From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #297 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 Tuesday, April 10 2001 Volume 01 : Number 297 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2001 13:01:52 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: Re: [AML] Richard DUTCHER, _Brigham City_ (REVIEW) "D. Michael Martindale" wrote: > > Now why do we keep letting a filmmaker blaze trails for LDS literature? Those trails have already been blazed in literature, it's just that not many people know about them. There have been 4 LDSF anthologies since 1981 and Signature's _Washed by the Waves of Wind_ also contains many SF stories which, if you take out the LDS element, don't work as well. I love what Dutcher's doing. He's doing the kind of films that I've dreamed about all my LDS life. In the mid-80's, I had a theater in downtown Provo which performed stage plays of similar content to Dutcher's films (coincidentally, Richard was double-cast in one of my plays performed there, _Matters of the Heart_.) To see him succeed in film what I and others have tried to do in books and plays is encouraging and proves what we've believed for a long time -- write the scripts and they will come. - -- Thom Duncan Playwrights Circle an organization of professionals - -------------------------- Shameless Plug - ------------------------------- Don't miss the Playwrights Circle Summer Festival at UVSC! *J. Golden* - a one-man play by James Arrington, starring Marvin Payne *SFX5* - 5 original short science fiction plays *Peculiarities* - a new full-length play by Eric Samuelsen For more information about the Playwrights Circle and our summer festival: http://www.playwrightscircle.com - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2001 16:16:04 -0700 From: "LauraMaery (Gold) Post" Subject: Re: [AML] Question for Irreantum's Editors >Another reason: Though I attend Church regularly, and have a current >Temple Recommend, I share many of the feelings and beliefs of some >people who have left the Church, or have become inactive. I wonder, Thom, if you would find it offensive to be described as a "hetrodox Latter-day Saint"? And to everyone else: I agree with Thom, but for all the wrong reasons. "Non-practicing" conveys a complicated range of relationships with the Church, everything from being homebound, to demanding that one's name be removed from the records of the Church. It includes people who are non-participating because of excommunication, slothfulness, disinterest, disbelief, or active antagonism. Even "member of the Church" is misleading, because it excludes Jeff Needle, Tibetan monks, and Ed Decker -- each of whom have VERY different relationships with the organization. The label itself just doesn't communicate a lot of information It's possible for creative, intelligent writers to convey information about the role of a person's faith in his or her writing without using generic, stereotyped labels. For example, I could describe my not-been-to-Church-since-he-left-home-for-college father (the author of a best-selling book on St. Bernards) as "a coffee-drinking elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who spends his weekends judging dog shows, and who enjoys visits from his home teachers." That's a whole lot more interesting -- and telling -- than "non-practicing, isn't it?" And I'm fairly certain he'd approve of the description. Of course, eliciting such information requires spending a few minutes on the phone with writers, asking them pretty specifically about their relationship with the Church, but I really believe the information is tremendously interesting -- even critical -- and ought to be included in the pub. - --lmg - --------- WHAT DO WE DO? We homeschool! Here's how: "Homeschool Your Child for Free." Order your copy today, from Amazon.com. - --------- . - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 02:28:50 -0500 From: "Preston" Subject: [AML] Re: [AML-Mag] Richard DUTCHER, _Brigham City_ (REVIEW) >In the science fiction community, it's said that a work of fiction is >not really science fiction unless, if you take the science fictional >element out, the story falls apart. With _Brigham City_, if you take the >Mormon element out, the story falls apart into a typical murder mystery, >nothing more. Dutcher has shown authors of LDS literature how to tell a >story where the Mormon element is integral to it, but the story is >accessible to anyone. You're quite correct that this is often said in the science fiction community -- that a work isn't really science fiction unless, if you take the science fictional element out, the story falls apart. But it's not exactly true. A significant proportion of science fiction works have nothing whatsoever to do with science with regards to their core plots. When it comes to award-winning science fiction novels, whose which have won Nebulas, Hugos, etc., I'd say maybe a fourth of them are almost entirely about social and philosophical and religious ideas, and not about science or fictional scientific and technological ideas. Orson Scott Card has been quite open about the fact that he frequently writes science fiction in order to tell stories he wants to tell, in which the science fictional elements are not central, but he writes them as s.f. because