From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #152 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 Thursday, September 14 2000 Volume 01 : Number 152 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 15:50:37 -0400 From: Tony Markham Subject: [AML] Introductions: Tony Markham Born and raised in Arkansas, a member of what was left of the Campbellites after missionaries to Kirtland raided this sect for much leadership of the early LDS church. I'm the only member in my family. After my baptism in Missouri, I loaded everything I owned into a Chevy panel wagon and headed west. Sort of my tribute to everyone else's pioneer ancestry. I stopped in Provo with less than $100 to my name, and thought I'd try BYU. Majored in Theater and Cinema, and consider myself a product of Tad Danielewski's workshop, where I met and worked with such notables as Chris Heimerdinger (sp?) and Neil LaBute. I always thought Kim Wright was the one destined for stardom (Apartment on the Dark Side of the Moon). Anybody know his whereabouts? I was a member of Doc Smith's "Class that wouldn't die" and I guess that makes me a charter member of the SciFi writer's group Xenobia, and the magazine "The Leading Edge." I have fond memories of both, mostly of Barbara Hume singing "Love Me All Night Long" in a low-cut red silk dress, stiletto heels, in a smoky bar in Springfield. Or maybe that was someone else. Other stuff happened, and now I'm teaching for SUNY, at a small branch in beautiful upstate. If I won a million dollars, I wouldn't change a thing. My connection to Mormon Literature is twofold. I taught in Rapid City, South Dakota for four years and was a colleague and weekly raquetball partner with Jack Weyland. Before he was asked to relocate to Rexburg. Invoke Lloyd Bentsen here: "I know Jack Weyland, I worked with Jack Weyland, and believe me, Mr. Quayle, you're no Jack Weyland." While there, I gave a presentation at the RMMLA creative writing session where speaker after speaker bashed Jack. I love him and it was hard to sit through. I'm glad he's collaborating with Card, and may get a bit more of the respect this decent and wonderful man deserves. Second, I wrote a book called "The Jackson Files" published in 1996 that may qualify as Mormon Literature. If anybody ever reads it they will let me know. I had the honor of a Pulitzer nomination for the novel, but the more you know about the nominating process, the less of a distinction that becomes. Currently I'm working on reading "Middlemarch," "The Bluest Eye," and "The Violent Bear It Away." I had resolved not to make another post until I'd finished those and the complete works of Alice Walker, but what with school starting and lots of other things, I bagged that resolution along with losing weight. Tony Markham - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 09:20:11 +0200 From: "Ryan Orrock" Subject: [AML] Plug for the LDS Authors List Hi everybody, Just wanted to let all you "published LDS authors" know that we still have spots on the "published LDS writers list" at http://www.writerspost.com/mormonj/mjauthor.htm. LauraMaery Gold of "Mormons and the Internet" fame owns the site and I do all the work. :) Anyway, if you would like to contribute to another growing community of LDS writers, feel free to send a short bio with links to anything you have published to: Ryan Orrock - mailto:editor@ldswriters.net Thanks everybody! Ryan - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 08:04:16 EDT From: ViKimball@aol.com Subject: [AML] Introduction: Violet Kimball Most people know me as the wife of Stanley B. Kimball, but just wait, I expect to have my fifteen minutes of fame any day now. Sometimes I think I'll change my name to Labute or Card or even Brown or Young so the literary elite of Mormondom will have a clue. I am a one of the "mature" writers on the list, and you can take that a lot of ways. My early ambition was to be an opera singer. I did a little of that, but not exactly at the Met. I started writing for local papers in the St. Louis area 20 years ago. I moved into the national arena with articles on a variety of subjects. I often submitted my own photographs. I once wrote an article on quilts for Quilt World. They used 13 of my slides and about 1500 words. I got paid $125, which next to The Ensign, pays about the least of any national publication. I did three articles for Women's World and was well-paid. They used three of my slides. I came to the writing life fairly late in life, but I intend to be the Grandma Moses of the literary set. I co-authored a tourist book on The Mormon Trail with Stanley, and my book on young pioneers was just published. It was five years of hard labor. Since it seems permissible to do a little self promoting on this list I will end with some comments by a past-president of the Oregon\California Trails Association. He read two of my first draft chapters five years ago. I plan on being in the SLC area for a week the last of Oct, and early Nov. The sales rep at Mountain Press is going to set up a signing and maybe I'll see some of you then. My book is geared to the teenage market and those who like to read have made some great comments. Violet. What