parts of Legacy actually brought tears to my eyes. I sat like Al Gore throughout the performance of Two Testaments. Having said all the above, I admit that my view may have been colored by the fact that, when we went, we couldn't buy any tickets, and were told we could "probably" get in if we stood in the overflow line. So, an hour before show-time, we get in line and end up sitting because standing an hour is out of the question. Everyone with tickets gets in, then we go in -- There are at least half the seats unoccupied. Why was I made to stand in line for an hour when I could have gotten my ticket and walked around Downtown SLC for a while, then just gone into the performance without having to wait? So I was not a happy camper by the time the show started. That may account for my less then enthusiastic review. Though I don't think so. Thom [Duncan] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 10:00:35 -0600 From: "Jim and Laurel Brady" Subject: Re: [AML] Divorce in LDS lit. I think that you cannot categorize divorcees, men or women. Precisely. And so many times, in popular LDS literature, there is such an effort to make the characters "perfect" and the result is pure sap. Which is one of the reasons I initially suggested the hero should be neither widowered or divorced but never married. In my opinion, the widowered or divorced ploy (with the divorce being absolutely no fault of his) is simply an effort to allow him to be "perfect" so the reader will accept and like him. In reality, there are so many wonderful potential stories in people who are truly flawed--the divorced man who knows the divorce was in large part due to his fault, the shrewish, manipulative, self-centered wife or ex-wife, the older single male or female with quirks or extreme expectations, the widowed man or woman who actually is relieved to be once again single and feels huge guilt over this...these people are much more real than stereotyped, cardboard "perfect" folks. [Laurel Brady] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 10:20:28 -0600 From: "Richard R. Hopkins" Subject: Re: [AML] Divorce in LDS lit. - -----Original Message----- From: Tracie Laulusa To: aml-list@lists.xmission.com Date: Tuesday, June 06, 2000 9:47 AM Subject: RE: [AML] Divorce in LDS lit. >I do have some questions in my mind about all the talk about this "one and >only". >Does everyone really believe there is a "one and only", that until you find >this mysterious person everything that has gone before has been somehow not >the right experience, that finally finding this "one and only" make all the >mistakes, sins or whatever happened along the way somehow right because it >led you on the path to this ultimate destiny? Does all literature of a >romantic nature have to foster this "Saturday's Warrior" type image? > >Tracie Laulusa Interesting you should ask. My story has a fantastic (but largely true!) twist on this, and explores how that "myth" has affected my hero's expectations, prior marriage, etc., but I won't let all the cats out of the bag here. Personally, I found my "one and only." I'm quite certain about that (I was told months in advance when I would meet her, and years in advance, her name--other things too, but they're too personal). But I'll tell you this for sure, it didn't solve all our problems. It's still been a challenge learning to be happy together, to live together in a way that will ensure we enjoy each other's company for eternity, getting over past problems, the mundane things that are part of every married person's life. And that's even though she's one of the most beautiful and charismatic women in the world! Yeah, guys, beauty doesn't solve everything. The fact is everyone has to work out the same problems and learn to live with one person successfully. That's why divorce is usually a cop-out. You think you'll get a better deal with someone else, but think again. You'll just have different challenges learning to live together. Ultimately, you have to learn that lesson, and it only comes by sticking to the job. That might be something good for a story to bring out. Or do you think it will require some kind of sex therapy manual for Latter-day Saints? Richard Hopkins - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 10:17:32 -0700 From: Rob Pannoni Subject: Re: [AML] Divorce in LDS lit. Christopher Bigelow wrote: > > One thing I'd like to see literature explore is whether God ever sets people up in marriages that he knows will--and should--end in divorce. I believe he does, just in the same way he may allow someone to contract a disease that requires a traumatic cure. To say that any man who marries the "wrong" woman has made an error in judgment denies the possibility that the Spirit led him into that decision--but as a trial, not a blessing. I don't have trouble with the possibility that God inspires us to do things that lead to outcomes we don't expect or for reasons that are not obvious to us. I have a little harder time with the idea of marriage as God's punishment for past mistakes. I tend to think our mistakes bring their own punishment without any help from God. I would probably spin it a little differently and suggest that the experience might have been for lessons that couldn't be learned in any other way. But this whole discussion has left me feeling a little uneasy. There