From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #147 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, September 6 2000 Volume 01 : Number 147 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] History and Fiction Todd wrote: "Am I being lazy?" Those last questions you pose are SO GOOD,= Todd. And I think I am asking that one now as readers want more and more= about my historical character, John Lee. But it isn't his story, I say. = If I can slip more fact in by writing another sentence or two, though, = I will. But John Lee happens to be the MOST documented figure in Church = history--by himself and others. He deserves a whole novel. Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 16:56:30 PDT From: "Jason Steed" Subject: Re: [AML] Introductions: Tom Matkin Tom, My wife's mother is a Dudley from Magrath (spelling?). I've been up your way a couple times on family trips, to visit the Dudley clan. Pretty country...Waterton is gorgeous... Jason _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 17:12:43 PDT From: "Jason Steed" Subject: Re: [AML] Introductions: Rex Goode Hey, another Oregonian! Good, good. I was fortunate enough to spend a few weeks back home this summer--man, do I miss it! Sorry, just writing from a fit of jealousy... Jason _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 13:51:37 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] MN Braving the Elements for Their Faith: Deseret Book Press Release From: Deseret Book Press Release To: Mormon News Subject: MN Braving the Elements for Their Faith: Deseret Book Press Release 30Aug00 A4 Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 23:00:00 -0400 [From Mormon-News] Braving the Elements for Their Faith SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- Between 1840 and 1890, more than 40,000 Europeans under the age of 21, all converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, left their homelands and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to America, sailing to Zion. Their journeys ranged from seven weeks long to just over three weeks, as ships became faster and more efficient. Many children left their parents behind, traveling instead with trusted neighbors or missionaries until the rest of their families could afford to join them. The accounts of many of these young pioneers are told in I Sailed to Zion : True Stories of Young Pioneers who Crossed the Ocean (Deseret Book, $17.95), a wonderful collection of stories kept for generations in journals or through personal writings. Collaborating on this collection, authors Susan Arrington Madsen and Fred E. Woods let these stories unfold through the very words of those who experienced them. "I remember standing still, holding on to the railing as the boat glided out into the wide, soft darkness," one young Danish emigrant recorded. "I stood my ground without a tear until I saw a sweet, tear-stained face come into view. It was my mother. As she squeezed through the crowds, the heat and confusion almost overcame me." Despite seasickness, dehydration, and a myriad of diseases such as smallpox, these faithful Latter-day Saints continued their pilgrimage to America. Of the over 40,000 Saints who braved the elements, nearly 700 died and were buried at sea. Yet in an era when many ocean-going vessels were shipwrecked, only one LDS immigrant ship was lost at sea; that in the Pacific. By contrast, in the seven-year period between 1847 and1853, 59 non-LDS immigrant ships were lost in the Atlantic. I Sailed to Zion captures the emotions these young pioneers felt and shared as they endured their journeys, the endless days made bearable by playing checkers or tag, or by dancing or singing; and the restless nights made difficult by the volatility of the seas. Even once the ships reached America and the Saints came ashore in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, or New Orleans, their journeys were only half-completed, as they headed West to Utah or to other Mormon settlements in the Midwest. Before each chapter, commentary by Madsen and Woods helps to illustrate the sacrifices these young people and their families made as they exercised their great faith. Whether alone or with family, these pioneers were motivated by the quiet burnings of the Spirit whispering that their beliefs, and their goals to join fellow Latter-day Saints, would be sustained. ### About the Authors: Susan Arrington Madsen is the author of several books, including the best selling I Walked to Zion: True Stories of Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail and Growing Up in Zion: True Stories of Young Pioneers Building the Kingdom. She and her husband, Dean, are parents of four daughters and live in Hyde Park, Utah. Fred E. Woods is an associate professor of LDS Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He has done extensive research on early Mormon maritime immigration. He and his wife, JoAnna, have five children and live in Provo, Utah. See also: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1573456519/mormonnews More about "I Sailed to Zion: True Stories of Young Pioneers Who Crossed the Ocean" at Amazon.com >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: Sun, 3 Sep 2000 15:22:40 -0600 From: "J. Scott Bronson" Subject: [AML] Introductions: Scott Bronson Hello, my name is Scott Bronson, and I'm a bibliaholic. I