that's what he gets paid to do. His publishers aren't interested in mainstream, non-s.f. books from him. That's his market. Now as for "Mormon cinema" movies... I hope that filmmakers will do what you suggest--make films (such as Brigham City and God's Army) in which the Mormon element is central. But it may be just as important for filmmakers to do the exact opposite as well: to make films in which the Mormon element is present, but incidental. One of the very wise things that OSC points out is how ideas that really have impact are often those which aren't consciously conveyed or which do NOT draw attention to themselves. Go to see "Brigham City" and you KNOW it's a Mormon film. But go to see an imagined exciting buddy cop movie teaming Bruce Willis with Jennifer Lopez, an Lopez's roommate (who is murdered half way through the film) just happens to be a Mormon, and THERE you're going to catch people off guard. The roommate is very Mormon, devout, but also nice, conscientious, not a fanatic. A normal person whose Mormon-ness is evident, and positively portrayed. It has nothing to do with the plot. Yet it can accomplish as much as the Mormon-centric films. To illustrate this point, just think about how perfectly normal-seeming (or at least positively portrayed) characters from other minority groups (black, Jews, Hispanic, gay, lesbian, vegetarian, Wiccan, whatever) have gained wider acceptance and inclusion in society by their roles in television and films in which their distinctiveness is not central to the story. Think about the receptioninst on NYPD Blue, the buddy in "Blast From the Past", Uhura on Star Trek, etc. Preston Hunter - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 14:07:40 -0600 From: "Eric D. Snider" Subject: Re: [AML] (On Stage) DUTCHER, _Brigham City_ (Movie) > >I have the permission of Troy Williams to forward his review of the same >film. It is from The Event. > One should take the highly negative review from Troy Williams with a grain of salt. Troy behaved in an embarrassingly unprofessional manner at the screening -- even more unprofessionally than I'm being here, telling you this -- basically condemning the film before it even started. He's a former Mormon who makes no attempt to hide his bitterness toward the church, and was very sarcastic and cynical about "Brigham City" going into it. Every time something spiritual happened in the film, I would glance Troy's direction and sure enough, he'd be rolling his eyes. It irritates me, as a critic, that someone would let his personal biases cloud his judgment of a film. It gives us all a bad name. Eric D. Snider - -- *************************************************** Eric D. Snider www.ericdsnider.com "Filling all your Eric D. Snider needs since 1974." - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 21:15:58 -0500 From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] Richard Dutcher Interview (by Jeff Vice, Deseret News Movie Critic) [From the Deseret News.] Friday, April 6, 2001 Brigham City: A Mormon Thriller 'God's Army' filmmaker hopes to energize a Hollywood staple By Jeff Vice Deseret News movie critic With two theatrical movies now under his belt, what can be said for sure about local filmmaker Richard Dutcher is that he's willing to take risks, and that he doesn't want to make the same movie twice. After all, few, if any, believed that Dutcher's big-screen debut, "God's Army," would be such a success - or that a drama about LDS missionaries could cross over beyond merely its most obvious, targeted audience. "I guess the lesson to be learned there is not to do what people expect you to do," Dutcher said. "That's where you run into trouble." For instance, the easy thing for him to do after "God's Army" would have been to make a sequel. But instead, he decided to make a thriller, "Brigham City," which opened in theaters Friday. "This is probably as far as I could get away (from "God's Army") at this point in my career." However, make no mistake about it, Dutcher's version isn't the explicitly gory, sordid kind of thriller typified by such sensationalistic box-office hits as "Hannibal," "Seven" and countless others. Instead, he tells a rather complex story, about Wes Clayton (played by Dutcher), a local sheriff trying to solve a grisly murder, which is the first in the history of a small Mormon community called Brigham. At the same time, Wes, an LDS bishop, also tries to keep news of the crime from spreading throughout the town because of the explosive consequences that could follow. "I guess the idea is to keep the concept of the thriller - something that's become stale - alive by injecting something new into it," Dutcher said. "I thought it was the best way to bring up the topics I wanted to address." Though at the onset the murder mystery appears to be the film's major plot element, "Brigham City" is actually more of a moral fable about a town's literal loss of innocence, as development and the "real world" begin to intrude on its idyllic existence. "That will probably be a relief to the people who were worried that I was making a thriller and were wondering what was wrong with me," Dutcher said with a chuckle. Still, the film has received a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board. (According to the MPAA Web site, the