a beautiful book! My copy arrived yesterday afternoon. I've been reading ever since and enjoying it thoroughly. Of all the books I've read on the emigration yours bring the story to life like no one else. You show a remarkable understanding of young people, not to mention this old timer who surely feels young as he reads some of the best human interest stories in memory. Good organization may not produce by itself good writing, but it certainly makes good writing possible. Your book is very well organized, exceptionally well written, and beautifully illustrated. The cover is striking. I'm especially delighted that you have looked up from the customary Mormon point of view to see and address a much wider audience of young readers. If this doesn't interest them in history nothing else ever will. Even though your kind mention of me is undeserved, you have honored me greatly by including my name in your acknowledgments. It is a pleasure to be identified with such a fine book. Dave Bigler I might point out that Dave Bigler is working with Will Bagley on some of the "Kingdom in the West" series for Arthur Clark Publishers. I had a contract to do a volume on Women's Trail Narratives, but had to pull out. Violet Kimball - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 13:02:02 -0700 From: harlowclark@juno.com Subject: Re: [AML] Moral Issues in Art (was: History and Fiction) On Wed, 06 Sep 2000 09:35:18 -0500 "Todd Robert Petersen" writes: > 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 out end up > praising me, the artist and not you, God?" Might I suggest Donne's concern is arrogant, though perhaps less arrogant than worrying that if he doesn't write well people will refuse to believe? Donne arrogates to himself a responsibility he can't possibly fulfill. He cannot respond to his work for me. Whether I end up praising him or praising God is not something he can control. The only logical response to his concern is to stop writing, but it is death to hide that one Talent. (Hey, that's kind of catchy. Someone ought to write a sonnet around that line. Maybe I could ere half my days are done.) Why can't I praise both the compass/phallus image in "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," and the Being who will finally rob--has already robbed--death of its pride? Donne should worry instead about his own motives in writing. As should we all. Now that sounds rude, 'Mind your own business, Johnny-boy.' I think what I mean is that if he's going to worry about anything he should worry about responses and desires that come from him, not responses toward him. But I'm not sure he should examine his own desires either. All of us want to be praised for doing well what we do well. Who of us wouldn't want to win the Literary Moronian Associates Unfinished Brown Novel Award? (LMA chose an awkward name for itself. I suppose it's _Moronian_ because the normal English adjective form of _Moroni_ would be _Moronic_. Maybe a name change would be in order?) I'd sure like to win that special chicken dish Aunt Pearl Farley gives out each year to award outstanding performance, the Pullet Surprise, or that literary award the Association of Noble Gas Scientists & Technicians set up--a real dynamite award. I imagine most of us would--but that doesn't mean our motives for writing are suspect, or morally questionable. > 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. It is true that our consecration requires artists and lawyers and doctors and students and homemakers and dentists and plumbers and cement layers and network administrators and nurses and home health aids and all manner of other professionals to help build the kingdom. But I'm not sure it requires people to justify developing their talents--beyond simply developing them. I suggest that developing our talents _is_ the justification for using them based partly on the Parable of the Talents. In the guise of a deeply sarcastic comment it makes a very, very generous statement about what uses of a talent are acceptable. Maybe 1000 years ago, and maybe 8 or 900 years before that, some priest rose up in Mass to give his homily after first reading the Parable of The Talents, and changed the parable's metaphorical sense from a story about stewardship for physical goods to a story about stewardship for mental, spiritual, or physical abilities. "Now each of us has a talent. Some may have a talent for stone work, some for plowing a field, some for making wheels or fletching arrows. Some may have a talent for making things of wood or metal or words. Some may have a talent for hearing the Lord's word and letting in grow in our souls. Our Lord desires that we develop these talents and return them to him, some tenfold, some fivefold, some twofold." That interpretation of the parable is so much a part of our culture that we rarely stop to wonder how the name for a measure of money came to denote a physical or intellectual gift. And I think we miss some of the astonishment we ought to see in the parable. I'm not sure how else to react to the suggestion that any use, even an evil use, of our talents is better than hiding them. The servant with one talent accuses the Lord of being a