discovered this fact fairly early in life at an elementary school in San Diego. My first two and a half years of school took place at a school in a not-so-well-to-do neighborhood and so my education was substantially behind the times when we moved (midway through second grade) to an almost-well-to-do neighborhood ("Oh no, rest assured that all of the schools in the district get the same attention and treatment as every other school regardless of the mean income or race of the families tied to each school." Yeah, right.). I did so poorly at the new school that at the beginning of third grade I was put into a special class. Within a few weeks I was so far ahead of the rest of the class that I spent most of my time sitting at my desk reading. So, they put me back up with the not-so-special kids. I've been a rabid reader ever since. By the time I made it to junior high I had pretty much limited the focus of my reading to science fiction. My parents thought this was the reason my grades weren't so hot so they barred me from reading any SF during the Summer break between eighth and ninth grades. That was the Summer that I found Michener and C. S. Lewis. - -=96 Time Warp -- I am forty-two now and I live in Orem, Utah with my wife of fourteen years, Lynne Davis, and our five children: Joel (13), Paige (11), Michael (9), Christopher (6), and Rachel who will be four on Christmas day. I majored in theatre at BYU for four years although I did not get my degree from that institution. Combining credits received from San Diego Mesa College, Brigham Young University and Utah Valley Community College I was able to graduate from the Regents College of the University of the State of New York. Here is what I've learned that having a diploma gets you; something to hang on your wall. Of course, getting a diploma is not what I went to school for. Going to school, off and on, for all those years got me a fine education, some wisdom, a little insight, a lot of friends, a wife, and a modicum of debt. When I was in junior high I had decided that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, but when the results came in on some aptitude test that all us eighth graders had been forced to take, I was told that my disposition was more suited to sorting bricks. Well, I must confess that I am a bit obsessive compulsive and I could be perfectly happy sorting bricks for the rest of my life except for three things. First; brick-sorting doesn't pay enough to raise a family. Second; the kind of bosses you get in brick-sorting jobs are grouchy, unreasonable control freaks who only wish they could sort bricks as well as I do. And, thirdly, I must write. Or act. Or direct. Writing, acting, directing, playing with my kids and going on dates with my wife are the times when I feel most alive -- and are the only times that I feel aren't lost to the void. I have written -- and seen produced or published -- several plays; I have written, and seen published, some fiction; I've directed a few plays; and I've acted in a few things. Lists are available upon demand. I enjoy a great many things about life on this planet -- the ocean (where it meets La Jolla Cove in particular); mountains (one Timpanogos in particular); trees (the deciduous of Provo Canyon and the eucalyptus of San Diego in particular); deserts (Mojave); and sunsets and sunrises (I've seen some good ones in Georgia, Utah, California and Indonesia.) I love listening to music; everything from jazz, blues, rock, pop, classical and just about anything except most country and absolutely no polka. I love movies. "Glory" continues to move and inspire me like few others have. My dream is to have my own theatre where I can produce plays written by me and my friends. Well, this is more than you wanted to know. I'll shut up now. J. Scott Bronson--The Scotted Line "World peace begins in my home" - -------------------------------------------------------- We are not the acolytes of an abstruse god. =20 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: Sun, 03 Sep 2000 19:05:02 -0600 From: John Bennion Subject: [AML] Introductions: John Bennion This recent spate of introductions prompted me to stop lurking and participate. I'm John Bennion and teach creative writing, British novel, Mormon Lit., and Thomas Hardy at BYU. I teach a creative writing class called Wilderness Writing where Burton Olsen and I take students backpacking and then they write about their experiences. I've published short stories in the local Mormon presses and a collection, _Breeding Leah_ . The title story is about a couple's failed attempt to raise pigs and is quite autobiographical. I graduated from Utah State, BYU, and University of Houston. I was president of the AML last year (and this year the AML is recovering from the my damage). I love basketball, building fence, and backpacking. I live in Springville with Karla, a mystery-writing psychologist, and four of our children. My news (shameless plug) is that my novel _Falling Toward Heaven_ will be out toward the end of next month from Signature Books. The story concerns a missionary to Houston who on the last day of his mission falls off the celibacy wagon with a contact. They try to make a marriage out of the mishap, but she wants to go to Anchorage where she has a job and he want's to go back to Utah. I'm excited that the cover will probably be a painting by