rating is for "violence and thematic material.") But Dutcher is hoping that the subject matter and the rating won't turn off his loyal audience. "It scares me a little, because there's a lot riding on this film. There are a lot of people who won't go see PG-13 movies, so I've got to hope that it won't stop them from seeing mine." He noted that, under the MPAA's suggested guidelines, "God's Army" probably should also have received a PG-13 rating. (Those guidelines suggest that any film showing drug use or featuring the presence of illegal drugs should receive at least a PG-13.) "Once (ratings-board members) took a look at the movie as a whole, they decided to give it a PG." But for "Brigham City," Dutcher said the PG-13 rating may be warranted. "I wouldn't say that I expected a PG-13, but I did recognize with some of this subject matter that it was at least a possibility. If it had gotten a PG, I might have been a little bummed, and would have been wondering if I went a little soft. But if it had gotten an R, it would have meant that I had gone too far." Though "Brigham City" can be considered a drastic departure from "God's Army," there's another holdover from that film besides Dutcher himself - co-star Matthew Brown, who plays Wes' young deputy, Terry Woodruff. The rest of the film's cast has a predominant Utah flavor, which includes veteran character actor Wilford Brimley. (Brimley co-stars as Stu Udall, the former Brigham sheriff who comes out of retirement to help Wes in the murder investigation.) And playing the part of the fictional Brigham is Mapleton, where Dutcher makes his home. "We had a bigger budget for this movie than we did for 'God's Army,' but I wanted that to go for better production values, and to allow us to take our time with the shoot," Dutcher said. "Wilford is our big name in the cast, but I'd stack my actors up against any out there." Still, he wishes he had even more time and money to make the film. "There are things I wish I could have done, but you do what you can with what you've got on hand," Dutcher said, adding that he is pleased with the way the film turned out. Besides, he said he realizes that if he were to seek other outside help, or make a "studio" film, he might lose autonomy, the freedom to make the films he wants to make and tell the stories he wants to tell. "That's a compromise I'm not willing to make. It wouldn't be fair to myself or my audience." For instance, both of Dutcher's theatrical film include very specific references to Mormon beliefs. (In "Brigham City," there are scenes that show the passing of the sacrament in a worship meeting, as well as a baptism.) "It's not just showing off. There's a reason for those scenes to be in the movie. But it would be hard to explain to a studio head why they need to be in there." As for future projects, for now, Dutcher said he's concentrating on promoting his new film. However, he is fascinated with the idea of tackling other similarly tricky movie genres, and approaching them from a Mormon perspective. One concept that really tickles his fancy is a science-fiction film from a Mormon perspective, though given the reaction to "Battlefield Earth" (which was based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard), that may be asking for trouble. "That's a very interesting idea, but I'd need a considerably larger budget to do it," Dutcher said. "Maybe if this movie does spectacularly, I could think about it somewhere down the road. "If not, then maybe I'll be making 'God's Army 2' sooner than expected." E-mail: jeff@desnews.com ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! 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: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 09:22:56 -0600 From: Christopher Bigelow Subject: [AML] Writers' Workshop in West Jordan Following is info about a Utah writer's conf. that includes several Mormon presenters. This event is not affiliated with the AML. Hello Writer, I thought you might be interested in this wonderful opportunity to hear some great speakers and improve your writing potential--at a very low cost. If you have any questions, you are invited to call me at (801) 964-0861. Thanks, Dorothy Crofts "DISCOVER THE WRITER WITHIN" WRITERS' WORKSHOP Sponsored by: West Jordan Arts Council, ZAP, Utah Fine Arts Council and League of Utah Writers *KEYNOTE SPEAKER: ROBERT KIRBY*12:30 to 1:00 p.m.* Saturday, April 21, 2001 9:30 a.m.*3:30 p.m. West Jordan City Hall, 3rd Floor 8000 S. Redwood Road, West Jordan 84088 Fee: $20 ($10 for students) IF PAID BEFORE TUESDAY, APRIL 17 $25 ($15 students) thereafter and at door *FEE INCLUDES CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST & LUNCH!