From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #154 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Monday, September 18 2000 Volume 01 : Number 154 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 16:55:42 -0700 From: "Andrew Piereder" Subject: RE: [AML] _Matrix_ (was: Galaxy Quest wins Hugo) Hmmm. Do you know much about gnosticism? There is no spoon... Andy P. > -----Original Message----- > I myself was quite bored with the film, and still don't understand what > all the hoopla was about. But, my husband loved it. > Debbie Brown > > Andrew Piereder wrote: > > > Matrix was positively ground-breaking in every aspect. > > > > - > AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature > http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm > - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 16:55:45 -0700 From: "Andrew Piereder" Subject: RE: [AML] LABUTE, _Nurse Betty_ > Ruth Starkman wrote: > > > What I can say with a little more certainty is this: Taylor's > position on LaBute strikes Eric as so "personal" because it seems > > more an occasion to defend the virtues of TV culture (what was > this about television having " better writing than films" > > these days?) > > An example: _The West Wing_. Hands down the best written and > acted drama to come down the pike in years. Consistently good. > Other than Martin Sheen, the acting is pretty much run of the mill, Law & Order-type. It the original premise that makes the show watchable. Its been in heavy rotation this summer (does that qualify as soft money?) and I watched a number of shows but soon found them rather pedantic. The show is so self-righteously liberal and doesn't even attempt to get down to the heart of political issues that one would expect would be a the meat of the show. Perhaps it will get better, but probably not considering the emmys and the ratings. I found it a little sad that so many good shows last year were overshadowed by the west wing in the awards. Andy Piereder - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 14:42:06 -0600 From: "Alan Mitchell" Subject: Re: [AML] Moral Issues in Art I want to weigh in on this one. Let's take Todd's statement in context. You will see below that the context is the question of the artist pursuing self-amusement. >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 I think this is what we all disagree with. If art is self-amusement, then we are all just playing by ourselves with no good created. I like to think that because art involves the creative process, it is a very spiritual, self-learning, and self-actualizing activity. It is saying, HERE I AM world. It is making a object that somehow takes on a spirit of its own. How can we call that form of self-amusement _not part of the gospel_? Alan Mitchell - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 20:01:27 -0400 From: Tony Markham Subject: Re: [AML] LABUTE, _Bash_ Marilyn wrote: > Michael wrote: "Bash is good art which is at the same time morally dubious." > > I think this post of Michael Martindale's hits it on the head. I know we've talked about this many times, but still, it's good to take note. Good to be reminded. Skill in art is not the same thing as skill in life-giving. I keep hoping "Mormon letters" will be successful reflecting the "peculiar values." I agree with practically all of Michael's review of "Bash," but would add a couple of things. While it is always a risky business to impute intentions to an author, I think one of the things Neil attempts, consistently, is to teach by negative example. The first of the "Bash" vignettes takes deadly aim at homophobia within the LDS community and if the play is cruel and unflattering, then maybe that's what it will take to get the message through to some, that church membership, and pointedly exercising the priesthood, are at odds with feelings of hatred towards gays. Second, the overriding consideration that Tad Danielewski tried to instill in all of his students was what he called "Quality Y." To put something in our work as BYU alumni that would separate it from the crassness and cheapness of the world. He said we would recognize Quality Y when our skin tingled. Mr. D was not a Mormon but he was clearly describing that chill of the Holy Ghost speaking or prompting. "Bash" had a lot of that for me, both as I watched it and as I recalled scenes and performances days and weeks later. People resonate to different frequencies and not everyone will feel the same promptings from the same stimuli. But for me, "Bash" was one of the most powerful and moving dramatic presentations in recent memory. It will offend many and probably send the wrong message about Mormons to others, but there is a narrow spectrum of audience who will blink, shiver, and say, "A Mormon wrote -that-? Holy Moley!" Tony Markham - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 05:45:07 GMT From: "Dallas Robbins" Subject: Re: [AML] AML Announcements Marilyn, Just curious, what is the Silver Foundation? Dallas Robbins editor@harvestmagazine.com