Trevor Southey. ________________ Professor John Bennion 3117 JKHB English Department Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602-6280 Tel: (801) 378-3419 Fax: (801) 378-4705 - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 19:43:00 -0600 From: "mcnandon" Subject: [AML] Introductions: Nan Parkinson McCulloch This is a multi-part message in MIME format. - ------=_NextPart_000_0001_01C007BA.2FBB7620 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit My name is Nan Parkinson McCulloch and when I moved to Draper from Texas 5 years ago I had absolutely no interest in Mormon literature. I have read _Dialogue_ for years and had interest in anything written about Mormons (_Angels in America_, _Two-Headed_, etc.), but had no idea that Mormon writers were turning out such good stuff. Since joining the list, I am discovering that there are some darn good Mormon writers out there and I have especially liked the plays I have seen by Eric, Thom and Margaret. I was born in Franklin, Idaho and attended BYU, Utah State and Weber State. I lived 10 years in California and 25 years in Texas with intermittent stints in Utah and Idaho. I have written several children's books, one self-published and one contract that *bit the dust* when some of the big book houses didn't pay their bills. I like writing essays and want to do more of that. I am 65 years old and have four interesting, successful children. My husband has four wonderful children, as well, and together we have 30 grandchildren. My husband Don and I have a wonderful life together and are wildly compatible ( just to let you know that if you keep trying, you can finally get it right). We do lots of foreign travel and oftimes when we return I have in excess of 400 e-mails from the list waiting for me. I have been performing since I was 10 years old. I do music, choreography and am an actor currently playing Mrs. Higgins in _My Fair Lady_ at Hale Center Theater Orem. I am single-cast and the play runs through September (that means 7 performances per week). Check out www.halecentretheatre.com. I love ideas and have a passion for creative thinkers, both of which I find on the list. 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Others don't share our theology, nor do they share our history; IOW, the way we construct history differs from the way it is constructed by others, and this has an effect on the construction of our/their reality (which would include ideology, theology, etc.). Granted, as LDS we believe (and I do not swerve from this belief) that we know, or at least are able to know, some bits and pieces of Absolute Truth (i.e. "what really happened"). That is, we believe there are meanings and significances to certain historical events or sequences of events that we believe are Absolutely True and not subject to perspective. We believe that there IS an Absolute. But what that Absolute is, its complexity, its multifaceted nature, etc.--even as LDS we have to admit that we don't have a corner on this. We are still limited to our very human (thus very limited and imperfect) perspectives, and our tellings of history (though they be LDS) are still limited by our humanness. So, it seems to me that we must acknowledge that history--even the LDS version (I should say "versions", as there are many even within the Church) of history--is still a constructed thing; any given version may include bits and pieces of, angles or variations on, "what really happened." Again, if this were not the case, then someone ought to be able to simply say "this is 'what really happened'" and be done with it. There would be no arguing the matter. Jason _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 17:05:40 -0400 From: "Quinn Warnick" Subject: [AML] Introductions: Quinn Warnick I am mostly a lurker, but I thought I would introduce myself in case I decide to post in the future. I've started a few threads in the past year or so, but no one seems to be interested in the topics I bring up, so I spend most of my AML-List time on the sidelines. I am 24 years old, a recent graduate of BYU, and currently employed by the federal government in Washington, D.C. My wife and I got married about a year ago, and we are loving our first time on the east coast. My connection to Mormon literature: I was heavily involved in student publishing while at BYU, working on the staff of _Inscape_ for over two years. I also helped found the student editors forum at BYU (which may be defunct by now) and helped plan and promote the first AML Writers' Conference last fall. I took several classes from John Bennion, who roped me into volunteering for AML events and fueled my interest in Mormon literature. I am currently the editor of _The White Shoe Irregular_, an online journal of literature and humor (located at http://www.whiteshoe.org) that I created a few months ago. It's a part-time venture (although, much more full-time than I initially imagined), but we've had a great response in our first month or so of being online. While the site is aiming for a broad audience, many of the people who have written for us thus far are BYU alumni (including AML-List curmudgeon Eric Snider). I hope to one day return to editing and publishing as a full-time job, but for the time being, I'll keep lurking... Quinn Warnick - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] Introductions: Ardis E. Parshall I was very interested in Ardis Parshall's occupation as a history sleuth!