seems to be this great need for finger-pointing. There is an explicit assumption that if a marriage fails it is because someone was either sinful or defective. People change and grow. Sometimes their growth takes them down separate paths. Why not a novel about a marriage between two good, faithful people who simply find that after many years together their paths have diverged? Perhaps they have simply exausted all of the possibilites of the relationship. Personal growth has turned to stagnation. There is no animosity, just a shared sense that they have come to the end of the road. Perhaps the same spiritual witness that bound them together is now saying it's time to move on, even though there is no reason they can point to that anyone else would understand. The lack of a logical reason for the breakup might make this the most heartbreaking tragedy of all. - -- Rob Pannoni Rapport Systems http://www.rapport-sys.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 12:50:51 -0600 From: Jacob Proffitt Subject: Re: [AML] _The Testament of One Fold and One Shepherd_ On Tue, 06 Jun 2000 17:28:47 PDT, R.W. Rasband wrote: >The most important thing you will take away from "Testaments", of = course,=20 >are your feelings. My own were humbled and grateful. It has been = designed=20 >as a missionary tool, but this film is a must-see for LDS audiences, if = only=20 >to find out what the church and its artists can accomplish when they = really=20 >set their minds to it. Excellent Review. I saw this movie a month or so ago and I still feel = the impact of it sometimes. It is the best example of using the spirit in = your art. The director and/or editor have an excellent, light touch that made this a forceful, spiritual event rather than just another afternoon at = the movies. It's ten times better than Legacy hoped to be. Not to say that it is perfect in every way. There were a few scenes I thought were unnecessary (Jacob's visit home on his way out of town was = kind of confusing) and some that went a little too long. I'd have preferred = to have those scenes cut some in order to add a scene or two with the girl = and her mother (I wanted just one scene where the mother explains her former beliefs and how she got to where she is now). But I don't know if the change would have hurt the rest of the movie so = I'm not really complaining. If you're in the neighborhood, make sure you = take the time to see this movie. Unlike "God's Army" it isn't likely to open = in theaters across the states. Jacob Proffitt - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 13:29:22 -0600 From: Kathleen Woodbury Subject: Re: [AML] Cover Letters for Picture Books At 06:32 PM 6/6/00 -0700,Tracie Laulusa wrote: >I have a question mainly for picture book writers. What are the >main differences between a cover letter and a query? I have read >_Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market_ and numerous >articles on the web with out finding any answer. The consensus >seems to be the author sends the entire picture book manuscript >and, instead of a query, a cover letter. But I can't figure out >what exactly should be in the cover letter-except somewhere the >statement that you are making simultaneous submissions if you >are. Anyone have any knowledge? Query letters are what you send to an editor to ask if the editor would like to see something you have written. (You always include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with a query letter, by the way.) Cover letters are what you send to the editor =with= the story you have written. In query letters you give a short description of the thing you want to send (and if it's a novel, be sure you are talking about a finished novel and tell the editor that it is finished). In cover letters you tell the editor that you are submitting "Title of Your Story" for the editor's consideration. (And that's all you need to say, though you can mention that you have also included a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the editor's response--if you don't want the manuscript back and are including a business- sized envelope with only one stamp on it, you can mention that, too, and you can say that it is (or isn't) a simultaneous submission.) If you have any professional credits, or if you have professional expertise (say, you're sending a story about an archaeological dig and you've actually been on one or several) relevant to the story, you can mention those things in the cover letter. You should know that when I have served as a fiction editor, though, I have not paid a lot of attention to what is in the cover letter. I would look at the name, address, etc, and make sure the title of the story is in the letter, and then I'd file the cover letter for my records with a "received by" and the date written at the top. Some editors use cover letters as a nice place to put their coffee (or hot chocolate) cups while they read the manuscript. In fact, unless the guidelines specifically state that the editor wants you to include a cover letter, and if all you have to say is that you're submitting "Title of Your Story" to the editor, you don't need to include a cover letter at all. It is obvious to the editor that you are submitting the story. I hope this helps. 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 #62 *****************************