* (Scholarships available-Call Diane 561-5141) Registration: Hand-deliver or mail registration form and fee to West Jordan City Hall or CALL ARLENE at 569-5105 REGISTER EARLY! SPACE IS LIMITED at City Hall CLASSES OFFERED: 10:00 a.m. *Getting Your Book in Print: Publishers and Self-Publishing -- Lynne D. Finney *Writing Lively Children's Books That SELL -- Bettyanne Gillette *A Novel Approach: A. What's at Stake: Put the Characters into Action; (make the reader care) 11:00 a.m. *Secrets to Promoting Your Book on a SHOESTRING -- Lynne D. Finney *Fun with Writing for the Humor & Novelty Market -- Bettyanne Gillette *A Novel Approach: B. Make It Worse; (your story is conflict) 1:15 p.m. *Tap into Your UNLIMITED Creativity -- Lynne D. Finney (and never get writers' block) *How to Get an Editor's ATTENTION -- Bettyanne Gillette *A Novel Approach: A. Energy and Emotion -- Kathy Jacobson (secrets to a well-crafted plot) 2:15 p.m. *Tap into Your UNLIMITED Creativity -- Lynne D. Finney (and never get writers' block) *Fun with Writing for the Humor and Novelty Market * Bettyanne Gillette *A Novel Approach: B. The Impact of Impact -- Kathy Jacobson (where and why change happens) ABOUT THE PRESENTERS: Robert Kirby -- Keynote Speaker -- (Robert is a popular celebrity, humorist, and award winning columnist. He has been the columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune since 1994 and his column appears every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Previously, he has been an editor, correspondent and columnist for a variety of newspapers. He's the author of "Dark Angel" and five books of demented humor: "Sunday of The Living Dead" series. He has served an LDS mission in South America, has been a police officer and now lives in Springville, where his neighbors no longer speak to him. (He claims.) He has three daughters and ONE wife. Probable Subject as Keynote Speaker: FROM POLICE OFFICER TO COLUMNIST AND AUTHOR LYNNE D. FINNEY, J. D., M.S.W. -- Lynne is an award winning author, dynamic lecturer, lawyer and retired psychotherapist who presents creativity, empowerment and writers workshops across the country. Her first book, "Reach for the Rainbow", is in its sixteenth printing and will soon be published in China. Her latest book, "Clear Your Past, Change Your Future", is being released in editions in China, Spain, India, and Russia. Audio tapes of her workshops, "Clearing Your Past", were recently released by Sounds True. Lynne has been a diplomat, law professor, counsel to a U.S. Senator and United Nations delegate! She was appointed by President Carter as the FIRST woman director of a federal banking agency. BETTYANNE GILLETTE -- Bettyanne has been published in the Ensign and Friend, plus several local and international magazines. She has published two books, "LDS Teenager's Guide" in 1997 and "You Know You're a Mother When . . . " in 1998. She has a children's book under contract, "Peace", with Deseret Design and another book, "Strictly Male Household Hints" which is currently one of ten finalists for publishing consideration with CCC Publications, "Strictly Male Household Hints." She served as State President of The League of Utah Writers from 1997-98 and is also the mother of SEVEN children! KATHY JACOBSON -- Kathy considers herself a writer, teacher and adventurer - -- not necessarily in that order. She is an INSPIRING teacher nationwide (including the University of Utah, Lifelong Learning Program) and has helped students achieve their dreams with her unique workshop: "A Novel Approach". It is a series of powerful lessons on writing marketable novels. Kathy is also the successful author of four published novels: "A Healing Season", "Blue Skies and Promises", "Home Ties" and "The Sheriff with the Wyoming-Size Heart." PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THIS EXCEPTIONAL WRITERS WORKSHOP! [Forwarded by Chris Bigelow] - ---- For a sample copy of IRREANTUM, the literary quarterly published by the Assocation for Mormon Letters, send $4 to AML, P.O. Box 51364, Provo, UT 84605-1364. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 10:34:12 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: Re: [AML] Richard DUTCHER, _Brigham City_ (REVIEW) Preston wrote: > > To illustrate this point, just think about how perfectly normal-seeming (or > at least positively portrayed) characters from other minority groups (black, > Jews, Hispanic, gay, lesbian, vegetarian, Wiccan, whatever) have gained > wider acceptance and inclusion in society by their roles in television and > films in which their distinctiveness is not central to the story. Think > about the receptioninst on NYPD Blue, the buddy in "Blast From the Past", > Uhura on Star Trek, etc. These minorities might not have gained the acceptance they do today had there been the precedent of black cinema (a la Spike Lee) and gay cinema. First, stories from those POVs had to be told so that the larger white society could understand that minorities are as human as the rest of us. More LDS movies like Dutcher's will have to be made before Mormon characters can find their way into acceptance. Richard does a great service by showing that Mormons aren't weird, and that they have a lot in common with the larger part of humanity. - -- Thom Duncan Playwrights Circle an organization of professionals - -------------------------- Shameless Plug - ------------------------------- Don't miss the Playwrights Circle Summer Festival at UVSC! *J. Golden* - a one-man play by James Arrington, starring Marvin Payne *SFX5* - 5 original short science fiction plays *Peculiarities* - a new full-length play by Eric Samuelsen For more information about the Playwrights Circle and our summer festival: http://www.playwrightscircle.com - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 10:38:28 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: Re: [AML] (On Stage) DUTCHER, _Brigham