= I am a firm believer that all of these individual histories are the stuf= f that great art is made of! I think she is a veritable gold mine of oppo= rtunity for fiction writers. We are very appreciative of Ardis, and excit= ed to add her to our AML Board. Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 18:19:22 -0700 From: harlowclark@juno.com Subject: [AML] Introductions: Harlow Soderborg Clark Eighty years ago today, September 5, 1920, in East Jordan Michigan Abigail Jane Willis and her husband, Elmer Floyd Matthews, had a new baby daughter they named Elethia June. In 1930 Abigail took her three daughters to Idaho as a mail-order bride for Guy Thompson. In 1936 or early 1937 Elethia met schoolmate Viola Lee's father, Bert. "Well, Viola, don't you know this is going to be your new mother?" It was one of those jokes that proved true. Abigail said, "I won't give my consent, but I'll lie your age." The couple had 8 children, and settled in Challis, Idaho in 1950 a year before their 6th child, Donna, was born. (Donna remembers one Veteran's Day where the teacher asked if anyone knew a WWI veteran. "My father," she said. "Your grandfather, you mean?") Her oldest son, LeRoy, moved Elethia to Orofino in northern Idaho in about 1980. Donna left Challis around the same time, moved around with her sister Marie and family for a time then went on a mission in her mid-thirties. Shortly after returning she went to a single adult dance in Olympia WA with her sister Bonnie and met a writer nearing the end of a year off from grad school at the UW. She promptly forgot about him as her mission president called her bishop and told him to get her gall-bladder out so the mission could pay for it and close its accounts on the issue. (She wasn't sent home early, but because it became evident in the mission field that she needed the gall bladder out Pres. Bacon gave her the option to wait till she got home.) A few months later when she went back to the dances she asked (she thought) the Olympia SA rep (she was her stake rep at the time) to dance. It turned out to be the writer, who asked her on Valentine's Day to marry him, then said, a few years later, "I don't understand why Valentine's Day is so special to you." The two were married on Elethia's birthday in 1987 (June 22, Elethia and Bert's anniversary, was on a Monday so temples were closed--long wait for a sentimental date) honeymooning in Yellowstone the year before it burned. For a long time after moving to Utah they tried to get Elethia to come live with them, where she could get good health care, and finally succeeded. In August 1997--there goes the 10th anniversary trip to Yellowstone--during a brief respite in Elethia's illnesses her home teacher and his wife made a bed in back of their van and drove her 8 or 900 miles to Pleasant Grove, Utah. Marie's husband Joe drove a truckload of her things down, and their daughter Sarah, just out of high school, came along to help care for Grandma. She was there for 2 years until she went on a mission to Ohio. During the hot dry summer of 2000 Elethia's health worsened dramatically after she fell and broke her arm, adding another pain besides her rotting feet and two sores on her backside tunneling toward each other. "Oh, Harlow," she would moan when he was trying to get her on or off the potty seat. She found it more and more difficult to walk the few steps from her recliner to her bed--"Move your left foot, Mom. Now move your right foot." "Mom, don't buckle on me. I need you to stand. You stand for your workers." "Don't say that to me, Harlow." Finally everyone used the wheelchair to move her even a few steps. She held on despite her tremendous pain. Her home health aids told Donna she needed to tell her mother it was ok to go home. How? "Mom, do you think it might be time to go home?" "It's been time for a long time." Donna asked the family's next door neighbor (from stake pres'y) to bless her mother with release. (Donna had asked her husband to do the same in March, but the best he could do was to tell Elethia her life was acceptable, and if she wanted to return home she could, and if she wanted to stay that was acceptable.) He came over Monday evening, August 21, with the family's home teacher. He said there were several wills involved here, the family's righteous desires not to see her suffer, Father's, and her own desires. Her son-in-law anointed and President Robins blessed her to know peace, the love the Lord has for her, to know the Lord's will for her, and to conform herself to that will. Shortly after that Marie and Joe arrived and alternated sitting up with her holding her hand the next few nights. Sometime between then and the next morning she had a stroke. The family thought she would die Tuesday night, and stopped giving her oxygen, but she kept going. "She didn't want a pacemaker," Donna said, "but I convinced her to have one put in." She finally gave up, or let herself go, or whatever it was she did, at 9 a.m. Friday August 25 just before Donna and Matthew returned from the last day of water aerobics ("She must have known I couldn't take it if I was home when she went"), and Donna's husband was in the bathroom. Olpin Mortuary hurried to get a transport permit and finish other details and on Sunday afternoon two Windstars