http://www.harvestmagazine.com >From: "Marilyn & William Brown" >IMPORTANT NOTE: >I'm talking too much today, but I have something else important to say >here. A generous and wonderful benefactor--the Silver Foundation--has just >given us a sum of money which far exceeds any amount we have ever earned at >any fundraiser of AML! >Cheerio! Marilyn Brown _________________________________________________________________________ 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, 16 Sep 2000 00:33:28 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] MN LDS Church Will Keep Promised Valley Playhouse, Will Become Shops, Offices: Salt Lake Tribune From: Rosemary Pollock To: Mormon News Subject: MN LDS Church Will Keep Promised Valley Playhouse, Will Become Shops, Offices: Salt Lake Tribune 13Sep00 A1 Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 21:20:00 -0400 [From Mormon-News] LDS Church Will Keep Promised Valley Playhouse, Will Become Shops, Offices SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- Promised Valley Playhouse, a 95-year-old theatre, will be redesigned with office and retail shops and additional parking spaces by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Talk of donating it to Salt Lake County never materialized despite hopes for a $24 to $30 million dollar project to transform it into a fine-arts facility. LDS Church Presiding Bishop, H. David Burton, said the church needs the space after all. "We feel that the addition of these elements will contribute to a vibrant and active downtown Salt Lake City," church spokesman Michael Purdy said. Salt Lake County has since hired consultants for a review of the need for another downtown theatre. Ballet West director Johann Jacobs said, "We need a permanent home." Ballet West is no different from other performing companies trying to squeeze into limited spaces. "Space is at a premium for all of us," Jacobs added. "The solution to another theater is going to be pushed back probably for several years," Overson said. "I don't know what else we can do. We could build a new theater ourselves. This is just a longer process now." Source: Old Theater Will Become Shops, Offices Salt Lake Tribune 13Sep00 A1 http://www.sltrib.com/09132000/utah/21705.htm By Rebecca Walsh: Salt Lake Tribune >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: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 00:09:03 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] Moral Issues in Art Todd Robert Petersen wrote: > I think my point has been missed here in a way that this point is often > missed. Mine too. You say I accused you of one extreme. Then you accuse me of the other extreme. Your messages sounded to me like you were somewhere near the extreme in your admonitions: that unless something has a direct Gospel tie-in, time shouldn't be wasted on it. > Does He wants us to be healthy only for the sake of being healthy or is so > that we can participate in the gospel plan at a higher level? Why wouldn't he want us to be healthy for the sake of being healthy? Does he wish those who are not participating in the Gospel to be sick? > The best things in this life have some kind of virtuous goal > behind them, or rather at their end. This is sounding like the extreme to me again. I do believe there are things worth doing simply for their own innate goodness or pleasure, and that we are not going against any Gospel directive if we indulge in them wisely. > Self-amusement is merely killing some time, like most television watching, > like most video game playing, like most of the attention paid to sporting > events, like most of the pulp writing that passes for art (or tries to > assert itself as such). Again, to suggest we can never do these things, as it seems like you're doing, strikes me as an extreme. It would be foolish to kill a lot of time, but humans need moments of relaxation that serve no other purpose than to "kill time" in an eternal sense. > we are supposed to "put > aside the natural man" and "be in the world but not of it" among other > things. Just because life is for being happy doesn't give us license to > welcome all things into our lives that could possibly be enjoyable. In > fact, part of life is learning to navigate the narrow path between the life > of the puritanical aescetic and the hedonistic glutton. > > I know people who like looking at pornography, one could even say that they > enjoy it. I know people who get enjoyment from cocaine, bourbon, heroin. So > mere enjoyment is not sufficient for gospel growth. In fact, sometimes > "enjoyment" doesn't lead to health. What did I say that suggested I was encouraging this sort of behavior? > There is a middle path, to borrow from the Taoists, and that is what I'm > really trying to describe. I haven't been picking up on that description. You seem to be stoically denying any pleasure that doesn't have a direct connection to the Gospel, including art. Some on the list have expressed guilt over using time to develop their artistic talents, because it's such a waste of time? self-indulgent?