usurer, of taking something that was not his to take and profiting from it. "Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou has not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed" (Matthew 25:14). He's accusing his Lord of a deep evil, apparently hoping the Lord will be too stunned to reply. The Lord replies that if he is a usurer the servant should have loaned out his talent and returned it for profit. It's hard for us to understand the emotional content that reply would have had for 100s of years of Christians because, as Eric D. Dixon (16-MAR-2000 Re: Artist's Influence) reminded us a few months back, our current economy depends heavily on credit. The point of giving the servants money, rather than, say, real property, is to give them something essentially dead and have them return it as a living thing, something that can increase. If you want a better sense of how iconoclastic the Lord's reply is, of the emotional content that reply might have held for earlier audiences, recast the parable: <<<<< And the great Editor called her writers to her and to the first she gave a taste for words, an eye for imagery, an ear for rhythm, a feel for figures of speech, and the bouquet of rich style. To the second she gave a keen sense of story and narrative pacing, and the ability to work long hours creating engaging characters. To the third she gave a love of words, and took her leave. Straightway the first went and recorded her observations in notebooks and began writing lyrics of surpassing beauty, which often made their way into college classrooms. The second wrote long novels that attracted wide readership, though critics often remarked that his imagery and rhythm were a bit clunky, and there weren't a lot of memorable phrases. The third went and hid his talent, afraid of the problems his love of words might cause. After a time the great Editor returned and asked her writers what they had done with the gifts she had given them. The first presented five volumes of poetry, a work of criticism, a memoir, a play, a collection of personal essays and some short fiction, each containing something written by her children. "Well done, thou good and faithful savant. You have done well with your talents and greatly blessed your family. I will give you world enough, time, and many words to write." The second presented 4 blockbuster novels and a check to fund a little magazine he hoped would chart many new literary waters. "Weldon, you good, faithful servant, you've toiled long and well in my literary vineyards. I now give you a finer sense of imagery, better style, more depth in your characterization." The third said, "I know you for an exploitive employer, who like Amazon.com and Guru.com demands 'a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicenseable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise all copyright and publicity rights, in any media now known or not currently known,' to my work, without any recompense, so I buried my talent, unwilling to work under those conditions. Have your talent back." "So you heard about my plan to profit from your words and leave you nothing. Well at least you could have set up a child-porn website with a little sadism thrown in and given me some profit on the talent I gave you." And the great Editor turned to her personal assistant and said, "Throw him into the bottom of the great dark slush pile, and take his love of words and give it to the novelist." (And the assistant said, "Ma'am, he has five talents already.") "I tell you truly, those who worry that their offerings will not be acceptable will never be allowed to offer them." >>>>> Of course the Great Editor is being deeply sarcastic, no one makes money off a website. It's obvious the third writer's accusation is dishonest. The Great Editor (unlike Guru.com and Amazon.com) has laid no claim to work she didn't produce. Similarly, in the original parable it is obvious that the 3rd laborer's accusation is dishonest. When the Lord was dispensing talents he made no conditions, and we know from how he treats the first two that his manner is gracious, not hard. What I find wonderfully generous is that the parable does nothing to counter the Lord's suggestion that even the most evil thing we can do with our talent is better than hiding it. There's no commentator to say, "Of course, you really shouldn't go out and lend your talent for usury (or use it to build a child porn website) that's just a little bit of hyperbole." (I'll save for another post my comment on a story that does have a narrator commenting on every action, so we can't enjoy the story.) The parable trusts us to understand that if we are using our talents with a sense of where they come from we won't use them badly, and suggests that even if we don't use them as well as we could developing them will be more acceptable than not. If all things are spiritual to God, surely it's possible that all gifts from God have the capacity to pull us Godward if we use them, even if we don't use them very well. 