left Pleasant Grove for Challis. One carried Donna and Matthew, Marie and Betty and Jennifer, and Betty's new baby, Rayna. Harlow, Joe and Elethia rode in the other. The group arrived in Challis around 1 a.m., having passed through the Arco desert, which, coming back looked like sand dunes, everything else having burned off in the worst fire season since Donna was born. There's more, but it will wait for an essay to be called "Letting Go," which begins like this: Imagine a person who can't do anything for herself, feed, bathe, clothe, wipe herself, is unsteady on her feet. We call such a person a baby. Now imagine this baby weighs as much as your husband, taught you how to walk, used to wipe and diaper you, clothed, bathed, fed you, indeed brought you out of her body. Harlow Soderborg 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, 05 Sep 2000 16:27:17 -0600 From: "Eric R. Samuelsen" Subject: Re: [AML] History and Fiction I'd like to extend this discussion a bit. One of my favorite romantic theorists was Schiller, and he once wrote a = terrific book about his own relationship with Goethe, in which he talked = about their relative abilities to capture, in fiction, the 'supersensuous.'= What he meant by 'the supersensuous' is really quite difficult to pin = down, but it means a connection to a kind of spiritual essence that is = best discovered by contemplating nature, some mysterious ineffable = something that is discernable by, but ultimately lies beyond the world we = can touch and taste and smell. Anyway, both he and Goethe were trying to = capture and describe and communicate the supersensuous in their work, only = Goethe was so much closer to it in his own life that he didn't have to = work very hard at it, while Schiller had to work like the very dickens to = capture something that came quite easily to his friend. But both of them = were striving for something that they would never succeed in capturing or = realizing; the idea is that you get as close as you can, while always = falling short. This seems to be a very Mormon idea. We do this in many walks of = life--spend our days striving for an almost undefinable perfection, = knowing we'll always fall short of it, but knowing that there is a kind of = virtue in striving. That's certainly how I feel about writing--I'm trying = to use words to say something, to communicate something, to convey an = impression of life or truth, and I'm aware of how woefully inadequate my = powers of expression are. But I keep trying nonetheless. Isn't that what we historians are trying to do? We know that our source = documents are inadequate, and that the past is unknowable, and that our = interpretations are biased. We know that we'll never know 'what really = happened.' We just want to get as close as we can. So historians spent a lot of time talking about American history, for = example, by focusing on the deeds of Presidents and politicians, while = promoting the myth that America was the greatest country ever, a bastion = of freedom and so on. Later historians chose to include the histories of = women, slaves and native Americans, and inevitably came up with a picture = that wasn't anywhere near as rosy. But both are in the same business; = trying to use a finite number of sources to discover what the truth was. = All histories are inadequate, of course, and some are also inaccurate. = But we're still trying to figure out what really happened. We will always = fail, but that's also okay, because the effort is itself valuable. I was thinking about this in relation to a float I saw in the Provo 4th of = July parade. It was a float based on a painting one sees from time to = time, in which we see George Washington kneeling in prayer next to his = horse, against a backdrop of the camp at Valley Forge.=20 Now, I cannot say that that never happened. I can't say for an absolute = fact that George Washington never knelt in prayer at Valley Forge; it's = just not possible to prove that kind of negative. But I can say that = George Washington left behind a considerable number of written documents = that amply describe his religious opinions. He did not believe in the = efficacy of personal prayer. He was, in fact, a Deist. He believed that = God, if He existed, created the world and then left it alone. There is no = record of him ever praying, anywhere, anytime. So I can say that no = evidence exists to support the idea that he prayed, and that considerable = evidence supports the idea that he never did. =20 Now, in Mormon culture, we want to believe that our Founding Fathers were = all righteous men, deeply religious and devout, who founded our nation on = religious principles. But in saying that they weren't, for the most part, = religious at all, I'm not saying "I choose that narrative because it suits = me, based on my own cultural biases." I'm saying that the facts don't = support one conclusion and do support another one. I'm interpreting those = facts, based on my own time and place. But I'm trying to do so with as = much integrity as I can muster, based on reading every particle of = evidence I can find. And so I conclude that that well-intentioned July = 4th float promoted a falsehood, and that the 'truth' is far more interestin= g. If we consider 18th century religion, we must conclude that we, as = Mormons, are far better off because our country