--I don't know what to put there, because the concept is foreign to me. Why isn't art as noble as any other profession? - -- 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: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 20:01:27 -0400 From: Tony Markham Subject: [AML] Nominated for Pulitzer? Marilyn is unfailingly supportive and congratulatory to any and all of us who achieve some measure of recognition, She's the best! But I don't want to leave the wrong impression. In a post this summer on the thread "Where's our Pulitzer winner" I asked if anyone knew who the LDS Publishers were nominating. And explained that (as I understand it), every reputable (and some marginally so) publisher gets a ballot. If you have a small publisher your chances of getting a nomination are high. Undoubtedly Deseret, Covenant, Bookcraft, Signature, etc. have all nominated from their own stable of authors. To me it is inconceivable that there would not be people on this list who have also been nominated for Pulitzers. I suppose they are just too modest to step forward. Not me! I've even got it on my vita. Tony Markham - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 01:55:18 -0600 From: "Gae Lyn Henderson" Subject: RE: [AML] Moral Issues in Art Todd Robert Petersen said: > > Does He wants us to be healthy only for the sake of being healthy or is so > that we can participate in the gospel plan at a higher level? Men and women are that they might have joy. The gospel exists to bring us to joy. That is the ultimate purpose. What would be the point of cutting ourselves off from the marvelous things of life that give us pleasure, if our final and ultimate goal is to fully feel, experience, even "become" joy? > > Do we eat only because things taste good? Do we make love only because it > feels good? Do we have children only to ensure the survival of > the species? > No, we do not. The best things in this life have some kind of > virtuous goal > behind them, or rather at their end. Why do we make love? Only because it feels good? I think that is reason enough! Yes, it feels good, it allows us to understand the joy that God wishes for us, the joy that we were sent here to learn about. "The best things in life have some kind of virtuous goal . . . at their end." I would describe the virtuous goal at the end as allowing us to experience the Universal Yes! I guess we could tack onto it the virtuous goal of giving our mate happiness. I guess we could tack on the virtuous goal of keeping the family together. But these are the tacked-on goals. Why do we have such a hard time believing that God may want us to enjoy things--smell, taste, physical sensation? When I got married I was advised by various well-meaning church members that sex should be restricted to producing children. Early church leaders made comments along those lines--we seem to carry a lingering distrust of our bodies. Now the church says sex in marriage is for expressing love, finding mutual joy and satisfaction. > Yes, this is true to a certain extent; however, we are supposed to "put > aside the natural man" and "be in the world but not of it" among other > things. Just because life is for being happy doesn't give us license to > welcome all things into our lives that could possibly be enjoyable. If we define "enjoyable" as bringing us closer to God's purpose for us then I think we want to seek after and welcome all things into our lives that could bring us such feelings. In > fact, part of life is learning to navigate the narrow path > between the life > of the puritanical aescetic and the hedonistic glutton. This sounds reasonable. But don't make the path so narrow that we can't balance ourselves on it. We need art and literature and health and sex to give us happy reasons for existence. > > I know people who like looking at pornography, one could even say > that they > enjoy it. I know people who get enjoyment from cocaine, bourbon, > heroin. So > mere enjoyment is not sufficient for gospel growth. In fact, sometimes > "enjoyment" doesn't lead to health. Things that bring pleasure but separate us from other human beings are not ultimately going to bring us happiness. We may find temporary distraction in such pleasures, but eventually they probably will teach us that something is still missing. We then are going to seek for deeper joy, fulfillment, in relationships, art, literature, service, caring about others, finding God. > > There is a middle path, to borrow from the Taoists, and that is what I'm > really trying to describe. I agree with you completely. Gae Lyn Henderson - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 04:29:00 -0600 From: "Gae Lyn Henderson" Subject: RE: [AML] Defending the Romance Genre Lisa Peck asked me (a long time ago!) to summarize on the list Tania Modleski's _Loving With a Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women._ Sorry I’ve taken so long to respond to you, Lisa! Modleski’s book looks at three genres: Harlequin