City_ (Movie) "Eric D. Snider" wrote: > > > > >I have the permission of Troy Williams to forward his review of the same > >film. It is from The Event. > > > > One should take the highly negative review from Troy Williams with a > grain of salt. Troy behaved in an embarrassingly unprofessional > manner at the screening -- even more unprofessionally than I'm being > here, telling you this -- basically condemning the film before it > even started. He's a former Mormon who makes no attempt to hide his > bitterness toward the church, and was very sarcastic and cynical > about "Brigham City" going into it. Every time something spiritual > happened in the film, I would glance Troy's direction and sure > enough, he'd be rolling his eyes. It irritates me, as a critic, that > someone would let his personal biases cloud his judgment of a film. > It gives us all a bad name. It wasn't that highly negative. He ended on a very positive note of encouragement, imo. WRT to rolling his eyes. I haven't seen the film yet, but I was bothered by the spiritualization of Dutcher's first film (the movie stopped being about missionaries and started being a missionary tract at the healing scene.) I'll refrain judgment until I see this film, but it may be that Dutcher is too close to Mormonism to show a truly spiritual moment in a way that speaks to non-Mormons. - -- Thom Duncan Playwrights Circle an organization of professionals - -------------------------- Shameless Plug - ------------------------------- Don't miss the Playwrights Circle Summer Festival at UVSC! *J. Golden* - a one-man play by James Arrington, starring Marvin Payne *SFX5* - 5 original short science fiction plays *Peculiarities* - a new full-length play by Eric Samuelsen For more information about the Playwrights Circle and our summer festival: http://www.playwrightscircle.com - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 09:56:17 -0700 (PDT) From: William Morris Subject: Re: [AML] Writing Groups My thanks to Craig, LuAnn, D. Michael, Scott and anyone else who provided feedback on my query about writing groups. I hope other list members found the responses as valuable as I did. In a related note, my copy of _Irreantum_ finally arrived last week, and I was pleased to see that Dave Wolverton was asked about this very topic. I found his response to be as valuable as those I received on the list and intend to file all of them away for future use. I was amused (and shouldn't have been surprised) by the thread that ran through many of the responses, including Wolverton's-----when it come to successful writing groups, it all depends on the quality and commitment of the people in it. Why is that always the answer? Rats. No magic formula. Not that I expected any. Well, between this discussion and the one on writing schedules, I feel well armed with good advice for a beginning writer. Now what am I going to do when I don't have the can't-write-because-I'm-in-school excuse anymore? ~~William Morris __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 11:22:43 -0600 From: "ROY SCHMIDT" Subject: Re: [AML] (On Stage) DUTCHER, _Brigham City_ (Movie) My wife, son and I went to see the show on Saturday afternoon. There was a nice crowd, but the theater was not packed. I had not seen "God's Army," so I had no idea of what to expect from Dutcher, and I was more than pleasantly surprised. Although I felt the film could have moved along a little in a couple of spots, the action was there, the story well told, and had enough twists to hold our interest. I have to admit that I reacted to the ending in a way that I have not done since I saw Bambi's mother killed more than fifty years ago. Go see Brigham City. Roy Schmidt - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 02:34:06 +0900 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] BECK, _Expecting Adam_ (Review) Title: Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic Author: Martha Beck Publisher: Times Books 1999, 328p. Winner of the 1999 AML Non-fiction prize I've got to start writing these reviews right after reading the book--I'm always putting them off until I've forgotten half of what happened. Expecting Adam, however, is still resonating strongly with me two months later. Beck writes wittily and engagingly, and successfully presents some seriously hefty subject matter without ever getting remotely close to maudlin. I do have some complaints about what I saw as dishonesty in her descriptions of the development of her spiritual senses, and the role Mormonism played in that, which I'll discuss after all the good stuff. Beck herself describes a version of the book this way, "This is the story of two driven Harvard academics who found out in mid-pregnancy that their unborn son would be retarded. To their own surprise and the horrified dismay of the university community, the couple . . . decided to allow their baby to be born. What they did not realize is that they themselves were the ones who would be 'born,' infants in a new world where magic is commonplace, Harvard professors are the slow learners, and retarded babies are the master teacher." I read a similar summary when the book came out, and didn't have a lot of interest in it. Sick kids, probably new-age-y, whiny about their bad college experiences--it didn't send me