was founded by a bunch of = secular humanists, and that a country founded by genuinely religious = people in the 1770's would not have provided constitutionally for the = freedom of religion necessary for our church to have survived. (We almost = didn't survive as it was.) =20 Of course, we don't know what really happened. But historians have an = itch to figure out what really happened, and often come pretty close. = That's all I'm saying. =20 I also believe that writers of fiction have a similar obligation. Tell = the story as honestly as you can. Come close to getting it right. Get = the facts right. And the result, I predict, will be better fiction, more = interesting, because more complex, fiction. Eric Samuelsen - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 09:35:18 -0500 From: "Todd Robert Petersen" (by way of Jonathan Langford ) Subject: [AML] Moral Issues in Art (was: History and Fiction) D. Michael Martindale wrote: > I agree that choosing a historical character brings consequences. But > they are artistic consequences, not moral ones. Some of us are trying to > argue that artists _shouldn't_ write historical fiction unless they plan > on being as accurate to the history as possible. This is casting the > issue in a moral light. > > But it's really only an artistic issue. Why do morality and art have to be split at all? It occurs to me that LDS people in particular ought to shudder at such a division, particulaly since scripture tells us that all things are spiritual (and thus, I assert, moral) to God. Our writing is certainly moral to Him, even if it doesn't seem like it is to us. In God's frame of reference, we can not make amoral choices (as opposed to immoral). To split art and morality is to make a bourgeois choice, one that can really only come about when the perception is that there is nothing to fight for or believe in. When art is emptied of its moral content and duties, I get nervous. It becomes art for art's sake, which is the point of alienation for lots of people. For me it is a point where I can't relly justify the time I put into it. Without some social function and the "risk" of didacticism, I feel like I'm frittering my time with mere diversions. I know that this tends to worry people who don't like didacticism, but to call something didactic is actually to position oneself against it more than it is a claim about the work itself. One must say, "I am above the lesson, more refined than the lesson being given here" in order to claim it as didactic, which is a particularly venomous breed of pride. Granted, some works are simply beautiful or grotestque or whatever. But The Pieta is beautiful AND didactic. It teaches us about Christ. Some people don't like it for that reason, even though it is a magnificent sculpture. This is beause they say that such messages are too loudly presented, not subtle enough, they interfere with the art, etc. Well, Eliot's THE WASTE LAND is didactic in another way. It is teaching about the fragmentation of what people thought was a grand and unified culture. Dada was bizzaro didactic. Didactic in its refusal to participate in didactisim. Punk rock is didactic in it refual to submit to authority, even to the authority of tuning your guitar. Now degree is another matter entirely. Some things, like bad landscape paintings are less didactic than say, the illustrations in religious tracts. Still a postition is being taken. I guess what I'm saying is that everyone takes a political position, even if they think they aren't. And taking a position is a kind of didacticism. Helene Cixous says that when someone announces that they have no politics they're just saying that they are just submitting to somebody else's. That's true. The gospel teaches us that there is no neutrality, not in the pre-existence and not here. That would go for art as well, I should think. For example, if some children in America are going hungry, and you chose to write poems about the sunset rather than figure out some way to relieve their poverty, then you are making a political/ethical--even a moral choice in some ways. To defend that "right" to turn away from social problems in order to pursue art is to begin a kind of didactic stance. To position oneself as an artist is to do the same thing in a different way. To pursue art as a Christian has always been a kind of schizoid behavior. It bothered Donne a great deal. The question becomes, "How can I praise God with my art when the people checking it our end up praising me, the artist and not you, God?" The ideal of consecration requires LDS people to dedicate our time and talents to the building up of the kingdom. We who are committed to the idea of Zion should be trembling a little as we write, wondering if we are living up to it. At any rate, I worry about that all the time. This is a moral position. An hour painting sunflowers or an hour ministering to the sick? What would Jesus do? So if nothing is neutral or free of politics, then everything is taking a position and therefore is acting in a didactic way on some level, even if it is a very quiet dadacticism. Also, everything is moral, since nothing can be neutral. Oh dear, I've drifted. I'll end saying this: didactic is not the same thing as dogmatic. - -- Todd Robert Petersen - - 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 #147 ******************************