romances, Gothic novels and soap operas. (LDS romance novels don’t fit perfectly into any of those categories, but do bear resemblance to each of them.) First of all, a stereotypical feminist response to romance novels is that women are participating in their own repression. By purchasing and consuming millions of books that retell the same Cinderella story over and over, women define themselves as victims who need to be rescued by powerful men to have a hope of happiness. Modleski takes a more complex approach. First of all, these stories apparently are doing something important to help countless women cope with their lives. And yet they are particularly disparaged, even in an age that valorizes other types of pop culture. Romantic fantasy sometimes becomes a secret pleasure--women students skip their women’s studies classes at the university to watch soap operas (113) and intellectually-trained academics may escape their literary persona for unmentioned moments of pleasure. So what Modleski wants to do is give careful critical attention to these feminine genres that have been dismissed or mocked, despite their "centuries-old appeal" (14). These texts address women’s real emotional needs! Women use romance to ease the "tensions" of their lives; Modleski admires women’s (authors and readers) psychological struggle to dignify their existence via story (15). The romance reflects women’s real concern (anxiety) about male-female relationships. In Harlequin Romances one sees a hero who is typically rather frightening. He may be angry, or mocking, or dismissive. The heroine usually actively dislikes him at first, and is upset that she, through accident or other weakness, is forced to depend on him. What the reader knows, of course, is that the male’s mocking superiority hides his growing intense passion for her. This story tells women psychologically that although men may appear to have little interest in their activities, may even ignore them, that underneath it all is lurking an attraction that will make women emerge supremely important. The satisfying ending brings the reader to a reinforcement of her own power, even in her apparent weakness. The Gothic paints a more twisted psychological picture. Again the hero is angry, but in addition, danger, violence, murder are in the air. The question becomes who to trust--the dark, angry anti-hero, whom the evidence points to--or a polite, nice-guy, who apparently is safe. "The reader shares some of the heroine’s uncertainty about what is going on and what the lover-husband is up to. The reader is nearly as powerless as is the heroine" (60). This fear breeds paranoia; the woman fears the man is trying to kill her or drive her insane. Critics believe that in both the character and the reader such paranoid feelings derive from social isolation. Eventually, the story allows women to give "expression to women’s hostility toward men while simultaneously allowing them to repudiate it" (66). Interestingly this allows women to separate themselves psychologically from their mothers. "This difference is usually established through the discovery of what really happened to the victimized woman with whom the heroine has been identified" (71). Hostility against men and against women (mothers) who are apparently repressed by men is resolved. The more dangerous and black the hero-lover, the more sexually appealing ultimate submission to him becomes. His strength eventually assures her safety. Soap opera is a training ground for reading other human beings. At all times relationships must be examined. To assure their safe place in home and family, women must be constantly vigilant in understanding other people so that the work of pleasing them can be accomplished. Close-ups give the viewer every slight nuance of expression. And the story never ends. Relationships last--these characters provide a permanence that divorce statistics belie. In addition, the permanent unending story is a satisfying reflection of the unending daily tasks of motherhood and homemaking. [These brief summaries are way too reductive.] But her more complex and satisfying analysis leads Modleski to conclude her book, "It is useless to deplore the texts for their omission, distortions, and conservative affirmations. It is crucial to understand them, to let their very omissions and distortions speak, informing us of the contradictions they are meant to conceal and, equally importantly, of the fears that lie behind them" (133). I don’t think it is even slightly surprising that in Mormon culture, in which marriage and family reign as supremely important goals for women, LDS romance novels are best-sellers. The question we might want to ask is: do any of Modleski's psychoanalytic interpretations apply to LDS-women readers? Gae Lyn Henderson - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 06:09:18 -0600 From: "Cherry Silver" Subject: [AML] Postponing Chieko Okazaki Lecture This is a multi-part message in MIME format. - ------=_NextPart_000_0013_01C02136.FA7E36A0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable With the approval of the AML Board, we are postponing the Chieko Okazaki = fund-raising lecture from Thursday, September 21, 2000, at the = University of Utah to the Annual Conference of AML on Saturday afternoon = February 24, 2001, at Westminster College. She has agreed to talk about = her life and the shaping of her work under the topic "Expressing Faith: = A Literary Legacy." AML awarded her its annual prize for devotional = literature several years ago. Since she reaches audiences all across = the United States and elsewhere in the world, John Bennion concurred = that she might appropriately be included in the Annual Conference with = its Bridges and Innovations theme. - ------=_NextPart_000_0013_01C02136.FA7E36A0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
With the approval of the AML Board, we = are=20 postponing the Chieko Okazaki fund-raising lecture from Thursday, = September 21,=20 2000, at the University of Utah to the Annual Conference of AML on = Saturday=20 afternoon February 24, 2001, at Westminster College.  She has = agreed to=20 talk about her life and the shaping of her work under the topic = "Expressing=20 Faith: A Literary Legacy."  AML awarded her its annual prize for = devotional=20 literature several years ago.  Since she reaches audiences all = across the=20 United States and elsewhere in the world, John Bennion concurred that = she might=20 appropriately be included in the Annual Conference with its Bridges and=20 Innovations theme.
- ------=_NextPart_000_0013_01C02136.FA7E36A0-- - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 09:40:29 -0600 From: "Eric R. Samuelsen" Subject: Re: [AML] 90s Mormon plays Great list Andrew. A few minor corrections: I spell my name Samuelsen, BTW, and FWIW. Bar and Kell is part of three = one acts I call Three Women--the other two plays of that trilogy are = Community Standard and Judgment. We recently produced my play A Love = Affair With Electrons, about Philo T.=20 Farnsworth and the invention of television. =20 Alisha Christiansen also adapted Little Women for the stage--I don't know = if your list includes adaptations, but hers are first rate. Jim and John = Bell also had a new play workshopped at Sundance; I'll see if I can find = the title. Tim Slover's March Tale is called just that, March Tale, not A = March Tale. I have several other corrections, which I'll get to ASAP. Eric Samuelsen - - 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] Moral Issues in Art I agree with Alan. Art is a place of focus. It takes on a spirit of its = own that soars and asks for others to focus. Art is a wonderful occupatio= n. It helps us focus on others in an exciting way. Otherwise we are "play= ing with ourselves" and focusing on hormones and self-gratification. Mari= lyn Brown (By the way, Alan's book is out now, ANGEL OF THE DANUBE, and = it's good!) - - 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] AML Announcements It is a non-profit foundation in which everyone in it is required to have= silver hair. And you can't say anything else about it. Luv, Me. (I'm IN) - ---------- > Marilyn, > > Just curious, what is the Silver Foundation? > > Dallas Robbins - - 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] Nominated for Pulitzer? Tony, I don't know of one person in the LDS market nominated for the Puli= tzer besides you. Yes, I would like to know! Marilyn - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 10:18:02 -0600 From: Scott and Marny Parkin Subject: Re: [AML] 90s Mormon plays Here's a couple you've missed: Neville, David O'Dell. "Action Television's 'Meet the Poet.'" _Die Schrift_ 1 (1992): 13-17. [BYU student German journal] Wahlquist, Becca. "Nor Working Title Yet." _Inscape_, no. 1 (1993): 59-86. I'm not sure if these are plays or discussions of drama: Debenham, Patrick, and W. Hyrum Conrad. "Tamris Pioneers: Promised Valley." _Encyclia_ 68 (1991): 327-45. Hill, Leslie Anne. "The House Guest." Master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1992. Marny Parkin - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 10:06:07 -0700 From: Barbara@techvoice.com (Barbara R. Hume) Subject: RE: [AML] Defending the Romance Genre >First of all, a stereotypical feminist response to romance novels is that >women are participating in their own repression. By purchasing and >consuming millions of books that retell the same Cinderella story over and >over, women define themselves as victims who need to be rescued by powerful >men to have a hope of happiness. You guys knew you were going to hear from me on this one, right? I'm glad to see a summary of this book, which I'd heard about but not purchased. Now I see that it doesn't address the aspect of the romance novel that appeal to me and to the readers and writers of the genre that I know. I don't read the Harlequins, so the book doesn't even deal with the kinds of romances I enjoy. The ones I read may include elements of the woman being rescued by the man, but often the