heading for the check-out line. But it won an AML award, and a good friend highly recommended it to us, and my wife kept cracking up reading it. So I gave it a shot, and loved it. First of all, it is a very funny book. Sometimes her takes on just about anyone who is not actively and currently helping her or her family seem a bit over the top, but they are always funny. Secondly, she successfully portrays her journey from being a cynical intellectual towards a person with faith in spiritual powers without ever coming off as a kook. That journey is one of the major themes of the book. It follows the difficult and miracle-filled period of Martha and John Beck's lives while she was pregnant with their Down Syndrome son, Adam (around 1987), with frequent flash-forwards to events in their lives since then. When they start, they are a pair of workaholic, agnostic Harvard graduate students, nearing completion of their dissertations. In the course of the pregnancy they learn to stop demanding constant perfection from themselves, ignore the professors and others who would force their narrow world-views on them, and enjoy the quirkiness and little joys of their family and their lives. As soon as she becomes pregnant, Beck notices that she is being kept from disaster by unseen beings around her, which she calls the "bunraku puppeteers," after the Japanese puppet-masters. The funny thing is, she subverts the normal "angels around us" genre with her witty, no-nonsense approach of describing them. I am no starry-eyed new age-y person, she is telling us, I am a hard-nosed intellectual. I would have called anyone who told me about these experiences a nut, but damn if they haven't been happening to me. Finally, Beck is a great storyteller. The book moves smoothly from one vignette to another, all of which nicely illustrate her various points, while also helping the arch of the plot move along. Her flash-forward stories about the growing-up Adam are full of charm and love. I especially like the story about how Adam become obsessed with suits and blazers at age 4, and converted one of his friends to his fashion sense. "They look like a couple of weird little executives dashing around the playground. No one understands what they say to each other, but I think they're doing what all management consultants do: coming up with marketing strategies, negotiating intellectual-property agreements, pouring sand in each other's hair when communication breaks down." Okay, time for my caveat. I didn't feel that Beck was completely honest in describing the role of her Mormon background, which makes me suspicious about the honesty of her work in general. She mentions in an offhand way that both her and John's fathers were professors at BYU, and that they were raised Mormons (She is the youngest daughter of Hugh Nibley, who is not named, but whose description will immediately tip off many Mormon readers. There are some key scenes with her parents, who are criticized fairly harshly for their inability to show compassion. John's parents' too. It was interesting to see both sets of parents thanked in the acknowledgements, since they are portrayed so negatively in the book.) I say in "an offhand way", but that doesn't mean it is not mentioned often. She is repeatedly "offhand", almost obsessively "offhand" and dismissive of the faith of her childhood. She implies Mormonism is something she abandoned soon after entering college, with nary a look back. She presents herself at the time of her pregnancy (1987) as a rational, secular humanist, who, to her surprise, becomes convinced of the existence of powers which go beyond the rational, although she remains unattached to any organized religion. Well, I think this is a crock, I think she downplayed her Mormon-ness, and I'm guessing the reason was to make the book more appealing to the mass audience. If the story was about a Mormon, with all their weird beliefs, suddenly having a series of metaphysical experiences, people would say, "Well, what do you expect, she has a proclivity to accept the metaphysical." But if she is a hard-nosed intellectual, dragged kicking and screaming into these experiences, that is interesting. And the thing is, she acts like all these things she learned were complete revelations to her, things she had never even dreamed of before. For example: 1. There are beings outside the physical realm who are looking out for us, and will respond to requests for help. 2. Unborn babies have independent spirits, bringing their own talents and traits with them from wherever they came. A parent might even recognize a new baby from an unremembered past. 3. One shouldn't put one's work or school above one's family. No amount of success outside the home can compensate for failure inside the home. 4. Children in general have their own inherent worth, even if they are handicapped and not able to be like other children, they can bring great joy to a family. There is something repugnant in abortions as a way to screen out birth defects. 