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, 12 Sep 2000 23:51:02 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: [AML] LABUTE, _Bash_ I caught the first two of the three plays in Neil Labute's _Bash_ that was aired on Showtime. I was only able to watch snatches of the third and didn't get enough of it to even be sure what was going on, let alone comment intelligently about it. So I don't consider this an official review and won't write it as such. What I learned from viewing _Bash_ is, you really can separate aesthetics and morality in art. Aesthetically, the two plays were magnificent. The writing sang, and the gradual, almost seductive descent from casual conversation into bone-chilling tragedy was perfection in its timing. No one could come away from these two plays without deep thoughts and troubled emotions. But in both plays there were LDS references--heavily in the first, very lightly in the second. The way these references were handled did not reflect positively on LDS people. In fact, they reinforced ugly stereotypes of religious people that non-religious people often entertain. Choices in art are trade-offs and come at a price. If the results are worth the price, a disturbing choice can still be accepted. The price for negative LDS references that reinforce ugly stereotypes is high, and I saw no value coming out of that artistic choice that came close to making the price worth it. The second play would have not been affected one iota by deleting the references. The references in the first play were more intimately intertwined in the story, yet I feel that they contributed very little to the effectiveness of the overall theme. Nothing was gained by making the references specifically LDS. A little was gained by having the characters be religious, but not enough, in my opinion, to warrant the price. There is one exception that I hesitate to dismiss so easily. At one point, an off-screen character that had just committed a horrible act of violence pulled out his vial of consecrated oil and blessed his victim. That moment clearly required the religious, and even specifically LDS, reference to have its full impact. No other moment in either play came close to requiring the LDS references to the degree of that particular moment. But the play would still have been a powerful and troubling statement without any religious references, and indeed may have been more universally applicable without them, since the references give non-religious audience members an out: those horrible religious bigots, look what they are capable of--but not me! The added impact afforded the play by making the characters LDS was not worth the price. One could argue that such violent people do exist among LDS members, and therefore such a story needs to be told. But how will this play--even in the form of a film on Showtime--reach such an audience? The chances of that happening are negligible. The audience it _is_ reaching are those who in many cases already have a certain preconception of religious people, a preconception which is neither flattering nor universally accurate, and this play only reinforces it. Rather than attacking bigotry, which I assume was Labute's intent, his play ends up feeding it. Even jaded New York critics pointed out that unintended effect. Artistically, _Bash_ is a great success. Morally, it fails its own purpose and therefore falls short, causing harm where harm was not needed for the artistic success. _Bash_ is a prime example of good art that is at the same time morally dubious. - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 13:22:21 -0700 From: "Christopher Bigelow" Subject: Re: [AML] Introductions: Tony Markham Tony wrote of Weyland: <<>> To what does this refer, exactly? Chris Bigelow - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 15:54:53 EDT From: ViKimball@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Introductions: Brandi Rainey In a message dated 9/13/00 2:17:59 PM Central Daylight Time, BrandiR@enrich.com writes: << i'm originally from North Carolina and was blessed to serve a mission in northern Italy. i am the single mother of three water frogs ... rozencrantz, guildenstern, and ophelia. all of which, make me very proud. >> I am LOL. Anyone from N.C. who is a single mother of anything gets my cheerful hello. I am a tar heel myself. Violet - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 16:29:55 -0600 From: "Brent J. Rowley" Subject: [AML] Introductions: Brent "BJ" Rowley I guess I should (re)introduce myself, instead of just sitting here lurking all the time. My name is Brent Rowley. I was on this list a couple of years ago, but dropped off when my life got complicated. (actually it was mostly because of an unfavorable review my book received from a couple of members ...... but I'm over that now ...... NOT!) I live in Orem, Utah, where I work full-time as a Network Engineer. I've spent most of my life here, with the exception of a couple of years in Central America working for the church. (and a couple of years in South America as a missionary.) ((and a couple of other years in Wyoming...)) (((and then there was North Carolina ...))) ((((and, ...)))) Okay, so I get around. I don't know if I really fit in with this group of obviously well educated, totally-immersed-in-literature types of folks. I certainly don't consider myself very literary