heroine rescues herself, and sometimes him. The ones I read certainly don't feature helpless, foolish, weak women. The core of a satisfactory romance is for a woman who is strong but missing something in her life meets a man who is strong but missing something in his life. After all the various plot complications are settled, the two find that they fulfill each other and make each other happy. Together, they form a unit that is even stronger, and they can then proceed to build a family unit. > > First of all, these stories apparently are doing something important to help countless women cope with >their lives. Indeed they do. The romantic expectations that pervade our culture vanish in the face of mundane reality. And yet they are particularly disparaged, even in an age that >valorizes other types of pop culture. I think they are disparaged because they are by and for women. Romantic fantasy sometimes becomes a >secret pleasure--women students skip their women's studies classes at the >university to watch soap operas (113) and intellectually-trained academics >may escape their literary persona for unmentioned moments of pleasure. Many romance writers I know have PhDs. > >The romance reflects women's real concern (anxiety) about male-female >relationships. In Harlequin Romances one sees a hero who is typically >rather frightening. He may be angry, or mocking, or dismissive. The >heroine usually actively dislikes him at first, and is upset that she, >through accident or other weakness, is forced to depend on him. What the >reader knows, of course, is that the male's mocking superiority hides his >growing intense passion for her. This story tells women psychologically >that although men may appear to have little interest in their activities, >may even ignore them, that underneath it all is lurking an attraction that >will make women emerge supremely important. The satisfying ending brings >the reader to a reinforcement of her own power, even in her apparent >weakness. The heroes of this kind of romance are often big jerks, and that's why I don't read them. I like romances with heroes who are kind and compassionate men. > The more dangerous and black the hero-lover, the more sexually appealing ultimate >submission to him becomes. His strength eventually assures her safety. At the end of a good romance, the hero's strength does become something the woman can depend on. But bad-tempered? Yuck. Submission? Double yuck. As Jayne Ann Krentz has pointed out, the satisfaction of a romance novel comes in "bringing the alpha male to his knees" -- forcing him to admit that despite his strength and power, he needs her. This is something women often yearn for in real life, but never get. Men are trained not to admit to weaknesses, and they think that needing somebody is a weakness. They therefore often withhold the one thing that women really want from them. > >Soap opera is a training ground for reading other human beings. At all >times relationships must be examined. Relationships last--these characters provide a permanence that divorce >statistics belie. I disagree. I stopped watching soaps because couples would be put together into a satisfying relationship, then be torn apart a few months later. The writers can't seem to write interesting married people. In addition, the permanent unending story is a satisfying >reflection of the unending daily tasks of motherhood and homemaking. Why would anyone want a reflection of tedium? I don't get it. > >[These brief summaries are way too reductive.] But her more complex and >satisfying analysis leads Modleski to conclude her book, "It is useless to >deplore the texts for their omission, distortions, and conservative >affirmations. It is crucial to understand them, to let their very omissions >and distortions speak, informing us of the contradictions they are meant to >conceal and, equally importantly, of the fears that lie behind them" (133). Romance readers know they are fantasies. No one mistakes them for reality. >I don't think it is even slightly surprising that in Mormon culture, in >which marriage and family reign as supremely important goals for women, LDS >romance novels are best-sellers. The question we might want to ask is: do >any of Modleski's psychoanalytic interpretations apply to LDS-women readers? LDS women are not different creatures from other women. The question is, how valid are these interpretations\? barbara hume - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 09:29:20 -0700 From: Rob Pannoni Subject: Re: [AML] Moral Issues in Art Gae Lyn Henderson wrote: > > Things that bring pleasure but separate us from other human beings are not > ultimately going to bring us happiness. This strikes me as a good operational definition for distinguishing between pornography and art. Pornography separates us from other human beings by becoming a substitute for, or a barrier to, genuine relationships. It leaves us feeling more alone. Art is a bridge between artist and audience, an attempt to connect and communicate something