5. Women should go around in pairs and offer unsolicited help to other women in need (It is obvious that the two passing acquaintances who show up uninvited at Martha's door during a desperate time early in her pregnancy, and keep coming back as good friends, are her visiting teachers, although they are never identified as such. One of them, in fact, was Sibyl Johnston, a Mormon author, who has stories published in the Greening Wheat and Bright Angels and Familiars short story collections.) In all of these cases, Beck seems to say, "Wow, that had never occurred to me!" Well, duh, Martha, you've only heard those things all your life. But I suppose that wouldn't be very interesting. So I'm guessing that in 1999 she downplayed her level of involvement in things Mormon twelve years earlier to make the work more appealing to the general public. For that matter, in 1990, at least two years after Adam's birth, a book Martha and John wrote together was published by Deseret Book. It was called, "Breaking the Cycle of Compulsive Behavior," about which the adverting blurb said, "Relying upon the atonement of the Redeemer is the way, the only way, the vicious cycle of compulsive behavior can be broken. Through Christ, the lives of behavioral addicts can be changed and improved . . . They use true case histories of Latter-day Saint young adults to show why conventional approaches to overcoming compulsions fail and to explain how a gospel-orientated approach succeeds." That doesn't sound like the work of hard-nosed agnostics. It is hard to believe that in 1987 they were as totally cut off, both physically and emotionally, from the Church as she portrayed. I probably shouldn't be mucking around in this, especially after the convincing arguments about talking about authors' membership and activity by Margaret, Thom, and Eric we've read recently. But Beck brought it up by making her change in spiritual viewpoints such a key part of the book. Besides these things, I found her portrayal of Mormons completely unbelievable. Which makes me wonder if I shouldn't have enjoyed her over-the-top portrayals of the Harvard community and others as much as I did. I'm afraid she uses stereotyping and caricature very effectively and believably, which is fun until it is your community being stereotyped, and you say, "Hey, wait a minute. It isn't like that." I was telling my friend Karl Bushman about the book, and it turns out that he knew the Becks when they were all Harvard undergrads together in the Cambridge Ward in the early 1980s (When I told him, he cringed a little, and said he used to tease her some, saying he couldn't believe she was from Utah, since she didn't have a bouffant hairdo). Anyway, Karl pointed out that people often interpret their past in vastly different ways then they would at the time. He said his father had a friend who wrote an essay for Dialogue, describing how wonderful his wife was, and how God had prepared them for each other. Soon afterwards, however, the couple got a divorce. When Karl's dad asked the man about the piece, he replied, "Couldn't you see it in the essay? Its obvious by reading it that our marriage was already doomed." Meanings of past events can change drastically in our minds based on what had happened to us in the interim. So perhaps Beck's present separation from the church influenced her view of how she felt during her time in Harvard, and she isn't being as consciously dishonest as it seems like to me. Really, though, my being occasionally miffed about her dissing my religion didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying this book. And apparently it has done well, with nearly a hundred messages about it at Amazon.com, most of them raving about the portrayal of the joys and difficulty of raising a Down Syndrome child. There is a paperback version out, and her new self-help book was recently published. Good for her. I look forward to reading future work she has to offer. Other books by Martha (Nibley) Beck: Breaking the Cycle of Compulsive Behavior (with John C. Beck). Deseret Book, 1990. Employment Patterns Among Japan's Managerial Elite (with John C. Beck). University of Hawaii Press, 1994. Breaking Point : Why Women Fall Apart and How They Can Re-Create Their Lives. Times Book, 1997. Finding Your Own North Star : Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live. Crown, 2001. Andrew Hall Pittsburgh, PA _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 16:20:54 -0600 From: "Marianne Hales Harding" Subject: Re: [AML] BECK, _Expecting Adam_ (Review) >Really, though, my being occasionally miffed about her dissing my religion >didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying this book. And apparently I'm with you on this book. I really enjoyed the book, but really didn't like the way Mormonism was portrayed in it. Interestingly, she would have all of these experiences and her conclusions were "therefore Mormonism is bogus" where I would look at these experiences and say, "therefore Mormonism is real." I have to admit to really bristling when she described her husband's experience of "repenting" his mission and wishing he could go door to door & apologize to everyone he had talked to on his mission. I also bristled at the assumption made that all of these lovely conclusions she was coming to were the exact opposite of all things Mormon. That kind-of put a damper on my enthusiasm for the book. Marianne Hales Harding _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.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 #297 ******************************