at all. But I DO enjoy reading all the posts by the regulars--on just about every subject imaginable. It IS very entertaining, and maybe even educational at times. So I guess I'll hang around and lurk for awhile. My connection to Mormon Lit is dubious, at best. I was fortunate enough to have a pair of books published, which landed me in the official "published LDS authors" club, for what that's worth. We sold several thousand and thought we were really on a roll--and ready for book three--when the rug was suddenly yanked out from under, and my publisher gave me the pink slip. (long, sad story) I was instantly out-of-print and out-of-commission for a couple of years. (coincidentally this happened at the exact same time that my first book was nominated, and became one of the five finalists, for the Golden Duck Award For Excellence In Children's Science Fiction Literature [awarded annually at WorldCon] ... go figure.) Recently, however, I have decided to take the plunge and do the self-publishing thing, in spite of Scott Card's best efforts at convincing me otherwise. Gradually, I'm beginning to see the wisdom in his arguments. This is ONE SCARY UNDERTAKING. But what's done is done, and now all that's left is to make the best of it. I have re-published my original two books, with new covers and extensive re-writes, and have added book three to the series. With Evans Book handling the distribution, we're making headway ... gradually. I'm still writing, every chance I get, and plan to publish a couple more books next year, if things work out this season. At any rate, that's me. Thanks for letting me lurk. - -BJ Rowley * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Have you gone "Inviz" lately? Check out "Missing Children," Volume Three in the "Light Traveler Adventure Series." Exciting and Action-Packed Out-Of-Body Adventure -- by BJ Rowley http://www.bjrowley.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 19:03:16 -0400 From: Richard Johnson Subject: Re: [AML] Review Archive Update At 10:57 AM 9/12/2000 -0600, you wrote: >New reviews added to the archive: > Checking the archives I found two that I could remember writing which were not listed. The first:_ "something" re The Blood Tribunal_ I have not yet found in my own archives. The second was a review of _The Gathering_. I have found it in my zip drive, and am sending it for archival purposes. If I have received a "free" book, I feel that the publisher deserves his (or her) money's worth. Review, _The Gathering: Mormon Pioneers on the Trail to Zion_ by Maurine Jensen Proctor and Scot Facer Proctor. 1996 Deseret Book Company. 226 paged, $ 49.95. Reviewed by Richard B. Johnson, Statesboro, GA> I have never begun a review with a personal odyssey story, but in this case, I feel that I must . I volunteered for a review early in the spring because I knew I would have some spare time to do a review during the summer. Benson has said to expect our books soon and to get them back within thirty days. No book arrived during summer. When I finally received the book, in the fall, school had started and I was deep into projects that included a full rewrite of the university curriculum in preparation for a shift from the quarter system to the semester system. (No, I don't have to do it ALL, but I am suddenly on four new committees that meet weekly, all of them waiting impatiently for some dumb report I have written in the mean time). The time press has converted me from a contributor to a lurker on the list. When I opened the package, I found a COFFEE TABLE BOOK. I wouldn't want to put down coffee table books, I own several, mostly about Unicorns, Dragons and Angels, and when my children were younger and when Was more faithful about family home evenings, some of our evenings were taken up sitting in a circle as daddy or mommy turned the pages of a coffee table book, but I had never _thought_ about reviewing a coffee table book. =20 It isn't that reviews are unfamiliar to me. I have written reviews for professional books, novels, short stories, journal articles, and more than a hundred plays (both scripts and performances). I even supplemented my family income at one time by doing oral book reviews for women's literary societies (which really dates me to people who remember when that phenomenon was popular), but I realized, when I removed this book from its cover, that I didn't have the vaguest idea how to critique a "coffee table book". What is most important, the photography, the text, what? My immediate reaction was to place it in the appropriate place (the coffee table/ --should those be herbal tea tables, or soft drink tables in good Mormon homes?). Once or twice a day I would walk by it- primarily to reinforce some good Mormon guilt, reminding myself that soon Benson would be tapping his toe wondering when I was going to get at it. (I had been foolish enough to let him know when the book finally arrived, so that I couldn't just assume that he wouldn't know it had come.) Finally, I sat down on the loveseat by the "coffee table" and determined to read the darn thing through. I did it. It was a remarkably painless experience. The pictures were pretty. Some of them seemed a little