of beauty or mutual value. It brings us closer to others. Of course, with this definition, pornography isn't so much an attribute of a work itself, but of the relationship between the audience and the art. It isn't the subject matter or the degree of explicitness that makes something pornographic, but the role the art has in the life of its viewers. If sensual art serves to enhance the feelings of a couple in a committed relationship, if it brings them closer together, then I do not believe it can be considered pornographic (for them). On the other hand, I believe violence in art is usually pornographic. It separates us from the compassion we should feel for those around us. It turns people into objects without human feelings. I get perturbed when I hear someone say that a movies is okay for kids to see because it only contains violence. Violence is pornography of the worst sort. But occasionally, violence in art also holds the mirror up so that we can see and correct the violence in ourselves and our society. If that its the way someone experiences it, then it is not pornographic (for them). I also find most advertising pornographic, not because of sexual themes or nudity, but because it tries to convince us to find happiness in things rather than in relationships. It separates us from others in much the same way that traditional pornography provides an enticing substitute that leads to isolation rather than connection. I do believe that an artist can intend for a work to be pornographic. In that intention is explicit (rather than something we simply assume because of the way the art makes us personally feel), then I would agree that the artist has crossed a moral line. The work doesn't deserve the label "art" at all. But even in that case, the viewer still has the possibility of reinterpreting the art to suit moral purposes. Hitler's _Mein Kampf_ was intended to promote racism. By my definition, it is a classic work of pornography--its avowed purpose is to separate people. But the decision to read it does not make one a racist. In fact, reading the book may well have the opposite effect. It may lead us to an increased awareness of the moral bankruptcy of a world view based on hate. That doesn't make Hitler a good guy. But it takes away his power to create further hurt by fostering hate in us. On the other side of the coin, just because we perceive a work as being pornographic doesn't mean that was the author's intent. There are artists whose works center on sexuality or the beauty of the human body for whom these themes are genuinely life affirming rather than isolating. If a viewer chooses to create a pornographic relationship with such art, I believe that the pornography is in the viewer, not in the artist or the art itself. - -- 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: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 10:31:55 -0600 From: "Steve Perry" Subject: Re: [AML] 90s Mormon plays Andew, Correction: > Arrington, James. "The Trail of Dreams". With Steven Perry and Michael > Payne. UVSC, 1997. Should be "with Steven Kapp Perry and Marvin Payne." Thanks. Also: >McColm, Reed. 1997 rewrite of "Utah!". I think there was yet another rewrite by Tim Slover with lyrics by Marvin Payne in '98 or '99. Steve - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 11:15:54 -0600 From: "Tyler Moulton" Subject: Re: [AML] Nominated for Pulitzer? According to the (published by = Prometheus Books): "Anyone, including the author or publisher, may submit a book that is = eligible."=20 "Eligible" means that it was published in the U.S., in book form, for the = general audience, during the year being judged. For Fiction, Biography, = Poetry, and General Non-Fiction, the author must be an American citizen. = For the History category, the subject must be U.S. History (but the author = can be of any nationality). Sounds like we could be hearing of a lot more "Pulitzer nominees" in the = future. Tyler Moulton - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 12:45:54 -0400 From: Linda Tekurio Subject: [AML] Help Finding a Play I've been trying to find an old play that we put on in our ward 15-20 years > ago, and I'm not even sure of the title. I believe it's either: > > "Could It Happen to You?" or "It Could Happen to You". > > I've searched everywhere I know of and can't seem to locate the play. Do > you have any suggestions on where I might look next? I don't even know the > author's name, but it is a very poignant play about a man who dies before he > has his wife and children sealed to him. The play takes place in a heavenly > "waiting room" as characters come and go as their temple work is completed. > > In the end, the man's wife does get sealed, along with the children, but to > a new husband. The play ends. Quit a dramatic affect. > > I'd appreciate any suggestions you might have. Thanks! Linda H. Tekurio Regulatory Affairs MedEweb.com (305) 914-1020 www.medeweb.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 #154 ******************************