anachronistic: I wasn't sure what a pile of newly cut oak trees told me about Council Bluffs, or another row of felled oak trees said about Locust Grove, in fact I became aware gradually that the authors really liked oak trees and that many of the pictures were either of, or framed by, oak trees. As I read the historical text, I was caught by the very personal nature of much of the narrative, but the thought occurred that as church history, it sure wasn't Leonard Arrington. The only really enduring sensation of that first reading as a sense of "tone" in the language. It is difficult to define, but as I read the text, I heard it in my mind as if it were read aloud by Richard L.. Evans or Charlton Heston, or Michael Rennie (the voice of Peter and of Christ in many 1940's and 50's biblical movies). I felt like I had heard the text as much as read it, a quite remarkable sensation. I still had no idea how to write about this, or even if I really wanted to be affirmative or negative. I began to get an involuntary feel for my own opinions when I rode with my son to Orlando where he spent his time auditioning for _Jeopardy_ and I spent mine doing some temple sessions followed by a prowl through the Orlando LDS Bookstore. On my prowl, I found myself looking for _The Gathering_. Not finding a copy, I mentioned it to the lady behind the counter, who felt sure that they had some. She went out into the stacks with me and on a "coffee table" in the front of the store she found three copies, covered up by some other Mormon coffee table books. She looked at me expectantly and I blushed, realizing that I had put her out to find a fifty dollar book that I didn't want to buy because I already had a free copy. I then talked her into a more attractive display with the book standing, open. She probably thought I was one of the Proctors, especially because, by the time I left the store I had sold two of the visible copies to people who probably had come into the story looking for "Leonard Arrington" books. As I listened to my own sales pitch to these poor souls who didn't know, when they came into the store, that the answer to all their needs would be a coffee table book about the trek of saints from England to Utah, I realized that I really liked the book. When I got home I decided to get right at this review and ran into another problem; one of habit. If you could see copies of things I have reviewed in the past you would see that they look disgusting. I use highliters (in the old days it was colored pencils), marking passages that I wish to quote affirmatively with blue, "more analysis" is marked yellow (becoming green if they ever get the blue mark) and Pink is YUKKY. I also fold over pages, insert multiple book marks torn from yellow legal pads clipped in with paper clips, etc. I sat down with my tools, looked at this book and said to my self in Richard L. Evens tones. "I'm not going to mess up this book, not unless they are going to send me another when I am through, and I don't consider that likely. I Xeroxed some pages that I could mark appropriately and proceeded to toil through a somewhat stiffly written generally favorable review of the book, noting a little about each of the six segments taking us from the Apostolic callings in America to the missions of Wilford Woodruff and Dan Jones in Great Britain, the arrival of British Saints a Nauvoo and the travel by wagon and handcart to the west. I particularly enjoyed vignettes, many of them already familiar, taken from the journals and lives of the saints of the time. I came to the office this morning determined to send off this review as soon as my classes were finished for the day. As I loaded my mailer program to send this away, messages began to come in, and one of the first was the Deseret Book Company publicity release for the book. As I read the two side by side I knew that I couldn't send the first review. In some ways they were too similar, yet didn't say enough (although the PR release is mostly verbatim from the inside cover of the book=97the use of which was an idea that had come to me in my early dealings with the book) The final stop on my odyssey has been to spend two hours scrapping and rewriting what had been done before. By the way, the press release brought to my attention a fact that I missed in reading the dust cover, that Maureen Jensen Proctor had been a writer for _The Spoken Word_ a fact that could explain the sense of "tone" that I mentioned earlier. Here it is, I recommend the book, I am glad I have it, I have even learned to love the oak trees. I look forward to reviewing another book, in a less hectic quarter (and hope it is not a "coffee -punch, herbal tea - table"= book Richard B. Johnson Richard B. Johnson Husband, Father, Grandfather, Puppeteer, Playwright, Writer, Director, Actor, Thingmaker, Mormon, Person, Fool I sometimes think that the last persona is the most important http://www2.gasou.edu/commarts/puppet/ Georgia Southern University Puppet Theatre - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 08:28:37 -0500 From: "Todd Robert Petersen" Subject: Re: [AML] Moral Issues in Art Harlow wrote: > It is true that our consecration requires artists and lawyers and doctors > and students and homemakers and dentists and plumbers and cement layers > and network administrators and nurses and home health aids and all manner > of other professionals to help build the kingdom. But I'm not sure it > requires people to justify developing their talents--beyond simply > developing them. But I was not speaking of developing them but pointing out that we're told in no uncertain terms that we are to dedicate our time and talents "to the building up of the kingdom." Justification is part of that, has to be part of that. Just to develop them means nothing really. I think that simply "having" talents but not using them in a social or community way (which of course means to better your friends, neighbors, etc.) is very much like the old candle and bushelbasket issue also brought up in the scriptures. I tell my students that it is not enough to know what you're doing, but you need to know what it IS that you're doing, WHY you're doing what you're doing, and What the world gets from what you're doing. To not be concerned with these kinds of things makes an artist a kind of hobbyist--happy, to be sure--or doing right as Harlow suggested--but really just someone who is pursuing a high, often very high, level of self-amusement. Now, self-amusement has never been part of the gospel. So, how could it be part of an art we choose to call LDS? - -- Todd Robert Petersen - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 10:23:25 -0400 From: Tony Markham Subject: Re: [AML] Weyland/Card Collaboration? - --------------CE2BD6B445C27AE53AEC2C30 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Christopher Bigelow wrote: > Tony wrote of Weyland: > > << of the respect this decent and wonderful man deserves.>>> > > To what does this refer, exactly? > It was just an item I read on one of the lists, maybe even this one, that Jack W. and Scott C. were involved in some project. Probably as co-editors, but the details slip away (as with so much else) with time. Maybe someone else knows more. Or if you were asking about what kinds of decency and wonderfulness I was referring to, I'll try to come up with some telling examples. Tony Markham - --------------CE2BD6B445C27AE53AEC2C30 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit  
Christopher Bigelow wrote:
Tony wrote of Weyland:

<<<I'm glad he's collaborating with Card, and may get a bit more
of the respect this decent and wonderful man deserves.>>>

To what does this refer, exactly?
 


It was just an item I read on one of the lists, maybe even this one, that Jack W. and Scott C. were involved in some project.  Probably as co-editors, but the details slip away (as with so much else) with time.  Maybe someone else knows more.

Or if you were asking about what kinds of decency and wonderfulness I was referring to, I'll try to come up with some telling examples.

Tony Markham
  - --------------CE2BD6B445C27AE53AEC2C30-- - - 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: [AML] New AML Board Members (was: Introductions: Brandi Rainey) May I please also add to Brandi's erudite perusal of herself (frogs and = all) the glorious moment of thanksgiving we are having as the board of = AML trustees as we welcome her as one of our officers helping with financ= e! She is willing and spry! And I also want to take this moment to introd= uce Darlene Young, as well--an excellent literary critic--who will be ser= ving us well as our secretary on the board. A new board member has also = been added--the illustrious Michael Martindale, whose wisdom you have oft= en seen on these posts! We are SO fortunate to have these new willing people to help us! It is = not easy to get busy and competent people to serve on a board such as AML= , but let me emphasize once more that the encouragement our awards and = attentions give to those beginning writers in a culture much snubbed on = the national scene is a prize worth struggling to perpetuate. AML is IMPO= RTANT for all of us who love writing and reading, and also love the Mormo= n Church. So thank you to these three stalwarts--and also thanks to our = new moderator Jonathan Langford, who is officially a member of the board = though he is a bit far away to attend the meetings! (Michigan?) [MOD: Wisconsin, actually. But close, in a relative sense. Cold weather country, certainly.] Thank you all of you listers for your interest and input in a valuable = conversation we have with one another! We are so favored with the existen= ce of all this technology so that we may plot post to post as to how we = are going to storm the world with our talent! Sincerely, Marilyn Brown. - - 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] Introduction: Violet Kimball & Tony Markham I was so impressed to read about Violet Kimball's work--and Dave Bigler's= comment! Is the book in the local bookstores yet, Violet? I was also imp= ressed to read about Tony Markham's pulitzer nomination! Has ANYONE in = our LDS Lit history had such a nomination yet? Will you please tell us = more about it, Tony? I can't believe we don't know about it! Marilyn Brow= n - - 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 #152 ******************************